Daily Check‑in From My Cheating Husband

Since it's already the end of the year, I'm slacking off at my job. That's when I come across a forum post on the Internet. "My husband has gone on a business trip on his own. This is the photo he sent me when he updated me on his situation. Everyone, can you please take a look at the photo and tell me if there are any problems with it?" The Internet users are quick to go into their Sherlock Holmes mode. Still, they aren't able to spot any problems with the photo. But a comment is quick to catch my attention. "Am I the only one who thinks that this post is a clickbait? Could it be that a disloyal jerk who's cheating on his wife wants to proclaim his devotion toward her but is scared that he might get caught? Maybe that's why this photo is uploaded here instead so that everyone can help him find out what's wrong with this photo!" As soon as the comment is posted, the original poster deletes the post instantly. This makes me frown. At the same time, my husband, Gavin Prescott, sends me a photo on WhatsApp. "Honey, here's my daily update! Your darling husband is still devoted to you as always!" As I stare at the photo, which is exactly the same one that was posted on the Internet, I feel my heart sinking. This is definitely not a coincidence! Chapter 1 My expression went cold, and I typed out a reply on purpose. "I swear, someone is hiding by the window in that photo." It took a long time for my husband Gavin Prescott's response to come through. "You're seeing things. That's just a potted plant." He was lying to me. My chest tightened, and I called him, but he didn't pick up. My mind started racing on its own, turning the whole thing over and over. Something about this was deeply wrong. When he came home from his business trip, he was the same as always, wrapping his arms around me, all playful and affectionate. It was like the photo wasn't even on his radar. I brought it up myself. "Honey, you've been sneaky. Just look at this photo." He cut me off before I could finish my thought. "What about the photo?" He didn't even glance at it. Anger flared across his face. "I check in with you every single time I travel. Why are you still so paranoid? What could possibly be in that photo? Can you just stop overthinking for once?" Then he completely ignored me and stormed into the bathroom. The suspicion in my gut only deepened. That forum thread I'd found had commenters coaching men on this exact strategy. If a wife latched onto something, the advice was to flip the script, turning it around on her and making her feel like she was the one with the problem. But was I really the one with the problem? That night, he tucked his phone under his pillow before falling asleep. I lay there with my eyes open, staring out the window, listening to his breathing settle into a slow, steady rhythm beside me. After a while, I turned my head and carefully slid the phone out from under his pillow. The passcode was still our anniversary. I went through his call log and messages and found nothing. I let out a breath, and guilt crept in around the edges. Maybe I really had been overthinking everything. But then I remembered what people online had said about cheating husbands hiding apps and using duplicate messaging accounts. My heart climbed into my throat, and I followed the steps exactly as they'd described, one by one. That was when I found it. The hidden account was full of cluttered messages. I tapped through a few conversations without seeing anything alarming at first, but then I thought to check the cached images buried in the app's file folder. That was where I found the hotel check-in photo he'd sent me, and by tracing the image, I tracked down which conversation it had been shared in. It belonged to a woman nicknamed Lise. I opened the message thread between Gavin and this woman. "Honey, routine check-in for you. Your man's been very well-behaved." "You're being so good!" "Obviously. I'm loyal to a fault. I'd never do anything to hurt you, honey." The pain hit so hard that it felt like a fist closing around my heart. Gavin was really cheating on me. I forced myself past the ache and opened Lise's profile page. Then I froze. I was staring at wedding photos of the two of them. Underneath, there were comments from his parents, the same people who had never once warmed up to me. "Our daughter-in-law is just gorgeous. A perfect match for our son!" The color drained from my face. A perfect match? Then what was I? Which one of us was actually the other woman? I didn't sleep that night. I lay there watching Gavin's face as he slept, saying nothing, swallowing every question back down. Chapter 2 The moment Gavin left, I got in the car and drove to his hometown. I stood at the entrance to the courtyard, my nerves wound tight as I peered inside. A young girl, about five or six years old, was bouncing around the yard playing by herself. She spotted me and shouted toward the house. "Mom, someone's here!" My heart seized. Elise Carver slowly walked out, with one hand cradling her swollen belly. She looked even softer in person than she had in the wedding photos, wearing pajamas and