Chapter 1
It was the day of my wife Jessica's egg retrieval for IVF.
The doctor called me out into the hallway alone.
"Did you two have sex last night?" he asked.
I was totally stunned.
Jessica and I had been sleeping in separate rooms for a month, just like the doctor told us.
All for the sake of getting pregnant.
We'd been popping pills, getting checked out, and trying every treatment under the sun.
We'd been at this for three whole years.
But the doctor looked me straight in the eye and spoke with absolute certainty.
The tests showed unmistakable traces.
It was from last night.
Back in the hospital room, Jessica was crying, accusing me of not trusting her.
My resolve softened.
I even started to wonder if the doctor had made a mistake.
It wasn't until we got home that night.
Jessica was taking a shower when her phone suddenly lit up.
I glanced at it without really thinking.
"Babe, how are you feeling today?"
It was from a guy named Howard.
My hand froze mid-air.
My heart sank, slow and heavy.
If he was just a friend, why was he calling her 'babe'?
If the doctor wasn't wrong, who was the man she was with last night?
*****
"Mr. Brooks, could you step outside for a moment?"
The egg retrieval surgery had just finished when a doctor in a white coat came out of the operating room. Her eyes lingered on my face for a couple of seconds.
Her expression was serious.
My heart tightened for no reason.
For the past three years, Jessica and I had been to every hospital in the city, big and small, all in the hope of having a baby.
We'd done every test, taken every pill, and tried every treatment.
We'd tried everything we could think of.
It wasn't until six months ago that the doctor finally suggested we try IVF.
Today was the day Jessica was having her eggs retrieved.
Normally, after something like this, the doctor would sit us down and explain what to watch out for next.
But instead, she pulled me aside into the hallway, all by myself.
She led me over to a quiet corner.
She glanced around, then lowered her voice.
"Why didn't you tell us you slept together?"
I was caught off guard.
"Slept together? What do you mean?" I blurted out.
The doctor frowned.
"According to the results, you two had sex last night," she said.
"I'm certain about the test results. The evidence is obvious."
Boom!
It felt like someone had just slammed a sledgehammer right into my skull.
I was completely frozen, unable to move a muscle.
"Doctor, are you sure you didn't make a mistake?" I asked.
"Yes," she replied.
She didn't hesitate at all.
"It happened recently, most likely just last night.
"This could affect the next steps, so I need to be sure," she said.
My throat felt dry.
"But we've been sleeping in separate rooms for a month," I said.
The doctor looked genuinely surprised.
"A month?" she asked.
"Yeah," I replied.
My voice was strained.
"Ever since we started the IVF process, we've been following your orders to the letter," I said.
The doctor fell silent for a few seconds.
Then she let out a soft sigh.
"Maybe you and your wife should have a talk first," she said.
With that, she turned and walked away.
But I just stood there, rooted to the spot.
People were coming and going in the hallway.
It was like everything else faded away.
All I could hear was that one line, repeating over and over in my mind.
"You two had sex last night."
"You two had sex last night."
If the doctor weren't mistaken, then who was Jessica with last night?
A cold sweat broke out on my back just thinking about it.
No way.
Absolutely no way.
Jessica would never do something like that.
I kept trying to convince myself.
She was my wife.
We'd been married for five years.
We dated for three years before that.
We'd been together since we graduated from college.
When things were rough, we lived in a tiny rented place, less than 400 square feet.
We didn't even have AC in the summer.
And in the winter, the heat barely worked.
But Jessica never once complained.
Later, I started my own business and it took off. I opened a building materials trading company, and the money started rolling in.
I moved us into a bigger house.
I got her a new car.
And through it all, she was always right there by my side.
How could someone like her ever betray me?
But the way the doctor said it—so sure of herself—wasn't something I could just brush off.
The more I thought about it, the more tangled my thoughts became.
About ten minutes later, Jessica was wheeled out by a nurse.
Her face was pale.
There was a thin sheen of sweat on her forehead.
She looked utterly drained.
