The Suite Receipt Betrayal

I opened our shared laptop to finish a presentation due in an hour, but a notification

intercepted me. It was a hotel booking confirmation for a luxury suite in Los Angeles—dated

for the same weekend Emily claimed she was staying at a budget motel for a "work conference."

My heart hammered against my ribs. Emily had been gone for three days, and this receipt

showed she wasn't alone. I spiraled through her inbox, desperate for it

to be a mistake. Instead, I found a thread with her colleague, Mark.

It wasn't just business. The messages were filled with "I can't wait to be alone with you" and photos

from a hidden world I was never part of. Every "I love you" she texted me that weekend