His Mistress Ordered Dinner Inside My Own House
Part 2 - The Promise He Couldn't Keep
I didn't touch the paper until Celeste handed it to me.
It described money she had advanced toward renovations and a future interest in the property. I read it twice, slowly enough for Adrian to become impatient.
“This is private,” he said.
“My name is on it.”
“It's a draft.”
Celeste stared at him.
“You told me your wife signed it.”
His mother set down the champagne. The glass bottles clicked together inside the bag.
One of the guests quietly asked whether they should leave.
“Yes,” I said. “Please.”
Adrian objected, but his friend was already reaching for the door. I didn't need witnesses to stand there while my marriage collapsed. I needed fewer people telling me when I was permitted to react.
When they had gone, I photographed the document with Celeste's permission and returned it.
“How much?” I asked.
She looked embarrassed for the first time.
“Thirty thousand.”
Adrian made a small, irritated sound.
“It was temporary.”
“Where is it?” she asked.
He looked at his mother.
That told us enough to keep asking.
Some had gone toward his debts. Some had gone toward deposits for a trip he had called a conference. None had gone toward the house.
I didn't discover all of that in one dramatic confession. Celeste opened her banking app. Adrian supplied an explanation. She asked another question. The explanations became smaller.
His mother finally said, “He was going to sort it out.”
“You knew?”
“I didn't know about the signature.”
“But you knew about her.”
She pressed her lips together.
I thought of the birthday gift I had bought that afternoon. I had chosen a cashmere scarf because she once mentioned her husband was always cold.
There were kinds of foolishness that looked exactly like kindness until the wrong person showed you the difference.
Julia arrived with the blue folder. I put it on the dining table without opening it for an audience.
The house was mine, but I wasn't going to turn a family argument into amateur legal advice. I would take both sets of papers to my own lawyer. Adrian would not choose that lawyer or attend the first meeting.
I asked Julia to stay while I packed an overnight bag.
Adrian followed me upstairs.
“So you're leaving your own house?”
“For tonight. Because I want to sleep somewhere I don't have to watch your face.”
He sat on the edge of our bed.
“You've always cared more about your business.”
I stopped folding a sweater.
“No. I cared enough about you to make my business sound smaller.”
Downstairs, Celeste was putting on her coat. She looked younger without the confidence.
“He told me you were cruel,” she said.
“You believed him.”
“I did.”
“So did I, when he talked about other people.”
She nodded. We were not friends. We did not need to become friends for the same man to have deceived us both.
At Julia's house, I finally opened the folder.
Behind the property papers lay a letter Adrian had asked me to sign six months earlier. I had refused because the explanation made no sense.
Now I read it beside Celeste's agreement.
He had been planning this long before she walked through my door.
