Aweekter, the following Wednesday, Elenaes over for babysitting. I’ve missed her like oxygen. I’ve been tracking her movements every hour we’ve been apart, and I watch the dot on my phone screen that represents her as it draws closer to my house. Every moment we’ve been apart is torture.


    “What’s for dinner?” Leon asks as hees into the kitchen. I invited him to have dinner with us before he heads over to his mom’s.


    I lock my phone and slip it into my pocket, and turn to my son. “Lasagna. Can you please put this sd on the table?”


    Elena couldn’t be here for bedtime, so Rosie is already asleep. I hear Elena’s knock on the door, and as Leon goes to answer it, I step out of the kitchen into the hallway that leads to my study, but I don’t go to my study. I stand just out of sight, and I wait.


    The next hour is going to be difficult. I wish it wasn’t going to be so painful for Elena, but it has to be done. If it were me, I would want to know.


    Leon and Elenae into the kitchen, and he fetches her a Coke while they chat about his studies and her day at the diner. I burn with anger as I listen to my son lie to Elena, telling her he spent hours in the library this afternoon.


    While they talk, I send a message and a series of photos to Elena’s number from an anonymous burner phone.


    Hi, Elena. You don’t know me, but my name is Angie, and I know your boyfriend Leon…


    Elena’s phone buzzes repeatedly. She goes on talking, but a momentter, she trails off.


    “Leon, what’s this?” Elena asks in a shaky voice. “Who’s Angie?”


    With my back against the wall, I close my eyes. I hate hearing Elena in pain.


    “Angie?” Leon replies. “What do you mean, who’s Angie?”


    There’s a moment of silence, and I picture Leon grabbing the phone from her and studying the dozens of photos and screenshots I sent to Elena. Most of the photos are of Leon and Angie in bed together, but I cropped out the nudity for Elena’s sake. There are a lot of sexting messages, and manyparisons that Leon makes between this other woman and Elena. The messages include details about Leon’s life that Elena is familiar with, like which sses he’s taking and his schedule. It’s unmistakably authentic. I know it is, because I found it all on Leon’s phone.


    In a dismissive tone, he says, “It’s nothing. Just someone fucking with you. Ignore it.”


    My eyes narrow. My son is a liar on top of everything else.


    “But that’s you in these photos,” Elena cries.


    “They’re old photos.”


    “You didn’t buy that T-shirt you’re wearing in this one until two weeks ago,” she points out. “You wore it on one of our dates.” The enormity of what she’s learning suddenly hits Elena, and she breaks down, sobbing. “Were you with this woman the same day you saw me?”


    “I swear, it’s nothing,” Leon says desperately. “Just delete the messages. I used to be friends with that girl, and she’s trying to make me look bad.”


    “Friends who go to bed together? Friends who say all this to each other?”


    I presume that she’s pointing out a particrly lurid sext.


    “She doesn’t mean anything to me, Elena. You’re the one I want.”


    I know from text messages between Leon and his friends that he doesn’t feel anything for Angie. He’s not falling in love with her or confused about which woman his heart belongs to. Leon does seem to care about Elena, but he’s frustrated and resentful that she won’t sleep with him. That’s no excuse for his behavior. He should have broken up with her instead of cheating on her, because now he’s hurt her.


    I check the security footage in the kitchen on my phone so I can see what they’re doing. Leon isn’tforting Elena. He’s just standing there watching her cry.


    “We all make mistakes. No one’s perfect,” he mutters, sounding like a petnt child.


    “You’re right.” Elena wipes her face and takes a deep breath. “Leon, there’s something I have to tell you too.”


    rm thuds through me. Is she going to tell him about our kiss? Now is not the time for the mutual baring of souls and the chance for Leon to seize any high ground. I can already hear him storming about the betrayal of his girlfriend kissing his father and making this all about his hurt and not hers. What we each did is not equivalent. The kiss between me and Elena was my fault, not hers. I want Elena to feel as beloved as she deserves. Leon was just horny.


    I push my phone into my pocket and step into the room. “What’s going on in here?”


    Apart from Elena’s crying, the room goes very quiet. I stride forward and take Elena’s phone from her, and scroll through the photos and messages.


    “I see,” I say coldly. It disgusts me all over again to look at the photos of Leon and this other young woman. I wish I could have spared Elena the sight, but a short, sharp shock is preferable to a long, drawn-out breakup. “Dating two women at the same time is shameful behavior, Leon. I’m disappointed in you.”


    “We weren’t dating,” Leon bursts out.


    “So it was just sex? Is that better?”


    Elena cries even harder.


    I want to reach out and scoop her into my arms and cradle her tightly against my chest. I crave to kiss every tear from her cheeks. It’s torture being this close to her but being unable tofort her.


