Ryan turned his head.
At first, he looked confused.
Then his eyes settled on whatever had caught his attention.
His expression changed.
The woman beside him noticed immediately.
She stopped smiling and followed his gaze.
I stood there holding our daughters, watching both of them.
For several seconds, nobody said anything.
Ryan looked back at me.
"Claire, what is this?"
I didn't answer immediately.
I wanted him to take another look.
I wanted him to understand that I hadn't traveled all that way simply to stand there and listen to excuses.
His eyes moved again toward the right.
The confidence he had shown moments earlier was gone.
He looked uncomfortable.
And for the first time since he had approached me, he seemed to understand that this situation wasn't going to unfold the way he had expected.
I kept my voice calm.
"You were so busy explaining yourself that you forgot where you were."
He looked at me without answering.
I could hear one of the babies making a small sound against my shoulder.
I adjusted her blanket.
That ordinary little movement felt strangely important.
My daughters needed me to remain steady.
Whatever happened next, I wasn't going to forget that.
Ryan finally spoke.
"Claire, we need to talk."
I almost laughed.
We needed to talk?
He had already had plenty of opportunities to talk.
He had called me during those months.
He had asked about the girls.
He had told me how much he missed us.
He had never mentioned that another woman was waiting for him when he returned.
He had never suggested that he had been seeing other women.
And now he wanted a conversation.
I looked at him.
"You've already said quite a lot."
The woman shifted beside him.
She seemed less comfortable than before.
Ryan glanced at her.
Then he looked back at me.
I could see him searching for a way to regain control of the conversation.
But I wasn't interested in helping him.
I had spent too much time trying to make everything easy for him.
I had made excuses for his absence.
I had reassured him when I was exhausted.
I had listened whenever he wanted to talk about coming home.
And I had done all of it because I believed we were still building the same family.
Now I understood that I had been looking at our marriage from only one side.
Ryan lowered his voice.
"Can we please not do this here?"
I looked around.
People were still moving through the terminal.
Some were greeting their families.
Some were collecting luggage.
Nobody needed to know our business.
But Ryan had already brought his business into the open.
He had kissed another woman in a public place.
He had walked toward his wife with that woman beside him.
He had explained his behavior as though I should simply accept it.
I wasn't the one who had chosen this setting.
I was only the person who had discovered what was happening.
I answered quietly.
"You didn't seem worried about making things uncomfortable a minute ago."
He looked down.
That was the first time he seemed unable to respond.
The woman cleared her throat.
Ryan turned toward her.
I noticed that she was no longer standing as close to him as she had been before.
The space between them was small.
But I noticed it.
I noticed everything.
Click here to continue reading: PART 6: I Had Spent Months Making Excuses for His Absence, but I Could No Longer Make One for What I Had Seen
I Thought the Hardest Part of Having Twins Would Be Raising Them Alone While My Husband Was Somewhere Across the Ocean
Part 5 of 20
