Marcus and I had been married for ten years. His phone was always running out of storage. Every single day, he wiped his chat history clean. I told him to just get a new phone. But he refused, claiming his current one was still perfectly fine. I actually believed him. But while he was busy deleting my texts and forgetting my birthday, he kept over two thousand photos of his female coworker in his gallery, including shots of them at a Halloween theme park. At that moment, I finally realized it wasn't that his phone didn't have enough space. It was that I didn't deserve to take up any of it. On my birthday, after ten years of marriage, Marcus came home late from work. He looked at the empty dining table, completely dazed. I looked back at him, equally shocked. "Where's the cake? I thought you said you were cooking tonight? You didn't even buy groceries?" Marcus slapped his forehead. "I'm so sorry, Chloe. I totally forgot. I'll go run to the store right now." All the excitement I had built up over the afternoon instantly dissolved into nothing. I felt utterly defeated. "Forget it, it's too late. Let's just order DoorDash." "Marcus, seriously, why don't you just upgrade your phone? You're constantly clearing your chats!" I complained, looking at him. Marcus immediately sent me a $1,500 PayPal transfer. "I'm really sorry, babe. My phone is still fine, but you should get a new one. Take this and buy whatever you want!" Hearing this, I gave him a reluctant smile. "Go take a shower. I've got some steaks in the oven, and I'll order a few more things. Let's just have a feast at home tonight." Marcus pinched my cheek gently and headed to the bathroom. While waiting, I got bored and started browsing the latest phone models on my own phone, thinking I should still surprise Marcus with an upgrade. Wanting to compare prices, I picked up Marcus's phone to see if his shopping apps were showing different deals. But the moment I unlocked it, a system notification popped up: Storage full. Clean up junk files now. Without thinking, I tapped into his photo gallery, intending to delete useless screenshots for him. What I saw next made my blood run cold. There were 2,438 photos sitting quietly in his album. And without exception, every single one of them featured the same face. His coworker, Amber Sterling. The earliest photos dated back to a year ago. Every picture was perfectly angled, capturing her looking incredibly soft and beautiful. There were even candid shots of her turning around and laughing at the camera. The most recent photos made me physically tremble. It was a selfie of Marcus and Amber, their faces painted with bloody red makeup, wearing matching devil horns on their heads. The background was clearly the Halloween Horror Nights event at the theme park, taken just a week ago. I remembered that day perfectly. It was our daughter Lily's parent-teacher conference. I was out of town on a business trip and couldn't make it, so I asked Marcus to go. Later, the teacher emailed me saying no one showed up. When I confronted him back then, he claimed he had to work overtime and forgot about it because he had cleared our chat history. I had to call the teacher to apologize profusely, and the moment I got back from my trip, I rushed to her school to smooth things over. Marcus had acted so guilty, even buying Lily a expensive Lego set to make up for it. But I never would have guessed that his "overtime" was actually a date at a theme park with his coworker! Looking at these photos, I pictured my little girl standing alone in the classroom, confused and abandoned. A wave of fury washed over me. I wanted to drag him out of the shower right now and scream in his face. No wonder he cleared his chats every day. It was never about storage. It was about leaving no paper trail. And because he trusted me blindly and assumed I'd never snoop, he boldly kept the evidence right in his gallery! The doorbell rang. The food delivery had arrived, snapping me back to reality. I took the food, called Lily to wash her hands for dinner, and sat on the couch to put his phone back exactly where it was. After a few deep breaths, I decided to play dumb. Marcus was so sure I'd never check his phone. He had kept his texts clean, leaving the gallery out in the open like it was nothing. But even the most careful liar makes mistakes, especially when they grow arrogant. He was stepping all over my dignity, treating both me and our daughter like we were invisible. Fine. If that was how he wanted to play, I would make him regret it. I would make him pay until he lost absolutely everything.
