Chapter 2

I lost track of time before the bedroom finally went quiet.

Their breathing grew deep and rhythmic. They were fast asleep.

I slowly pushed the closet door open.

My legs were completely numb from being curled up for hours.

Leaning against the wall, I dragged my stiff limbs step by step out into the hallway.

Beneath the faint moonlight coming through the window, I caught a glimpse of the two bodies tangled together in my bed.

In that exact second, the very last shred of love I had for him evaporated into thin air.

I didn’t linger. I walked straight out into the living room.

The apartment was pitch-black.

I sat on the couch without turning on the lights.

The flash drive was still resting on the coffee table.

David had left it behind that afternoon.

I originally thought it was filled with work spreadsheets.

Instead, opening it revealed dozens of high-res photos.

Every shot was taken inside this apartment.

On our sofa, in our kitchen, and across our marital bed.

Every single timestamp corresponded to when I was at work.

Hours when I put in brutal overtime just to buy him birthday presents.

Hours when I took on freelance bookkeeping to pay down our mortgage.

While I was grinding myself to the bone outside, he was bringing his mistress into our home.

I picked up my phone. The pale glow of the screen illuminated my hollow, bloodless face.

The clock read 3:00 AM.

There were two and a half hours left before David’s alarm went off.

I opened my cloud drive and backed up every single photo from the flash drive.

Then I muted my phone and slipped it into my pocket.

I just sat there quietly, watching the skyline gradually turn from black to gray.

Three years flashed through my head like a reel of broken film.

Three years ago, we had nothing. To gather enough money for our wedding and down payment, David worked delivery gigs after his shift.

I worked my regular job by day and stayed up doing freelance accounting by night.

We scrimped and saved until we finally bought this place.

I thought it was the foundation of our happily ever after.

I never imagined it was just the beginning of a nightmare.

The timestamps proved that the very first photo of him and that woman was taken the day after we signed our marriage certificate.

Back then, I was still basking in newlywed bliss.

Like an idiot, I cooked his meals, ironed his shirts, and blamed myself whenever work kept me from spending time with him.

What a pathetic joke.

Suddenly, the harsh ring of an alarm shattered the silence from the bedroom.

Frenzied rustling broke out inside.

Moments later, the bedroom door swung open.

The woman stepped out first.

She was wearing my house slippers, draped in one of David’s button-down shirts.

Before she even took two steps into the living room, her eyes landed on me sitting motionless in the shadows.

"Ahhh!"

She let out a piercing shriek, looking as if she had just seen a ghost.

"Ghost! There’s a ghost!"

Hearing her screams, David tumbled out of the bedroom in sheer panic, desperately yanking up his pants while scanning the room.

"What happened? What’s wrong?!"

The woman’s trembling finger pointed straight at me on the couch.

"She... she’s right there!"

David followed her finger.

The color instantly drained from his face, and his entire body froze.