slippers with an easy smile on her face. From the size of her belly, she couldn't have been far from her due date. She had a spatula in her hand as if she'd been in the middle of cooking. Everything about her radiated the image of a devoted wife and mother. I stared at her, my brows creasing. The ring on her finger was identical to the one on mine. "Can I help you?" She smiled at me pleasantly, as though she had no idea who I was. My throat felt raw. "Who are you to Gavin Prescott?" Elise was about to answer when the girl beat her to it, bouncing with excitement. "He's my daddy!" Elise nodded along, confirming it like it was the most natural thing in the world. So it was true. The reality of the situation hit me like a wall. "When did you two get married?" Irritation flickered across Elise's face. "What does that have to do with you?" "It has everything to do with—" But before I could finish speaking, two older figures rushed out from inside, their expressions guarded and hostile. They were Gavin's parents. They positioned themselves in front of Elise like a shield and looked at me like I was a threat. "You're not welcome here. Leave." I was so furious that I almost laughed. "Why should I? You owe me an explanation." "There's nothing to explain." Gavin's father, Paul Prescott, grabbed a broom and leveled it at me, his eyes full of warning. "Elise is carrying our grandchild. She doesn't need this kind of stress from you. Get out. Now." They were treating me like I was the intruder in their perfect little family, an enemy at the gates. Elise looked genuinely confused. "What's going on here? Are you looking for my husband? He's away for work and won't be back until the weekend. "If you're a friend of his, you're welcome to stay for dinner. It's really no trouble, just one more plate at the table." She looked like a woman completely wrapped up in her own happiness. My heart twisted so hard that I couldn't breathe. She was nearly full-term. If I destroyed everything right now, the consequences would be more than I could bear. I turned around and left, feeling completely numb. When I got home, Gavin was already waiting in the living room. His parents must've messaged him. "Why did you go to my hometown? She's about to give birth. She can't handle that kind of shock. If you have a problem, you take it up with me. She's innocent in all of this." Fighting back my tears, I sat on the couch and stared at him coldly. He dropped to his knees and started slapping himself across the face, hard, again and again. "Sienna, I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. Please, just give me another chance." "She's really your wife? You actually have children together?" He clenched his jaw and nodded. The blood drained from my face, and my voice shook. "Between the two of us, who is your wife?" His expression turned grim, and he told me the truth piece by piece. He and Elise had grown up together as childhood sweethearts, but he'd fallen for me at first sight in college. During our second year together, he went home for the holidays, got drunk, and ended up sleeping with her. "You were so focused on your career back then. You hadn't made time for me in forever, and I just... I slipped. "And you never wanted kids. My parents resented you for it. I was stuck in the middle with no idea what to do. "Then that one night got her pregnant, and my parents were thrilled. They threatened to disown me if I didn't let her keep the baby. "I figured that since you didn't want to get pregnant anyway, I wouldn't push you. So I just let it happen." I was so furious that I laughed. Chapter 3 I questioned, "So you built a second family with her back home?" Gavin nodded. "Sienna, you have to believe me. You're the only one I love. If I had feelings for her, I would've been with her from the start. Why would I have chosen you?" He was desperate to prove his loyalty, but all I felt was revulsion. I stared at him coldly. Was this really the same man I'd fallen in love with? After we got married, he'd treated me so well. He knew I didn't like spending time with his parents, so he never once pressured me to visit his hometown. He was always trying to smooth things over between the two of them and me. If either of them said a single bad word about me, he'd shut it down immediately. He'd even spent three straight years celebrating the holidays with my parents instead of his, and he didn't care when his own mother and father called him in a fury over it. I would never forget how he'd stood in front of my parents and sworn, with absolute conviction, that he would never let me down and never let me be hurt. And the entire time he was making those promises, he'd had another family waiting for him back home. He'd lied to me for five full years. Every trip back was to see his other wife and daughter. He'd even gotten his childhood sweetheart pregnant a second time. The happiness I thought I had was nothing but a joke, something I'd invented in my own head. "Sienna..." Gavin reached for my hand. "I'm begging you. Don't leave me." I shook him off in disgust, swallowing down the nausea rising in my throat. "You don't want a divorce?" Hope