Page 69 of The Girl and the Lies

“This is really going to have to wait. We’re discussing some important issues about Mr. Powell’s condition and preparing to run some additional tests,” she says.

“That’s fine,” I tell her. “I just need to have a word with Carla.”

Carla looks surprised. She glances at Marshall, who nods.

“It’s all right. Go ahead. I’m not going anywhere,” he says.

Carla gives him a little smile and leans down to kiss him again.

“I’ll be right back.”

She follows me out of the room, and I lead her directly back to the alcove where we talked earlier.

“Are you here to accuse me of something else?” she asks bitterly.

I ignore the swipe and hold out my hand. “Can I have your phone please?”

“My phone?” she asks. “Why do you need my phone?”

“Information has just come to light, and I need to make a comparison,” I say.

“I don’t have to give it to you,” she says.

“No, you don’t. But I’ll just get a warrant and look through your phone records. Or you could save me a lot of time and hassle in trying to find out what happened to your husband and just give me the phone,” I say.

“What are you looking for?” she asks, taking the phone out of her pocket and handing it over to me.

“I want to see just how many times you’ve called a certain phone number.”

Her hand comes down over the phone in my hand as she lets out a heavy breath. I look into her face and see tears in her eyes.

“You don’t need to look,” she says. “I’ve erased all the times his number was on my phone. And all the texts.”

“Whose number, Carla?” I ask, needing to hear her say it to confirm my suspicions are correct.

“Jesse Kristoff,” she admits.

I let out an exasperated sound as I slam the phone back into her hand.

“So you stand there, right in front of me, and act like you are so deeply offended by the suggestion that you are having an affair with Ander Ward, only for me to find out you’re actually sleeping with Gideon Bell’s roommate,” I say. “How long has this been going on?”

“About a year,” she says. “Gideon brought him to a work party, and we talked. Then we ran into each other at the grocery store a couple days later and then again while we were jogging at the park. It was funny that we just kept seeing each other, and we decided to grab some coffee just to chat. We hit it off. I didn’t expect it to turn into anything. I really didn’t. It’s been over for a while.”

“I’m assuming since right around when his number showed up on Marshall’s phone records?” I ask.

She nods, a tear coming down her cheek. “Even before that, I was feeling really guilty about the affair and knew I couldn’t keep it up. Jesse was pushing for me to divorce Marshall and be with him, and I couldn’t see myself doing that. I don’t know how to make it make any more sense. It was just like a splash of cold water, bringing me into reality again. Then Marshall got suspicious. He saw the number on my phone before I was able to delete it and called it. I was able to explain it away, and I really think he believed me, but that was it for me. I couldn’t do it anymore.

“I told Jesse that the affair was over and I didn’t want to hear from him again. I asked him to respect that I was recommitting fully to my marriage and there was nothing he could say that would change my mind. Marshall had already started talking about the possibility of moving, and after that happened, I decided that was best. I told him I thought it was a great idea, and we really started planning. It brought us closer together than we’ve been in so long. We have been in a great place since then.”

“How could you not tell me about this?” I demand. “People are getting threats about being wicked and vile behavior, including you, and you didn’t think it might be important to tell me that you were having an affair?”

She presses the fingertips of one hand to her forehead, squeezing her eyes closed as more tears flow out of them.

“I’m sorry,” she says. “I really didn’t think that it was. I didn’t think that it could have any impact. If anything, I thought it would just confuse things and make it harder. Things were over between Jesse and me. We hadn’t spoken in weeks. He was really upset when I broke things off with him, and I insisted that we couldn’t even be friends. There was no way we could carry on being in each other’s lives anymore. So we cut each other off. Then when Gideon died, Jesse was attacked too. And so many people got the threats. I didn’t think my bad choices mattered. They didn’t have anything to do with it. Gideon wasn’t doing anything wrong.”

“No, but he was about to turn in someone who was,” I say.

Jesse looks startled when he opens his apartment door and I push past him to get inside.

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