Maya Carter, my housekeeper, is never late. Until today. "Mrs. Harrison, I'm so sorry dinner's not ready yet. Please don't be upset with me, but I couldn't help it. I waited downstairs for over half an hour, and nobody came through to swipe in. I tried calling Mr. Harrison but he didn't pick up, so that's why I'm late." I pause mid-motion as I'm slipping off my shoe, and my frown deepens. "Mrs. Carter, didn't Tyler give you the access card?" She blinks at me, totally confused. "Access card? Mr. Harrison never gave me one." "Never?" "No, ma'am." Maya wipes the sweat from her forehead, her voice careful. "This whole month, I've been waiting for other residents to open the door so I could sneak in behind them, or I'd call Mr. Harrison, and he'd buzz me up. Today he just didn't answer, so I was stuck down there." That's weird. The smart lock system showed that the spare access card had been used multiple times this month. *** I bought this penthouse apartment outright before we got married and paid in full. Between my demanding work schedule and constant business trips, I hired Maya to handle dinners and housekeeping. We had one spare access card sitting in the drawer at the time. I handed it directly to Tyler with clear instructions. "The housekeeper's coming tomorrow for her trial day. Give her this card so she can get in." He took it from my hand with that warm, attentive smile of his. "Don't worry, babe. I've got it covered." But here we are a month later, and Maya's never seen that card. I pull up the electronic lock app on my phone. Seventeen entries logged for that card over the past month. Tyler and I both use fingerprint access, so who's been using the card? I'm still turning this over in my mind when the door opens. Tyler's home. "Hey, Maya was late today," I say, keeping my tone casual. "She said she doesn't have an access card to get in. Didn't I ask you to give it to her a month ago?" Tyler's hands still on his tie, and he lets out an awkward laugh. "Oh, that. I was slammed that week and must've completely spaced on it. Probably shoved it in a drawer somewhere. Let me look for it, and soon as I find it, I'll get it to her." "Don't worry about it." I set down my magazine, keeping my voice even. "If you can't find it, it's fine. I'll report it lost to the building management tomorrow and get a replacement. Maya shouldn't have to deal with this hassle every day." "Don't!" Tyler whips around, and his voice shoots up several notches. When he sees the confused look on my face, he quickly softens his tone and comes over to put his arm around my shoulders. "I mean, the replacement fee is like a couple hundred bucks, you know? No point wasting money on that. It's gotta be somewhere in the apartment. I'll look for it properly over the next couple days, and I'm sure I'll find it. "You work so hard, and you finally get to come home and relax, so don't stress over little things like this. Look at you, you've been anxious again these past few days, haven't you? Your face doesn't look good." "It doesn't?" I raise my eyebrow. "Yeah, you used to have these chubby cheeks, and your complexion was so rosy. You looked so adorable back then." With him joking around like this, I drop the whole access card thing. But something still feels off. That night while he's in the shower, I pick up his phone. The passcode was still my birthday. His messages are clean with no suspicious conversations, and even his Instagram and X accounts barely have any contacts. I open up his shopping apps next and scroll through his order history. Nothing but everyday household stuff. Then I checked the archived and deleted orders. Buried among a bunch of removed purchases, I find an order from a week ago for a necklace. The shipping address is his office, and the recipient name is Nicole Perry.