flickered across his face. "Then what about your sweetheart and your daughter?" "She doesn't care about any of that. All she wants is stability. She has my parents and the kids. She doesn't care who I come home to, as long as you don't make a scene back there and embarrass her. "She'll take care of my parents, and it'll be one less thing you have to worry about." I couldn't hold it in anymore. I grabbed the trash can next to me and threw up. "So what, she's your mistress tucked away in the countryside? You're both disgusting." I slapped him across the face, got to my feet, and shoved him out the door. He knelt outside, begging and pleading, and it went on for what felt like forever until his tone suddenly shifted to panic. "Sienna, my daughter's being bullied by the kids at her preschool. I have to go check on her." And then he was gone. I stared at my reflection in the mirror. My face was as white as a sheet, and my eyes were bloodshot. My head was pounding so badly that I collapsed onto the bed and passed out. I slept until the middle of the night, and Gavin still wasn't home. But my mind was sharper than it had been in days. I couldn't keep living like this. I needed to divorce him. I dug up the phone number I'd saved from Gavin's phone, the one belonging to Elise, and sent her a message. "I'd like to talk to you about Gavin's bigamy." Her reply came almost immediately. "Okay." We met at a KFC near his hometown. I looked up at Elise, and my heart ached for her despite everything. I told her the whole truth, every last detail, and held nothing back. "I've already talked to a lawyer. What he's done is bigamy. We can press charges." Elise's expression stayed perfectly calm. "And then what? "Sienna, you don't actually think I had no idea he married you, do you?" I froze, and a chill crawled down my spine. Elise let out a mocking little laugh. "I've known since college that he fell for you and married you." "Then why did you still—" "Because I don't care. Everyone back home knows that we grew up together. As far as they're concerned, we're the real couple, and you're the shameless homewrecker who broke up a family. "And here's something you probably don't know. Your marriage certificate is fake. I'm the one on his real marriage license. I'm his legal wife, and I'm not about to help you prove that he committed bigamy." For a moment, I couldn't speak. "Regardless of all that, he still cheated on you." She shrugged like it meant nothing. "He doesn't even have real feelings for you. Why would I care? He was only doing it so that our daughter and I could have a better life." Chapter 4 I asked, "What's that supposed to mean?" Elise replied, "Exactly what it sounds like. He never loved you. "Gavin and I have been together since we were teenagers. When he chased you in college, when he sweet-talked you, all of that was for your family's money and connections. "And while I was pregnant, you were handling his needs for me, like some free whore. So really, why would I care?" Elise looked down at me like I was beneath her. "You're the mistress I signed off on. As long as my position as the real wife is secure, I couldn't care less about you." I was stunned by the sheer audacity of her words. She looked thrilled with herself. "I'm carrying the Prescott family's firstborn son. His parents only recognize me as their real daughter-in-law. If I wanted to, I could have you thrown out tomorrow. "Sienna Sanches, to us, you're nothing. "If your family didn't have money or if you couldn't fund Gavin's business, he wouldn't have given you a second look. We grew up together. I gave myself to him the day I turned 18. "He's told me more than once that every time he touched you, it made his skin crawl. He had to take pills just to get it up. "And your family almost going bankrupt? That wasn't bad luck. He deliberately funneled your family's key projects to a competitor, all because you were clinging to him, and I got a little jealous. "Plus, that million dollars he borrowed from you, the one he said was for a business emergency? He spent it on my engagement ring and our wedding. Because I was the one worth investing in, and you were just the fool giving it away for free." Elise's smirk widened. "So why would I waste my time worrying about someone as worthless and embarrassing as you?" I was shaking with rage. I raised my hand to slap her, but she moved faster. She slapped herself hard across the face, once, twice, until her cheeks were red and swollen. Then she dropped to her knees, wrapped her arms around my legs, and burst into tears. "Ms. Sanches, you have all the money and power in the world. It would be so easy for you to destroy me. But I'm begging you, for the sake of my baby, please stop going after my husband. "My husband only has eyes for me. Even if you try to throw money at us to tear us apart, we will never give in." I stood there, completely blindsided. And where no one could see, Elise dug her nails into my thigh so hard that I yelped. The pain was so sudden and sharp that I kicked out on instinct. She crumpled to the floor, clutching her stomach, her face going pale. "Ms. Sanches, just because you want