His reply arrived almost at once.
“I told you not to contact me again.”
I stared at the screen.
The note had sounded apologetic and suggested that Tessa had discovered the truth and turned against him.
But his response made it clear they had spoken after she found out about me.
Maybe she had confronted him.
Perhaps he had threatened her.
I needed to know more before deciding what to do.
“Why?” I typed. “Worried your wife might find out?”
Grant did not answer.
That evening, he came home twenty minutes late.
I was chopping vegetables when he entered the kitchen.
“Long day?” I asked.
“You have no idea,” he said.
He placed his phone face down on the counter.
Grant normally left it wherever he happened to put it. That night, he carried it from room to room.
During dinner, he barely touched his food.
“Are you feeling okay?” I asked.
“Just tired.”
“You slept all night.”
“I said I’m tired, Rachel.”
The sharpness in his voice caught me off guard.
He immediately softened.
“Sorry. Work is still a mess after the trip.”
I studied him across the table.
“Was the conference worth it?”
He hesitated for less than a second.
“Probably. We may land a major account.”
“I’m glad.”
He gave me a weak smile and reached for his water.
That night, he changed in the bathroom with the door closed.
He had discovered the word.
Whether he saw it in the mirror or noticed the strange edges of the burn, he came to bed wearing a T-shirt despite the warm weather.
I pretended not to notice.
The following morning, I sent another message.
“We need to talk.”
Grant answered within seconds.
“There is nothing to talk about.”
“You lied to me for five days…” I typed.
“It was a mistake.”
“A mistake? You booked a resort and told me you were single.”
Several minutes passed.
“You knew what this was.”
My stomach dropped.
That was not the response of a man who had fooled an innocent woman for only three days. It sounded like someone trying to rewrite what had happened.
I decided I needed to find Tessa.
The lounge receipt named the resort, and the beach wristband displayed a small printed event title: “Coastal Wellness Weekend.”
I searched social media for photographs from the event.
There were hundreds.
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