“I want to understand what you believe Vanessa’s relationship status is.”
Adrian exhaled.
“That’s a strange question.”
“It’s a very simple one.”
He did not answer.
I continued. “Do you believe she and I are married?”
“Yes.”
“Do you believe we are separated?”
This time the silence lasted long enough that I knew the answer before he gave it.
“She told me you were separated in practice.”
“What does that mean?”
“That you still lived in the same house because of the mortgage. That you had separate bedrooms. That you were working through the financial side before filing.”
My hand tightened around the pen.
We had never had separate bedrooms.
Vanessa had slept beside me the previous night.
“She told you we were separated.”
“Yes.”
“Since when?”
“June.”
I looked at the bank statements.
The first transfer to her separate account had been in May.
“Have you been seeing her?”
Adrian did not answer immediately.
“I need you to be specific,” I said. “I am not asking what you call it. Have you had a romantic or sexual relationship with my wife while she and I were living as a married couple?”
“Yes.”
The word entered the room quietly.
No crash.
No cinematic shattering sound.
The refrigerator kept humming. The furnace continued moving warm air through the vents. A truck drove past outside.
My marriage changed shape anyway.
“How long?” I asked.
“About five months.”
I closed my eyes.
Five months.
July, August, September, October, November.
Anniversary month included.
“Did she tell you I knew?”
“She said you knew the marriage was over.”
“Did she tell you I agreed she could see other people?”
“No. She said it wasn’t my business to ask you.”
I almost laughed at that because it was so exactly Vanessa. She had constructed two separate worlds and labeled any attempt to compare them an invasion of privacy.
“Did you give her money?”
Adrian became guarded.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Nearly twelve thousand dollars moved from our joint savings into an account in her maiden name. She told me the transfers were connected to work. Your name appears throughout the same period. I’m trying to establish whether those things are related.”
He said nothing.
Then, very carefully, “I transferred her seventy-five hundred dollars in August.”
“For what?”
“She told me she needed the deposit and first two months’ rent on an apartment.”
I looked toward the staircase.
Vanessa had never viewed an apartment.
At least not one she had mentioned.
“Did she say where?”
“Hoboken.”