my husband doesn't mean you can try to kill my baby! Are you trying to drive me and my child to our deaths?" Every pair of eyes in the restaurant turned on me, filled with hatred. I was shaking from head to toe. A few people rushed forward, pulling Elise behind them protectively and shoving me back hard. I stumbled and hit the ground. Before I could even get up, someone spat on me and kicked me. "Disgusting homewrecker. You make me sick." My head struck the leg of a chair, and everything went black. When I came to, I was in a hospital. It was dark outside, and there was a message from Gavin on my phone. "Daily check-in photo. I'll be home tomorrow." The photo looked completely ordinary, like he'd never been living a double life at all. A wave of grief washed over me. Right then, a message came through from an unknown number. "Do you know what Gavin is doing right now?" I tapped in and saw that the person had sent me a photo of a birthday cake. It was Elise's birthday, and the whole family was celebrating together. Gavin's parents were in the picture, along with every one of his close friends. It made one thing perfectly clear. Elise was the one they all considered Mrs. Prescott. And me? I had truly become what they called the mistress—the shameful secret no one wanted to acknowledge. Rage and pain hit me at the same time. I pulled my knees to my chest and sobbed. Chapter 5 Since my marriage to Gavin was fake, there was no need for us to file for a divorce. A clean break would do. I packed up everything Gavin owned and threw it all out, then sent him a breakup message and blocked his number. He never came back, and I thought it was over. I didn't expect Elise to show up instead. She arrived with a camera crew trailing behind her, her belly swollen and her daughter in tow. Her face was deathly pale with dark circles carved deep under her eyes. The moment she saw me, she pulled her daughter forward, and the two of them dropped to their knees right in front of me. She braced one hand against her stomach and started wailing. "Sienna, you're the Sanches heiress. You could have any man you want. Why do you have to take mine? "I'm pregnant. My husband is trying to support all three of us, and it's already so hard. "You're using your family's company to pressure him into being with you. Are you trying to kill us?" She stayed on her knees, rocking and sobbing so hard that her whole body shook. The young girl knelt beside her, also in tears. My employees stared at me in disbelief, and I watched the way they looked at me shift in real time. Elise slapped herself across the face with a sharp crack. "Please, just let my husband go. He doesn't want to be with you. I'm begging you." She threw her arms around my legs and sobbed hysterically. I clenched my jaw and forced the words out through my teeth. "Elise, stop with the act and get out of my building." People in the crowd had already started livestreaming the scene. I could hear bystanders muttering around me. "The Sanches heiress is somebody's side piece? Unbelievable." "And she's making the pregnant wife kneel? That's just evil." I pried Elise off me and called Gavin. "Get here right now and take Elise away, or I swear you'll regret it." Gavin rushed over. Elise was still on the ground, clutching her daughter and sobbing uncontrollably. He knelt beside her and gently helped her to her feet, his face full of tenderness. "Honey, don't beg her for anything. I'm never going to leave you." "But she's the Sanches heiress. I don't want her making things difficult for you. I don't want you to suffer because of me." I was shaking with fury as I watched the two of them go back and forth. "Gavin, tell everyone what's really going on. Right now." Gavin stammered and couldn't get a coherent word out. Meanwhile, Elise tugged at his sleeve, her face twisted in pain. "Honey, Ms. Sanches has been forcing you to be with her, threatening to destroy your company and leave our family with nothing. I can't stand by and watch you lose everything you've built. Maybe you should just divorce me and be with her." Their daughter burst into tears. "Mom, Dad, please don't get divorced! I don't want to grow up without a dad!" Something hardened in Gavin's expression. He looked at me, walked over, and slapped me across the face. I pressed my hand to my cheek and stared at him in utter disbelief. He glared at me through gritted teeth. "I've told you a hundred times. I don't care if you're the Sanches heiress. I'm not interested in you. I'd rather die than be with you." Elise chimed in with a pitying sigh. "I have to wonder what kind of upbringing the Sanches family gave their daughter, if her only ambition is to be someone's mistress. What a disgrace." I had never been this humiliated in my entire life. My face burned under the weight of every contemptuous stare in the room. The comments from onlookers kept coming, one after another. "Shameless. The Sanches family is a lost cause." Just like that, I had become the other woman in everyone's eyes. I looked up at Gavin, my expression going cold. "Gavin, if you insist on pinning this on me, then you'd better be ready for what comes next."