Scrolling through Facebook, I noticed a woman liking all my husband’s posts — comments too familiar to ignore. I didn’t recognize her name, but something felt eerily familiar. Then my daughter ran by, saw her photo, and said, “That’s Ella! I see her every week with Dad.” My heart stopped.
I didn’t mean to snoop. All I wanted was that photo from my and Sam’s anniversary party last month where Lily had frosting all over her face.
But as I scrolled through Sam’s Facebook feed, something caught my eye. The same woman kept commenting on his posts. Her name appeared over and over: Ella.
And these weren’t just casually friendly comments either. The remarks she left, and the way she wrote them, suggested a deep familiarity, even though I’d never met this woman.
“Looking good as always!” she’d commented on the photo he shared of him and me all dressed up for a fancy dinner two months ago.
The real kicker was the comment she left on a photo from Lily’s birthday party. In the photo, Lily was wearing a pair of fancy dress fairy wings covered in glitter and a silver plastic crown.
Ella had commented, “Oh wow, you took my suggestion about the wings! So glad Lily liked them 
”
I immediately clicked through to her profile. I had to know how this Ella woman knew Sam, and why he’d never mentioned her.
The first thing I noticed was how beautiful she was. Her bright eyes sparkled with mischief, and her smile seemed to light up the whole screen.
Something about her was vaguely familiar, but I was certain I’d never met her. There wasn’t much information on her profile, so I started going through her posts.
Sam had liked and commented on practically every single one of her photos.
Lily bounced into the room then, her pigtails swinging. She peered at the screen, and her face lit up like a Christmas tree.
“Ella!” she squealed, pointing at the photo with sticky fingers.
“You know her?” My voice came out higher than usual, strained with forced casualness.
“Of course, silly! Don’t you? We see her all the time.” Lily started hopping from one foot to the other, unable to contain her excitement.
My stomach twisted into a knot so tight I thought I might be sick. “What do you mean, all the time?”
“Every Wednesday after school. Daddy picks me up, and we meet Ella.” Lily twirled around, completely oblivious to my growing distress. “She’s so much fun! We get ice cream, and sometimes we feed the ducks at the pond, but we use special duck food because Ella says bread isn’t good for them.”
She stopped spinning abruptly, her little hands flying to her mouth, eyes wide with sudden realization.
“Oh no. I wasn’t supposed to tell. Daddy said it was our special secret. He said sometimes grown-ups need to keep secrets to avoid hurting other grown-ups’ feelings.”
The word “secret” hit me like a punch to the gut. Special secrets with another woman? Teaching my daughter about ducks?
My mind raced through all the Wednesdays I’d worked late at the office, thinking Sam and Lily were having father-daughter time. Apparently, their special time together included a third member.
I forced myself to smile, not wanting to upset Lily. “It’s okay, sweetie. Why don’t you go play with your dolls? I think Princess Sparkles needs a tea party.”
