A Storm Is Brewing

Evidence Room

To an outsider, nothing had changed. Leah and I continued with our divorce proceedings, both letting our legal teams battle over terms that neither of us had any intention of accepting. To an insider, everything had changed. We knew we needed a plan that outed Kyra, but without concrete evidence, it was impossible to do that.

Leah continued to see the kids every weekend, but asked her own legal team to fight for more access. It was all part of a plan. I accepted the terms, telling my legal team that I wanted to look good when the hearing came, and in turn, Leah and I were able to spend more time together trying to find a way to expose Kyra.

Probably the biggest change in those few weeks after Leah told me of her suspicions was the arrival of Rhys. It became a national tabloid news story, with each paper taking a different approach to their explanation for his sudden return to my life. Some said it was a pity visit—a brother reconnecting with his sister, who had been publicly shamed for infidelity; others claimed it was an attempt to portray that I had support in the run-up to the very public divorce hearing.

"What do you need me to do?"

Rhys didn't hesitate before asking that question. He put every argument we'd had aside and was ready and willing to do whatever it took to protect us. We agreed that he would return to Ireland after spending a week with me, and once he got back, he would get to work on finding out as much information as he could about the relationship between Kyra and Colin.

As much as we still weren't back together, there was an air of togetherness about every meeting we had. Moments of laughter stopped us from ever becoming too angry, comforting hugs stopped us from ever becoming too sad, and the ability to simply say I'll see you tomorrow at the end of the night rather than I'll bring the kids back tomorrow stopped us from longing for one another too much.

Leah became fixated on outing Kyra, but she never once said she wanted to do it for her. Every time she allowed herself to get near boiling point, it was always over the fact that Kyra had told such a convincing tale of lies that had ruined my life. It was always about protecting me. Maybe that's why I felt myself healing slightly from the treatment, or maybe it was because I would've believed them too.

We had an entire room in the house dedicated to investigations. Leah pinned evidence onto the wall and stood in front of it like a scene from a crime drama.

"You're really getting into this, aren't you?"

She gave me that goofy, guilty smile that I'd come to love over the years. It felt like we were meeting all over again, if you could set aside the two children and a marriage.

"You'd make a really hot detective, though."
"Sophie!" She gasped with a chuckle.
"I'm just saying!"
"You're making me nervous."

Nervous. That's how we were around each other now, and to be honest, I liked it. Part of our problem before the articles stemmed from getting too comfortable.

The hardest moment came when pictures were leaked to the press of the boys. We established pretty early on that if we wanted to keep their faces hidden, they would miss out on the chance of seeing Leah play football. We chose not to, wanting them to have those memories of going to matches, but we did steer away from posting any personal pictures of them online, unless their faces were hidden.

The article featured a photo from Amanda's Instagram profile, one that I had sent to her. When I commented on it about how the boys had demanded I send it to her, Kyra obviously saw her moment to change the narrative surrounding me completely. Leah, of course, let Kyra lead the conversation on the leak.