And that frightened me more than I wanted to admit.

***

That afternoon, my phone received a message from an unfamiliar number.

**Unknown: My mother told me what happened. I think we need to talk.**

I frowned.

**Me: Who is this?**

The reply arrived almost immediately.

**Unknown: Vanessa. Nathan’s wife.**

I read those words three times.

Then I called the number.

A woman answered.

“Hello, Sarah.”

I could barely speak.

“His what?”

She sighed.

“His wife. Although we’re separated now.”

“Who are you?”

“I’m Ivy’s daughter.”

I sank into a chair.

For five years, I’d wondered whether Nathan had left me for someone else.

Now I finally had an answer.

But I was about to discover that his affair wasn’t even the most disturbing part of the story.

Vanessa agreed to meet me at a coffee shop the following afternoon.

She arrived looking exhausted.

She was younger than me, with tired eyes and an expression full of regret.

A Woman Let Her 11-Year-Old Son Walk Home from School Alone for the First Time – Twenty Minutes Later, Her Neighbor Called Her Crying, ‘Come Outside. You Need to See What Your Son Did’