For Eight Months I Thought I’d Found Love After My Divorce — Then a Woman I’d Never Met Recognized His Photo and Said “When I Knew Him, He Went by a Different Name,” and I Understood Every Breakfast Had Been Reconnaissance

My phone buzzed in my hand before I could finish the thought.

It was him.

“Where are you two?” Gregory asked, no greeting, a coldness in his voice I had somehow never let myself hear before.

“Abigail wanted water, so we missed our stop and stayed on,” I said, and I heard my own voice come out light and false.

There was a silence on the line, heavy and total.

“Don’t lie to me, Alison.

I watched your bus go past the stop.