The first time a blocked number called my husband, I almost ignored it. By the third call, I answered — and a woman screamed that my husband had ruined her life while a baby cried in the background. I agreed to meet her, afraid I was about to discover he’d cheated, but the truth was far worse.
The first time Mark’s phone rang, I almost ignored it.
I opened my eyes and looked at the clock.
2:14 a.m.
For a second, I just lay there, half awake, staring at the glow from the nightstand. Mark was flat on his back beside me, breathing heavy, dead to the world. My husband could sleep through anything.
I was just settling down to go back to sleep when Mark’s phone went off again.
The first time Mark’s phone rang, I almost ignored it.
I pushed myself up and peered over at his phone.
Blocked Number.
The ringing stopped. Silence settled back into the room, but now I was wide awake, staring at the ceiling and listening to Mark breathe.
Then the phone started again.
2:17 a.m.
I nudged my husband’s shoulder. “Mark. Your phone.”
The phone started again.
He made a noise that barely counted as human speech, rolled over, and kept sleeping.
“Mark!” I kept trying to wake him until the phone stopped ringing.
Then it started again.
2:20 a.m.
Then I was getting worried. Nobody called three times in the middle of the night unless something had gone very wrong.
Before I could talk myself out of it, I grabbed the phone.
Nobody called three times in the middle of the night.
“Hel—”
“MARK, STOP IGNORING ME!”
The shout caught me off guard. It was a woman’s voice, young, rough with tears, and furious in a way that sounded past anger and into desperation.
“Take responsibility!” She continued. “This is all your fault!
“Who is this? What’s going on?”
For one second, there was only breathing. Then I heard a baby crying in the background.
It was a woman’s voice.
It wasn’t that fussy little whine babies make when they’re tired. This was hard crying.
The woman let out a harsh breath. “Is that Mark’s wife?”
“Yes. Who are you?”
“Come to the corner of M Street at noon,” she said. “Then you’ll find out what your husband did.”
The line went dead.
I sat there with the phone still in my hand, trying to understand what I’d just been dragged into.
“Is that Mark’s wife?”
Beside me, Mark let out a snore and shifted onto his back again.
I looked at him in the blue glow from the alarm clock.
We’d been married 25 years. We shared bank accounts, passwords, grocery lists, and calendars. Mark wasn’t secretive or slippery. He couldn’t be cheating on me, not my Mark.
I looked down at the phone again. But if he wasn’t cheating, why was a woman with a baby phoning him at 2 a.m demanding he take responsibility?
He couldn’t be cheating on me, not my Mark.
My thumb hovered over the call log.
I don’t know why I did it, but I deleted the call. Then I put the phone back where I’d found it and lay there until morning with my eyes open.
The next day, when Mark came into the kitchen fresh from the shower, I studied his face for any sign of deception.
“Morning,” he said, leaning down to kiss my cheek.
Nothing about him looked guilty. Nothing about him looked like a man with some hidden second life waiting to explode in mine.
I deleted the call.
Mark poured coffee, checked his watch, and talked about a meeting he didn’t want to sit through. I nodded in the right places and watched him move around our kitchen.
When Mark left, he smiled at me from the door. “See you tonight.”
The second the door shut, I grabbed my purse and car keys.
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