Chapter 2: Whose Hair Is This?
1550 Words
Ellie casually chatted with Sean’s colleague for a bit before quickly leaving. Her hands gripped the steering wheel tightly. Sean hadn't gone to work today. He had lied to her, and Samantha had lied too. Why?
One was her beloved husband, and the other was her best friend. How could they conspire to deceive her together? Ellie felt as if her heart was being squeezed, leaving her breathless.
After a long while, she finally drove home. She hadn’t been there long when she heard movement at the door. She glanced at the time; it was five o’clock, the time their daughter got home from school.
The door opened, and Sean entered with their daughter. Seeing Ellie sitting on the sofa, he looked surprised. “Home so early today?”
Ellie had many questions for him—where he had been today, whether he was hiding something from her. But in the end, she merely said calmly, “I didn’t have much to do today, so I came back early.”
“That’s great. You should spend some time with Anna today.”
“You help Anna with her homework first. I’ll cook dinner.”
Sean rolled up his sleeves and headed to the kitchen.
Ellie told her daughter to start her homework and stood at the kitchen door, watching Sean busy inside. Could this man really be having an affair?
“What’s wrong?”
Sensing her gaze, Sean turned and smiled at her.
“Nothing, I’ll help you.”
Ellie rolled up her sleeves. She couldn’t cook but could at least assist. She felt she should ask him directly, rather than suspecting blindly. After all these years, she should trust him.
Just as she was about to speak, she noticed a long, chestnut-colored hair on his shirt. Her heart sank. She had short black hair, so whose hair was this?
At that moment, Sean’s face seemed unfamiliar to her. Anger, disappointment, and heartache all mingled, trapping her in a suffocating net.
She thought she would explode, confront him. But instead, she patted his shoulder, hiding the hair in her hand. “Forget it. I’m not much help here. I’ll check on Anna.”
She turned and left, afraid she would lose control and unleash everything. She almost fled into her daughter’s room, forcing a smile at Anna’s surprised look. “Do your homework, sweetie. Mommy will stay with you.”
Anna glanced at her strangely but said nothing, burying her head in her homework. Ellie’s mind was in chaos, the chestnut hair in her hand feeling like a chain around her heart, making it hard to breathe.
Whose hair was this? She thought of many people. Samantha had dyed her hair this color, so had the colleague she saw today, and a student Sean had mentioned before.
In that instant, everyone seemed suspicious. She didn’t know how she managed through the night, nor how she calmly said goodbye to Sean and headed to the office. Sitting in her office, the reports and files in front of her were just meaningless words.
“Ms. Su, here’s the new sales proposal.”
Her assistant placed a new proposal on her desk. Ellie snapped back to reality, glancing at her assistant, her eyes lingering on the assistant’s chestnut-colored hair. She couldn’t help but ask, “Why did you dye your hair that color? Is it popular?”
The assistant looked at her blankly and replied cautiously, “It’s this year’s trend. Is there something wrong, Ms. Su?”
“No.”
Ellie waved her hand, indicating the assistant could leave. She needed to think clearly.
Once the seed of doubt is sown, it takes root, grows, and eventually becomes a towering tree. The painting, the skincare product, the hidden schedule, Samantha’s deceit, and now this hair—all these things piled up, suffocating her.
After much thought, she found a private detective online and paid a deposit. That evening, Sean prepared dinner as usual, waiting for her with their daughter. Looking at his gentle and affectionate face, Ellie felt torn.
Half of her believed he wouldn’t do such a thing, that there was a misunderstanding. The other half screamed that he was a hypocrite, deceiving her all along, already betraying her.
The next day, Ellie went to work as usual. But once at the office, she immediately opened an app she had just downloaded. This app could track the location of her car, something she had never used before but found unexpectedly useful now.
Soon, Ellie saw Sean’s car moving. The map showed that he first went to their daughter’s school, then drove to another location. About half an hour later, the car stopped, but it wasn’t at the university where he worked. It was an unfamiliar place, three districts away.
Ellie grabbed her car keys, her mind filled with various scenarios. She wondered what she would do if she caught Sean with Samantha, or with another woman. She had imagined countless outcomes, but none prepared her for what she actually saw.
The location wasn’t a hotel, a club, or a residential area—it was a nursing home. And the name of this nursing home was very familiar to her because her father lived there.
Even though she had never visited, she sent money to this account every month, so the name was deeply ingrained in her memory.
She parked her car and was about to ask at the front desk when she saw Sean pushing an elderly man out for a walk. Instinctively, she hid. Her emotions were a whirlwind.
She never expected that Sean’s secret visits were to this nursing home to see her father. Her relationship with her father was strained. She had once had a happy family, but it fell apart after her father’s infidelity and her mother’s suicide. This was why she had never visited.
She watched Sean taking her father for a stroll and then saw him escorting her father back inside. Ellie stood there for a long time before going to the front desk to pay several months of fees and then glanced at the registration book.
Her father’s column frequently listed Sean’s name. Noticing her lingering gaze, a nurse said, “The account is registered under his daughter’s name, but it’s always her son-in-law who visits.”
“He comes often?”
“Yes, he’s very familiar with everyone here. We sometimes ask for his help to move patients when needed.”
Ellie listened quietly. Samantha’s cover-up, Sean’s secrecy, and that strand of hair all seemed to make sense now. Because of her relationship with her father, Sean chose to hide it from her, even involving her best friend to help.
The hair was likely picked up while he was helping out at the nursing home.
Ellie felt completely relieved but also deeply guilty. How could she have doubted Sean, who was so kind? The more she thought about it, the more ashamed she felt. As she left the nursing home, she called Sean.
“Hello, darling,” Sean answered quickly.
“Sean, we haven’t had a night to ourselves in a long time. I’m not working late tonight. Let’s have my parents take Anna, and we can go out for dinner.”
“Sure, I remember you said you wanted Japanese food. How about we go to our usual place tonight?”
Sean’s cheerful voice came through the phone.
“Okay.”
After hanging up, Ellie drove back to work. As soon as she finished her tasks for the day, she headed to the restaurant. She decided that tonight she would be honest with Sean and apologize for her suspicions.
Regardless of her relationship with her father, Sean had been fulfilling her duty as a child for her these past two years. Where else could she find such a husband?
While waiting for Sean, she remembered hiring the private detective. She quickly called to cancel the investigation. “Hello, you can stop the investigation now. Consider the deposit as your fee. Thanks for your trouble.”
As she was about to hang up, the detective hesitated. “Ms. Su, are you sure? We discovered something concerning. Your husband frequently visits a nursing home.”
“I know about that,” Ellie replied, about to end the call.
“But we also found out that he recently took out a substantial accidental death insurance policy on you, with him as the beneficiary.”
“Surprise!”
A bouquet of red roses suddenly appeared in front of Ellie. She looked up to see Sean’s familiar yet somehow unfamiliar face.
“And I have a gift for you. I hope you like it.”
Sean handed her a small box, which contained a custom necklace with their initials engraved on it.
“I planned to give it to you on your birthday, but we haven’t had much time alone lately, so I wanted to surprise you. Do you like it? Are you happy?”
Ellie forced a smile. “I love it. Thank you, darling.”
“Let me help you put it on.”
Sean leaned in to clasp the necklace around her neck. The moment the cold metal touched her skin, she felt as if a snake had wrapped around her, making her shiver.
- Writer
