Chapter 1

On our sixth wedding anniversary, I discovered my husband had been hiding another woman for 263 days.

I found the proof in the pocket of the coat he wore every day.

A second key.

A white tag hung from the key ring.

Sophie Miller.

And beneath the name was an apartment address I had never seen before.

I stood in our dining room, holding the key while the candles on the table slowly burned lower.

Tonight was supposed to be one of the happiest nights of my life.

Nathan had never forgotten our anniversary.

That was one of the things I loved about him.

He remembered small details other people ignored.

The coffee I liked.

The flowers I hated.

The songs we played at our wedding.

Every year, even when work became overwhelming, he found a way to make me feel loved.

This afternoon, he had sent me a message.

Don’t make dinner tonight. I have a surprise for you.

I had smiled at my phone for almost ten minutes.

Because I had a surprise for him too.

Inside my handbag was a small envelope.

The ultrasound report.

Ten weeks pregnant.

After years of waiting, after every disappointment and every appointment, we were finally going to have the family we always talked about.

I had imagined the look on Nathan’s face when he saw it.

I imagined him laughing.

I imagined him holding me and telling me this was the best anniversary gift he had ever received.

But now I was standing alone in front of the dinner table, holding a key that belonged to another woman.

My phone lit up.

Nathan:Something went wrong at work. I’m sorry. Please don’t stay up waiting for me. I’ll make tonight up to you.

I stared at the message.

Not because I didn’t believe he was busy.

Because I wanted to believe him.

Nathan was not the kind of man I expected to betray me.

He was the man who stayed awake with me through every difficult night.

The man who held my hand during every failed attempt to start a family.

The man who told me that no matter how long it took, we would get through everything together.

My fingers tightened around the key.

Then I turned it over.

Sophie Miller.

I placed the key beside my phone.

I told myself there had to be an explanation.

Maybe she was a client.

Maybe she was someone he was helping.

I needed to know before I destroyed the image of the man I loved.

I searched the address.

Riverside Heights.

A private apartment building near Nathan’s office.

My heart sank slightly.

Not because of the building.

Because I recognized the name.

Nathan had mentioned Riverside Heights before.

Once.

He said a client had an apartment there.

I opened the building information page.

Apartment 1208.

Then I saw the tenant record.

My breathing stopped.

Primary Tenant: Nathan Walker.

Co-Tenant: Sophie Miller.

For several seconds, I could not move.

The explanation I wanted disappeared.

There was no client.

No business reason.

No misunderstanding.

My husband had a home with another woman.

I scrolled further.

The lease start date appeared.

263 days ago.

I stared at the number.

263 days.

Eight months and nineteen days.

That was how long Nathan had been living this second life.

Eight months and nineteen days of mornings when he kissed me goodbye.

Eight months and nineteen days of nights when he told me he was exhausted from work.

Eight months and nineteen days when I believed I was waiting for my husband.

But he was already somewhere else.

My hand slowly moved to my stomach.

Our baby.

The child he still didn’t know existed.

The cruelest part was not that Nathan had forgotten me.

It was that he had remembered everything.

Our anniversary.

My favorite flowers.

The necklace he planned to give me.

He had built another life without ever letting go of mine.

A notification appeared on my phone.

A photo from the building’s public guest system.

I opened it.

Nathan was walking through the lobby in the navy suit I had chosen for him that morning. His phone was pressed to his ear.

He had been talking to me.

A gold gift bag hung from his other hand.

I recognized the jewelry store. He had bought every anniversary gift there.

For one foolish second, I wondered if the gift was meant for me.

Then the next image loaded.

Sophie stood beside the elevator.

Nathan handed her the bag.

She smiled and moved into his arms.

The world became strangely quiet.

I looked at the ultrasound report inside my handbag.

Then at the photograph on my screen.

Tonight, I was going to tell my husband we were finally becoming parents.

Instead, I discovered he had spent 263 days preparing to become someone else’s family.

I saved the photograph.

I put the key back into his coat pocket.

Exactly where I found it.

Then I turned off the candles.

For six years, Nathan Walker was the person I trusted most.

Tonight, he became the person I knew the least.