PART 5: WHAT AUBREY KNEW
I did not answer Aubrey that night.
I did not sleep either.
Her message remained on my screen like an open door I was afraid to enter.
Grant lied to me too.
The sentence could have meant anything.
It could have been manipulation.
It could have been an attempt to turn herself into a victim.
It could have been true.
The next morning, I forwarded the messages to Naomi.
“Do not meet her alone,” Naomi advised.
“Do I meet her at all?”
“That depends on what you need.”
“I need to know what happened.”
“You already know enough to leave.”
She was right.
More details would not make Grant less unfaithful.
Aubrey’s version would not return the last year of my life.
But knowledge was not the only reason I wanted to see her.
I wanted to look into the face of the woman who had worn my husband’s coat and slept beneath my sheets.
I wanted to know whether she was cruel, foolish, desperate, or simply human.
Most of all, I wanted to stop imagining her as a shadow.
We arranged to meet at a quiet café near Naomi’s office.
Aubrey arrived with her newborn son in a gray stroller.
