Read The Lie for Free Online

she’d dress quite differently. On the other hand, they were precisely the kind of things a successful businesswoman would wear. She hadn’t worn brightly coloured dresses when she’d worked in the bank either. She didn’t bother trying them on in the car park, just slipped her feet into the two pairs of shoes Nadia picked up from the floor of the car. They fitted as if they were made to measure. “Thanks,” she said, “I’m pleased to have them.”
    â€œYou don’t exactly look pleased,” Nadia commented, leaning back against the car and surveying her thoughtfully. “But I can understand that. I’ve been asking myself what I would feel like in your situation. I almost got kicked out myself after Michael’s career took off.”
    So it was Michael. Susanne glanced at the photo on the dashboard. The photo of the blond man was still there.
    Nadia rummaged round in her handbag for her cigarette case. After she’d lighted the cigarette, she went on, hesitantly, as if she wasn’t sure whether Susanne wanted to hear more about her life or not. They had a lot more in common than face and figure, Nadia said. “What you told me could have been the story of my life.”

    Nadia had also trained in banking and until two years ago had worked for a private bank in Düsseldorf. She didn’t have a mother-in-law who needed looking after, just a husband who was earning nothing during the first years of their marriage.
    â€œMichael was still a student when we got married,” she said. “When he finally graduated, he didn’t find the right job immediately. And when he did, I was still earning three times as much as him. Until…”
    When Nadia broke off, Susanne completed the sentence for her: “Until there was a hold-up at the bank.”
    Nadia gave a pained smile. “Nothing so dramatic. I just thought I’d been on the treadmill for long enough. Michael’s career was going places and I wanted to take more time for myself and for him. And with more time I quickly found out that he was sleeping with one of his little laboratory mice.”
    For a brief moment Susanne wondered whether to ask about Nadia’s further career. She must have found another job by now - the document case and what she had told her about the laptop with its irreplaceable data indicated that. But she was shocked by what Nadia had said about her husband. She would never have associated the nice holiday face with infidelity.
    â€œBut he didn’t want to marry her and have a child?” she asked, forcing herself to make a joke of it.
    Nadia gave a brief and decidedly unamused laugh. “No idea. If he did want to do that, I managed to talk him out of it. Since then we’ve been behaving as if I’m the only one he loves, and I’m too busy to get bored in the evenings.”
    â€œYou think he’s still cheating on you?”
    Nadia gave another laugh, a mocking laugh this time. “What’s this? Suddenly we are interested after all?” She pouted. “But it’s not worth talking about. I’ve stopped letting it bother me. He’s not the only attractive man around.”
    â€œYou’re unfaithful to him as well?”
    Nadia’s shrug of the shoulders said everything. “I’m really short of time today, Susanne. We’ll talk another day, OK? Can you manage with the suitcase?”
    She nodded. Her thoughts were still on the mutual adultery and the question of why Nadia had not left her unfaithful husband, if she’d
found a replacement. Nadia put the clothes, including the shoes, back in the suitcase, and put it down in front of her. She thanked her again.
    â€œDon’t mention it,” said Nadia. “All you need now is a chic hairstyle. How do you like mine?”
    â€œIt’s great.”
    â€œGood,” said Nadia, glancing at her wristwatch. “Hey, I must be off. See