Chapter 3
The next morning, I played it cool.
“I think that piano video of yours blew up,” I told him casually.
Daniel didn’t flinch.
He even laughed, pinched my cheek.
“Not a bad thing, right? My girl’s got a side hustle now.”
“If brands come calling, you’re gonna have to keep me as your trophy husband.”
I smiled.
Then shot straight.
“So… what’s the deal with your ex?”
He paused mid-button, then wrapped his arms around me.
He leaned in to kiss my ear-but I turned my head, just enough to dodge him.
“You jealous?” he said softly.
“We broke up a long time ago. She left for grad school overseas, I stayed here.”
“Different paths, different lives. It just ended. Now? You’re the only one in my life.”
I smiled again.
But this time, I was thinking-she left.
She’s coming back.
What happens when your paths cross again?
Later at work, I wasn’t myself.
Misfilled a prescription, had to apologize to a patient.
“Let’s pause for thirty minutes,” I told my assistant, rubbing my temples.
“I need a minute.”
My head was spinning the entire morning.
If Daniel had just cheated outright, I could’ve dumped him, clean break.
But this? This maybe-yes, maybe-no emotional limbo was eating me alive.
The girl hadn’t even reappeared yet, and I was already losing sleep.
“Lauren, your fiancé off on another trip?”
Rachel, one of the front desk girls, walked in with her phone.
Chapter 3
Daniel worked as a private travel guide, pretty well-known in the industry.
He traveled all over-clients paid a premium for his curated tours.
She handed me her phone.
He’d posted nine photos from a beach town.
Nine.
“Ugh, I wish I had your fiancé’s life…”
She kept talking, but I didn’t hear a word.
Because six of those nine posts?
Same girl.
Same pose.
Over and over.
Daniel’s rule was never to feature the same client more than twice per trip.
So why her?
My gut twisted.
The kind of twist that only comes from knowing something’s off.
I texted him:
“Hey, you coming home tonight?”
His reply came fast.
“Of course I am, babe. What, you want me to sleep on the street? Haha.”
“I gotta finish the tour schedule, I’ll be back soon.”
He sounded perfectly normal.
Almost too normal.
I sighed, tossed the phone down.
Maybe I was overthinking it.
And if he was cheating?
I should just end it.
Why the hell was I playing detective like some underpaid Sherlock Holmes?
Chapter 4
But that night, when Daniel came home, I dropped the idea altogether.
“You must be exhausted-running around all day leading that tour.”
“My mom brought over a couple of ducks, so I made you some soup.”
Daniel walked in just as I came out of the kitchen.
I grabbed his coat from him out of habit.
“Exhausted! Totally wiped out!”
“These young girls taking pictures are so damn picky-none of the shots were good enough for them.”
“Had to redo the whole shoot a bunch of times.”
I smiled, didn’t say anything.
My hands automatically reached into his coat pockets-was gonna toss it in for dry cleaning.
Suddenly, my fingers brushed against a crumpled piece of paper.
I gave it a quick squeeze.
Something in my gut screamed at me to open it.
I glanced at him quietly, then stepped into the bathroom and unwrapped it.
It was… a pair of fake eyelashes.
Still sticky with glue at the base. Clearly used.
“You were the one actually doing the shoot today?”
I walked back out like nothing happened. Daniel didn’t notice a thing.”
He was ladling soup and replied casually, “Yeah, the new assistant’s still green.”
“Her stuff wasn’t turning out right, so I had to step in. It was supposed to be a three-day tour, but a few more people signed up last minute, paid in full, so now we’ve extended it.”
“I heard from Kevin that there’s someone familiar in this group?”
Kevin was part of his crew. I dropped it on purpose to test him.
Sure enough, Daniel’s eyes flickered. He set the soup down and looked away.
“Yeah… an old classmate.”
At that moment, I knew.
That girl he’s been posting in his circle?
Has to be that ex from six years ago.
And that pair of lashes? That was no accident.
That was a direct shot fired.
Even if I were the most zen woman in the world, I wouldn’t sit quietly after that kind of challenge.
I couldn’t keep playing dumb anymore.
