Chapter 2

“Adults can't lie! You’re going to get Pinocchio's nose!

“Your husband is so handsome! Can I see the pictures of you two together?”

I was quite dumbfounded upon hearing this. It just occurred to me that despite having been together for so many years, the photo on my phone case was our only picture together.

Ethan had always insisted he was not fond of pictures. That was the reason the only picture we had together was the one we took on the day we got married.

The child’s mother must have noticed something was off. She proceeded to pull the girl away from me before excusing her daughter’s manners embarrassingly, “Sorry about that, it’s just kids being kids.”

I brushed it off and commented no further.

Then, I grabbed my phone again and scrolled mindlessly.

As soon as I opened my feed, I saw a new post Cecil Greene made only a minute ago.

It was a screenshot of a post Ethan had shared on his page, captioned, [Loving you was the best choice I have ever made.]

I froze the moment I saw the post. My fingers were shaking when I proceeded to go to Ethan’s profile.

His page was set to only display posts from the past three days. It was empty.

A thought suddenly occurred to me. I found myself logging into my alternate account before directing myself to Ethan’s profile again.

This time, I saw everything as clear as day.

His latest post was made only ten minutes ago.

He had attached two pictures to the post. One was of himself and Cecil with their cheeks pressed together, and the other was a shot of a table splayed out with a variety of dishes.

I looked at the food on the table. They were the same dishes Ethan had prepared for me today.

The caption read, [Happy Birthday. I would do anything for you.]

There was also a pinned post on his page. It was a picture of him and Cecil from three years ago.

After staring at the picture for a while, I proceeded to extract the picture we took together from my phone case.

It was a nearly identical picture with us standing in the same background, but that was the extent of the similarity.

In the picture with Cecil, he was smiling tenderly.

In contrast, he looked annoyed in the picture with me. I remembered we even had a scuffle on the morning of the picture.

My fingers were shaking when I scrolled through his profile.

He had been making posts nearly every day, sometimes even several posts a day.

I clicked on a random one and was met with a picture of him and Cecil kissing under a burst of fireworks.

I remembered that day. It was New Year's Eve.

I had been waiting for him for ages with a bouquet of flowers in the square, all just for him, to send me a text telling me he was working overtime and that I should head home to get some sleep.

This whole time, he was in the same square as I was. While I was shivering in the cold with a bouquet in my hands, he was hugging and kissing another woman.

I clicked another post. It contained a picture of them sharing an affectionate kiss at the top of the Ferris wheel.

I remembered the day as well. I had a terrible fever and was trying to ask him to bring some medicine home for me. It took countless calls before he picked up at all.

In the end, he ended up bringing a pack of digestive supplements home.

Now that I had seen the post, I realized that the pack of pills wasn’t even meant for me. He was only buying them for Cecil and got some extra for me as a matter of convenience.

My eyes were reddening when I clicked on yet another post. It was one of him taking Cecil's dog to the vet for deworming.

I remembered that day too. It was a day I would never forget.

My grandmother was sick and was on her deathbed at the time. Before her passing, she held my hand tightly and expressed her wish to see Ethan one last time.

I called Ethan again and again until he finally picked up. When he finally did answer, he grumbled impatiently, “I have something urgent at work and had to leave for a business trip out of town. What do you expect me to do? I can’t rush back.”