    I turn to my son. “I think you should go to your mother’s and give Elena some space.”


    Leon looks at Elena, waiting for her to tell him she doesn’t want him to go, but she’s still crying and looking at the floor.


    “Whatever,” he mutters, and storms out of the kitchen.


    I give Elena’s phone back to her and pass her a tissue. “I’m so sorry, Elena. I’m ashamed of my son. You don’t deserve to be treated this way.”


    Elena mops her face with the tissue. “It doesn’t matter. I’m okay.” Then she breaks down into sobbing again. “I thought things were getting better between us.”


    I put both my hands gently on her shoulders and caress her with my thumbs. It takes all my self-control not to pull her body against mine and rock her against my chest. “I’m going to cancel my poker game.”


    “No, please don’t ruin your evening for me.”


    “I promise you’re not. Stay here, and we’ll talk. But first I have to speak to Leon.”


    I put a ss of water into her hands, steer her into the living room, and gently make her sit on the sofa. “Rosie is asleep upstairs, but I’ll be right back. Thirty minutes at the most.”


    She cups the ss, stares down into it, and says in a small voice, “All right.”


    The helpless note in her voice breaks my self-control. I go down on my knees and cup her face. “It will be okay. I promise. I will make things okay.”


    But first I have to get Leon out of her life for good.


    Ten minutester, I’m standing on my ex-wife’s doorstep, ringing the doorbell.


    Reba answers. Her long red hair tumbles over her shoulder. She fluffs it, her face unsmiling. I have no smile for her either.


    “Can I please talk to Leon?” I ask.


    “Hello to you too. What’s it about?”


    “Leon knows.”


    Reba hesitates, and then lets me in. “He ran upstairs a few minutes ago. He seemed upset about something.”


    “Leon,” I shout as I enter the house. “Get down here right now.”


    Slowly, sullenly, Leones down the stairs and meets me in the living room.


    “What did you do?” I ask.


    “Nothing, Dad,” Leon says, throwing his hands up like he’s been wrongly used.


    There’s nothing I despise more than tant lies. He started sleeping with a woman from his sses not long after he and Elena started dating, and he spends several afternoons a week with her while he’s supposed to be studying, and Elena is working.


    “I saw the messages. The photographs of you and that woman together. When I called youst week, I heard a woman’s voice on the line. That was her, wasn’t it? Don’t lie to me again, Leon,” I say sharply when I see from his expression that he’s only going to offer more excuses. Cheating on Elena again and again purely to satisfy his lust is utterly unforgiveable.


    “Well, I just…” He shrugs.


    I’m not really interested in what he has to say. I already know the truth, and I’m just going through the motions so he doesn’t wonder why I’m not asking for details. In the end, he says nothing.


    “I’m disappointed in you, Leon. Why did you do it?”


    Leon res past my shoulder, his jaw tight. “Elena was only half a girlfriend. I was tired of living like a monk.”


    “If that’s how you felt, you should have respectfully broken up with Elena, not betrayed her behind her back. You chose the most hurtful way to go about things.”


    “I really liked Elena. I didn’t want to break up. She’s so pretty and kind.”


    “You don’t do that to a woman and then im you really like her. What are you going to do now, move on to this Angie?”


    He pulls a face. “Ew, no. She’s just a side chick.”


    Where did my son learn to talk about any woman like that? I hate his careless use of side chick. It littered his chats with his friends. He was so proud of having two women on the go.


    Reba appears in the doorway and leans against it, holding a ss with ice and an inch of clear liquid. Maybe it’s water. Probably it’s vodka.


    I know she’s been listening to our conversation, and so I ask her, “Do you have anything to add?”


    Reba hesitates. “Cheating is terrible behavior, Leon. I’m disappointed as well. Who was she, some slut?”


    “Reba,” I growl in warning, and she rolls her eyes.


    “Some women are trashy, Cun,” she mutters under her breath, taking a sip of her drink.


    “Apologize to Elena for what you did and then leave her alone,” I tell Leon.


    “I don’t want to apologize. She should never have found out. What was Angie thinking?”


    “Give Elena the dignity of an apology and then stay out of her life.”


    Leon turns and charges upstairs without another word.


    “Apologies cost nothing, Leon,” Reba shouts after him.


    “Thank you for backing me up,” I say to her once Leon’s bedroom door ms behind him.


    Dislike shes in her eyes, and I instantly regret saying anything.


    “I understand his point of view,” Reba mutters. “It’s painful when you only have half a partner. You never cheated on me, but you never loved me either.”


    I gave Reba every part of myself that she would ept. I tried to love her despite her drinking and disinterest in our children. I grit my teeth against the words, because we’ve had this argument a thousand times, and I never want to have it again as long as I live.


    I turn around and head for the door. I need to get home to Elena.