Then I sat at the edge of the bed.
I could have called him then.
I could have thrown every dress in the closet onto the driveway.
I could have broken something just to hear a sound as violent as the feeling in my chest.
Instead, I opened the drawer where Graham and I kept important family papers.
Our marriage certificate was still there.
Thirty-one years reduced to a sheet of paper with two signatures and a date.
I set it beside the empty pendant case and took another photograph.
Then the garage door began to rise downstairs.
I looked at the clock.
Graham was home early.
Footsteps entered the kitchen.
Keys landed on the counter.
“Celeste?”
His voice traveled up the stairs.
I stayed seated.
“Celeste, you here?”
Then he appeared in the bedroom doorway.
He stopped so abruptly his hand struck the frame.
For several seconds neither of us spoke.
I had imagined this reunion differently during the drive from Fort Campbell.
I had imagined dropping my bag and letting him pull me into his arms.
Instead, he stared at me as if I were the person who had invaded his home.
“Ellie.”
“Hello, Graham.”
His face lost color when he saw the open jewelry box.
Then his eyes moved to the marriage certificate on the bed.
“How long have you been here?”
Again, the wrong question.
“Long enough.”
He stepped inside and closed the bedroom door behind him.
“I can explain.”
“Start with the pendant.”
His mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
“The silver star,” I said.
“The one you gave me after my promotion.
Why was Celeste wearing it at the Veterans Honor Dinner?”
He rubbed both hands over his face.
“It wasn’t supposed to mean anything.”
I looked at him.
“You gave another woman my military pendant so she could pose beside you at an event honoring military families, and your defense is that it meant nothing?”
“Ellie, things became complicated.”
“No.
Things became organized.”
That stopped him.
I stood.
“Security knows her as Mrs.
Whitlock.
Your employees know her as Mrs.
Whitlock.
Your company photographs identify her as your wife.
She has clothes in my closet and my jewelry around her neck.
That isn’t complicated.
That took planning.”
He stared at the carpet.
