PART 2
Austin clenched his jaw as he stood at the bedroom door and saw the bed was completely untouched. The pillows were perfect and Brianna’s side of the bed was as cold as stone.
“I just wanted to hear your voice,” he said with a calm he did not feel. “I am going to sleep now and I will be back on Sunday.”
“Oh, okay. I love you,” Brianna replied before he hung up the phone without answering her.
He stood there in the middle of the empty room holding his phone as if it weighed a ton. The lie had not been clumsy because it was clean, natural, and almost elegant in its execution.
That was what hurt the most, not just that she was gone, but how easily she could lie to his face. He sat on the edge of the stairs and ran a hand over his face while the pieces started to fall into place.
He thought about the late work dinners and the showers she took as soon as she got home while avoiding his eyes. He remembered the laughs at messages that disappeared when he walked in and the sudden distance between them.
Austin stood up and walked through the living room like a stranger in his own life until he saw it on the coffee table. A watch was sitting there, large and gold with a distinct blue dial that was impossible not to recognize.
It belonged to Julian Vance, who was Brianna’s boss at the firm. Austin had seen him show it off at a company dinner while he laughed too loudly and looked at everything as if he could buy it.
Now that same watch was sitting in his living room on a table Austin had paid for with his own money. He picked it up carefully, feeling that if he squeezed it even a little harder, he might break himself apart.
The betrayal was no longer a suspicion because it now had a name and a forgotten object left behind. He did not sleep at all that night and instead lay fully dressed on the bed while staring at the ceiling until the darkness turned gray.
By the time morning came, he was no longer the same man who had walked into the house a few hours earlier. Beneath the pain, something colder and sharper was forming inside his mind.
Early that morning, he called Brianna with a calm voice and told her there was an important delivery coming. He asked if she would be home that night around eight o’clock to receive it.
Brianna answered without suspecting anything and said she would spend the day with her sisters shopping and having lunch. Austin thanked her and hung up before making more calls to her parents, her sisters, and her closest friends.
One by one, he spoke to them with patience and kindness while crafting a perfectly believable story. He told them he was organizing an intimate surprise to honor Brianna for her kindness and recent charity work.
They were all excited and believed they were walking into a special night to celebrate her. Austin spent the entire day preparing the house by moving chairs, chilling wine bottles, and arranging every detail with surgical precision.
By evening, he placed a neatly wrapped box at the center of the dining table that was not too big or too small. At ten minutes to eight, the guests began to arrive with smiles and flowers while speaking about Brianna as if she were admirable.
May you like
At exactly eight o’clock, the front door opened and Brianna walked in laughing with shopping bags in her hand. The moment she looked up and saw the room full of people, she froze and the color drained from her face.
Her eyes slowly dropped to the box in Austin’s hands while she dropped her bags on the floor. Her mother was the first to smile and shout “Surprise!” while her sisters applauded enthusiastically.
