Chapter 2After Five Years as a Stay-at-Home Husband

After he deleted "Leo's Mom," my old habit of never touching his phone vanished.

I started checking it from time to time.

He never stopped me.

And I never again found any suspicious chats with other women.

Our life slid back onto its comfortable tracks.

As usual, he would drop Lily off at preschool after I left for work.

One day, my company organized a family day event. I was on my way back from a client meeting and passed right by the preschool, so I decided to pick Lily up myself.

From a distance, I saw them sitting on a bench in the little park next to the school. A delicate-looking woman with long hair and a gentle air was speaking to Mike.

"She found out, didn't she, Mike? She's the one who deleted me."

I froze.

"Yeah, she wasn't happy," he said. "But I got a new phone. If you need anything, you can call me on this number."

He handed her a brand-new phone.

"You should use this to call me from now on," she said, her voice soft. "Your old one is so slow. Think of this as a thank you gift for making Lily breakfast all those times."

And the phone he was holding, his own phone, was clearly the matching pair to the one he'd just given her.

My hand tightened around my own phone, its paint peeling at the edges. The cold metal dug into my palm.

It was one of the matching family phones he’d bought when I was pregnant with Lily. One for him, one for me, and one for our baby.

I remember him holding me close, his cheek pressed to my belly, whispering, "Sweetheart, Mommy and Daddy and you will all have the same phone. By the time you’re five, it will be filled with all our happy memories."

"And if they get old," he'd promised, "we'll get a new set together. A new family of phones for our family of three."

Lily was four now. Not quite five. But he couldn’t wait.

A wave of hollow pain, carried on the autumn wind, crawled up my legs and seized my heart.

But I had Lily. We had been through so much together.

My parents and my brother died in a car crash when I was in college. I lost my entire family in a single night. He was the one who stayed by my side, day and night, a steady anchor in the crushing darkness. He held me together when I was falling apart. Without him, I might have just faded away in that house filled with the ghosts of their laughter and love.

And after Lily was born, he was the one who encouraged me to chase my dreams. He voluntarily gave up his high-paying job to stay home and take care of her.

The memories of his love were countless, undeniable…

He had loved me so, so much.

I stared at my husband, bathed in the gentle sunlight, speaking so softly to another woman, and my world began to feel unreal.

They hadn't really done anything, had they? Not really. Maybe I’d mistaken the phones. It was just a phone, a thank you gift for making breakfast…

I tried to crush the ache in my chest.

Mike stood up and saw me.

I forced a smile and walked over, linking my arm through his. "Still here? Who's this?"

"When did you get here?" Mike asked, sidestepping my question. I could feel his body tense up.

"Just now," I said, leaning in to give him a cheerful kiss.

He visibly relaxed, the warm, smiling Mike returning. "This is Leo's mom. I wasn't great at making breakfast, so she used to bring some for Lily."

"We were just talking about picky eaters," he added.

Leo’s mom, Sophia, glanced at Mike and then laughed, covering her mouth. "You two are so sweet together. No wonder Lily is so adorable."

"Well, I won't keep you. I should get going," she said. She held up the new phone Mike had given her, wiggling it in a little wave.

The screen caught the sun, flashing a sharp glare directly into my eyes. It stung.

My grip on Mike's arm tightened, harder and harder, until he winced and murmured, "Elara, what's wrong? You're hurting me."

I snapped back to reality, leaning my head on his shoulder coquettishly. "Mike, can you blow in my eye? I think I got something in it."

He bent down, his hands gently on my shoulders, and carefully blew into my eye.

The air from his lips was cool against my skin, and my eyes began to water. The tears welled up, spilling over, a silent, unstoppable stream.

Through the shimmering blur, his face grew indistinct.

What am I going to do? I still love you so much.