PART 3
His hand shot forward. “Actually, I think I made a mistake.”
I kept my hand on the folder.
“What kind of mistake?”
He swallowed.
“I thought you were somebody else.”
I almost laughed.
“Somebody else who looks exactly like your wife?”
Ashley froze. Dale’s eyes snapped toward her.
“Ashley, wait outside.”
She didn’t move.
“Why?”
“Just go sit in the truck.”
Her voice sharpened.
“Dale, what’s happening?”
“Nothing.”
I looked at her.
Then at him.
“Nothing?”
Dale stared at me.
I opened the folder.
The first page was a transfer authorization.
The second was a refinancing document.
The third had my name printed clearly across the top.
CAROL ANN HARRIS.
My husband’s signature appeared at the bottom.
It looked like mine.
Almost.
But not quite.
I had spent twenty-six years watching Dale sign checks, birthday cards, tax returns, invoices, mortgage documents, and Christmas receipts.
I knew his handwriting better than I knew the lines on my own face.
And this signature was his.
Not mine.
“Interesting,” I said.
Dale’s jaw tightened.
“What?”
“You signed my name.”
He stepped closer.
“Carol, don’t make this bigger than it is.”
I looked up.
“Bigger than what?”
He lowered his voice.
“This is a business matter.”
“No.”
I tapped the paper.
“This is my name.”
Ashley stepped closer.
“What is she talking about?”
Dale turned toward her.
“Go outside.”
“No.”
The word came from Ashley this time.
And something about the way she said it made me realize she was finally beginning to understand that the story she’d been telling me every Thursday had another woman standing at the center of it.
Me.
She looked at me.
Then at the folder.
Then at Dale.
“Miss C?”
I nodded.
“Yes.”
Her lips parted.
“You’re…”
“My wife?” Dale finished.
Ashley stared at him.
“You told me she was sixty-five.”
I raised an eyebrow.
Ashley looked embarrassed.
“You told me she had moved to Florida.”
Dale closed his eyes.
“You told me she knew about us.”
I looked at Ashley.
“I did not.”
Silence.
Ashley took one step backward.
Then another.
Her voice became barely audible.
“You told me you were separated.”
Dale said nothing.
She laughed once.
It wasn’t a happy laugh.
It was the sound someone makes when reality is so ugly that their mind refuses to accept it.
“You told me you had filed.”
Still nothing.
