04

I didn’t want to scar them for life by things they were too young to really know about. God knows we probably sounded like a pair of ticklish hyenas.

I filled a cup of instant chicken noodles with hot water—they restored my sanity and sense of emotional balance like nothing else could.

Something was threatening my currently wonderful life and it ate at me to not know what it was—because I’d like to go and kick its ass to the curb.

I understood Brandon’s reticence. He was just as stubbornly protective of me as I was of him. It was going to take a lot to crack his defenses and let me in on it.

It was going to take all kinds of persuasion but I was confident that Brandon was more than vulnerable to my charms.

In the silence of the kitchen, I finished my cup noodles, wondering if this was the calm before the storm.

Uncertainty’s like a hole that keeps opening in the sky, waiting to swallow you up. Either that or an alien portal. The latter at least sounds interesting.

I hated this sense of trepidation that would come out of nowhere every now and then.

My life was too good to be true that I often feared I would wake up and realize that it was all the work of my overactive and overambitious imagination.

Someday, you’re going to have to stop being afraid. What good are wonderful days if you only spend them worrying they wouldn’t last ? That’s kind of a waste, isn’t it ?

I let out a long, soft sigh before getting up on my feet and cleaning up in the kitchen.

I caught sight of Brandon’s discarded suit jacket on an armchair and picked it up on my way back to the bedroom.

Pausing, I lifted it to my nose and inhaled deeply, smiling at the familiar scent of him.

My stomach clenched at the thought of this torment he had been keeping to himself in the last few days.

He had the look of a man whose wounds were festering. If left unattended, it could mean his death.

“Don’t be such a coward, Charlotte. Things will be fine,” I mumbled to no one in particular, pressing the jacket tightly against me.

I frowned as I felt a sharp poke against my midsection.

I held up the jacket and felt it up with one hand, finding the stiff shape of a greeting card.

I slipped it out of the inner pocket and draped the jacket on my arm as I read the handwritten address for Maxfield Towers on the back of the light blue envelope. There was no sender information on it at all but the pretty cursive was decidedly feminine. Since it was sent to his work address, I figured it wasn’t a personal correspondence.

Then why the hell is he carrying it in his inner pocket ?

I held the card for a long moment, debating whether to stuff it back into his jacket or read it.

I shouldn’t. I really, really shouldn’t.

On the other hand, I needed every clue available to find out why Brandon’s been so high-strung the last few days.

In the quest for my husband’s happiness, I’ll peek. The end justifies the means, right ?

I sighed, knowing it really didn’t, but my fingers were already reaching inside the envelope and grasping the card.

My brows knitted as I stared at the caricature of a house and a moving truck on the front of the card. In a comical font, ‘We’ve Moved !’ was printed right at the top of the illustration.

I flipped it open and the first thing I saw was the small, wallet-sized photo taped to the bottom right side of the card just right under the sender’s new address. In the photo was a toddler with fine brown hair and hazel eyes.

Hazel eyes. Not quite the ones I’m intimately familiar with but hazel all the same.

My hand started to tremble as I forced my eyes away from the photo to read the note on the left, written in the same cursive as the address on the envelope.

Brandon,

I know you told me not to come to the city but it’s time we stop hiding. We can go on as we have without hiding like a dirty secret.

I’ll stay out of your way. You don’t even have to visit although it would be lovely to see you.

You’re married now and I completely understand.

Zach misses you though. He hasn’t seen you since his first birthday.

He’s speaking a little bit now, you know ? Said ‘Dada’ last time. It was a bittersweet to hear. Someday soon, I’m going to have to tell him about his father.

In case you want to visit, we’re going to be at the first apartment you got for me. You know the way.

Take care, Brand.

Nicole

I didn’t realize I was holding my breath until it rushed out of me in one sharp, shaky exhalation.

I’ve never drowned but this must be how it would feel like—a heavy, oppressive weight on your chest, your lungs fighting for air, burning until they were near bursting, your temples throbbing from the painful pressure.

I stared at the note on the card through a film of stinging tears, gasping heavily as I tried to breathe.

It hurt.

God, it hurt—like a knife was wedged deep inside me, making a crevice for itself in my heart.

The pertinent words seemed to float out of the script to fit together like puzzle pieces.

It explained a lot—his agitation, his late evenings, his evasiveness.

Brandon has a secret—one that’s big enough to cost him your marriage. No wonder he’s terrified.

Remembering his words earlier when he made those fierce declarations to me brought back the very fresh memories of the earth-shattering sex we just had.

I shuddered, suddenly conscious that he might have gone straight home from his mistress’s bed and nailed his wife against the shower’s tiled wall.

Bile rose in my throat and my skin crawled.

A storm of different emotions hurtled through me, leaving me even more breathless than I thought possible.

Grab on to something—anything. Don’t let the currents take you.

Preferring a stronger emotion that would hold me up on my feet like a shot of adrenaline, I passed over the sense of betrayal and the raw pain.