Chapter 14: What Eli Knew

The elevator dropped four floors before either of us spoke.

Eli stood with his back against the rail and his hands at his sides, looking at the numbers.

"You said you know why," I said. "On the phone, in the driveway. You said it before I told you anything."

"Yes."

"You went into that desk knowing what you would find."

"I went in hoping I was wrong."

"Why would you think you were right?"

The doors opened on the lobby, and a woman with a coffee cart looked at us and looked away.

Eli put his hand on the door to hold it.

Neither of us stepped out.

"Last March I flew home through O'Hare," he said.

"I saw Chase at the far end of the terminal with a car seat."

"And?"

"A blonde woman was walking next to him, with her face turned away."

I waited.

"That was all I saw. I told myself it was a client's baby."

"In March."

"Yes."

"I was home that week," I said. "I made soup."

He said nothing.

"I sat on the couch waiting for him to get back from Singapore, and I texted him a picture of the soup."

I laughed, and it came out wrong.

"You carried my boxes."

"Eliza."

"You stood by that door at the party and didn't raise your glass, and you already knew."

"I didn't know. I suspected."

"For seven months."

He didn't argue. He had a way of going still when he was caught, and I hadn't seen it before today.

"Yes," he said. "Seven months."

I walked out into the lobby, and he came after me.