After Marcus came out, we ate dinner as a family. Later that night, he made an excuse about reviewing some work files and locked himself in the study. I opened my phone and searched for Amber Sterling along with their company's name. It didn't take long for the algorithm to lead me straight to her TikTok profile. When I clicked on it, I found hundreds of videos. Almost all of them featured Marcus. Unintentional glances, feeding each other food. Marcus was probably still trying to be somewhat cautious. In many of the videos, only the lower half of his face was visible. But anyone who knew him could easily recognize the distinct mole on his chin. Amber's captions were even more sickening. "Marcus said he wishes he could go back ten years just so he could be the one driving me to school every day. I'm dead." "Marcus got me a holiday gift today, and he even bought me all the gifts he missed from previous years!" "A client was being difficult today, and Marcus totally stood up for me and threw a punch! So hot!" Seeing this, a memory flashed in my mind. Six months ago, I received a call from the police station late at night, saying Marcus had gotten into a physical altercation. By the time I rushed over, the situation was resolved, and Marcus was comforting a young girl. He seemed flustered when he saw me, explaining that some creep was harassing his colleague, so he had to step in. Amber even thanked me back then, saying how much Marcus had helped her. She even treated us to dinner afterward. Looking back, it was laughable. It wasn't him being a good citizen; he was just playing the hero to rescue his little damsel in distress! And I, like an idiot, thought my husband was a man of integrity, even helping them curse out that terrible client. I scrolled down further and found the video of Amber and Marcus at the theme park. Her caption read: "Halloween preview night! Marcus took me out to play. Since we were short on time, he promised he'd take me again on actual Halloween night!" I checked the date. A plan quickly formed in my mind. The next morning, Marcus did something highly unusual. He got up early and made breakfast. At the table, I casually brought up Halloween. "Let's go to the theme park for Halloween. I saw on Instagram that everyone's going!" Marcus rejected the idea immediately. "No way. It's going to be packed. What if Lily gets lost in the crowd?" Lily looked down, her face filled with disappointment. Marcus patted her head, trying to soothe her. Seeing her sad face, I pressed on. "But we can just go for a little bit. There are so many fun rides!" "It'll be a good way to relax. Besides, the next day is Saturday." Hearing this, Lily looked up. "Yeah! Can we please go, Dad?" I looked at Marcus. He frowned and sighed. "Fine. If you guys want to go, we'll go." Lily and I smiled at each other. I knew exactly what he was planning. He was going to use his old trick again, pretending he forgot because his chat history got deleted. I didn't say anything else and simply nodded. When Halloween arrived, I sent Marcus a text right before leaving work, specifically reminding him: Don't delete your messages. We'll meet you at the entrance. Marcus replied with a simple "Got it" and nothing else. I knew what that meant. He was gearing up to play the "I got too busy and forgot" card again. Sure enough, when I opened TikTok and searched Amber's account, she had already posted a video of them in his car. "Marcus is taking me out for Halloween! Tonight belongs to just the two of us." And the comments section was filled with envious users. "Oh my god, he's such a green flag!" "Honestly, your guy Marcus is so handsome and successful. Is he really single?" "How did you snag such an amazing man?" Amber replied in the comments: "It's called destiny. Marcus has been focused on his career all these years, which is why he was single. We are the perfect partners." "Who cares if office romance is against the rules? Marcus is willing to risk it all to be with me!"
As the comment section showered her with envy, I logged into my burner account and left a comment: "Your boyfriend has a wedding ring tan line on his finger. Isn't he married?" Amber replied almost instantly: "He's a man of charm. The woman he lives with is not the love of his life." The internet immediately caught on. "Wait, so he is married? You're a side chick?" "I knew a guy this perfect wouldn't just be sitting on the market. Being a proud homewrecker is disgusting!" Amber quickly deleted all the negative comments, but I was fast enough to screenshot every single one of them. Amber, you probably have no idea how much society detests homewreckers. Your desperate deletion of comments only proves one thing: you are insecure. You know your relationship is dirty, yet you proudly parade it. That just shows how cheap you are. I took a deep breath, kept my mouth shut, and drove my daughter straight to the theme park. Just as we arrived, my phone rang. It was Marcus. "Chloe, I just remembered I ordered some expensive steaks on Instacart, and they're being delivered right now. You need to go home and put them in the fridge, or they'll spoil!" My heart cold-hardened. Marcus would never buy groceries at a time like this. His only goal was to drag me back home so he could enjoy his night with Amber. "Okay, I got it," I said. Maybe my voice sounded too calm, because he suddenly hesitated. "I actually have some urgent work to finish tonight, so I might not be able to join you guys. But don't worry, I'll make it up to you and Lily next weekend!" "I understand." I hung up and checked our Ring doorbell camera app. The delivery guy was indeed there. I texted my neighbor, asked him to grab the box for me, and sent him $20 via Venmo to say thanks. Then, I walked into the park with my daughter. Nothing was going to stop me tonight. I was going to make sure Marcus learned that actions have consequences. At the same time, my divorce attorney sent over the draft agreement. I had compiled all of Marcus's financial statements, along with screenshots of all the expensive gifts Amber had boasted about on TikTok. Those gifts were bought with our marital assets. I forwarded everything to my lawyer. All that was left was to serve him. The park was crowded. After dressing Lily up in a cute little devil outfit, we held hands and walked through the park. I took tons of photos of her, and some of myself. Our family of three was split into two teams tonight. In Amber's eyes, a wife like me didn't deserve to be here because I was no longer young and fresh. But who decided that having fun was only for the young? Using Amber's real-time TikTok posts as a map, I tracked their location. Lily was having a blast, and I bought her some cotton candy. Just as we were looking for a staff member to take a photo of us, I saw them. Not even ten feet away, Amber was wrapping her arms around Marcus's neck, kissing him while posing for a photo. Lily saw them too. She froze. "Dad?" Before I could stop her, she ran over. "Dad." That shout made Marcus spin around. The moment his eyes met mine, sheer terror flashed across his face. He pushed Amber away so hard she almost fell. "Chloe, I... I can explain." He was trembling, his eyes filled with instant regret. Lily walked up to him. "Dad, didn't you say you had to work overtime?" I stood there, a cold smile on my face. I walked up and slapped him hard across the face. "Marcus, we are getting a divorce."
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