A few minutes later, she had her car turned around and we were heading back home to Versailles.
Chapter 2
It was a little before noon when we pulled back into my driveway. I thought about calling Aaron to tell him I was home, but decided to wait until later. The meeting with the partners at his law firm was supposed to be most of the day, and I didn’t want to bother him.
Digging my house key out of my purse, I let myself in our front door and glanced through the mail first before heading upstairs to change into some comfortable clothes. When I got to the top of the stairs, I heard Aaron’s voice.
He must have gotten home early from his meeting, I thought as I walked towards our bedroom.
The door was slightly open, and I could see him standing by our bedroom window. He had his back to me and was talking on his cell phone.
“Of course I want to see you too, but I don’t think now is the time.” He paused before going on. “Please don’t say that. You know I care for you, but I love Kate and I can’t keep doing this to her.”
My heart stopped, and everything seemed to be in slow motion as I tried to register what I had just heard. It felt like my feet were being pulled out from underneath me as I fell against the wall. Aaron turned around and as soon as he saw me, his face went pale. My insides were shaking uncontrollably, and I felt like I was going to throw up. I don’t know why, but for some reason I turned and ran down the stairs. Before I got to the kitchen, he was behind me and had my arm.
“Please, Kate, let me explain,” he pleaded.
“Let go of me!” I yelled, yanking my arm away from him.
Running into the garage, I got into my car and with trembling hands locked the doors. Aaron was yelling my name and trying to open the driver’s door as I squealed my tires backing out. The last thing I saw, before racing down our street, was Aaron standing in the middle of our driveway watching me drive away, tears streaming down his cheeks.
I was so shaken up that I could hardly drive. As soon as I got out of town, I pulled into a driveway of an abandoned farm house and got out of my car. The cold air filled my lungs as I tried to catch my breath. All of these crazy thoughts kept running through my head. Who was he talking to? Is he having an affair? No—there’s no way he would ever do that to me. But why would he say he needed to quit lying to me? Oh my God, he had to be talking to another woman! I dropped to my knees in the wet slushy snow and began to cry.
I drove around aimlessly for the next two hours before mustering enough courage to go home and confront him. The house was dark and it looked like he wasn’t there.
Are you kidding me?! These last two hours have been nothing but pure hell and he’s not even home?!
As I sat on the living room couch waiting for him, my anger got the best of me. There were so many looming questions, and I needed answers now. I paced the floors to calm myself down, but that didn’t work. I literally felt like I was losing my mind. One minute, I wanted to hit something, and then the next minute I wanted to cry. I couldn’t take it anymore. On impulse, I ran into our bedroom and began going through his drawers, searching for anything that would help unlock the mystery of what was going on.
I was not a jealous or angry person and rarely lost my temper. Tonight was a different story. I threw all of his clothes from the drawers onto the floor and then ripped his shirts and pants off the hangers from the closet, going through each and every pocket, but finding nothing. I hunted through the vanity in our bathroom, but there wasn’t a trace of anything in there either.
Running back downstairs to his office, I frantically searched through the files. Nothing stood out to me until I came across our cell phone bill from last month. My eyes raced over the numbers to see if there were any that showed up more than the others. The number 584-1212 was on there almost daily in January.
Maybe it’s a client?!
Nervously, I went back to the file for December’s bill. Scanning over it, 584-1212 was nowhere to be found. A small amount of relief came over me, but I still wasn’t satisfied. Pulling out October and November’s bill, I examined them for that number again, which to my dismay, I found.
My hands shook nervously as I wrote down every date, time and length of the calls. Then there, in front of my own two eyes, was the proof that since October, minus the month of December, Aaron and whoever this number belonged to talked at least three to four times weekly and for long periods of time.
I felt as if I could get sick when I discovered this. Not wanting to, but knowing I had to, I picked up my home phone, hit *67 so my name and number wouldn’t show up, and called the number. There were a couple of rings before a woman answered.
“Hello,” she said in a cheerful voice.
“Is . . . is Julie there?” I asked, trying to sound as casual as possible.
“I’m sorry. You must have the wrong number.”
“But isn’t this 584-1212?”
“Yes it is, but there is no Julie at this number.”
“Really? Well, I work for the utility company, and I was given this name and number for a service call. May I ask what your name is?”
“My name is Angie Sims, and there is nothing wrong with our utilities, so I am sure you were given the wrong number.”
“I . . . I apologize for calling you. Thank-you for your time,” I choked out, ending the call.
This can’t be really happening . . . He’s been talking to Angie?
Her name replayed over and over again in my mind to the point where my breaths started to come quick and fast and I felt like I was hyperventilating. I sunk to the ground and started to cry. There was now no doubt in my mind that he was having an affair and of all people, it was with his old high school girlfriend, Angie.
“Kate! Kate!” I heard from the living room. It was Aaron and it sounded as if he was running from room to room looking for me. “Kate, thank God you’re all right- ” he started to say, but when he noticed the cell phone bill gripped tightly in my hand, all of the color from his face vanished.
“How could you do this to me?” I sobbed, hurt and angry.
“I’m so sorry. I swear I never meant to hurt you,” he cried as he knelt down and touched my arm. I jerked it away from him, and he backed away with a scared look on his face.
“How can you say that? Of course I would get hurt by you sleeping with Angie!”
“I didn’t sleep with her. I stopped before it got that far,” he blurted out.
The second the words left his mouth, he stuttered around trying to recover from what he had just confessed.
His words pained me beyond belief.
“Get out,” I said.
He didn’t budge.
“Get out!” I screamed this time.
We had never raised our voices to each other, and my angry tone scared him. Finally, after a moment of hesitation, he left. When the front door closed, I lost control of my emotions. I cried and cried until I couldn’t cry anymore. I wanted so badly to call Liz or one of my sisters, but I couldn’t. My head and heart were in too much shock to do anything at the moment.
The house was completely dark. Feeling frail and weak, I made my way to the living room and sunk onto the couch. For the next couple of hours, I did nothing but stare at the ceiling trying to figure out where I went wrong in my marriage to make my husband want to be with another woman. He and I had been together since I was fifteen years old and never would I have imagined that Aaron, of all people, would ever do something like this to me.