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Now I was asking myself, Where was Joe?
Why hadn’t he answered any of his phones?
The kitchen opened into a large, attractive area that was both a dining and a living room. Hardwood floors glowed under the stream of light pouring through the windows at the far end, and I saw a terrace beyond.
I noted that the richly upholstered and dark-wood furnishings were in neat, apple-pie order.
My second look made my heart slam to a stop.
A woman was curled up on a sofa, turned toward the windows, reading a magazine, the white cords of an iPod dangling from her ears.
I was too shocked to move.
Or speak a word.
Chapter 27
MY HEART RATE ZOOMED as my focus narrowed to the woman on the couch, a sandwich and cup of tea beside her on the coffee table.
I took in her black tank top and workout pants, the thick, blond-streaked hair knotted behind her head, her bare feet.
My body felt bloodless except for the tingling in my finger-tips. Had Joe been leading a double life while I was in San Francisco, waiting for his calls and visits?
My face flushed with anger but also shame. I didn’t know whether to shout or run.
How could Joe have been cheating on me?
The woman must have caught my reflection in the glass. She dropped her magazine, put her hands to her face, and screamed.
I screamed, too. “Who the hell are you?”
“Who are you!” she shouted back, her hair tumbling out of its knot as she ripped the iPod out of her ears.
“I’m Joe’s girlfriend,” I said. I felt naked and raw, wishing I had a badge to flash at her. Any badge.
Oh, Joe, what have you done?
“I’m Milda,” she said, jumping up from the couch, leading me into the kitchen. “I work here. I clean house for Mr. Molinari.”
I laughed, not out of humor but out of shock.
She yanked a check out of her pants pocket and stuck it out for me to see.
But I was barely focusing on her. Images from the last few days were flying around inside my head.
And now this young woman’s presence was undoing whatever hold I had over my emotions.
“I finished early and I just thought I’d sit for a few minutes,” she said as she washed the dishes she’d used. “Please don’t tell him, okay?”
I nodded numbly. “No. Of course not.”
“I’m leaving now,” she said, turning off the taps. “I don’t want to be late to pick up my son, so I’m going now, okay?”
I nodded.
I went down a hall, pushed open the door to the bathroom. I opened the medicine chest and scanned the boxes and bottles, looking for nail polish, tampons, makeup.
Coming up empty, I went to the bedroom, a large carpeted space with a view of the courtyard. I threw open Joe’s closet door, checked the floor for women’s shoes, ran my hands through the rack. No skirts, no blouses. What was I doing?
