‘She’s gone to that forest again,’ Fiona whispered. ‘Third time this week.’
‘Maybe she really is foraging,’ I suggested weakly, though doubts gnawed at me.
‘You old fool! Mushrooms at night? What nonsense!’ Fiona threw up her hands in exasperation. ‘She must be cheating on our Leonard!’
‘Where’s your evidence?’ I asked, trying to calm her down.
Fiona sank into a kitchen chair.
‘I don’t have any,’ she cried. ‘But a mother’s intuition… something’s wrong, Misael. Our boy deserves better than lies.’
For two days, I couldn’t get Fiona’s words out of my head. The thought that someone had hurt our son and made him look like a fool kept me awake at night.
So when Kate slipped out of the house with her basket on Thursday evening, I decided to do something I now regret a little.
I followed her.
The path through the forest was difficult in the gathering darkness, but after decades of living here, I knew every root and stone.
Kate walked quickly and never looked back. She made her way confidently deeper into the forest.
Finally, she stopped at a dilapidated hut. It was the hunting lodge of an old neighbour, abandoned after his death fifteen years ago.
As soon as Kate slipped inside, I quietly tiptoed towards the old hut.
Let’s see what’s going on here, I thought, peering silently through the dirty window. I will never forget what I saw there.
I saw Kate methodically transforming herself in front of a cracked mirror. She took a custom-made suit, a short dark wig and a fake moustache out of a basket. I wouldn’t have recognised her once she put it all on.
I hid behind the shed while she got ready to go out.
Then I watched in horror as she left the cabin. The woman walking away was not my sister-in-law. She was a completely different person, and even her gait had changed.
I couldn’t believe my eyes as I followed her. She left the forest and headed for the nearby restaurants. I stood on the street as she entered a café and sat down opposite an elderly gentleman in an expensive suit.
I could see them clearly through the window.
I noticed how they laughed together and how their gestures conveyed a pleasant familiarity. I stood there for an hour and was horrified when the elderly man kissed her hand.
They parted ways, and Kate went back into the forest.
When she returned home that evening, Kate was confused to see Fiona, Leonard, and herself sitting in the living room like a jury about to deliver a verdict.
‘Kate,’ Leonard’s cracked voice rang out. ‘Are you cheating on me?’
She froze in the doorway and stared at him with wide eyes. ‘What… what are you talking about?’
‘I saw you today,’ I said quietly. ‘The hut, the disguise, the café. All of it.’
‘That’s…’ she began. ‘It’s not what you think.’
‘Really?’ Leonard asked.
‘This man… he’s rich,’ she said. ‘He thinks I’m a man named Carl. He promised me property in his will if I continue to have dinner with him every week. I never touched him, Leonard. I did it for us, for our future!’ “
Fiona and I looked at each other in bewilderment. I couldn’t imagine Kate being capable of such a thing.
‘For us?’ Leonard stood up. ‘You lied to everyone! You manipulated some lonely old man and cheated on your husband. This is not the woman I married! This is not the Kate I knew!’
‘Please,’ Kate sobbed, reaching out to him. ‘I was trying to give us a better life! You know how hard it is to live from paycheck to paycheck. I saw an opportunity…’
‘The chance to cheat on someone?’ Leonard interrupted her. ‘To lead a double life? No. It’s over between us. I want a divorce.’
‘No, please,’ Kate begged. ‘Don’t do this, Leonard. Please.’
Kate’s pleas echoed through the house as Leonard went upstairs. Fiona followed him, and I just sat there watching Kate cry.
At that moment, she looked like a stranger who had entered our family to cause harm. Watching her leave the living room, I wondered if it was right to follow her.
Did I do the right thing? Would my son divorce his wife because of me?
I don’t have the answers to these questions yet, but I know that all along, my intuition about Kate was right. But the way we all came to understand it was too cruel.
It makes me wonder whether some secrets in life should remain secrets, or whether it’s really important for these delicate truths to come out.