Chapter 1

Marcus and I had been married for ten years.

His phone was always running out of storage. Every single day, he wiped his chat history clean.

I told him to just get a new phone. But he refused, claiming his current one was still perfectly fine.

I actually believed him.

But while he was busy deleting my texts and forgetting my birthday, he kept over two thousand photos of his female coworker in his gallery, including shots of them at a Halloween theme park.

At that moment, I finally realized it wasn't that his phone didn't have enough space. It was that I didn't deserve to take up any of it.

On my birthday, after ten years of marriage, Marcus came home late from work. He looked at the empty dining table, completely dazed.

I looked back at him, equally shocked. "Where's the cake? I thought you said you were cooking tonight? You didn't even buy groceries?"

Marcus slapped his forehead. "I'm so sorry, Chloe. I totally forgot. I'll go run to the store right now."

All the excitement I had built up over the afternoon instantly dissolved into nothing. I felt utterly defeated. "Forget it, it's too late. Let's just order DoorDash."

"Marcus, seriously, why don't you just upgrade your phone? You're constantly clearing your chats!"

I complained, looking at him. Marcus immediately sent me a $1,500 PayPal transfer. "I'm really sorry, babe. My phone is still fine, but you should get a new one. Take this and buy whatever you want!"

Hearing this, I gave him a reluctant smile. "Go take a shower. I've got some steaks in the oven, and I'll order a few more things. Let's just have a feast at home tonight."

Marcus pinched my cheek gently and headed to the bathroom.

While waiting, I got bored and started browsing the latest phone models on my own phone, thinking I should still surprise Marcus with an upgrade.

Wanting to compare prices, I picked up Marcus's phone to see if his shopping apps were showing different deals.

But the moment I unlocked it, a system notification popped up: Storage full. Clean up junk files now.

Without thinking, I tapped into his photo gallery, intending to delete useless screenshots for him. What I saw next made my blood run cold.

There were 2,438 photos sitting quietly in his album. And without exception, every single one of them featured the same face. His coworker, Amber Sterling.

The earliest photos dated back to a year ago. Every picture was perfectly angled, capturing her looking incredibly soft and beautiful.

There were even candid shots of her turning around and laughing at the camera.

The most recent photos made me physically tremble. It was a selfie of Marcus and Amber, their faces painted with bloody red makeup, wearing matching devil horns on their heads.

The background was clearly the Halloween Horror Nights event at the theme park, taken just a week ago.

I remembered that day perfectly. It was our daughter Lily's parent-teacher conference. I was out of town on a business trip and couldn't make it, so I asked Marcus to go. Later, the teacher emailed me saying no one showed up.

When I confronted him back then, he claimed he had to work overtime and forgot about it because he had cleared our chat history.

I had to call the teacher to apologize profusely, and the moment I got back from my trip, I rushed to her school to smooth things over.

Marcus had acted so guilty, even buying Lily a expensive Lego set to make up for it.

But I never would have guessed that his "overtime" was actually a date at a theme park with his coworker!

Looking at these photos, I pictured my little girl standing alone in the classroom, confused and abandoned. A wave of fury washed over me. I wanted to drag him out of the shower right now and scream in his face.

No wonder he cleared his chats every day. It was never about storage. It was about leaving no paper trail.

And because he trusted me blindly and assumed I'd never snoop, he boldly kept the evidence right in his gallery!

The doorbell rang. The food delivery had arrived, snapping me back to reality.

I took the food, called Lily to wash her hands for dinner, and sat on the couch to put his phone back exactly where it was. After a few deep breaths, I decided to play dumb.

Marcus was so sure I'd never check his phone. He had kept his texts clean, leaving the gallery out in the open like it was nothing.

But even the most careful liar makes mistakes, especially when they grow arrogant.

He was stepping all over my dignity, treating both me and our daughter like we were invisible.

Fine. If that was how he wanted to play, I would make him regret it. I would make him pay until he lost absolutely everything.