The Woman Sitting Behind Her Husband In The Darkened Theater
When Emma Whitmore saw her husband kissing another woman inside the darkness of the Crestview Theater, she did not scream, throw her popcorn, or storm dramatically down the aisle demanding answers in front of strangers.
Instead, she lowered the brightness of her phone screen until the light became nearly invisible, pressed the recording button carefully, and rested her other hand protectively against the seven-month-old baby moving quietly inside her stomach.
The movie had not even started yet.
Advertisements flashed across the giant screen while orchestral music thundered through expensive surround sound speakers, illuminating the theater intermittently with bursts of blue and gold light. Teenagers laughed somewhere near the back row, couples whispered softly beneath velvet shadows, and a fictional superhero promised eternal loyalty during an overly dramatic trailer that almost made Emma laugh bitterly.
