Honey.

That almost made me throw up.

Mike rubbed both hands over his face.

“How long?” he asked quietly.

“I don’t know.”

But suddenly I thought about all the strange little moments over the last year.

Karen touching Daniel’s arm too often at dinner.

Inside jokes that stopped when I entered the room.

The time she came over wearing different clothes because she “spilled coffee” on herself nearby.

How stupid I had felt lately without understanding why.

Mike pulled out one of the kitchen chairs and sat heavily.

“You know the worst part?” he said after a long silence.

I looked at him.

“I defended her.”

That one hurt because I understood it completely.

A few minutes later, the bathroom got quiet upstairs.

Too quiet.

Then Daniel spoke calmly through the door.

“Lisa. Open it now, or I swear to God—”

“Or what?” I interrupted loudly for the first time.

Silence.

I stood at the bottom of the staircase looking upward.

“For twenty-three years I cooked your meals, washed your clothes, buried my parents beside you, raised our daughter with you, sat in hospital waiting rooms with you…” My voice cracked slightly. “And you brought her into my bathtub?”

Nothing.

Not one word.

Because there wasn’t a defense big enough for that.

Karen started crying again.

“Lisa, I never meant—”

“Don’t,” I snapped. “Do not use my name like we’re still friends.”

The house went silent.

Outside, rain tapped softly against the kitchen windows.

Mike stood beside me now.

Not touching me.

Just standing there like someone attending a funeral.

And maybe we were.

Not for our marriages.

For the people we thought we married.

After a long moment, Mike finally spoke.

“What do you want to do?”

I looked upstairs toward the locked bathroom door.

Toward the muffled breathing behind it.

Toward the end of my old life sitting trapped in steam and shame.

Then I looked at Mike.

And for the first time all afternoon, I smiled.

Not because I was happy.

Because suddenly I understood something clearly.

They thought getting caught would be the worst moment of their lives.

They had no idea what came after.