Her expression changed.
“What?”
“He was lying beside me when I woke up. He said he had a migraine so severe he couldn’t participate today.”
Daniel interrupted.
“Claire, please.”
I kept looking at Laura.
“I turned off the lights so he could rest. I kissed his forehead and told him to call if he needed anything.”
Laura took a step backward.
Daniel looked miserable.
“He told you we were separated?” I asked her.
She nodded.
“For months.”
“How many months?”
She hesitated.
Then she answered quietly.
“He said you’d been living apart for almost a year.”
I stared at Daniel.
Almost a year.
That wasn’t a misunderstanding.
That wasn’t a careless description of a difficult marriage.
That was an entirely invented life.
***
Daniel finally spoke.
“Claire, things haven’t been good between us.”
I looked at him.
“We’ve been having problems,” he continued.
“Problems?”
“You know we’ve been distant.”