I hurried over to her.
"How are you feeling? Does it hurt?" I asked.
Jessica managed a weak smile.
"I'm okay," she said.
The nurse went over the aftercare instructions and then left.
Now it was just the two of us in the room.
I hesitated, unsure what to say.
In the end, I couldn't keep it to myself any longer.
"Jessica, the doctor just talked to me," I said.
Her gaze shifted for a moment.
"What did she say?" she asked.
"She asked me why we had sex last night," I said.
The air in the room suddenly went dead silent.
The next second, Jessica's expression shifted sharply.
Her face twisted with shock.
"What do you mean?" she shot back.
"Are you suspecting me?" Jessica snapped.
Her voice suddenly got loud, all defensive.
She didn't look weak anymore, not even a little.
I froze, caught off guard.
"I just wanted to ask," I said.
"Ask what? What's your problem?" Jessica fired back.
She sat up straight.
"I just went through surgery, and now you're interrogating me like I'm some kind of criminal?
"You're really going to take the doctor's word for it?
"Michael, do you seriously think I have nothing better to do than go out and fool around?" she snapped.
The nurses passing by the room couldn't help but glance over.
I quickly lowered my voice.
"Hey, calm down. I didn't mean it that way," I said.
"Oh, you didn't mean it that way?" Jessica shot back.
Her eyes welled up with tears.
"All this, just to have a baby. I went through every test, got poked with needles, swallowed pills, suffered so much.
"And I'm the first person you suspect?" Jessica choked out.
She broke down in tears as she spoke.
My heart ached with guilt.
All these years, Jessica had really put herself through hell just to have a baby.
Every time the test results were bad, she took it the hardest.
These thoughts made my doubts fade a little.
Maybe the doctor really did make a mistake.
Or maybe there was just some error in the test results.
After all, medicine wasn't foolproof.
"Alright," I said.
I rubbed my temples.
"Just get some rest," I added.
Jessica turned her head away, her expression icy.
She didn't say a single word to me the whole way home.
It was eight o'clock at night.
I was in the kitchen, making some soup.
Jessica was sitting on the couch, scrolling through her phone.
Every now and then, her phone would buzz with a new message.
She'd instantly check her phone every single time.
Her thumbs were flying across the screen.
It was obvious she was texting someone.
Back then, I never would've given it a second thought.
Trust is everything in a marriage.
But today, for some reason, something just felt off. I couldn't shake it.
After dinner, Jessica grabbed her pajamas and went into the bathroom.
Moments later, I could hear the shower running inside.
Just then, Jessica's phone on the coffee table lit up.
The phone buzzed.
A message popped up.
I glanced over without thinking.
All it took was a glance.
My heart clenched.
It was from a guy named Howard.
"How are you feeling?"
There was a little heart emoji at the end.
I couldn't take my eyes off that name.
Howard.
The way she called him felt way too intimate.
This definitely wasn't how you'd address a regular coworker.
But what really got under my skin was that Jessica had never even mentioned this guy to me before.
The phone screen went dark.
I sat down on the couch.
My hand slowly clenched into a fist.
The doctor's words kept echoing in my head.
"You two had sex last night."
"The tests showed unmistakable traces."
"It was from last night."
And now, there was another man I didn't even know about.
Was all of this really just a coincidence?
The shower was still running in the bathroom.
I sat quietly for a bit.
Then I pulled out my phone and took a quick picture of the number.
After I was done, I put the phone back exactly where it was, like nothing had happened at all.
A few minutes later, the bathroom door opened.
The bathroom door opened.
Jessica came out, drying her hair.
She smiled at me.
"What are you spacing out for?" she asked.
I looked up and managed to put on a smile.
"Nothing," I replied.
But deep down, I knew what was really going on.
Ever since the doctor pulled me aside into the hallway, something inside me had shifted.
And that guy—Howard, the one in her contacts—kept lingering in my mind.
It was like a splinter under my skin, impossible to ignore.
For the first time, I started to question if our marriage was really what I thought it was.