Page 80 of The Wife

“He admitted that to you?”

“No, to his lawyer.” Now that I’d opened that door, I owed her a more complete explanation. “I’ve been reading his e-mails. All that nonsense about her company and kickbacks and whatever? He told Olivia he thought Kerry was pissed because he hadn’t left me yet.”

“So she framed him for a sexual assault?”

“Apparently.”

“So you still think he’s innocent?”

“Of that? Yes.” When I first saw the police reports Olivia sent to Jason, I believed he was guilty. It was the photographs of her wrists that convinced me. Her description of the way he suddenly seemed like a different person. With that one e-mail, I became convinced that he had done to her what he had done to me, and she was willing to label that as rape, precisely as Susanna had argued. That was why I had kicked him out of the house that night.

“But how can you be sure?” Susanna asked.

“Because I read the explanation he gave to his lawyer. Just trust me, Susanna. It all makes sense. She set him up. I’m sure of it.”

Normally, she would have pressed me for details, but she let it go, no doubt sensing that she had pushed me far enough for the day.

“Are you okay? Do you want me to come over?”

“No, I’m fine. I’m actually looking forward to being on my own for a while. You know I’ve never lived alone before? Not once. This might be good for me.”

Spencer called me that night. I couldn’t believe how much had changed in the two weeks since I drove him to camp.

“How’s the arm? Still there?”

“Yeah. It’s actually getting better already, but don’t tell Kate. She’s been, like, super nice to me. It was sort of her fault I got it. She was all, ‘That stuff looks like poison ivy, but it’s not.’ That’s worse than not noticing in the first place, right?”

“Are you doing okay up there otherwise?”

“Other than getting poisoned by nature under a counselor’s watch? Yeah, I’m fine. It’s pretty fun up here.”

“It’s only another week, huh?”

“Um, is it? You mentioned before it might be six weeks instead of three.”

I shut my eyes and took another drink of wine. I couldn’t believe I had ever thought that this would all be over by then. “No, unless of course you want to stay.” I’d have to put the rest of the fees on a credit card.

“I’m actually kind of ready to come home, but I like it here too. Mom, what’s going on? Did Dad’s thing get taken care of? Is it over?”

I closed my eyes, searching for an honest response. “It’s going to take longer than we thought, and Dad’s going to stay at Colin’s for a while. After what happened, we thought we’d have a better chance working things out if we lived apart for a while.”

“You kicked him out.”

“No—”

“Mom, he cheated on you, and you need a break. You can tell me that.”

“It’s more complicated, but, yes, we’re on a break.”

“Good.”

“He’s still your father.” They had finally talked Friday night when Spencer called, the first time since Jason told him about the affair.

“I know, and I’ll be fine with him someday. But he’s the one who screwed up, not you. You can stop protecting me.”

“I didn’t want you to spend your whole summer hearing bad things about your family.”

“Well, the stuff I’ve been imagining is probably way worse than what’s really happening.”

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