Sorting through old boxes in the garage, I opened one without a second thought. Inside was a heart-shaped candy box. My heart sank when I saw a note: “Thanks for sharing your husband with me.”
I blinked, thinking maybe it was some kind of joke.
A prank from one of our old college friends? But the handwriting wasn’t familiar. It was neat, slanted slightly to the right—feminine.
The kind that makes your stomach twist before your brain even catches up. I sat down on a dusty old camping chair and read it again. There was no name, no date.
Just that sentence. Short and sharp. A stab in the gut.
My husband, Lyle, was inside the house, humming to himself as he wiped down the windows. We’d been married for twelve years. No kids, but we’d made a life together.
Dinners in front of the TV, little road trips, arguments over what color to paint the guest room—it all felt solid. Comfortable. Honest.
But now I wasn’t so sure. I didn’t say anything right away. That night, I left the note on the kitchen counter without a word and watched from the hallway as he saw it.
His smile faded instantly. He didn’t even ask where I found it. “I can explain,” he said, almost in a whisper.
But he didn’t. He just stood there, holding that little note like it was made of fire. Turns out, three years ago, during a business trip to Phoenix, Lyle had met someone.
Her name was Corinne. She worked for a client of his. It was “just a fling,” he said.
“It only happened twice.”
I asked why he kept the note. He shrugged. “I didn’t want to forget what I almost lost.”
That made no sense.
“You didn’t lose anything,” I snapped. “You chose it. And then you kept a souvenir.”
We didn’t speak for days.
He moved into the guest room, and I walked around in a haze, replaying every moment from the last few years—doubting every compliment, every hug, every “I love you.”
I confided in my best friend, Maritza. She wasn’t surprised. “Honestly, Noelle,” she said carefully, “I always thought something was off when he came back from that trip.
He kept bringing up how ‘chill’ Arizona was. Who goes on about Arizona for three months?”
She wasn’t wrong. One week later, I called Corinne.
Her number was still on a receipt Lyle had shoved inside the same box as the note. (He wasn’t exactly a master criminal.)
She picked up on the second ring. I told her who I was.
The story doesn’t end here — it continues on the next page.
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