The Wife's Lie

By chance, I discovered that Larry had two cell phones, and one of them contained a secret that I was not allowed to touch.

In that phone, he and his mistress were a family, but I was their prey to be slaughtered. They had set a trap for me, wanting to take everything from me and leave me with nothing.

When a woman no longer had feelings for you, who knew who might end up being the loser in the end.

1

Looking at the two men in uniform in front of me, I impatiently held my baby in my arms, who was not crying or fussing, and was as quiet as an angel.

My name was Yolanda Knight, I was 29 years old, and this was my third year as a full-time housewife. My baby was three months old.

One day, one of my besties shared an article titled "Actress Suspected of Being a Victim of a Romance Scam" in our group chat and tagged me, urging me to read it carefully. She said she wasn't sure about the article's authenticity, but I fit the description perfectly.

I glanced at the title and didn't even click on it to read it, and the article didn't even register in my mind.

My husband, Larry James, was three years younger than me. We had been married for three years, although we never held a wedding ceremony. But including our dating period, we had been together for almost five years, and our relationship had always been stable.

Four years ago, the online game company that was funded by me and whose technical development was mainly handled by Larry began to get on the right track. At present, although it had not yet turned a profit, there was great potential for the future.

The idea that I could be a victim of a romance scam, where someone was deceived into a fake romantic relationship for financial gain was laughable.

Life was not a consecutive drama; there weren't so many conspiracies.

However, something that happened a month later changed my perspective.

By accident, I discovered that Larry had two identical phones.

That day, he was called out by his friends for a late-night snack and forgot to take his phone.

Larry's phone was registered with my fingerprint, but I had never had the habit of sneaking a peek at his phone. I believed that trust and space were very important for a relationship. If there was no space and mystery, it meant that their relationship had come to an end.

The only reason I thought of using his phone was to log into the TV app with his account, as all the memberships were under his name. That day, the membership login expired and needed re-scanning, so I instinctively picked up his phone.

However, I tried my fingerprint and the password, none of them worked.

I knitted my brows, returned his mobile phone to its original position, turned off the TV and went to apply a facial mask. Less than thirty minutes later, Larry hurried back in a rush. He didn't even change his shoes and the first thing he did was rush into the room to look for his phone.

Seeing his anxious face, I smiled and asked why he was in such a hurry. He said he was treating his friends tonight and couldn't pay without his phone, as he had no cash on him, and his friends were waiting.

I smiled, turned on the TV, and opened the app login page. "Honey, why couldn't I unlock your phone earlier? Can you log in for me?"

He came over, kissed me on my cheek, and pulled his phone from his right pocket. "Let me see, how could you not unlock my phone?"

He pressed my thumb against the unlock sensor. "See, it opens, right? Did you not hold your hand properly just now?"

I smiled outwardly, but inside, my heart froze over.

I had clearly seen him put the phone in his left pocket, yet he took it out from the right.

I was certain Larry had two phones.

One of them held secrets I was not allowed to unlock.

I revisited that article one of my besties shared before.

And I found some similarities between myself and the female protagonist in the story.

First, the male and female protagonists start a business together, with the female providing the funding and the male providing the technical expertise.

Second, all company partners were the male's friends, whom the female barely knew.

Third, important decisions were made without the involvement of the female partner, or it seemed that she had a say but her input was not taken into account.

Four, the company was always operating at a loss.

But one more difference, Larry had a phone I couldn't unlock.

What exactly was concealed within that mobile phone which I was prohibited from touching?

Considering that Larry had been treating me more coldly of late, my intuition indicated that his greatest secret might be a woman.

That night, I put on the camisole he liked the most.

I had only worn it once before, six months ago, when he was particularly passionate. But this time, even when I snuggled up to him, he didn't react. In the end, he simply turned away, leaving his back to me.

In that moment, I felt an inexplicable sense of humiliation and pain. I never thought that my marriage, which had only lasted three years, would have a third party involved.

I thought I should first find out that annoying third party.

It is well said that when a woman started paying attention to details, every woman could be a Sherlock Holmes.

In the morning, Larry put on the shirt and trousers I prepared for him, ate the breakfast I made, and as he picked up his bag, I insisted he take me and our baby to the company.

He was reluctant, but he couldn't refuse me, so he agreed.

When we arrived at the company, the employees gave me strange looks, so strange that I almost lost my temper.

I supposed that it seemed that my husband's having a mistress had become an open secret. She was likely in the company; otherwise, why would everyone look at me with such sympathy?

Once Larry started working, I began observing the female employees.

There weren't many, only three including the cleaning lady, a receptionist, and an accountant.

I immediately ruled out the unkempt cleaning lady.

The receptionist was a young girl, about twenty-two, with pretty manicured nails. Whenever there was no one at the entrance, she would chat on Whatsapp, occasionally smiling shyly, clearly in love. Larry didn't check his phone that often.

So, I headed to the accountant's office.

When I entered, the accountant was touching up her makeup.

