I don’t want to hurt you, Mrs. Pelley, that was not my intention in writing this letter, but I have to tell you this: your husband and I had a relationship. He told me he loved me. He told me he wanted me to be with him, to help him on his mission to save the planet. I am sorry if it hurts you to hear this, but I think it’s best that you do, for your own sake. I imagine you are close in age to Adam, so you are not too old to start again, if you wanted to. You also probably have a successful career. I bet you’re like a journalist or something, like one of those reporters on CNN who goes to war-torn areas and has to live in a tent and wear camo so you don’t get shot, or maybe a lawyer who goes to work in a high-rise every day and wears business suits with little skirts instead of pants and very tall heels that you never fall over in. I also picture you with red hair, for some reason, and kind of looking like Scarlett Johansson. When I put all that together in my head, it makes you seem very intimidating, and I will never be as good as you in a million years. There is no reason at all why Adam would choose me over you, and at times I’m not sure why I don’t just jump off this boat right now and drown myself in the lake.

Suffice it to say, I did not know that Adam was married. The entire time we were together I had no idea of your existence, and even now I don’t know what your first name is. If I had known, it probably wouldn’t have changed anything about the way I behaved, which is, I have to say, one hard truth about myself that this entire situation has revealed to me. It’s like I looked into a mirror and I saw my soul, Mrs. Pelley, and I didn’t really like what I saw there at all.

And when I went over to Adam sitting in the hotel lobby and I smiled and introduced myself, he looked right through me as if he didn’t know me. And at first I was confused because of all the intimate things we had shared over the months – I just couldn’t understand how he could dismiss me so easily, after telling me how much he wanted to be with me. But then he held out his hand for me to shake, and I saw the ring glinting there, and I thought, Ahh, now I understand. I don’t know what made him change his mind, but I like to think it was a moment of conscience. That he had decided, even though he and I are basically soul mates who see the world through the same pair of eyes, that it was more important for him to honour his commitment to you.