“Was he cross with you at finding them? What did he do?”

“He merely put out his hand for the envelopes. I asked if Martin Hocking was a friend of his and he said no, a client. I asked why he had this man’s mail. I hadn’t wanted to sound meddlesome. I just wanted him to have a good reason for having someone else’s mail in his coat pocket. He told me Mr. Hocking was out of town and that he was taking care of some business for him while he was away. I said that was very nice of him and he said Mr. Hocking was one of his best clients. Then he said that he would be gone on business for Mr. Hocking for the next two or three days. He took the coat from me and told me I could launder it when he returned, but that he needed to attend to Mr. Hocking’s errand immediately.”

“And he wasn’t angry or upset with you when he left?”

“No. But I was sure something was wrong,” Belinda says. “James had been planning to be home for a bit, and now he was off on an errand for two or three days? Just like that? I wondered if maybe James owed this Mr. Hocking money. Maybe Mr. Hocking was more than just a client. Maybe he was the reason James wouldn’t give up his life on the road. I wrote down the address I had seen on the envelopes so that I wouldn’t forget it.”

“And when did this happen?”

“Four days ago. That’s why I came here. I thought he might be in trouble. So I asked Elliot if he would mind the inn for me and give me a ride to the train station. I told him why I needed to go to San Francisco and that I would be back tonight. And then I arrived here. And rang your doorbell.”

I sit in silence for a moment when she is finished, as the full weight of this predicament settles around me: I am married to a heartless fraud, and so is this woman sitting across from me. I am certain of nothing else except that this man has fathered a daughter whom I love as much as life itself. Whatever happens from this moment on, I must not lose Kat. I can’t lose Kat. I can’t.

I won’t.

But how to proceed?

There has to be a reason Martin has done what he has done. What is it? What does he want? Why did he purposefully seek out a second wife right after marrying me?

Why?

I lean over the table and massage my temples as I contemplate. Martin didn’t need to win me over with affection; he knew I wanted a child, stability, and a way out of New York. I wanted things he could provide, he wanted something I could provide, and we struck a deal. But he had won Belinda over with affection. Why? Martin isn’t a land surveyor—I am fairly sure of that—and now I am beginning to believe that he doesn’t work in life insurance, either. Belinda and I must fit into some larger plan of his, but what is it? Perhaps I do provide the look of normalcy to anyone who might wonder about Martin Hocking, but it’s not so he can project a better image for an insurance company.