“Betty, there’s something I think you need to know.”
Something in his voice made my stomach tighten.
“What?”
“I’m sorry. I should’ve told you sooner, but Rob said he would explain everything himself. I thought I was giving my brother a chance to do the right thing.”
“Tell me what?”
Another silence followed.
“Oh, Betty,” he said quietly. “I really am sorry. But this isn’t about your tattoo.”
I gripped the phone tighter.
“Then what is it about?”
“Don’t you know what Natalie told him?”
Natalie was the sweetest kid I knew.
She could never say anything that would destroy my marriage.
At least, that was what I thought.
“No… What did she say?”
Dean hesitated again.
“I don’t know how to tell you this without hurting you.”
“Dean, please.”
His voice softened.
“A few weeks ago, Natalie saw Rob with another woman.”
I stopped breathing.
“What do you mean, with another woman?”
“I’m sorry, Betty. She saw him kissing her.”
For a moment, I could not speak.
Then Dean added, carefully, “Natalie called her ‘the lady with the butterfly tattoo.'”
“What lady?”
Dean explained that Natalie had been with Rob several weeks earlier while I was out.
I knew about the outing.
