Chapter 4: The Other Woman

Two days later, Claire called me.

I almost let it go to voicemail.

But something made me answer.

“Hello?”

“Muriel?”

“Yes.”

Her voice was trembling.

“I know you probably hate me.”

I looked out the window.

“I don’t know you well enough to hate you.”

She began crying.

“I swear I thought Jim was divorced.”

I remained silent.

“He told me his wife had died.”

I closed my eyes.

For a moment, I couldn’t even speak.

“My wife passed away years ago,” Claire continued. “That’s what he told me when we started dating.”

I gripped the phone.

“Years ago?”

“Yes.”

“Then how did he explain me?”

She hesitated.

“He said you were his sister-in-law. He said you were helping him with the farm because his family was close.”

I felt something cold settle inside my chest.

My husband had not merely hidden me.

He had erased me.

Claire continued.

“I met him thirteen years ago. I was working at the nursing home. He used to deliver feed and supplies to a farm nearby, and sometimes he’d stop in to visit an elderly man.”

I remembered Jim’s stories about the nursing home.

He had said he was helping a friend.

“He was kind to me,” Claire said. “He listened. He told me he was lonely.”

I stared at the phone.

“He told me that too.”

She cried harder.

“I had no idea he was married. I didn’t know about you or your children. I didn’t know about the farm.”

I wanted to be angry.

I wanted to tell her that she should have asked more questions.

But I also knew that Jim had been lying with the confidence of a man who had practiced it for years.

“Does Tully know?” I asked.

“He knows Jim is his father.”

“And your daughter?”

“Ava. She’s eleven.”

I took a slow breath.

“Does she know about me?”

Claire whispered.

“No.”

I looked at the photographs on the table.

“Then we have a lot of children who deserve the truth.”

Claire was silent.

Finally, she said, “I’m sorry, Muriel.”

I didn’t forgive her.

Not that day.

But I understood that she had been deceived too.

And understanding made everything more complicated.

CLICK HERE CONTINUE TO READ>>Chapter 5: My Mother-in-Law’s Silence