Chapter 4: Three Weeks

I didn't turn around.

I finished the line I was writing, because my father taught me never to leave a note half done.

Then I looked up at the back of the house.

The last row was empty. Ward had gone.

I ran the evening session with my voice perfectly level.

Joanie asked me twice if I was okay. I told her twice that I was calling a show.

At eleven I took a cab to Bank Street.

The kitchen was on the ground floor at the back, with a long wooden table and copper pots nobody had ever used.

Ward was at the table with his reading glasses on and a stack of budget sheets.

He looked up and smiled. He'd been waiting for me.

The smile stopped when he saw my face.

"Lenore talked to me at dinner," I said.

He took his glasses off and set them on the papers.

"When did you find out, Ward?"

He didn't look away. I'll give him that.

"Three weeks before the wedding," he said. "The fitting room on the fourth floor. I went up to look at a costume bill and I opened the door."

"What did you see?"

"Enough."

"What did you do?"

"Jude came to my office that night. He cried. He swore it was over. He said it was one time and it would kill you."

"And you believed him."

"I didn't. I told him he had until the wedding to tell you, or I would."

"The wedding," I said. "You gave him until the wedding."

"I know how it sounds."

"No, I don't think you do."

I was still holding my bag. I set it down on the floor so I wouldn't throw it.

"Yesterday. Eleven a.m. You said you came by to tell me about the email."

"I came to tell you everything."

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