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“Go upstairs and check under your bed. Trust me,” he whispered urgently.
After four days of family dinners where I couldn’t participate in the conversation, I felt completely left out.
“Maybe you should try harder, Chad,” Cami told me one day when we were sitting outside getting some sunshine. “I mean, I’ve had to be fluent in English, and you reap the rewards of that, don’t you? So, it’s time to put in some real effort if you’re feeling left out.”
Look, I knew that it wasn’t anyone’s fault, but it was hard not to feel isolated when they would all switch to French without a second thought. So, I figured, when it was time for another family dinner, that I would invite my friend Nolan over.
He was my closest friend, and I needed someone to talk to while Camille and her parents bantered away in French.
Nolan and I went way back, and though we didn’t talk about it much, I knew he had taken French in high school. But I didn’t think he’d retained enough to follow their rapid conversation.
I was about to find out just how wrong I was.
We were all sitting at the table, eating bouillabaisse, a French dish that Camille’s parents loved. Nolan and I were chatting about work, casually discussing an audit we had coming up, while Camille and her parents happily chattered away in French.
“I don’t think Liam is serious enough about this audit,” I said. “I think that there are some figures that he needs to fix first…”
I was talking to Nolan, but he just wasn’t looking at me or paying attention. Instead, he was looking at his plate and frowning as if he was in deep concentration.
I thought it was odd, but I let it go. Maybe he was just thinking about Liam and the crooked books.
But suddenly, Nolan’s face changed. He went pale, and his hand gripped my arm tightly.
“Go upstairs and check under your bed. Trust me,” he whispered urgently.
At first, I was beyond confused. I thought that he was messing with me. But his eyes… they told a different story.
Wide and serious.
My heart pounded harder, and nausea rose through my body. What had I just stumbled upon?
I excused myself from the table, my heart pounding in my chest as I climbed the stairs. What could possibly be under the bed?
My mind raced, thinking of all the mundane things that could be there. I mean, really? A suitcase, dust bunnies, Camille’s shoes, or a secret stash of chocolate?
But nothing could have prepared me for what I found.
I bent down and pulled out a small black box. As I opened it, my hands trembled.
Inside, there were photos, dozens of them. Camille, nearly naked, posing for someone else’s eyes. Under the photos were letters, neatly folded and addressed to a man named Benoit.
I rifled through them, reading enough to piece together what had been happening right under my nose. Camille had been having an affair.
My heart pounded harder, and nausea rose through my body. What had I just stumbled upon?
As the truth sank in, everything went black.
When I woke up, I was in a hospital bed, the bright fluorescent lights blinding me. The sterile smell of disinfectant hit my nose, and I realized I wasn’t at home anymore. My throat was dry, and I tried to speak, but only a croak came out.
“You passed out in your bedroom, mate,” Nolan said from the chair next to my bed, his head propped up by his hand.
“What happened, Chad? What did you find there?” he asked.
It all came flooding back in a flash. And for a moment, I almost felt light-headed all over again.
The black box, the photos, the letters, the betrayal…
What on earth was Cami playing at? Who was this woman that I married? Who was this stranger in her place?
“You were taking forever, so I came up to check on you,” Nolan continued. “I found you passed out cold, and then I saw the box. And the contents of the box… Look, I just put everything back inside and shoved it back under the bed and called Camille. While she was checking you out, I called the ambulance.”
“How did you know?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper. “She did it so well. I never suspected a thing.”
“I overheard them,” Nolan said. “While we were eating, I picked up on something your wife said in French. It was something about how she had decided to hide everything under the bed. That’s why I told you to check.”
“And I did French throughout high school, Chad,” he continued. “I understood enough to know something was wrong. Something was shady about the way she said it. And her mother was almost excited by it all…”
