"We need to talk about Nathaniel."
Simon’s breath hitched. The faint bit of color that had been in his cheeks drained away completely.
"We have spent the last few weeks digging through the painful reality of your affair," Audrey said, her tone holding no malice, just a firm, undeniable demand for complete transparency. "But we have entirely avoided the subject of Nate. You have tip-toed around it, and I haven't brought him up. But if we are going to face the truth and actually move forward, we have to face all of it."
She leaned forward, holding Simon's devastated gaze.
"We need to talk about him right now, Simon. Before anything else happens."
A heavy, fraught silence settled over the room. Simon swallowed hard, his throat working convulsively as he stared at the woman he loved, finally forced to confront the man who had stepped in to hold her when he had walked away.
Chapter 39
Simon
The name hung in the quiet space of Dr. Thorne’s office, heavy and sharp as a blade.
Simon didn't flinch, but Audrey saw the way his jaw locked. She saw the subtle, involuntary tightening of the muscles in his neck, the way his hands curled into tight, trembling fists on his knees. For months, the ghost of Nathaniel had been the unspoken third rail in their marriage—a source of furious, toxic jealousy that Simon had initially used to deflect from his own guilt.
But Simon didn't lash out today. He didn't raise his voice or cross his arms defensively.
He swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing, and looked directly into Audrey’s eyes. The sheer terror of what he was about to hear was written all over his pale face.
"Okay," Simon said, his voice incredibly quiet, raspy with the agonizing effort it took to suppress his own pride. "Tell me. Whatever you need to say, Rey. I'm listening."
Audrey uncrossed her legs, leaning forward slightly in the winged armchair. She didn't want to weaponize Nate tohurt Simon. She just needed him to understand the profound, terrifying depth of the hole he had pushed her into.
"When my world ended, it wasn't because you had a sudden attack of conscience and confessed to me," Audrey began, her voice trembling slightly before finding a steady, agonizing rhythm. "It ended on a random weekday when I opened my phone and saw an email from an address I didn't recognize. I opened it, and I saw a photograph of my husband, asleep in a hotel bed, next to a twenty-four-year-old girl."
Simon squeezed his eyes shut. A ragged, sickening breath shuddered out of his chest, but he didn't turn away.
"You didn't even give me the dignity of the truth until she forced your hand, Simon," Audrey continued, a single tear slipping free to track down her cheek. "You completely shattered my reality. I woke up the next morning and I didn't know who I was. Every single thing I had built my identity on—our marriage, our family, my trust in you—was suddenly a filthy, humiliating lie. I had to look at that picture and realize that while I was keeping your dinner warm in the fridge, you were naked in another woman's bed."
"I am so sorry," Simon choked out, the tears immediately spilling over his dark lashes. "God, Audrey, I am so incredibly sorry."
"I was drowning," Audrey wept, pressing a hand to her chest as the memory of that suffocating panic rushed back in. "I couldn't sleep. I couldn't eat. I couldn't breathe in our own house because everywhere I looked, I saw the life you were willing to throw away. And instead of giving me space to grieve, you suffocated me. You begged, you panicked, you demanded that we fix it right then and there because you couldn't handle the guilt of what you did. You were making me manage your pain when I was the one bleeding out."
Dr. Thorne sat quietly, letting the heavy, necessary purge of emotion fill the room.
"And then," Audrey took a shaky breath, forcing herself to hold Simon's devastated gaze, "there was Nathaniel."
Simon’s knuckles turned bone-white. He opened his mouth, his voice breaking as a single, desperate question clawed its way out of his throat.
"Rey... had you been talking to him?" Simon asked, the fear in his dark eyes palpable. "Over the years, since we got married... did you keep in touch with him?"
"No," Audrey answered immediately, offering him that small mercy. "We hadn't spoken since college. We didn't even follow each other on social media. We were complete strangers until the day I walked into Smith & Harrington: Family Law to file for our divorce."
Simon let out a long, ragged exhale, his shoulders dropping a fraction of an inch. A profound, overwhelming wave of relief washed over his face. It hadn't been a lingering emotional affair. She hadn't been keeping Nate in her back pocket.
"He was at the firm for his own divorce," Audrey explained, her voice softening slightly. "We ran into each other right after my meeting with Victoria Harrington. We went for a cup of coffee just to catch up as friends. We exchanged numbers. And that was it. We didn't meet up again. We didn't text for weeks."
Simon gave a sharp, jerky nod, signaling her to keep going. He was taking every ounce of the punishment he had earned.
"For full transparency, you need to know exactly how it escalated," Audrey said firmly. "I didn't go looking for revenge. I didn't download an app. It happened on the first weekend Lilywent to sleep over at your parents' house. It was the first time I was completely alone since I found out. The silence in our house... it was unbearable, Simon. It was deafening."
Simon flinched, the guilt twisting the knife deeper into his gut. He had made their home a place she had to escape from.
"Nate texted me that night," Audrey confessed, the tears falling faster now. "I was feeling so grounded down, so completely trapped in my own head, that I called him back. We talked, and he invited me to watch the basketball game at a friend's house. My team was playing. I went simply because I couldn't stand being alone in the quiet anymore. And Simon... I actually had fun."
