My Husband Started Making Hurtful Comments And Left Me For Someone Else. When He Came Back To Get His Things, He Found A Red Note On The Table.

Caleb had gone to overnight camp a week ago, and the house felt especially quiet. She slowly finished the oatmeal, though her appetite was gone. Then she stood up and looked at her reflection in the hall mirror—a round face, a double chin, and wide hips beneath a shapeless house coat.

When had she stopped recognizing herself? When had she stopped being that girl who used to light up dance floors and gather admiring glances? Darius’s phone vibrated on the table.

He had forgotten it. Amara automatically looked at the screen and saw a message from Tiffany. Sweetheart, waiting for you at my place tonight.

I miss you so much. Her heart plummeted. Her hands began to tremble.

Amara opened the phone. She knew the password. Darius never thought it necessary to change it.

The correspondence was long, frank, and full of the tenderness and passion that had been missing from her life with Darius for years. Tiffany—26 years old, a secretary at his office—thin, vibrant, with long legs in the photos. Everything Amara no longer was.

Amara sank onto a chair, still clutching the phone. Inside her, there was no fury, no urge to scream. There was only emptiness, a cold, all-consuming void.

She put the phone back and went into the bedroom. She took out an old photo album from the closet. Here was their wedding.

She was in a white dress, slender and happy. Here was Caleb’s birth. Here was their last vacation together three years ago.

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