I worked at my uncle’s hardware store.
One afternoon, a young construction worker came in covered in drywall dust.
He needed a particular hinge but couldn’t remember what it was called.
So he drew a picture on the back of a receipt.
It was a terrible drawing.
I laughed.
He pretended to
look offended.
“I’m a builder, not an artist.”
“Clearly,” I replied.
He came back the next day.
And the next.
And the day after that.
On his fourth visit, he finally asked me to dinner.
Our first date was at a little pizza restaurant where the tables were permanently sticky.
Our second date was a drive north to Loon Lake.
Mark wanted to show me the place he’d visited with his grandfather as a boy.
We sat on a dock watching the sunset.
The water reflected orange, purple, and gold beneath the dark pine trees.
Suddenly, Mark looked at me.
“I’m going to marry you someday.”
I laughed.
“Mark, you’ve known me eight days.”
“I know.”
He smiled.
“I’m going to marry you anyway.”
Fourteen months later, he did.
We married in my parents’ backyard.
Then drove straight to Loon Lake for our honeymoon.
Four nights at the Lakeview Inn.
Room 12.
I remembered our first tiny apartment.
The year his construction business nearly failed.
The nights we survived on inexpensive spaghetti.
The day Sophie was born.
Mark holding our newborn daughter and crying harder than anyone else in the delivery room.
I remembered the accident that damaged his finger.
The night he placed his repaired wedding ring in my palm.
And his quiet apology.
“I’m sorry, Lee. It just hurts too much.”
I had told him it didn’t matter.
That I knew we were married.
That a piece of jewelry couldn’t change what we meant to each other.
Now I lay beside him wondering whether I’d been foolish.
Twenty-six years.
And perhaps he’d chosen someone else.
At four in the morning, I stood at our bedroom window.
The street was empty.
The houses were dark.
I made myself a promise.
I would find out the truth. Even if it
icon.
I stared at it.
My heart pounded.
Then I clicked.
Inside were photographs, documents, spreadsheets, and video files.
The first video had a name that made my stomach turn.
START HERE — FOR LEE
Lee.
The name only Mark used for me.
