The Anniversary Gift

[Sarah's POV]

I had spent all afternoon on my hands and knees, planning the surprise. Two thousand dollars worth of deep red rose petals were scattered across our big bed in a perfect heart shape. A hundred vanilla-scented candles burned from every available surface. I wanted it to be perfect. I needed it to be perfect.

I picked up my phone as it rang. It was Lucy.

 "Are you wearing the gold thong? Tell me you're wearing it, Sarah.” She screamed into my ears. “If you don't show off that body tonight, I’m coming over there to slap some sense into you myself."

I laughed, a shaky, nervous sound that caught in my throat. I looked at my reflection in the floor-to-ceiling mirror. The gold piece was something the old, plain Sarah would never have worn. But tonight was supposed to be the reset button for my marriage. After four years of cold silence and the pain of three miscarriages, tonight was meant to be special.

"Yes, I'm wearing the gold thing, Lucy.”

"The gold *thong*," she corrected, and I could hear the grin in her voice. "Say it right, Sarah. It's not a taboo.”

"The gold thong," I repeated, heat rising to my cheeks even though I was alone. "Happy?”

"Ecstatic. Now talk to me… how are you really feeling? And don't you dare lie.”

 “I’m terrified," I admitted, my voice dropping to a whisper as I smoothed the silk over my hips. "You know Tyler hates surprises. He likes his life organized, and strictly under his control. What if he walks in and just... sighs? What if he thinks I’m being desperate?"

 "If he sighs at a woman with your kind of body,  in a room filled with rose petals, then he’s blind," 

Lucy’s voice was bright, comforting, and filled with that effortless, sisterly love I’d relied on for a decade. Lucy had been my rock since college. When I was crying over a negative pregnancy test, she was the one who held my hand.

"Tonight is about your marriage, Sarah. Four years of trying for a baby... you’ve both been through hell. You’ve been the perfect, supportive wife while he built the Rider Industries into a billion-dollar beast. You deserve this win. Tonight, you give him the best news of his life."

I pressed my hand flat against my stomach, feeling the tiny secret tucked away beneath the gold silk. A miracle I had prayed for until my knees were bruised. 

 "What if I lose this one too, Lu?" I whispered, a single tear escaping and tracing a hot path down my cheek. "I don't think I can survive another funeral for someone I never got to meet."

 "You aren't losing this one. This baby is a fighter, Sarah… just like its mother," Lucy said, her voice steady. 

 "Now, hang up and go be a wife. Go celebrate, and for heaven's sake, give that man something to remember. No more of that polite, routine sex you’ve been settling for. Use what I taught you. Spice things up tonight and remind him exactly why he fell in love with you.”

 "What would I do without you?" I managed.

She laughed softly. "Honestly? You'd be a mess. But lucky for you, you don't have to find out. That's what best friends are for. Call me the second he leaves in the morning so I can hear every detail.”

 "Love you, Lu. Truly. I don't know what I'd do without you."

 "Love you more, babe. Bye!"

The line went dead. I took a deep breath, wiped the tear away, and checked my reflection one last time. My eyes were bright with a hope I hadn't felt in years. 

Downstairs, I heard the heavy, familiar sound of the front door closing. Then, the steady, rhythmic stride of his footsteps on the marble stairs. Seven years, and I knew the rhythm of his movement like my own heartbeat. I knew when he was tired, when he was angry, and when he was triumphant. Tonight, his steps sounded... fast. Eager.

My stomach fluttered. Maybe he had remembered it was our anniversary after all. Maybe he was rushing up to surprise me with the same excitement I had for him.

The door swung open.

"Welcome home, my—"

The words dissolved in my mouth as Tyler stood in the doorway. But he wasn't alone.

A woman walked in beside him in a red dress that skimmed her thighs, golden hair tumbling over one shoulder, her arm looped through his the way you held onto something that belonged to you. She was laughing at something he'd said on the way up, her head tilted back, completely at ease.

I knew that laugh.

God, I knew that laugh.

The wine bottle I was holding hit the floor before I even realized I'd dropped it, red spreading across the ivory rug like spilled blood, my mouth went dry, and every single thought in my head went quiet except for one.

No. No, no, no.

 "Lucy?" I gasped, the word barely a breath. 

Lucy turned, and her eyes found me standing in the candlelight in the gold thong I had worn for my husband

 "Oh, darling," Lucy said, her voice dripping with honeyed malice.

I blinked, certain I was hallucinating. The voice was the same one that had just been on the phone with me. 

My brain refusing to process the reality. "What... What are doing here? Why are you with him?"

 "Someone set the mood for us, baby," Lucy ignored me, looking up at Tyler with eyes full of adoration. "Isn't it just perfect? It’s like she knew we had something to celebrate."

She leaned up and kissed him deeply. And Tyler... my husband... he didn't pull away. He leaned into her, his hand sliding up her thigh, right in front of me.

 "What is this?" I screamed, the sound echoing off the walls of our empty, candlelit life. “Is this some kind of sick joke?"

Tyler finally broke the kiss, but he didn't let go of her. He looked at the shattered wine bottle and then back at me, his lip curling in a sneer of pure disgust.

 "The only joke here, Sarah," Tyler said, his voice dry, "is this marriage. And it’s finally time for it to end."