Page 78 of The Soulmate

He got home a couple of hours later. I roused as he slid into bed.

‘Everything all right?’ I asked.

I couldn’t remember if he responded, but I remembered that he’d fallen asleep with his arms around me that night, and we stayed like that until morning. That was the image in my head when I clicked on the file and the grainy footage appeared on the screen. It showed Max in his office, standing next to a woman who I dimly recognised as Pippa Gerard. He appeared to be hugging her. Then they shifted. Pippa lifted her chin. Her hands moved down his back. And she kissed him.

I reached for my wastepaper basket and vomited.

76

PIPPA

NOW

Ifollow Gabe as he stalks to the bedroom.

‘What are you doing?’ I say to him. ‘Are you calling Max?’

He holds a palm up, silencing me. I remain in the doorway, my gaze darting back and forth between him – pacing with the phone pressed to his ear – and the girls, who I will never take my eyes off ever again.

‘Max,’ Gabe says after a couple of seconds. ‘Yes, my four-year-old daughters passed that message along. What kind of person would –’

Gabe is quiet so I assume Max has cut him off. The hand holding the phone is shaking – whether in fear or anger, I don’t know.

‘In that case, you might as well come and get it,’ Gabe says.

I stare at him. Come and get it? The USB? But we don’t have it!

‘Will you be coming in person or sending one of your thugs?’ Gabe asks. ‘Fine. Give me half an hour to get my family out of the house. I assume you’ll understand if I don’t want them around.’

‘What the hell are you doing?’ I say, when he hangs up.

‘I’m meeting Max,’ he says. ‘To give him the USB.’

‘But you don’thavethe USB.’ I steal a glance at the girls, sitting open-mouthed in front of the television. They haven’t moved a muscle.

Gabe walks to the window, looks out. ‘Take the girls to your parents’ house, Pip. Stay there until I let you know it’s safe to come back.’

‘Not until you tell me what you’re going to do.’

He turns and looks me in the eye. ‘I’m going to fix it.’

77

AMANDA

BEFORE

Max was still in his office with the accountant. Down the hall, my whole world had fallen apart. The image would forever be burned into my mind. Pippa kissing Max. Pippa taking off her top and pressing herself against him. That’s where the video ended. Part of me was glad I didn’t have to watch any more than that. If I had, I was sure I’d be sick again.

The ache of it was physical. I’d heard people talk about having a sick feeling or a heaviness in their belly when they were heartbroken, but this wasn’t just in my belly – it was in every single cell.Maxwas in every single cell. It’s one thing finding out your husband is unfaithful when you are primed for it. Expecting it. But after all I’d done to avoid this exact situation – the years of eavesdropping, the spying – I’d been caught unawares. How could I have been so stupid?

I desperately wanted to make sense of it. Was it a chance encounter? An affair? As far as I knew, Max hadn’t anticipated Pippa’s call on the night in question. It had come out of the blue. Pippa had claimed to be worried about her husband’s mental state, I recalled. Was that the truth? Or was it all part of a ruse to get Max to come to her?

And was Max in on the ruse?

I was still staring at the screen when Max stuck his head into my office. I stared at him anew, changed somehow in the wake of what he’d done. He looked different to me. Like an imposter. A wax statue of my husband.

‘We have to head to the office for a couple of hours,’ he said. ‘I’ll be home for dinner, though.’