The glow from his phone cut through the romantic torchlight of our anniversary dinner, displaying a message from a woman named Chloe that reduced my entire life with him—our son, my cancer recovery, twenty-five years—to a single, dismissive word: “obligation.”
He had the nerve to tell me I was overreacting.
That this little fling, this secret life he kept on a second screen, was “not a big deal.”
This trip was supposed to be our fresh start after a brutal year, a trip I planned to celebrate surviving, to celebrate *us*. Instead, I was just a box he had to check before he could get back to his real life.
He had meticulously documented his own betrayal for years, and he never expected the ‘obligation’ would be the one to find that digital diary and forward it to his entire world.
A Paradise Built on Sand
The air in Maui was thick with the scent of plumeria and promises. It was the kind of air that was supposed to scrub you clean, to bleach the gray stains of the past year and leave you sparkling. I breathed it in, a deep, deliberate gulp, trying to force the hope past the lump of anxiety lodged in my throat.
Twenty-five years. A silver anniversary. It felt less like a celebration and more like a treaty negotiation held in a neutral, beautiful territory. The last year had been a slog through mud, my health scare a sudden, terrifying pit that had swallowed us both. Mark had been there, technically. He’d held my hand in the sterile white rooms and brought me lukewarm tea, but his eyes were always somewhere else, distant and hazy.
He had promised things would be different. “A fresh start, Di,” he’d said, his hand on my arm, the gesture feeling practiced. “Just us. We deserve this.” And I, flush with the relief of a second chance at life, had chosen to believe him. I’d planned this whole trip, every detail curated to spark a memory of the couple we used to be. The small business I ran, a bespoke floral design shop, could practically run itself for two weeks. This was for us.
He was already on his phone, scrolling with that intense, focused frown he usually reserved for stock market tickers. “Look at that water,” I said, my voice a little too bright.
Mark grunted, his thumb making a furious little swiping motion. “Incredible.” He didn’t look up. The turquoise water could have been a sheet of plywood for all the notice he gave it. A familiar prickle of irritation started behind my ribs. This was day one. Hour one. And already, I was fighting for a scrap of his attention.
Whispers in the Code
We settled into the resort, a sprawling palace of white columns and lush greenery that seemed to mock the decay I felt in my own marriage. Mark was all smiles for the bellhop, charming and easy, a version of himself he rolled out for strangers. With me, the mask slipped.
Later, as I unpacked, he sat on the edge of the king-sized bed, his phone buzzing intermittently on the nightstand. Each vibration was a tiny electric shock against my nerves. He’d pick it up, tap out a quick reply, and set it down screen-side down. A new habit.
“Who keeps texting?” I asked, trying to sound casual as I hung up a sundress.
“Just work,” he said, the words automatic. “Henderson is having a meltdown over the quarterly reports. The usual.”
It was a plausible lie. Henderson was always having a meltdown. But there was something in the speed of his reply, the way his fingers flew across the screen, that didn’t feel like work. It felt like muscle memory. It felt secret. I remembered a time, years ago, after our son, Kevin, had left for college, when I’d found the first evidence. The credit card statements with hotel charges in our own city. The hushed phone calls. He’d sworn it was a one-time mistake, a symptom of his mid-life crisis. He’d begged. I’d stayed.
The Weight of a Promise
That evening, we walked along the beach as the sun bled across the sky in violent shades of orange and pink. I felt the fine, warm sand between my toes and tried to ground myself in the moment. My hand kept straying to the faint scar under my blouse, a thin, raised line that felt like a permanent question mark on my skin. The doctors had called me lucky. They’d used words like “remission” and “vigilance.”
Mark had called me his miracle. He’d cried, his head in my lap, the night I came home from the hospital. He’d promised to be present, to cherish every second. “I almost lost you,” he’d whispered, his voice thick with what I’d mistaken for devotion. “I’ll never take you for granted again.”
That promise was the only reason we were here. It was the bedrock of this entire, expensive, last-ditch effort. I had clung to those words like a life raft, letting them tow me through the awkward silences and the moments his gaze drifted away. I’d told myself the distance was just his way of processing the trauma. I’d told myself he was scared.
He slipped his hand into mine. It was cool and dry. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” he said, finally looking at the sunset.
“It is,” I agreed, a fragile hope fluttering in my chest. For a moment, just one, it felt real. It felt like we might actually make it.
## A Table for Two, and a Ghost for Three
The restaurant was an open-air pavilion right on the edge of the water. Tiki torches flickered, casting a warm, dancing light on the white linen tablecloths. The rhythmic crash of waves against the shore was a perfect, romantic soundtrack. I had booked this table months ago. It was the centerpiece of the anniversary celebration.
“To twenty-five years,” Mark said, raising his wine glass. His smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. “And to many more.”
“To us,” I replied, clinking my glass against his. The sound was a hollow little chime that got swallowed by the ocean’s roar.
The meal was exquisite, but I could barely taste it. Mark was a million miles away. His phone was on the table beside his plate, a sleek black monolith. He kept glancing at it, a nervous tick. He’d angle his body away from me when he thought I wasn’t looking, a subtle, protective posture. He was guarding it.
The ghost of our past sat between us, a cold, invisible presence. It was the memory of his first affair, the years of quiet neglect, the feeling of being the reliable, boring foundation upon which he built his more exciting life. And now, a new ghost was making its presence known, buzzing and glowing silently on the table.
The Glow of a Second Screen
“I’m just going to use the restroom,” Mark announced, pushing his chair back. He stood, stretched, and gave me another one of those manufactured smiles. “Don’t let them clear my wine.”
He walked off toward the main building, his posture confident, his shoulders back. He looked like the man I married, the successful, charming executive who could command a room. He also looked like a complete stranger.
Then, it happened. The phone, which he’d carelessly left behind, lit up. The screen glowed in the dim torchlight. I didn’t mean to look. It was a reflex, my eyes drawn to the sudden light. But once I saw it, I couldn’t look away.
A banner notification. A name I didn’t recognize: Chloe. And a message that was a punch to the gut. “Can’t stop thinking about last week. Miss you, handsome. Can’t wait for you to get back and out of that ‘obligation.’” Followed by a string of kissy-face emojis.
The air left my lungs in a silent whoosh. The sound of the waves became a deafening, mocking roar. Obligation. That’s what I was. That’s what this trip was. A twenty-five-year marriage, a son, a shared life, a goddamn cancer scare—all of it reduced to an obligation he had to suffer through before he could get back to Chloe. The blood pounded in my ears, hot and furious. Every lie, every empty promise, every moment of doubt from the past year coalesced into a single, blinding point of white-hot rage.
About the Author
