After Amber hung up on Darren, she reviewed more of the Line data until her lunch break was over. Nothing more stood out. As she worked that afternoon she couldn’t stop thinking about the Amy thing and what that was all about. Why hadn’t Darren told her about it? She felt like not going home that night. But at the same time, she couldn’t wait to get to him to find out the truth.
She had one more afternoon break at three o-clock and found a quiet corner in a back storage area behind the main grocery store so she could get serious about perusing the data. Something just kept bugging her about Amy.
She did a search for “Amy” in the data Darren had given her and saw what looked like a bunch of gibberish numbers and letters. There was something about a code match affair.
AMY FORTIN, A = 1, M = 13, Y =25
FULL CODE = 39
ALPHA LETTERS CODE MATCH AFFAIR
A = 1, M = 13, B = 2, E = 5, R = 18
FULL CODE = 39
“Affair?” Amber said out loud. “What the f…?” And then it hit her. He must have still been seeing this Amy after she and Darren were married. Maybe they were still seeing each other now. Did Amy work at the news agency—is that how he got the job and the Buy Up promotion so soon? Hmm.
Amber was so upset at this point, that she stopped at the restroom and splashed cold water on her face. She felt sick, nauseous. How could she possibly keep working today with such unanswered questions looming? Finding her boss in the office, Amber walked in and stood in front of her desk. Her boss knew something was wrong.
“What’s wrong, Amber. You look terrible.”
“Oh, I’m suddenly feeling pretty sick. Maybe it was something I ate at lunch. I just don’t think I can finish out the day. Can I go home now?”
“Yes, of course. I don’t think we’ll need to call anyone else in. It’s pretty close to the end of your shift anyway. Let me know later this evening how you’re doing and if you won’t be able to come in tomorrow.”
Amber left the grocery store, still fuming mad. If Darren didn’t have a good answer for all this crap, she was going to take little Bryan and leave. Actually, what good answer was there, anyway? He didn’t deny a marriage and children with Amy. And it looked like they continued to see each other even after his real marriage to Amber. That was inexcusable.
She was thinking maybe she should just pick Bryan up from daycare and go to her mother’s place, when she got a call. It was Darren.
“Hey Amber, I’m still at work. But I’ve asked to leave an hour early so we can have some time to talk before we pick up Bryan. I still have to go to my other job so that’s the only time we can really talk in person. Is there any chance you can get off early?”
“I don’t know, Darren. What’s there to talk about? You’ve already admitted to a marriage and kids with that Amy. This afternoon I found some more dirt. I found some weird code entry with Amy’s name. Something about an affair. Darren, really?! You continued to see her after we were together?”
“Okay, this is crazy talk. There is no affair, never was. I’ve been faithful to you all along. And as for Amy, like I said before, there is a good explanation. But’s it’s not something I want to talk about on the phone. Please try to get off early and come home. I’ll be waiting for you.”
Amber sighed heavily after a pause. “Okay, Darren. I’ll try to get off early. But I am feeling so hurt right now. I hope you have a good explanation because I’m so upset I was thinking of going to my mother’s.”
“Well, you won’t want to leave after I explain things to you. See you soon. I love you, Amber. Trust me.”
Amber had actually left work two hours before her shift was over. So she would beat him home by an hour or so. She planned to dig more into the Line data that he’d given her to try and find anything else that needed explaining. Not only that, but Darren had some home efiles and a box of something in the storage room that she’d never had a reason to nose in.
It was time to finally see what Darren had been hiding from her ever since they met.