Chapter 1
I kept replaying the field day video, hoping I'd seen it wrong.
I hadn't. The woman holding my husband's arm was Vanessa Reed. His first love. The one he'd never gotten over.
When she left for an overseas ballet tour 10 years ago, Adrian chased her to the airport. He crashed on the way and lost his sight in both eyes. Vanessa promptly married a wealthy heir overseas.
Adrian had been a brilliant young painter, the kind everyone envied. After the accident, people laughed at him. I spent 10 years taking care of him, then used every point I had to give him back his sight.
He cried when he opened his eyes and saw me. He held me and promised he'd spend the rest of his life giving me the best of everything.
After that, I was in every picture he painted. He made a name for himself as an avant-garde artist. We got married and had Noah. I thought we'd made it.
Then, this morning, I'd found a sticky note on the floor while I was cleaning. Noah had thrown it away. It was a reminder about the school field day.
Today.
Before I even had a chance to ask for time off, a video popped up in the parents' group chat. Adrian and Vanessa were arm in arm, smiling at each other like newlyweds. My 7-year-old ran up and hugged her legs.
"Mommy Vanessa, you're so pretty!"
I gripped my phone and called his teacher to ask what was going on.
"Aren't you the nanny? Noah said his mother's overseas, so his nanny takes care of him. I don't think you should be in the parents' group chat. If anything comes up, I'll speak to Mr. Hayes."
*****
I was waiting in the living room when they came home that evening.
"Why didn't anyone tell me about field day?"
Adrian stopped with one shoe half off. "You're never home. Would you even have shown up?"
"When did Vanessa get back?"
"We've known each other for years. We're allowed to be friends. Can you stop looking for reasons to be jealous?"
"Yeah, Mom!" Noah chimed in. "Vanessa doesn't get mad about everything. She lets me do whatever I want. And she wears pretty clothes and smells nice. I wanted her to come!"
I didn't know what to say. Did they think I'd always looked like this?
Pregnancy had dulled my skin and left stretch marks all over my stomach. Then came the postpartum depression. Adrian had been there through it all, holding our son, rocking him to sleep. "When you're bigger, you and I will look after Mommy," he'd told him.
That same little boy was now ashamed of me. Calling someone else Mommy.
"Noah." Adrian frowned. "Don't talk to your mother like that."
Afterward, Noah seemed to take it to heart. He went to the library every day after school and told me, "I'm going to study really hard, Mom. You won't have to worry about me."
I was so relieved. He was finally growing up. I gave him extra allowance.
*****
On our anniversary, I went out to buy groceries for dinner and spotted Adrian walking toward me, holding Noah's hand.
He hated shopping. Had they come to buy me a present?
I ducked behind a pillar and called him, ready to jump out and surprise them.
"Where are you two?"
"The library. Reading with Noah."
