Chapter Two — The Photograph
I didn't sleep that night.
Daniel slept beside me as if nothing had happened.
As if our marriage hadn't suddenly become a question mark.
As if another woman hadn't just sent me a message claiming that my husband had promised to make her his wife.
I lay beside him and stared at the ceiling.
At 2:13 a.m., his phone vibrated.
He reached for it.
I pretended to be asleep.
"Hello?"
His voice was barely above a whisper.
I couldn't hear the other person.
But I heard him say,
"I told you not to text me."
A pause.
"No. She doesn't know."
Another pause.
"Because I love my wife."
My eyes burned.
I kept them closed.
Then he said the sentence that broke something inside me.
"I never promised you anything."
Silence.
Then Daniel hung up.
I waited.
A minute passed.
Then five.
Finally, he fell asleep.
I opened my eyes.
I stared at the man beside me.
The man I had loved for eleven years.
The man I had married.
The man whose children I had imagined having.
And suddenly I wondered whether I had ever truly known him.
At 7:06 the next morning, my phone buzzed.
Ava.
Good morning, Claire.
I didn't respond.
Another message arrived.
I told you I would marry Daniel.
Then the photograph appeared.
I stared at it.
Daniel was standing outside a hotel.
His arm was around Ava.
She was smiling.
Not a professional smile.
Not a polite smile.
The smile of a woman who believed she belonged beside him.
Daniel was looking at her.
Not at the camera.
At her.
The intimacy in his expression made my chest tighten.
I zoomed in.
There was something else.
Ava was wearing a necklace.
I recognized it.
It was the necklace Daniel had bought six months earlier.
He had told me it was for his mother's birthday.
My hands began to shake.
I scrolled through my memories.
His mother's birthday had been six months ago.
She had never received a necklace.
I had forgotten about it.
Until now.
I called Ava.
She answered immediately.
"Hello?"
"What do you want?"
"I want you to know the truth."
"Then tell me."
"I've been with Daniel for almost a year."
I closed my eyes.
"A year?"
"Yes."
My voice cracked.
"You're lying."
"I'm not."
"Why would he cheat on me with you?"
"Because he says he loves me."
The words stabbed deeper than I expected.
"Does he?"
"Ask him."
"I am asking you."
She was silent.
Then she said,
"He tells me he married you because you were safe."
I felt numb.
"Safe?"
"He said you were kind. Stable. His family liked you."
My throat tightened.
"And you?"
"He says I'm the woman he actually wants."
I hung up.
I sat at the kitchen table for nearly an hour.
Then I called my best friend, Naomi.
She arrived twenty minutes later.
One look at my face and she knew.
"What's wrong?"
I handed her my phone.
She looked at the photograph.
Her mouth fell open.
"Oh, Claire."
I started crying.
Not loudly.
Just tears rolling down my face.
Naomi pulled me into her arms.
"You need to confront him."
"I know."
"And don't let him manipulate you."
"I know."
"Do you?"
I looked at her.
"I don't know anything anymore."
Daniel came home early that afternoon.
I was waiting.
He walked through the door.
"Hey."
I didn't answer.
He stopped.
"What happened?"
I put the photograph on the table.
His face changed.
He stared at it.
Then at me.
"Claire—"
"How long?"
He closed his eyes.
"Please."
"How long?"
"Claire, it's complicated."
"No."
My voice shook.
"It's actually very simple."
I stood.
"You cheated on me."
He looked at the floor.
"Yes."
The word destroyed me.
I had imagined him denying it.
Lying.
Blaming her.
Anything.
But not that.
"How long?"
"Eight months."
I laughed bitterly.
"She said almost a year."
He said nothing.
"Which one is it?"
"Eight months."
"Does she love you?"
He looked at me.
"I don't know."
"But she thinks you're going to marry her."
"I never promised her that."
"She says you did."
"She's lying."
"Then why is she so confident?"
He didn't answer.
I stepped closer.
"Did you sleep with her?"
His eyes closed.
That was answer enough.
I backed away.
"Get out."
"Claire."
"Get out of my house."
"It's our house."
"Not tonight."
He stared at me.
Then he walked upstairs.
I thought he was packing.
Instead, he came back ten minutes later carrying a small box.
He put it on the table.
"Before you decide anything, you need to know something."
I didn't touch the box.
"What?"
He opened it.
Inside was a ring.
A diamond ring.
My stomach dropped.
"That's not mine."
"I know."
He swallowed.
"I bought it for Ava."
I stared at him.
"Why?"
He looked at me.
And for the first time, he didn't try to hide.
"Because I was going to leave you."
My knees nearly gave out.
"When?"
"Next month."
I couldn't breathe.
He continued.
"I was going to ask her to marry me."
The room went silent.
Then my phone buzzed.
Ava.
One message.
He hasn't told you everything.
Another arrived.
Ask him who else he's been sleeping with.
I looked up at Daniel.
"Who else?"
He went completely still.
And then his phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
The caller's name was Sophie.
Daniel didn't answer.
I stared at him.
"Who is Sophie?"
He said nothing.
The phone kept ringing.
And suddenly I realized Ava hadn't been trying to take my husband.
She had been trying to warn me.
Because there was something much bigger hiding behind my marriage.
And I was about to discover just how many women my husband had betrayed me with.
