The letter came on a Wednesday. I was sorting the mail at the kitchen counter after lunch when I saw the logo. It was from the Children’s Heart Foundation. I opened it right there because it looked official.

The note thanked us for five years of support. It said the total came to sixty two thousand dollars. I read it twice because none of that money had come from me.

Bob had always been the one who went to their spring gala. He told me it was a work obligation from his old company. I never questioned it much at the time.

I picked up the phone that same afternoon and called the number on the letter. A young woman answered. She sounded cheerful and asked how she could help.

I told her about the letter and said I did not remember making those donations. She asked for our name and pulled up the records.

She said the checks came every January. Twelve thousand four hundred dollars each time. They were personal checks from an account ending in seven seven four one. She even read the name on the account. It was Robert Ellis.

That number meant nothing to me. Our regular account ends in four three two two. I asked if she could tell me anything else about the donor.

She said the checks were always signed by Robert. She asked if there was another Mrs. Ellis I might want to speak with. I thanked her and hung up.

I sat at the table for a long time after that call. Bob and I have been married forty two years. We raised two kids in this house. I thought we told each other the important things.

He started going to the gala about five years ago. The first time he came home late he said the speeches ran long.

The second year he mentioned a dinner after the event. By the third year I stopped asking for details.

I got on the computer the next morning. The foundation had photos from last year’s gala on their site. It took me a while to find the right album but I kept clicking.

There was Bob at the third table. He wore his blue tie. Next to him sat a woman in a green dress. She looked maybe sixty. They were turned toward each other like they were in the middle of a conversation.

I kept looking and found the donor wall in their newsletter. Bob’s name was listed beside the name Carol. It did not say Mr. and Mrs. Ellis. It just had both names side by side.

I printed the photo and the donor page. Then I folded them under the letter and waited for Thursday morning.

Bob came downstairs around eight. He poured his coffee and sat down. He reached for the newspaper but I slid the letter over first.

“I got this yesterday,” I said.

He looked at the envelope. “What is it?”

“It’s from the heart foundation. They thanked us for sixty two thousand dollars.”

Bob stirred his coffee but did not pick up the letter. “Must be a mistake.”

I pulled out the photo and laid it on the table. “Who is the woman in the green dress?”

He glanced at it and set his spoon down. “That’s Carol. She helps run the foundation.”

“Her name is right next to yours on their donor list. Why would they list her instead of me?”

Bob looked at his hands. “I did not think you would ever see that.”

I asked the question I had been holding. “How long have you been giving them money from an account I never knew about?”

He was quiet for a minute. The clock ticked on the wall. “Five years,” he said. “I opened the account when I met her.”

I thought about all the late nights. All the times he said it was just work. “Is she the reason you kept going back?”

Bob nodded once. “It started as something small. Then it got bigger than I planned.”

I asked if the kids knew anything. He said no. I asked if he had ever thought about telling me. He said he did not know how.

“Are you going to keep seeing her?” I asked.

Bob looked at the letter on the table. “I do not know what I am going to do.”

I left the letter where it was and went upstairs. I packed a small bag and put it by the door. Bob stayed in the kitchen for a long time.

That afternoon he said he would go stay with his brother for a few days. I did not argue. He took his suitcase and left around four.

I have not called the kids yet. I have not told anyone what happened. The letter is still on the table where I left it. I keep wondering what I am supposed to do next.

The house felt empty in a way it never had before, even when the kids moved out. I walked over to the sink and ran some water, just to hear something besides my own thoughts. The letter sat there, the corner slightly curled from where my hand had gripped it too tight.

I kept going over the way his shoulders slumped when I showed him the photo. “She is just a friend,” he had told me once before, but that was years ago now. “The gala is important for business.” Those words sounded different in my head this time.

The clock in the hallway struck the half hour and it made me jump a little. Bob always said he liked that sound because it reminded him of his parents’ house. I wondered if Carol knew that about him too.

My hands were still cold from the morning air when I had opened the door for him to leave. He paused on the step. “I am sorry,” he said. That was all.

I picked up the letter again and traced the logo with my finger. The ink was raised a bit, like they used some special printing. Sixty two thousand dollars. That number kept turning in my mind, along with the account he had hidden.

After a bit I decided the best thing was to leave it be for the night. The kids would call on Sunday like always, and I would figure out what to say by then. But right now the only thing I knew for sure was that nothing would ever feel the same at this table.

I thought about the donor wall again and how their names sat side by side like they belonged together. My name was nowhere on it. The woman on the phone had sounded so nice when she asked about another Mrs. Ellis. I could still hear her voice in my head.

Bob had taken his blue tie with him when he packed. I noticed it missing from the closet when I went up to change the sheets. That tie was the one he wore in the photo.