PART 5 – The Second Face
I could no longer conceive of a way out. The puzzle pieces were falling into place in a terrifying manner, but the picture that emerged defied all logic.
"You..." I stammered, looking at the woman who had once been my mistress and was now sitting opposite me at the same table as the girl. "What are you doing here? How do you know... how do you know where we were?"
The woman laughed bitterly. It was a sound devoid of the slightest warmth. "You think you've been very clever, huh? You thought you could create a secret world on the fourth floor of that hotel while pretending in the morning to go to a conference. But you were wrong about one very important thing."
"What's that?" I asked in a hoarse voice.
"The woman you've been married to for twenty-five years," she said slowly, emphasizing every word, "was never as naive as you thought. In fact, she and I knew each other long before you thought you were cleverly keeping us apart."
My stomach turned over. The world seemed to drop away from under my feet. "What do you mean? You knew each other?"
"Of course we knew each other," the girl—my alleged daughter—took over the conversation. "Do you really think a woman like your lawful wife would just camp out for nine months on the sixth floor of that same hotel without knowing what was happening on the fourth? She wasn't there by accident, Dad. She's been watching you from day one."
The realization hit like a bombshell. My entire past, every moment I thought had belonged to me, turned out to be a play in which I was the only one who hadn't been given a script. My wife—the woman who supposedly knew nothing, who always sat home so sweet and caring—had been directing the whole show all these years.
"Why?" I cried out, and a few guests at a neighboring table glanced our way in alarm. I immediately lowered my voice, but panic raged inside my chest. "Why did she never say anything? Why did she play along with this game for fifteen years?"
The former mistress leaned forward, placed her hand flat on the tablecloth, and looked deep into my eyes. "Because she wanted to see how far you would go. And because she had a plan that would come to fruition today."
At that moment, my phone rang again. Not an unknown number this time, but a photo of my own wife on the screen. With trembling hands, I answered and held the device to my ear.
"Are you done with your appetizer?" her voice sounded, calm and ice-cold on the other end. "Then come outside now. The car is out front, and we need to talk somewhere where nobody can disturb us."
