But seeing the two of them together at a hospital was strange.
As I drew closer, Naomi's voice reached me.
"Darrell, now that we have this diagnosis report, the rest of the plan should fall right into place."
They were scheming together?
I ducked behind a wall and kept listening.
"Right. Pancreatic cancer progresses fast. We'll squeeze some money out of her first, then I'll fake my death. After that, you take my will and..."
They stepped into the elevator, still talking. Whatever Darrell said next, I couldn't hear.
I stood frozen in place, watching the red floor numbers on the display tick slowly downward.
Darrell and I weren't each other's first love, but in five years of marriage, we'd been steady. Solid. I'd been with him from nothing to everything.
When he started his company, I gave him the three hundred thousand dollars from my dowry as seed money. Now the business was thriving, the future wide open.
The only thing missing had been a child.
That had been my one heartache. I'd lost count of how many hospital visits I'd made over the years. The holistic treatments alone could have filled a room.
And now I was finally pregnant, only to discover that Darrell's heart had already wandered.