I swallowed hard, pushing down the lump in my throat. “Is that all you found?”
“No. There’s lipstick on the sheets.”
Bile pushed the lump in my throat aside and I had to run to the bathroom. After relieving my breakfast, I sucked back the tears and moved to wash my face.
“I’m sorry Molly.” Danny stepped in behind me and pulled me in for a hug. “I’m sure it’s not what it looks like.”
“There aren’t too many explanations for lipstick on sheets,” I countered. “I just don’t get it. If Matt wanted another woman, why not tell me?”
“Maybe he was going to and then he found out about the baby and didn’t know how to say it.”
“But...this is so unlike him. He’s always been upfront with me. In fact, he told me that he hates cheaters. His father cheated on his mother when she was pregnant with Matt, and he hated that. He always wanted a father who was a part of his life. Instead his mother left his dad behind before Matt was even born.”
“That’s all the more reason for him to be running scared. He’s reliving his own history.”
“Maybe...” I swiped my cheeks dry and pulled my shoulders back, determined to not let this affect me. “Let’s check out the office. Who knows, we might find something that makes more sense.”
Danny followed me as I dragged my feet down the hallway to the only other bedroom in the house.
I could say a lot of good things about Matt. He was kind, considerate and intelligent. He was however, the untidiest person I knew. Papers were piled in the corners of the room, the chair was full of files, and I could count at least three dirty coffee cups scattered around the desk. It looked a mess, but despite all these my senses filled with a distinct smell of Matt and a pang once again surrounded my heart.
Danny perched on top of the files on the chair and wiggled the computer mouse to life. The screen lit up and a photo of Matt and I standing at the beach at sunset shone back at me.
My breath caught. We both looked so happy. What had happened between then and now to change everything?
“I don’t suppose you know the password to his computer, do you?” Danny asked, his voice constricted.
I shook my head, too afraid to speak for fear my voice would betray my real feelings.
Danny started tapping keys anyway. To both our surprises, after his first attempt the screen unlocked and Matt’s desktop was revealed to us.
“What was it?” I asked, shocked.
“Molly. It was Molly.”
Okay, the lump in my throat grew until I feared I wouldn’t be able to breathe. “Oh.”
Standing behind Danny as he navigated his way through Matt’s files, I felt shaky. Why was my name his password? Surely that meant something? I knew if I’d moved on in a relationship, my password would be the first thing I’d change. Just like Matt had done with his phone.
“We could check his internet banking,” suggested Danny. “This will let me login and we could do the CSI thing and see where he’s using his credit card.”
“No! That’s not the right thing to do.”
“Oh, so now you have morals?” he scoffed, moving the mouse away from the banking app.
“We have to draw the line somewhere.”
Guilt prickled my neck as Danny opened a folder.
“He’s been doing a lot of research into Ancestry DNA,” he announced after scrolling through document after document.
“Yeah. He wants to know who his father really is.”
“His mother wouldn’t tell him?”
“She passed away a couple of years ago, but she never liked him looking into his father, and would never tell him who he was.”
“Birth certificate?”
“It’s listed as father unknown.”
“Bugger. Where did Matt come from before he moved here?”
“He was born in Westport but his mum moved to Tasmania after she had him. Why?”
“Just curious. Oooh look. Here’s a family tree he’s been compiling! Oh. There’s only him and his mother on it. Doesn’t look like he’s gotten too far.” Danny wiggled his backside and one of the files fell off the chair. It hit the ground and papers scattered across the hardwood floors.
I scurried to pick it all up. As I did, I couldn’t help but notice he had copies of Census records from 1966. Collecting everything and compiling it, I left that on the top as a name highlighted in yellow, caught my attention.
“Danny!” I called, tugging his sleeve. “Danny!”
“What?”
“Look at this!” I pushed the paper towards him, my finger on the name Carol Maree Fuller. “That’s Grannie Carol.”
“So?”
“So, what’s Matt doing with a census record with her name on it?”
Ignoring me, Danny’s eyes shot towards the door.
“Oh my God! What was that?” he asked, grabbing my arm.
“Probably just the wind.”
“It wasn’t the wind. Listen!”
I dropped the paper and strained to hear what Danny was referring to. After a second of nothing but the ticking of the clock somewhere under a pile of papers on the desk, I heard what he heard.
“It sounds like someone’s in the house.”
My heart rate spiked into the danger zone and I stood and moved to the door, Danny hot on my heels.
Thankfully Matt kept his interior doors well oiled, because it meant I could silently close it enough to hide behind. Footsteps tapped against the timber flooring, the odd board creaking under the weight of whoever was there.
“Is it Matt?” Danny whispered in my ear.
“I don’t think so. He doesn’t walk like that.”
“You know what his walk sounds like?” he asked incredulously.
“Ahuh. He has the slightest limp due to a knee injury he had as a kid.”
“Huh. Well, if it’s not Matt, then who is it?”
I shrugged, but as the sound of the refrigerator door opened, followed by the sloshing of milk being swirled in the bottle, I figured whoever it was, was doing exactly what I had done.
“We need to get out of here,” I suggested, tippy toeing into the hallway.
I heard a tiny squeak come from Danny, but he grabbed the back of my T-shirt and followed me.
We crept along the hallway, my ears straining for any indication as to who it could be in the kitchen. I’d just rounded the corner when the sounds moved. And in my honest opinion they were headed our way.
Hurriedly I ducked into Matt’s bedroom, a room I knew well. Danny scurried behind me and I pushed the door closed, as the footsteps moved into the hallway. “Don’t step there,” I whispered, pointing to a couple of wonky boards.
Danny looked at me, his eyes wide, and palms up, but side stepped the noisy flooring.
“Why aren’t we demanding to know who they are?” he asked, his thumb pointing towards the door.
“Because if we give whoever it is some time, they might reveal something. If we confront them, they’ll have a chance to talk themselves out of it.” Honestly, it had more to do with the fact I didn’t want Matt to ever find out I was checking up on him.
It seemed like I’d made a bad decision entering this room, as whoever was out there, had the same idea I’d had. Hmmm, you’d swear they were my twin. As the footsteps moved towards us, I pushed Danny towards the wardrobe, and followed him as he launched himself inside it.