Her name was Joanna Cooper. Back when I worked at the company, we got along quite well. She used to be quite plain, never wearing makeup, always with a bare face. How long had it been since she started touching up her makeup in the office?

And if I was not mistaken, she had already married, and her child was almost three years old, right? In the office, all the men were married, so who was she touching up her makeup for in such an environment?

My expression turned sour. If the mistress was indeed Joanna, I would undoubtedly give her several resounding slaps.

I sat down on the sofa opposite her and looked at the baby in my arms, who was sleeping peacefully.

I touched my baby's face, soft and supple, just like the stuffed doll I loved as a child.

I asked Joanna, "What do you think of Larry?"

Joanna looked a bit taken aback and said she thought the boss was quite good, who was steady, hardworking, willing to endure hardships. She mentioned how he had been running around all day for a business deal, saying their efforts wouldn't go unrewarded.

Ugh, did you hear that? It was my money that started this company, but when it came to Joanna, it became their efforts.

Who did they refer to, him and her?

I didn't answer, but smiled at Joanna. I clearly saw that her expression was somewhat embarrassed and fear was evident in her eyes.

I was quite satisfied with her reaction, so I stood up and looked down at my baby and said, "Joanna, if anyone causes my baby to lose his father, I'll do whatever it takes."

After saying this, I turned and left, taking a cab home.

When Larry came back in the evening, he was rather annoyed. Before taking a seat, he interrogated me as to why I had gone to say those odd words to Joanna?

I looked at him coldly and said, "If you haven't done anything wrong, why are you so nervous?"

I got straight to the point. "Larry, if you didn't cheat on me, show me your other phone!"

His complexion changed instantly. He said, "Honey, what other phone?" Then he tried to brush it off, hugging me and suggesting we take a bath together.

We did bathe together, but in the end, he still didn't sleep with me. We did everything except the final step, as if I were somehow tainted.

Hmph, perhaps he's keeping himself pure for the mistress.

Later, I hired a private detective to follow Joanna and Larry, sending me detailed itineraries every night at two. Because by then, Larry would be asleep.

The detective was punctual with the itineraries, and I compared them daily. For a whole month, I found that apart from overlapping at the company, Larry and Joanna had almost no interaction. Joanna went straight to the gym after work every day.

On the forty-sixth day, the detective sent me Joanna's itinerary with some photos.

The photos showed a fitness coach guiding Joanna, with his hands either on her inner thigh or chest in some shots.

Two days later, I received photos of them entering a hotel together.

I was shocked. Joanna was indeed someone else's mistress, but the man wasn't Larry; it was a fitness coach.

I abandoned my investigation into Joanna and focused on Larry.

A month later, I gave up on following him too. It was around this time that a new female tenant moved in across from us.

Her name was Yolanda Knight. She was tall and beautiful, with long curly hair. And she owned a Samoyed named Cleo. She ran an online store and was also a live-streaming host for her fashion channel, usually streaming from six in the evening to two in the morning, trying on clothes and discussing fabrics.

Yolanda's channel was quite popular, reportedly earning over thirty thousand dollars a month.

Sometimes, out of boredom, I would watch her streams. After all, a beautiful woman was always pleasing to the eye.

A few times, I called Larry over to watch. He glanced at it and then turned away, saying that in his eyes, I was the most beautiful.

I didn't say anything at the time, but I felt a bit pleased. No woman dislikes being complimented.

But I also forgot that how could there be a man who didn't like beautiful women?

The next day, when I took off Larry's shirt, I found a white dog hair on his collar.

I didn't think much of it at the time, until the weekend a few days later when I went shopping with Larry and ran into Yolanda, who was out walking Cleo, across the street. Cleo excitedly jumped on Larry, and that's when I realized something was off.

Cleo was usually a calm Samoyed, at least never showing much enthusiasm towards me. So why was it so affectionate towards Larry, whom it supposedly didn't know?

Unless, in Cleo's eyes, Larry wasn't a stranger at all.

That night, I proactively put on a lace nightgown and hugged Larry from behind.

I said, "Honey, it's been a while since we slept together. I want to tonight."

But he just held me and said he was tired.

My heart sank a little. Was he really tired, or had I lost all attraction for him?

I couldn't sleep, scrolling through various relationship articles on my phone. One line struck me.

It was a man's confession about cheating.

The man said, "I didn't cheat because of desire or losing control. It was planned. I hate my current life which was stagnant and lifeless... That's why I decided to cheat, to seek some excitement."

At that moment, I felt a chill from head to toe.

So, had Larry grown tired of our life and decided to seek excitement?

I wanted to confront him hysterically, but I didn't.

I decided to find concrete evidence before confronting him.

By concrete evidence, I meant installing a surveillance doorbell at our front door. From that day on, every morning when Larry left, I would watch the surveillance on my phone.

On the third day, Larry ran into Yolanda, and Cleo jumped on him again. I heard Larry laughing and talking, and Yolanda responding. Suddenly, I thought they seemed quite compatible.

I decided to set up a chance for Larry and Yolanda.