I showed up at the hospital to surprise my husband during his shift. But the second one of his coworkers saw me, all the color left his face. Then his eyes filled with tears. “He hasn’t said a word to you, has he?” Ben and I had been married eleven years, and for every one of those years, I had shared him with the hospital. He was a remarkably gifted surgeon.

He looked as if every bone in his body had crumbled to dust, dragging out a kitchen chair and sinking down onto it.

“I drove to Valley Memorial this afternoon, Brian, and Paul told me you’d been fired before I tracked your phone to Pinecrest Cemetery.”

My voice shook with a mix of rage and heartbreak.

“I watched you holding that woman by the grave, and I saw the monthly payments you’ve been wiring into her bank account.”

His head jerked up, his eyes wide with frantic urgency.

“Hannah, please hear me out, because it’s nothing like what you’re picturing in your head.”