“We talked too long. It went to voicemail.”
Blair and I both stared at my phone, waiting to hear the sound that would signify he was finished.
I put it on speaker and pressed play as soon as it was ready.
“Hey, it’s me. Listen, I’m not sure if you’re even listening to these. I know you’re at your parents’. I don’t blame you. I know you have to be mad at me, and you have every right to be. I am so sorry I got the date wrong for the Orchid Ball. For some reason, I thought it was last Saturday instead of last Friday. I didn’t realize I’d fucked up until I was on my way home Friday night and played my messages. I hope you’ll let me make it up to you tonight. I’d like to take you to La Maison. Just, um, give me a call back.”
I met Blair’s eyes. “Now he wants to take me.” I rolled my eyes. “I begged him to take me there months ago. As if I’d want to go there now. Madison said La Maison was ‘their spot.’ What an ass.”
Blair looked at me sympathetically. “You still need to go through financial records, and then I think we need to get out of here.”
“I went through the finances in my mobile app,” I said, feeling miserable that I was having to do all of this. “There was nothing there.”
Blair winced. “I hate to say it, but you need to dig around on the computer and see if he has some hidden accounts.” Her eyes suddenly jerked up to meet mine. “Or he could be spending from his corporate account.”
My heart dropped. “I haven’t checked his corporate account,” I said with a groan.
It didn’t take long before it was clear that Blair was right. On a personal credit card I didn’t know he had, I found days and nights full of lunches and dinners. He’d spent tens of thousands on food alone for her. I fought back tears at the confirmation of my worst fears.
Thatcher had been having his affair for quite some time.
I wanted to stop, go to my room, throw myself on the bed, and cry for an hour or two, but I stayed strong. I printed out every single instance where he’d obviously taken her out. Then I moved to a different card. He’d been using more than one corporate account on her, it seemed. This one appeared to be for gifts. Thatcher must have had a few jewelry stores he liked to frequent. I started with those and again found tens of thousands of dollars in purchases that sure as hell hadn’t gone to me.
He’d forgotten my birthday completely this year, but it looked like he’d given Madison a twenty-five-thousand-dollar diamond bracelet as a mid-week surprise. It wasn’t just jewelry,either. There were massive purchases from flower shops, chocolatiers, bakeries, clothing stores—the list went on and on.
Looking at the sheer volume of gifts he’d showered her with made me see just how little I’d meant to him. I’d been content with a gift or two for my birthday and Christmas, considered myself lucky to get one on our anniversary, and never received ‘just because’ gifts of flowers or chocolates until now. Those didn’t even count, in my book, since he was trying to get me to forgive him for missing the Orchid Ball. I’d always thought he didn’t give a lot of gifts because Thatcher wasn’t very romantic.
It turned out that he just wasn’t very romantic withme.
I wiped away a few tears and tried to focus. I printed out copies of every bank statement, highlighting each dinner, each jewelry purchase. I wanted something to give to the lawyer at the three o’clock appointment.
I looked at the time. “Shit!”
Blair lurched up off the floor. “What? Oh my God, is he here?” she hissed.
“No. Sorry.” I couldn’t believe how fast her reflexes were. She was up and ready to roundhouse kick anyone who walked through the office door before I’d gotten out of the office chair. “I just need to get to the lawyer’s office. He’s in Halliwell, and it’ll take me at least twenty minutes to get there.”
“Do you want me to come with you?”
I gave her a hug. “No. But thank you for being here with me today. You helped so much.”
“When are you going to tell him you’re leaving him?” Blair asked.
“I’m not going to tell him. I’m just going to have him served with divorce papers at his stupid campaign launch party in front of everyone.”
Blair looked both shocked and impressed. “That’s… perfect.”
I nodded, trying to smile but feeling like crying. My emotions were all over the place.
Blair stood back, still holding onto my shoulders. “We’re going to get you through this. You’ll see. It might not feel like it right now, but you’re going to come out of this so much stronger and happier than you were.”
I could only hope she was right. Because right now? It just felt awful.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Thatcher
On my way back to my office, I tried calling Carrie again. It went straight to voicemail. I sighed. I’d been hoping to find out if she’d received my flowers. I had sent arrangements each day. Today’s was a massive arrangement of white roses, blue hydrangeas, cream peonies, and pastel pink dahlias. I’d had to look back at our wedding photos the night before to see what kinds of flowers were used. I didn’t even know what some of them were called. I had run by the florist that morning with a picture so they could see what I wanted and tell me what a couple of the flowers were called. Hopefully that would go a long way towards making up for missing the Orchid Ball.
