She didn’t argue.
She didn’t accuse me of lying.
Within seconds another image appeared.
An engagement dinner.
Tyler stood in a navy suit with one arm around Avery.
Both families surrounded them, smiling as champagne glasses filled the frame.
The date in the corner froze my blood.
Almost three years earlier.
During the exact period Tyler and I had been celebrating our first anniversary together.
Another file appeared.
A draft wedding invitation.
Elegant cream paper.
Two names.
Tyler Morgan & Avery Lawson
Below them was a wedding date exactly three months away.
I couldn’t stop staring.
It felt like looking at someone else’s life.
Then came another photograph.
Tyler stood beside Avery’s parents, smiling so naturally that it made me physically ill.
He looked proud.
Comfortable.
Completely at home.
Nothing about his face suggested he was secretly dating another woman.
A message appeared beneath the pictures.
I’m sorry. I truly believed I was the only one.
I swallowed hard.
So did I.
For nearly a full minute neither of us wrote anything.
Finally another picture arrived.
Tyler wore a silver watch.
My watch.
I’d spent almost two months saving for it.
Packing homemade lunches instead of buying food at work.
Skipping little treats.
Counting every dollar because I wanted to surprise him on his birthday.
When I gave it to him, he’d hugged me tightly and whispered, “No one has ever made me feel this understood.”
Now he was wearing it while standing beside another woman.
Another message popped onto my screen.
He told me the watch came from an important client.
A strange sound escaped my throat.
Half laugh.
Half sob.
I pressed the call button before I could lose my nerve.
Avery answered on the first ring.
Neither of us spoke for several seconds.
Finally she whispered, “Please tell me you didn’t know.”
“I had no idea you existed.”
“I swear I didn’t know about you either.”
Her voice cracked.
“I’ve been working overseas for the last three years. I only came home every few months. Every visit was short because Tyler said work kept getting in the way.”
My chest tightened.
Every few months.
Exactly when Tyler would suddenly cancel our plans because of “family emergencies.”
For illustrative purposes only
I hurried to my laptop, opened the calendar app, and began searching through old dates.
“What are you doing?” Avery asked quietly.
“Checking something.”
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