Chapter 1
Figuring out my husband is cheating is depressingly easy.
Exhibit A: the new heart emojis suddenly appearing in his DMs. Exhibit B: the 3 a.m. "I love you" he mutters into his phone when he thinks I'm asleep.
Do I cry? Do I throw things? No. I play the part of the perfect wife. I keep making his favorite dinners, waiting by the door for him to come home.
I keep our social media feeds flooded with pictures of our "blissful" life.
His friends clap him on the back, telling him he has hit the jackpot with a wife who doesn't care if he's out partying all night.
But my silence is eating him alive.
He starts connecting the dots: the late-night workouts tracked on my Fitbit, the fact that I'm not blowing up his phone anymore, and the sudden sleep I fall into before he even gets home.
He drops his lover and bolts home.
But the woman who opens the door isn't his doting wife, ready with a glass of water and some Advil.
Standing in the doorway is his half-brother, the one guy he absolutely loathes.
And that's when he shatters.
*****
Daniel Sutton didn't get home until midnight.
When I took his coat, a woman's perfume, definitely not mine, floated up.
I frowned.
"Not happy?" He arched a brow.
"How about this," he scoffed. "I'll fire every woman at the office, quit my job, skip the client dinners, and glue myself to your side twenty-four seven."
I bit my lip and looked down, letting the silence hang in the air.
When he walked in and saw the still-warm dinner waiting for him on the table, his expression softened.
"Oh, you," he sighed, his voice dropping. "My little trouble."
He crouched down, his thumb gently wiping my eyes. "You know running a company this big isn't easy. My dad's watching my every move. I can't just drop everything because you're feeling needy. How do you think I pay for all this?"
I was about to tell him I didn't need his financial support because the grant for my latest research project had just come through.
But before I could speak, he rushed into the bedroom and reappeared, dragging a suitcase behind him.
"Where are you going?"
I sat on the couch, stunned. My finger accidentally brushed against his phone, and it buzzed softly as the fingerprint lock failed.
"Here we go again," he said, annoyance hardening his eyes. "I thought I made myself perfectly clear last time we had this fight."
That was the biggest fight we had ever had.
Three months ago, Daniel told all our friends he was going to propose.
My friends dropped hints, so I spent hours on my makeup, slipped into my prettiest dress, and drove to the restaurant he had so carefully booked.
The cold wind made my skin prickle, but my blood was buzzing with excitement.
Every girl dreamed of this moment, where the man she loved, down on one knee in front of everyone who mattered, promised forever.
But I waited five whole hours, and Daniel never showed up.
With our friends and coworkers staring and whispering, I held it together as long as I could, my face burning with humiliation.
To save what was left of his dignity, I apologized to everyone, one by one, and ordered them all Ubers home.
It wasn't until the early hours of the morning that I got a call.
Daniel explained, "Sophia, something happened to Jessica. She's like a sister to me. I couldn't just leave her."
"Jessica! Again? It's always her!" I screamed.
Tears streamed down my face as I stood alone in a room full of wilting red roses.
I snapped, "Why is her life always your problem? What about me? I'm your girlfriend!"
I went out of my way to avoid his half-brother at the lab, the one person he despised, just to keep the peace for him.
Why couldn't he do the same for me? Why did he always drop me for another woman on the most important nights of our lives?
"Why are you so cruel?" he shot back. "You're a woman, too. Can't you have some empathy?"
Anger rang in his voice. "Just because you don't like her, I've done my best to avoid her. But she's been through hell and still helped me plan the perfect proposal for you!
"She was upset and got drunk at a bar. Some creep was harassing her. Even if she wasn't my best friend, I wouldn't walk away.
"I've told you a million times, it's not like that between us! If there was something more, do you really think I would be with you?
"What do you want? Does she have to sleep with someone before you finally stop being so jealous and paranoid?"
*****
The fight ended with him, exhausted, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Sophia, you can't control my every move. It's suffocating. No man can live like that, constantly being suspected by the person who is supposed to trust him most."