I spent the rest of that evening replaying the moment Valerie ran toward Paige. She hadn’t hesitated or treated her like a stranger. And Paige hadn’t looked surprised to see her. She’d looked surprised to see me. Donavan went upstairs without finishing our conversation, leaving me with a name and a phone number I wasn’t sure I wanted to use.
I called the next morning from outside work.
“Did he say I’m crazy?” Paige asked.
She thought we were divorced and I’d moved overseas.
“He says you’re obsessed.”
“We’ve been dating since February. I was supposed to see Valerie for the fourth time this Saturday.”
She thought we were divorced and I’d moved overseas. She’d recently seen a photograph of the three of us online; when she questioned Donavan, he stopped answering.
“How did you find our house?”
“He gave me the address. He said only he and Valerie lived there.”
Another photograph showed Valerie wearing a paper crown at a craft event.
Paige sent a photograph of Donavan and Valerie outside a children’s museum, where she’d purchased a family membership in March. I recognized Valerie’s yellow raincoat and the Saturday I’d spent helping my mother move furniture.
“Did Valerie ever mention me?”
“She said you made her pancakes. He claimed she was remembering before you left and told me asking about you upset her.”
Another photograph showed Valerie wearing a paper crown at a craft event. A woman stood beside Donavan.
“That’s Tessa,” Paige said. “She helps with activities. I’ll ask her to call you.”
“Donavan told me Valerie’s mother died.”
When Tessa called, she sounded bewildered.
“Donavan told me Valerie’s mother died.”
“Paige says I moved overseas.”
Tessa asked to meet the next morning.
At a diner on Friday, she showed me messages from Donavan. They’d met through a volunteer fundraiser. He’d cried about raising Valerie without his wife.
Why would he need that much for childcare?
“We weren’t dating,” Tessa said. “I thought he needed help.”
She showed me a receipt for $3,000 she’d loaned him for childcare. The receiving account’s last four digits matched Donavan’s private checking account.
I handled nearly every preschool pickup. Why would he need that much for childcare?
“He said he worked late and had to hire someone,” Tessa explained.
I remembered the times he’d said overtime was exhausting but necessary.
At home, I checked our joint statements. There were unfamiliar restaurant charges, hotel deposits, and transfers marked CONSULTING. One went into Donavan’s private account. Another followed his claim that our car insurance had increased, although the insurance payment hadn’t changed.
I printed the records.
I remembered the times he’d said overtime was exhausting but necessary.
When Donavan returned, I confronted him.
I’d accepted that because his schedule changed so often. Yet the loan wasn’t the only unexplained money: I couldn’t connect the transfers to any family expense, and he’d never mentioned hotel deposits. I wasn’t ready to decide what they meant. I only knew I needed records he couldn’t dismiss as something I’d misheard.
When Donavan returned, I confronted him.
“All right. Paige was a mistake,” he admitted.
“And Tessa?”
“Why did you tell her I was dead?”
“Just a friend.”
“You borrowed three thousand dollars from her.”
“I’ll repay it.”
“Why did you tell her I was dead?”
He covered his face. “I was ashamed. I didn’t know how to explain our marriage.”
He insisted Paige was the only woman he’d dated.
The ladies, she’d said. Not one lady.
For a moment, exhaustion almost made me accept it.
Then Valerie wandered in holding her fox.
“Can Sweet Pumpkin fix his ear?”
Donavan took her upstairs.
The ladies, she’d said. Not one lady.
I called Paige.
“She said other women use it too.”
“Did Donavan ask you to use that nickname?”
“Yes. He said Valerie invented it after her mother left. He wanted me to use it whenever I visited.”
“She said other women use it too.”
