He Hid His Mistress, I Exposed Him

Chapter 4

During the meal, Vincent was being overly attentive, filling my bowl with soup and piling food onto my plate.

He said all the right, thoughtful things, but his eyes kept darting around, glancing every so often at his phone sitting on the sofa.

"How is the project coming along?" I blew gently on the soup in my spoon and asked casually.

"Ah... it's going alright. Still in the busy, crunch phase, you know," he mumbled vaguely. "The client just keeps piling on new requests. It's really draining."

"Is that so?" I looked up at him. "I happened to drive past your office building this afternoon. I was even going to stop and ask you out for dinner. The receptionist told me you'd taken the whole afternoon off and left early?"

Vincent's hand, which was lifting a ladle of soup, jerked sharply, nearly spilling the broth everywhere.

"Oh! Right!" He set down the soup bowl, his face stiff with tension. "I stepped out to meet another client, to go over some business details. It was a last-minute arrangement. I didn't have time to let you know."

"Did you manage to close the deal?"

"S-still working it out. It's... a little complicated." He picked up his fork and knife, kept his eyes fixed on his plate, and ate quickly, clearly eager to change the subject.

Then his phone screen lit up for a moment, and a message preview popped up.

The contact name showed only as Service Line.

The text read:

Service Line: Darling, I love the ring so much, thank you hubby! The baby just kicked me. He says daddy is the best in the world!

Vincent's eyes widened sharply. He slammed his hand flat over the screen to shut it off, moving so fast his arm blurred.

He looked up at once, watching my face anxiously for any reaction.

I just kept my head down, sipping my soup slowly as if I had seen or noticed absolutely nothing.

The whole room went dead quiet. The only sound left was the soft, occasional clink of my spoon against the edge of the bowl.

Vincent's phone buzzed several more times in quick succession, lighting up again and again. That same contact name flashed over and over, like a bad omen.

He was visibly on edge, beads of sweat forming on his forehead, until he could stand it no longer and grabbed the phone up.

"It must be urgent work messages. I... I'll go reply to them in the study."

He practically fled from the dining table.

I watched him walk away, then slowly set down my soup spoon.

The soup had gone cold already, and a thin layer of fat sat solid on top of it like a dull, greasy film.

A few minutes later, I picked up my water glass and walked toward the study, acting completely relaxed and unbothered.

The door was left slightly open, and I could hear his voice, low and tight, pitched as quiet as he could make it:

"...I know! But you can't just keep sending me messages like that! She almost saw them!

"Fine, fine, I'll come over tomorrow, and we can talk properly then. Just buy whatever you need, alright? Don't hold back on anything!

"I miss you too... Okay, I have to go now. Be good, yeah?"

The call ended.

I stepped quietly back away and returned to the living room.

A little while later, Vincent came out of the study. His expression looked calm again, but the exhaustion and guilt in his eyes were impossible to hide.

"Everything sorted out?" I asked.

"Hmm. Just a small mess to fix."

He forced a smile and stepped closer, reaching out to pull me into a hug.

"My wife is the best. So quiet and understanding, never gives me any trouble."

I pulled gently away from him again, picked up the TV remote, and turned it on.

"I'm feeling pretty tired. I'll just watch a little and then head to bed," I said.

A drama series was playing, where the wife had just discovered her husband was cheating and was making a loud, angry scene in front of everyone.

Vincent shifted awkwardly in his seat, looking more and more uncomfortable.

I changed the channel. It was business news.

He let out a quiet breath of relief.

The news anchor began reporting a story about a local company:

"Reports say Apex Tech Solutions has recently secured major new funding and appears to be seeing strong growth. However, news has broken that the company's founder and CEO, Mr. Drake, is facing a public scandal after his wife discovered an extramarital affair. The situation has caused major unrest on the board of directors, and company shares have dropped sharply..."

Little by little, all the color drained right out of Vincent's face.

I turned the TV off and stood up. "Come on. Time for bed."

Once we were lying in bed, Vincent lay turned away from me, his whole body stiff, his breathing fast and shallow.

He was clearly wide awake.

In the dark, my phone lit up quietly for a moment.

It was a message from Celeste.

Celeste: I've got all the details. Her name is Hailey Drake. She's twenty-three, currently unemployed. And more than that, she's your husband's distant cousin. She moved here from their hometown not long ago. Hospital records confirm she is twenty-eight weeks pregnant.

'Cousin?'

'Hailey?'

'That little girl who used to trail around behind us everywhere... always begging for candy?'

A wave of sickness rose up in my throat, sharp and sudden.

I put the phone away and lay there staring wide-eyed into the dark, until the first light of dawn broke.

The next day was Saturday. Vincent left the house first thing in the morning, without even saying goodbye to me.

I drove straight back to that apartment complex.

This time, I went all the way up to the third floor, and stood right in front of that door.

The wedding sticker we had put on the keypad lock was still there, faded now, almost bleached white.

I lifted my hand.

Instead of entering the passcode, I just rang the doorbell.