Free Betrayal by Isabelle Ali Page B

they’d have to walk everywhere. Through his residency when he was pulling hundred hour weeks and wanted to quit every single day. She’d been there, never faltering, never complaining. The thought of her with another man was ludicrous. If she wanted another man, she would have gotten him when Adam was dirt poor and couldn’t provide for her.
    Still , the thought nagged at him. Larry had recently set up a trust for Max and Sandy, so he’d seen Kali just a few weeks ago. He would know what she looked like. But, Kali was attractive. Numerous women dressed like her, did their hair like hers… he was certain there was no way that was Kali.
    But, she had spent that night at Elaina’s. She’d done it once before, when they’d let their drinking get away from them, so it wasn’t entirely unusual. But that was during the weekend, not a random Wednesday.
    When he got home, Kali was in the kitchen working on dinner. He first went outside and checked on the kids, who were playing with some of the neighbor’s children. He spent some time with them before heading inside.
    “Hey,” Kali said, grabbing some plates off a shelf she couldn’t reach without standing on her tiptoes.
    “Hey. How was your day?”
    “Good. How was yours?”
    “Same old. Had a professional bodybuilder come in for some work. That was a first for me. Guy was colossal. I was thinking maybe Max could meet him. I think he’d get a kick out of that.”
    “Maybe I’ll bring him by when the guy’s there next.”
    Adam watched as she garnished some salads. He didn’t say anything for a moment. “So where’d you go today?”
    “Nowhere really. Just hung out most of the day.”
    He nodded. “Were you in Santa Monica today?”
    She paused. “No, why?”
    “I know you were with Elaina. I was just wondering if you two were in Santa Monica today.”
    “No , we got back in the morning and she dropped me off and that was it. Why?”
    “Just curious.”
    Adam watched her a long time. He’d known his wife for almost two decades. They’d gotten into a rhythm. They understood each other. In fact, he understood her so well, knew her movements and the cadences of her voice so intimately, his gut could always tell when something was wrong.
    And right now, his gut was telling him his wife, for the first time since he could remember, was lying to him.

20
     
     
     
     
     
    Adam spent the night reading online. He watched Kali put the kids to bed and straighten up. Sometimes they would watch one of their favorite shows before bed. She turned on the television and made some popcorn for them. But Adam couldn’t pay attention. He found himself glancing over to her too often.
    “I forgot something,” he said. “Gotta make a quick call to Gil.”
    He left the bedroom and trotted down the stairs. Her cell phone was on the counter in the kitchen. He turned it on.
    The first thing he did was flip through her contacts. No one there he didn’t recognize. Then he looked at incoming text messages… nothing there. But she could have easily erased anything.
    Suddenly, he chuckled to himself. He felt like one of those husbands that put a GPS on their wife’s phone because they wanted to know where they were at all times. He felt ridiculous. As he went to turn the phone off, a thought hit him: he could easily verify where she was this morning. All he had to do was call Elaina.
    He debated a moment, glancing up the stairs to make sure Kali wasn’t coming down, and then dialed Elaina from Kali’s phone.
    “Hey Kal, what’s up?”
    “Is this Elaina?”
    A short silence. “Yes.”
    “This is Adam White. How are you?”
    “Good, Adam. What’s going on? Is Kali alright?”
    “Yeah, she’s fine. Sorry to be calling you at this hour. I just wanted to ask you a quick question if that’s okay.”
    Another silence, this one longer. “Sure.”
    “Were you with Kali this morning?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Where were you guys?”
    “Santa Monica. We had brunch at some