Chapter 1

My expression went cold, and I typed out a reply on purpose.

"I swear, someone is hiding by the window in that photo."

It took a long time for my husband Gavin Prescott's response to come through.

"You're seeing things. That's just a potted plant."

He was lying to me. My chest tightened, and I called him, but he didn't pick up. My mind started racing on its own, turning the whole thing over and over. Something about this was deeply wrong.

When he came home from his business trip, he was the same as always, wrapping his arms around me, all playful and affectionate. It was like the photo wasn't even on his radar.

I brought it up myself. "Honey, you've been sneaky. Just look at this photo."

He cut me off before I could finish my thought. "What about the photo?"

He didn't even glance at it. Anger flared across his face. "I check in with you every single time I travel. Why are you still so paranoid? What could possibly be in that photo? Can you just stop overthinking for once?"

Then he completely ignored me and stormed into the bathroom.

The suspicion in my gut only deepened. That forum thread I'd found had commenters coaching men on this exact strategy. If a wife latched onto something, the advice was to flip the script, turning it around on her and making her feel like she was the one with the problem.

But was I really the one with the problem?

That night, he tucked his phone under his pillow before falling asleep. I lay there with my eyes open, staring out the window, listening to his breathing settle into a slow, steady rhythm beside me. After a while, I turned my head and carefully slid the phone out from under his pillow.

The passcode was still our anniversary. I went through his call log and messages and found nothing. I let out a breath, and guilt crept in around the edges. Maybe I really had been overthinking everything.

But then I remembered what people online had said about cheating husbands hiding apps and using duplicate messaging accounts. My heart climbed into my throat, and I followed the steps exactly as they'd described, one by one.

That was when I found it.

The hidden account was full of cluttered messages. I tapped through a few conversations without seeing anything alarming at first, but then I thought to check the cached images buried in the app's file folder.

That was where I found the hotel check-in photo he'd sent me, and by tracing the image, I tracked down which conversation it had been shared in.

It belonged to a woman nicknamed Lise.

I opened the message thread between Gavin and this woman.

"Honey, routine check-in for you. Your man's been very well-behaved."

"You're being so good!"

"Obviously. I'm loyal to a fault. I'd never do anything to hurt you, honey."

The pain hit so hard that it felt like a fist closing around my heart. Gavin was really cheating on me. I forced myself past the ache and opened Lise's profile page.

Then I froze.

I was staring at wedding photos of the two of them. Underneath, there were comments from his parents, the same people who had never once warmed up to me.

"Our daughter-in-law is just gorgeous. A perfect match for our son!"

The color drained from my face. A perfect match? Then what was I? Which one of us was actually the other woman?

I didn't sleep that night. I lay there watching Gavin's face as he slept, saying nothing, swallowing every question back down.