Chapter 3

"Sloane? Is everything okay?"

Maybe he noticed how cold my voice was, because he kept pressing.

"I'm fine. Just didn't sleep well last night. I'm tired."

There was a tense silence on the line for a second before Carter spoke in his usual tone.

"Alright then. See you soon."

I stood up and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, letting the morning sun wash over me. Only when the heat began to burn my skin did I step back.

Carter came home carrying heavy grocery bags. I leaned against the sofa, watching him.

"Sloane, can you unpack these for me? I’m going to jump in the shower."

I gave a quiet nod. He tossed his jacket onto the couch and headed to the bedroom.

Carter always kept his phone in his jacket pocket.

I didn't know if he was doing it on purpose.

How could he cheat on me and still leave his phone right in front of my face?

I reached into his pocket, pulled out the phone, entered the passcode, and opened it.

The passcode was still my birthday.

His Snapchat and texts were completely spotless. My contact was still pinned at the top as "Miss Tortoise." His Amazon cart was filled with a bracelet, clothes, and some random bags I had mentioned offhand recently.

Everything was about me.

It was so clean. He looked like the absolute textbook definition of a devoted, loving boyfriend.

I actually started to doubt myself. Did I hallucinate everything last night? Dreams can be terrifyingly realistic sometimes.

I pinched my arm hard. It stung.

Okay, I was definitely awake. I tapped the screen and made a few quick moves.

I cleared out his entire Amazon cart. His payment password was a combination of our birthdays.

At least that hadn't changed yet.

Carter walked out of the bedroom, towel-drying his hair. He walked up behind me and wrapped his arms around me.

"What are you looking at, Sloane? Don't you trust me?"

Oh, I trusted him about as far as I could throw him. The lack of any evidence actually made it weirder.

It was *too* clean.

"Carter, I cleared your Amazon cart."

He let go of me and sat on the sofa.

"I was going to buy all of that for you anyway. Clear it if you want, as long as you're happy."