Nicole's a new intern at his company. I actually met her at the last company party. She seemed pretty shy and was super deferential toward me, kind of sweet really. I put his phone back exactly where I found it, acting like nothing happened. After Tyler finishes his shower, I casually bring up Nicole. He doesn't seem guilty at all and actually goes on about how much she's improved this past month, so he rewarded her with a necklace. That eases about half my suspicions since Tyler does frequently buy gifts to reward his team. The next day at work, I pull out my phone and connect to our backup home camera. I installed this camera six months ago to check on my cat. It's hidden pretty well, tucked behind a row of books on the living room bookshelf and pointed right at the sofa and entryway. Later, I sent the cat back to my mom's place, and I never turned the camera back on after that. Tyler's completely forgotten it exists. Last night while he was asleep, I quietly plugged the camera back in and got it online. On the feed, the apartment is dead quiet. Nothing unusual at all. I check it for three days straight and don't catch anything suspicious. Am I just being paranoid? Maybe the necklace really was just a reward for his employee? Deep down, I don't want to believe that the man I've shared a bed with for seven years is cheating. Friday afternoon, work suddenly sends me on a business trip to a nearby city. I leave the office two hours early to go home and pack. When I push open the door, Tyler's in the bathroom taking a shower. He usually only showers at night before bed, so showering at this hour is weird. "Babe? What're you doing home so early?" Tyler comes out with a towel wrapped around his waist. When he sees me, panic flashes across his face, but he covers it quickly. "Last-minute business trip," I say as I head into the bathroom. "Just grabbing a few things." I pick up a bottle of body lotion from the counter, and immediately something feels off. The bottle's way lighter than it should be. I hold it up to the light and my stomach drops. It was more than half full just a few days ago, and now it's practically empty? That uneasy feeling settles deeper in my chest, but I don't say anything. I just pack my suitcase in silence. When I'm ready to leave, Tyler's suddenly all attentive. "You work so hard, babe. Let me take you down to the garage." He grabs my suitcase with that considerate smile plastered on his face, playing the perfect doting husband. By the time I check into the hotel in the neighboring city, it's already nine at night. I don't even bother washing up before I pull out my phone and open the home security app. The feed loads, and there's Tyler, sitting alone on the couch scrolling through his phone, looking completely bored. I watch the screen for a good ten minutes, and I'm just about to close it and go to sleep when I hear something at the door. The electronic lock clicks open with a beep. The door swings wide, and a figure in a short skirt walks in like she owns the place.
It's Nicole. And she's holding the missing access card. Tyler springs up from the couch with this look on his face I haven't seen in forever, all soft and adoring. Nicole moves through the apartment like it's her own home, and she doesn't even put on the guest slippers. Instead, she slides into my pink silk house slippers, the ones Tyler gave me for my birthday that I barely ever wear because they're too nice. "Babe," Nicole coos, and throws herself into Tyler's arms. "There's my girl. What took you so long? I missed you." "Oh stop, I had to do my makeup." Nicole traces little circles on his chest with her finger, her voice all playful. "Besides, that wife of yours won't be back for a whole week, so we've got plenty of time." "Well then, I'm gonna make the most of this week with you, baby." Tyler scoops Nicole up in his arms, laughing as he carries her straight into my bedroom. I stare at my phone screen, my nails digging so hard into my palm I can almost feel blood. He's actually cheating on me. My first instinct is to call Tyler and confront him, but as I pull up his number, my finger hovers over the call button. Yelling at him now would only tip them off and give them time to cover their tracks. I can't let them get away with this. The next few days on my business trip drag on forever. During the day I force myself to focus on work, but at night, I hide in my hotel room torturing myself by watching the security footage. Nicole's acting like she owns the place. She's wearing my pajamas, using my skincare products, and sleeping with my husband in my bed. The most disgusting part? Nicole actually dips her toes into my ridiculously expensive body butter and scoops out the cream with her toes to use as a foot mask. Tyler just stands there watching, and instead of stopping her, he's laughing and massaging her feet. Watching this makes me rush to the bathroom and dry heave. I splash cold water on my face and stare at my pale reflection in the mirror. My expression hardens. If they want to be this shameless, then they can't blame me for what comes next. I download all the security footage from the past few days and back everything up to the cloud. Then I call my lawyer. "Mr. Lawson, I need you to draft divorce papers. I want him to walk away with nothing." After I hang up, I check the calendar. Tomorrow's my birthday. Tyler said he'd celebrate with me, but clearly he's forgotten all about it. Fine. I'll throw myself a "grand" birthday party. I push through all my work in five days and book an early flight home. Then I send out three group messages. The first one goes to my parents and Tyler's parents. "Mom, Dad, it's my birthday this Saturday. Tyler wants to throw a party at our place and we'd love for you all to come celebrate with us." The second message goes to Tyler's buddies, his coworkers, and a few of Nicole's rivals at the company. "Party at Tyler's place Saturday at 10 AM! Good food, good drinks, come hang out!" The last one goes to the building manager. "I'm upgrading our security system Saturday morning. Could you have two security guards wait by the door? We might need help moving some things." Everyone happily agrees. The next morning I land and head straight home. On the security feed, those two are still all over each other in bed. Tyler reaches out and strokes Nicole's face. "Baby, wake up. You hungry? I'll order some takeout." "Mmm... don't wanna move..." Nicole mumbles. "Tyler, just go make something. I want your sandwiches." "Okay, I got you, babe." Tyler kisses her sweetly and gets up to head into the kitchen. At 9:50 a.m., the doorbell rings.
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