“But everyone here knows him as Mrs.
Hutchkins’s husband.”
Lauren closed her eyes.
Frank’s jaw tightened.
I felt something inside me become strangely calm.
“Everyone?”
William swallowed.
“Most people, sir.
That’s how I was introduced to him.”
“By whom?”
Lauren spoke immediately.
“Gerald, enough.”
I looked at her.
“I didn’t ask you.”
For the first time in twenty-eight years, Lauren had no answer ready.
William looked deeply uncomfortable.
“Mrs.
Hutchkins introduced him that way at a company event when he first joined.
After that…
that’s what people understood.”
Three years earlier.
The exact year Frank Sterling entered Meridian Technologies.
I remembered that period.
Lauren had become more guarded about work events.
She said executives’ spouses rarely attended because the company was trying to keep social functions focused on employees and clients.
I had believed her.
Why wouldn’t I?
Trust doesn’t feel foolish while you’re giving it.
Frank exhaled through his nose.
“Lauren, we should take this upstairs.”
The word we landed harder than anything else.
I turned to him.
“You don’t get to say we to my wife while I’m standing here.”
He took a step back.
Lauren lowered her voice.
“Gerald, please.
There are things you don’t understand.”
“Then help me understand one thing.
Did you tell people he was your husband?”
She stared at me.
“Lauren.”
Her shoulders dropped.
“Yes.”
William looked down.
My ears rang.
I had expected denial.
An explanation.
Some corporate arrangement so strange that it would somehow make sense.
Instead, she had simply said yes.
“Why?”
“Not here.”
“Why?”
Frank looked toward the front doors as two employees entered the lobby.
They recognized Lauren, then slowed when they sensed the tension.
Lauren noticed them too.
Her voice became firmer.
