The Secret Life She Hid

sting it, a nervous habit she only had when she was about to ask for something she knew he wouldn't like. They w

ice soft, "about the trip...

t of their kitchen suddenly feeling tense. "Wh

eyes. "But a huge project just came up at work. It's i

ul, driven, and he had always admired that about her. But this felt diff

s our anniversary?" he asked, trying to

ng, but there was something else behind them, something he couldn't rea

ollow feeling starting to grow in his stomac

enger side, his hand brushed against something stuffed deep between the seat cushions. He pulled it o

beled "Mommy." Next to her were two smaller stick figures, a boy and a girl.

be anything. A nephew's drawing. A friend's kid. But the word "Mommy" stared back at him, an accusation. His mind flashed back to a phone call he'd overheard last month. Sarah was in the garden, her back

me he didn't recognize, explaining it away as a client gift. He recalled the frequent, last-minute "business trips" to cities he'd never heard her mention before. Each memory, once a testa

ayed his part, smiling at her colleagues, accepting their compliments on what a perfect couple they were. But inside, he felt a cold rage building. When she leaned in to kiss his cheek for a ph

of the party fading behind him. He stopped near a service exit, leaning against the

voice was a sharp whisper. "Leaving the children'

trusts me completely. He thinks I'm going on

up," her mother sighed. "David is gett

s. I have everything here with Ethan. The stability, the reputati

cret affair; it was a completely separate life. His entire marriage was a lie, a carefully constructed stage play where he was th

the dark, swirling water below. The pain was unbearable, a physical weight crushing his chest. Divorce wasn't enough. A divorce would be messy, public, and it would still connect him to her. He wanted out. H

gh his contacts until he found the one person he knew he coul

d the cal

ce cracking. "I need yo