My Husband’s Girlfriend Sits in My Salon Chair Every Thursday — She Has No Idea Whose Wife Is Holding the Scissors

PART 2 — Friday at Four

"…Carol?"

That was it. That was all he said. My husband of twenty-six years stood in my salon with a folder full of forged papers under his arm, stared at his wife behind the notary stamp, and said my name like he'd forgotten how it sounded.

Ashley came in behind him, still checking her lipstick. "Babe, this is Miss C, I told you—" She looked up. Saw my face. Saw his face. "What? What's wrong?"

Nobody answered her.

Dale's eyes dropped to the folder on the counter. Then to the notary stamp beside my mirror. Then back to me. I watched him do the math — twenty-six years of math — and I watched the exact moment the answer came out wrong.

"You—" he started. "This is your— you work here?"

"Eleven years, Dale." My voice was steady. I was proud of that. "You never came in. Not once."

Ashley was looking back and forth between us now, the color draining from her face. "Wait. Wait, what is— Dale? What's she talking about?"

Dale didn't answer her. He was staring at me like I was a ghost.

"Open the folder, Dale," I said.

"What?"

"Open it. Let's see what you brought for your notary."

His hand hovered over the folder. Didn't move.

From behind the curtain came a calm voice: "He doesn't want to open it, Carol. I wonder why."

Patrice Moody stepped out, phone in her hand, recording light on.

Dale went white. "Who the hell are you?"

"Patrice Moody. Attorney at law." She smiled, and it was not a kind smile. "And you just walked into a salon with forged documents and asked a notary to stamp them. On camera."

Ashley made a small sound. "Forged? Dale, what is she—"

"Shut up, Ashley," Dale snapped.

And that — that was the moment everything changed. Because Ashley, the girl with the white Lexus and the two-carat ring photo, looked at the man she'd been promised to, and heard the voice he used when the mask slipped.

She took a step back from him.

"Don't," she whispered. "Don't you talk to me like that."