Chapter 4: The Lie That Changed Everything

Olivia

The words didn’t make sense. I blinked, processing them, trying to force them to fit into the reality Leonard had painted for me earlier. “He left early today,” she added, her voice still polite. Still composed.

My stomach twisted. Leonard never left early. Not when he claimed to be working late. Not when he told me he would be here.

I swallowed, my throat suddenly dry. “Alright. Thank you.” But my hands felt cold. My heart was beating faster now, my mind already spinning with questions, with doubts. I turned on my heel and walked straight to his office.

The second I stepped inside, the air felt… wrong.

Too still. Too cold. His cologne still lingered, faint but there, but the room itself-his desk, his chair, the papers neatly stacked-was untouched. Like he hadn’t been here for hours.

Liar. I inhaled sharply, my hands trembling as I reached for my phone. I scrolled to his name, my thumb hovering over the call button before I pressed it.

It rang.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

The longer it took for him to pick up, the more something dark settled inside me.

Four times.

Five.

Then….

“Olivia?”

His voice was calm. Too calm. Like he wasn’t expecting me to call. “Where are you?” I asked, and I could already hear the sharpness in my own tone, the way I wasn’t in the mood to be played with. “I’m in your office.”

A pause. Then, a small shift in his breath.

“I’m… I’m with a client.”

I closed my eyes for a second. And then I opened them.

“You’re with a client,” I repeated slowly, my fingers tightening around the phone. “At this hour?”

“Yes.”

His voice was too even, too prepared. Like he had been expecting this. Like he had been waiting for me to call.

I didn’t buy it. “Which client?” I asked. “Where are you?”

Another pause. Longer this time. A pause long enough to confirm everything I already knew.

“Olivia, I told you I’d be late. I’m handling something important.” Important.

More important than our anniversary?

More important than me? My breath came in shallow, uneven bursts as I pulled my phone away from my ear and swiped up, checking his location.

Nothing.

“Location unavailable.”

My chest tightened.

He turned it off.

My husband, the man who had never once turned off his location in all our years together, had turned it off. The room suddenly felt too small. Too suffocating. My pulse was roaring in my ears, my hands numb.

“Leonard,” I muttered with a low tone that was so deep and sounded dealt at the same time. “Where are you?”

A sigh. “I told you, I’m with a client.” “In town?”

Silence.

The longest silence yet.

Then, finally, his answer. “No. I’m… out of town.”

The floor beneath me seemed to shift. Out of town.

He was out of town.

I opened my mouth, but before I could say a word.

Click.

The line went dead.

My breath caught. I looked down at my phone, staring at the screen like it would somehow change what just happened. He hung up.

He switched off his phone. Leonard had lied to me.

And whatever he was hiding… It was bad.

“I can’t believe the nerve of this man”.

I paced around his office, my heels clicking against the marble floor, my breath coming in sharp, shallow bursts. My fingers tangled in my hair, tugging slightly as if that would somehow ease the frustration coursing through me. Out of town? With a client?

Nonsense!

My instincts screamed that something was off, and now I had proof. He wasn’t where he said he was. He lied to me. On our anniversary. And worse he had the audacity to hang up and shut off his phone like I was some clueless, helpless fool who wouldn’t dare question him.

No. I wasn’t just going to sit here and drown in my suspicions. I was going to find out exactly what was going on.

I yanked open my bag, digging through it until my fingers wrapped around the sleek surface of his laptop. My pulse quickened as I set it on his desk, flipping it open as I quickly pulled up the browser.

My hands shook slightly as I typed in the search bar -Bintu Hospital contact number.

Seconds later, the number appeared. My heart slammed against my ribs as I grabbed my phone and punched it in. The line rang.

Once.

Twice.

Then, a soft, professional voice answered. “Good evening, Bintu Hospital. How may I assist you?”

“Hi, I’d like to inquire about a patient. Her name is Elena.”

A pause.

“Are you a relative?”

I bit my lip. “No, but it’s important. I just need to know if she had any visitors today.”

Another pause. The soft clatter of keys typing on a keyboard. My entire body tensed as I waited, every second stretching endlessly.

Then, finally…

“Yes, she did,” the nurse confirmed.

I exhaled sharply. My fingers tightened around the phone. “And who visited her?”

The response came without hesitation.

“Leonard Crawford.”

Damn.

I felt the breath leave my lungs. The room spun slightly as the words settled in my head.

Leonard. My husband. He was with another woman on our anniversary.