“You can’t even tell that from a blurry reflection.”
His voice remained calm, but I noticed his thumb rubbing his wedding ring.
He only did that when he was nervous.
“We just had a wonderful vacation,” he replied quietly. “Don’t ruin it over a reflection.”
After seven years of marriage, I desperately wanted to believe him.
Instead, I opened the next picture.
It showed me standing alone on our hotel balcony, looking out at the ocean.
I frowned.
“Did you take this?”
“Probably.”
I shook my head. “No.”
I held the screen toward him.
“The angle is wrong.”
He studied it for a second.
“So?”
“It was taken from the balcony next to ours.”
For the first time, he didn’t have an answer.
The captain announced our descent.
Passengers began putting away their phones.
Mine stayed firmly in my hands.
Jake leaned closer.
“Please don’t start accusing people until we get home.”
I looked at him. “People?”
He froze.
I’d asked about one woman.
He’d answered as though there were several.
By the time we landed, I no longer cared that his mother had ignored my request.
I wanted to know how she’d managed to photograph moments she shouldn’t have been there to see.
At baggage claim, Jake stood a few feet away, checking his phone every few seconds.
“Who are you texting?” I asked.
“My mom.”
“Can I see?”
“No? Since when did you ask to see my phone?”
The answer came far too quickly.
A notification flashed across his lock screen before he turned it over.
“I took the album down. Don’t tell Natalie anything until we talk.”
My heart dropped.
“What isn’t she supposed to tell me?”
He picked up my suitcase without answering.
Outside the terminal, Paige was waiting beside her car.
The moment she saw my face, her smile disappeared.
“What happened?”
“Nothing,” Jake answered.
Paige ignored him and looked at me instead.
“Natalie?”
I showed her the photo.
“His mother posted our vacation pictures. I found this reflection.”
Paige studied the image.
“Who’s the woman?”
“I don’t know.”
Jake shut the trunk a little harder than necessary.
“It was a blurry reflection.”
“It also showed your hand on her,” I replied.
“I was probably helping someone.”
Paige folded her arms.
“With your hand on her lower back?”
Jake looked at me as though I’d betrayed him by letting her see the picture.
His phone rang.
His mother’s name flashed across the screen.
He rejected the call.
She called again.
Paige watched him.
“You should probably answer.”
Without another word, he walked several yards away.
Neither of us could hear what he was saying, but his shoulders grew noticeably tense.
Paige turned back to me.
“Do you recognize the woman?”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“Did you save the picture?”
I opened Facebook again.
The entire album had vanished.
“No.”
Paige sighed.
“That’s awfully convenient.”
Jake returned a minute later.
“We’re going home.”
Paige stepped between us.
“I think Natalie should stay with me tonight.”
“She’s my wife.”
“And she can decide where she sleeps.”
I looked at Jake.
For the first time since I’d found the reflection, he couldn’t meet my eyes.
I picked up my suitcase.
“I’m going with Paige.”
Paige drove us to her house without saying much.
The silence gave me too much time to think.
Every excuse Jake had made during the vacation suddenly felt different.
The early morning walk.
The two-hour work call.
The massage he’d insisted I book because I “deserved to relax.”
At the time, I’d thought he was being thoughtful.
Now, every missing hour felt rehearsed.
Neither of us slept much that night.
By sunrise, Paige found me sitting at her kitchen table staring at my phone.
She placed a mug of coffee in front of me.
“You’ve been awake all night.”
“I need answers.”
“Then start with someone who might actually tell you the truth.”
She was right.
There was one person I trusted more than anyone in Jake’s family.
His aunt Denise.
Denise was his mother’s older sister, and she’d always treated me like family instead of an outsider.
If something was wrong, she wasn’t the type to hide it.
I opened Facebook again.
Although the vacation album had disappeared, one notification remained.
Before it was deleted, Denise had commented on one of the photos.
