Chapter 5: What Chloe Actually Knew
She was sitting in her car at the end of the driveway, a small white sedan with an Ohio plate.
I recognized it from the morning — she had parked it two houses down, as if she hadn't wanted Ethan to know she drove herself.
I got in the passenger side.
Chloe looked younger up close than she had in the kitchen.
The composed, smiling woman who had wrapped herself around my husband was gone.
Her mascara had tracked down one cheek.
She hadn't wiped it.
"I didn't know about the other woman," she said immediately.
"I need you to know that."
"All right," I said.
"I'm not asking you to feel sorry for me.
I just—" She stopped.
Started again.
"How long has there been someone else?
Someone other than me?"
"I don't know," I said honestly.
"The photograph is from four months ago.
That's all I have."
She nodded slowly.
Her hands were in her lap, fingers twisted together.
"He told me his marriage was over," she said.
"He told me you had an arrangement.
That you both agreed to live separately while he was in Chicago and that the divorce was already in process." She glanced at me sideways.
"I believed him."
"People do," I said.
"I'm not a stupid person."
"I didn't say you were."
She turned to look at me directly for the first time.
"The apartment.
What's in it?"
"I don't know yet.
I have the address and the lease.
I haven't been inside."
Something moved across her face.
"I have a key."
The car was very quiet.
"He gave it to me eight months ago," she said.
"Told me to use it whenever I was in the city.
I thought it was his way of saying I was important to him." A short, humorless breath.
"I've been there maybe a dozen times.
There's a second bedroom.
He always kept it locked.
Said it was storage."
"Did you ever see him go in?"
"Once.
He didn't know I was there.
I came early — I had a key, so I let myself in.
I heard him on the phone in that room." She paused.
"He stopped talking the moment he heard the door.
When he came out, he was angry.
He said I should have called first."
"What did you hear before he stopped?"
She looked at her hands.
"A name.
A woman's name.
He said it the way you say someone's name when you're trying to calm them down." She swallowed.
"It wasn't mine.
It wasn't yours."
I looked out through the windshield at my own house.
Ethan's car was still in the driveway.
"Will you take me to the apartment?" I asked.
Chloe was quiet for a moment.
Then she reached into her bag and held up a key on a plain silver ring.
"I was going to go alone," she said.
"But I think you should be there."
I called Daniel from the car and told him I'd be late.
He started to object.
"I'll explain when I get there," I said.
"Give me two hours."
We drove to the Meridian Tower in Chloe's car.
Neither of us spoke much.
Once, at a red light, she said: "How did you stay so calm this morning?"
"I wasn't calm," I said.
"I just had somewhere to put it."
She didn't ask what I meant.
Maybe she understood.
The Meridian Tower lobby was marble and glass, the kind of building that made you feel you should speak quietly.
The concierge barely glanced at us.
Chloe walked to the elevator like she had done it a hundred times.
Forty-first floor.
Long corridor.
Door at the end.
She put the key in the lock.
The apartment was immaculate.
Pale walls, clean lines, nothing personal on any surface.
It looked like a showroom — or a place someone had been very careful to keep empty of themselves.
Except for the locked bedroom.
The door had a separate deadbolt.
Chloe's key didn't fit it.
I crouched down and looked at the lock.
Brand new.
Recently installed — the paint around the frame was slightly disturbed where the drill had gone in.
"He changed this one," I said.
Chloe stood behind me.
"Recently?"
"Within the last few months." I stood up.
"Do you still have his number?"
"Yes."
"Don't call it," I said.
"Not yet."
I took out my phone and called Daniel again.
"I need a locksmith who works fast and doesn't ask questions," I said.
"And I need you to add something to the filing this afternoon."
"What am I adding?"
"I'll tell you when I know what's behind this door."
Daniel was quiet for a moment.
Then: "Mabel.
Be careful."
"I will," I said.
I hung up and looked at the locked door.
Behind me, Chloe sat down on the edge of the pale sofa and folded her hands in her lap.
She didn't speak.
May you like
She just waited.
Whatever was in that room, we were both about to find out.
