Lee and Simon’s marriage strained by her secrets

Lee and Simon’s marriage is loving but not fully candid: Simon offers care and practical help, while Lee keeps him at a distance from her family and hides the crisis that binds her to Billy Poe. Their relationship comes into focus when Lee, caught between her husband and the people at home, calls Simon for support but cannot tell him what she has been doing or why the situation threatens her marriage.

Marriage and Family Distance

Lee and Simon married suddenly at a city office, without first bringing Simon into the family circle. Henry English had never met his son-in-law, and Lee had repeatedly made excuses for why the meeting had not happened. She understands that Henry recognizes those excuses and the reason behind them, yet he accepts the arrangement, saying only that he supposes he will meet Simon someday. Simon, for his part, has not complained about the delay. The gap between marriage and family life is therefore sustained by a quiet accommodation: Lee keeps the two worlds separate, and Simon does not press her to join them.

The contrast is especially visible during Lee’s drive north with Henry. Her father is happier than she remembers him, pleased that she has married and imagining that this makes her unlike her mother, Mary English. Lee knows Henry will not understand Simon, and she also recognizes that Henry’s regard for her has long existed alongside his disdain for Isaac English. In that divided family atmosphere, the marriage is both a real bond and a boundary Lee has not crossed: Simon remains absent from the journey and from the homecoming that Henry expects for himself and his son.

Simon’s Care and Lee’s Reliance

When Lee is away from Simon and trying to locate Isaac, the separation becomes more than a family formality. She fears Isaac may not return, while Henry insists that he will be back soon enough. Later, facing the consequences of Billy Poe’s account of the events around the factory, Lee sees that Isaac and Poe may need lawyers and that helping one could harm the other. She considers using the checkbook she shares with Simon to secure legal help for Poe, but understands that this would expose her to questions from Simon or his father. Her marriage is implicated in the decision before Simon even knows there is a decision to make.

After spending time with Poe, Lee recognizes that she cannot remain in the suspended closeness of that moment. She thinks of Simon as her anchor, leaves the car where Poe is asleep, and calls her husband. The choice is not presented as a simple romantic resolution: Lee is frightened, uncertain, and still withholding the circumstances that brought her to Poe. Her call restores contact with Simon, but does not dissolve the conflict she has kept from him.

The Call and the Unspoken Crisis

Simon answers by asking whether Lee is on her way home and whether she found Isaac. Lee says she may need money because her brother might need a lawyer, but she does not explain Poe’s role or the full danger surrounding the case. Simon asks whether the trouble is serious; she says she does not know and that the situation is not clear. He apologizes for not having come with her and offers to fly in the next day. When Lee resists, he offers to have a friend drive him through the night, potentially arriving by three in the morning. His repeated offers show a willingness to put himself beside her, while her answers keep him outside the facts.

Simon also gives her permission to use their checkbook and offers to ask his father to look someone up if the trouble is serious. Lee accepts that she has the checkbook but tells him not to involve his father. The exchange establishes that she can ask Simon for material support, yet remains careful about how far that support reaches into the matter. Even while he assures her that she need not worry about his father, Lee does not disclose that she has contemplated paying for Poe’s defense, or that she has been with Poe during the night.

Affection, Secrecy, and Consequence

The call is intimate and reassuring: Simon tells Lee that he loves her, and she returns the declaration. His response is not indifference or refusal; he is ready to come to her and help. But after they hang up, Lee walks back alone, aware that she will have to keep what has happened inside her and that there is no one she can talk to. The contrast between the tenderness of their exchange and the secret she carries defines the strain in the marriage more clearly than an argument would.

Lee’s secrecy also has practical stakes. If Simon or his father discovered that she had paid for the lawyer of a former boyfriend accused of killing someone, she believes the marriage could be over. Her connection to Poe therefore threatens not only her own peace but the trust and social boundaries on which her life with Simon rests. At the same time, Simon’s readiness to help her brother shows that the marriage contains a dependable form of care. Its unresolved tension lies in the difference between that support and the truth Lee believes she cannot safely share: Simon offers to come closer, while she preserves the separation that has marked their marriage from its beginning.