MY EX-WIFE CAME TO SEE OUR SON. SHE ENDED UP STAYING THE NIGHT. I LET HER SLEEP ON THE COUCH. AFTER MIDNIGHT, I HEARD SOMETHING I WASN’T SUPPOSED TO HEAR.

She stood up, pacing across the kitchen. “I didn’t know how to tell you. I didn’t know how to make it make sense. I didn’t want to hurt you. But I didn’t want to lie anymore, either.”

I swallowed hard, the weight of her words settling in.

And then, I did something I didn’t expect.

I asked the question I had been avoiding, the question that had been gnawing at me ever since I heard those voices in the middle of the night.

“Who is he?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper.

Diane hesitated. She looked at me, then down at her coffee mug, and then back up at me.

“You know him,” she said quietly. “It’s David.”

My heart stopped. David. My best friend. The man I had known for years. The man I had trusted. The man I had confided in when I needed someone to talk to.

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