While I Watched Their Kids, He Lived a Secret Life novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Saturday Drop-Offs

Neil, Kristen and Shannon each hand off a lie and a child, and Maggie reads thirty thousand dollars of work travel in the joint account before Kristen's ex arrives at her door.

Neil came downstairs at eight with his overnight bag and his good watch.

"Client in Lancaster," he said, taking a banana off the counter. "Dinner with the whole team. I'll be back tomorrow night."

"Drive safe."

He kissed my cheek, and I let him.

The doorbell camera caught him backing out of the driveway at 8:12. I saved the clip before he reached the corner.

Kristen rang at ten to nine, with her son on one side and a foil-covered casserole on the other.

"I'm so sorry about this," she said. "My boss scheduled a training on a Saturday, can you imagine? You're my angel."

She wore white sneakers and a sundress, and her sunglasses were already on top of her head.

"What's the training on?" I asked.

"Oh, you know. Compliance." She laughed and squeezed my arm. "Boring. Back by Sunday dinner."

Sunday dinner, for a one-day training.

"Of course," I said.

I saved that clip too.

Shannon pulled up at nine exactly, in a rental car I didn't recognize.

Cody climbed out of the back seat holding a stuffed rabbit and a backpack bigger than he was.

"Mags, you're the best."

She hugged me fast. She smelled of the vanilla perfume I'd given her two Christmases ago.

"I owe you. I'll make it up to you, I swear."

She had a new haircut. Her nails were done.

"Big client?" I said.

"The biggest. They'll probably keep me through dinner."

She rolled her eyes, but she kept glancing down at her phone.

"I'll call tonight."

"Okay."

She kissed Cody's head and left.

I watched the rental turn out of our street toward the highway.

Not toward her office, which sat in the opposite direction.

Behind me, the two boys had already found the Lego bin in the living room.

"Can we have waffles?" Cody called.

"After you build something," I said.

I put the casserole in the fridge, set the boys up with a movie and went upstairs with my laptop.

Neil and I had one joint checking account.

I paid our bills from my own salary and moved money in whenever he said it was short.

I hadn't opened the full statement in more than a year.

I opened it now, and I scrolled back eighteen months.

There was a vacation rental in Cape May for $2,840.

There were two festival tickets for $620.

There was a private tasting at a Lancaster County winery for $380.

Each charge had the same note, in Neil's typing: work travel.

I made a spreadsheet and put every charge in it.

It took me an hour and a half. The total at the bottom was $31,412.

All of it had been paid from the account I kept topped up.

My face stayed calm. My hands did not, so I sat on them for a minute.

I opened a new account in my name only, at a credit union Neil had never heard of.

Then I changed my direct deposit so my paycheck went there.

The confirmation said it would take effect in two pay periods.

"Aunt Maggie!" Cody shouted from the stairs. "The juice spilled!"

I closed the laptop, went down and mopped it up.

Both boys sat on the couch with towels under them, looking guilty.

"Nobody's in trouble," I said. "Waffles."

At two in the afternoon, I was standing at the stove when the doorbell rang.

I wiped my hands and opened the door.

A man in a navy paramedic's jacket stood on the porch.

He was tall, with a tired face, and he looked past me into the house before he looked at me.

"Hi. I'm Ian," he said. "Ian Maddox. Kristen's ex."

I knew the name.

He had the boy every other weekend, except when his shifts ran long.

"She told me my son had a fever," he said.

"She said he was at her mother's, so I couldn't pick him up."

His voice was level. His jaw was not.

"I just drove past her mother's house. Her mother lives in Florida."

From the living room came a shout of pure joy.

"Dad!"

Kristen's son flew past my legs and hit his father at full speed.

Ian picked him up and held him, and over the boy's head he looked at me.

"Mrs. Dolan," he said. "How long has this been going on?"

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