Chapter 4 - NOT ONE AFFAIR
Daniel stopped calling it a mistake.
He could not anymore.
It had been intermittent.
Not constant.
Not romantic in the traditional sense.
Worse in another way.
He and Amber began sleeping together before Tessa married him.
Stopped.
Started again after Lily was born.
Stopped when Noah was an infant.
Started again during the family vacation.
Stopped.
Then again around Eli’s conception.
Tessa asked:
“Why?”
Daniel answered:
“I don’t have a good reason.”
“Try.”
He said Amber made him feel wanted.
Tessa laughed.
“I was your girlfriend.”
“I know.”
“Then your wife.”
“I know.”
Amber later gave her own explanation.
Competition.
Rachel—no, Tessa—had always been the responsible sister.
Better grades.
Stable job.
Stable relationship.
Amber was older but felt behind.
Sleeping with Daniel began as something secret she could take that belonged to Tessa.
That answer was ugly.
At least it was honest.
Then it became familiar.
A private place where both of them could escape being the people the family expected.
Tessa said:
“You used children as cover.”
Amber denied it.
At first.
Then Mark produced calendars.
After each birth, Amber increasingly pushed childcare onto Tessa.
Why?
Amber said exhaustion.
Depression.
Marriage problems.
All partly true.
But there was another pattern.
Daniel volunteered constantly.
“I’ll pick up Lily.”
“I’ll watch Noah.”
“I can take Grace to soccer.”
Tessa thought he was helping her help Amber.
Now she understood why it had sometimes seemed effortless.
He was attached to those children for reasons he could not admit.
Then Tessa asked:
“Did you know?”
Daniel said:
“I suspected.”
“With which kids?”
“Lily. Maybe Noah.”
“What about Grace?”
Silence.
“Eli?”
More silence.
Tessa whispered:
“All of them.”
Daniel began crying.
“I never knew.”
“You never wanted to know.”
That was different.
And then Mark said something that shifted the story again.
“Amber did know.”
Tessa turned.
Mark held up a document.
A private paternity-test receipt.
Purchased eight years earlier.
May you like
Customer:
Amber Brooks.
