His Lie Count Stayed Zero for Five Years — Till His Assistant Came Chapter 01

I could see a number floating above everyone’s head.

It showed how many times that person had lied to me.

In elementary school, the boy who sat next to me stole my eraser. When he denied it, the number above his head changed to one.

On the day my parents divorced, Dad told me he’d be back soon. His number changed to two.

When Mom was seriously ill, she held my hand as she lay in bed and told me she was just going to sleep for a little while. Her number changed to three.

I’d known since childhood that everyone had secrets. Everyone lied.

That’s why I always kept my guard up and never trusted anyone easily.

Until I met Elliot Hayes.

We’d been together for five years, and the number above his head had never changed. It was always zero.

When he said he was leaving on a business trip, it stayed at zero.

When he said he loved me, it was still zero.

When he promised he’d marry me once things settled down, I watched that zero and waited five years.

I thought Elliot would never lie to me.

Then, on my twenty-eighth birthday, just as I closed my eyes to make a wish, Elliot gave me an apologetic look.

“Sorry, Jen. Something went wrong with a project. I have to go back to the office.”

I knew how hard he worked. I was about to tell him I understood when the number above his head suddenly flickered for the first time in five years.

It changed shape in an instant.

Zero became one.

Elliot had lied to me.

I looked at him and asked carefully, “Are you really going to a meeting?”

He didn’t even look up. He grabbed his coat and headed for the door.

“Don’t overthink it. When have I ever lied to you?”

The front door slammed shut. The candles on my birthday cake were still burning.

My birthday wish had been that Elliot would never lie to me.

Now it would never come true.

***

Wax dripped into the frosting. Looking at the cake, I completely lost my appetite.

That glowing number one seemed to be flashing right in front of my eyes.

I wanted desperately to believe I’d imagined it. Or that it was just a white lie.

Then the tablet on the table lit up.

Elliot was still signed in to his messaging app.

Two conversations were pinned to the top. One was our chat. The other was marked with a sun emoji.

Behind the sun emoji was Renee Foster, his assistant.

Three minutes earlier, she’d sent him a message.

[Drive safe. I’ll be waiting.]

Ten minutes earlier, right when Elliot told me he had an emergency meeting, Renee had complained to him.

[Mr. Hayes, my cramps are killing me.]

He’d replied almost immediately.

[I’m on my way.]

In the thirty seconds I’d spent with my eyes closed, making my birthday wish, he’d been putting together a lie so he could go to another woman.

My hands shook as I scrolled through their messages, one after another.

Three months’ worth of photos and voice messages from Renee.

Even when she sent nothing more than a meme, Elliot quoted it and replied. Every single time.

When I played him my favorite playlist, he’d frown and say it was too noisy.

When I shared the little things that happened during my day, he’d give me a cold look and say they were pointless.

There were no explicit messages. No openly flirtatious words.

To anyone else, it might have looked like an ordinary conversation between a boss and his assistant. Nothing that crossed a line.

But Renee had become someone special to Elliot.

Special enough to make him lie to me for the first time in five years.

I closed the messaging app and opened Find My. We’d been sharing our locations for months.

Elliot’s location stopped outside a dessert shop.

I’d been talking about that shop’s chocolate tiramisu for ages.

Elliot always said it was too far away. He’d offer to send me money so I could order delivery myself.

I’d told him the shop didn’t deliver, but he still never once took me there.

Now he stayed there for almost two hours.

Then a $10 Apple Cash transfer appeared in their message thread.

Elliot had stood in line for two hours to cheer Renee up.

He hadn’t complained about the distance. He hadn’t complained about the wait.

All because Renee had sent him a picture of the shop two weeks earlier, and he’d remembered.

Then the little red location marker vanished. Maybe he’d lost his signal.

But I knew where he’d end up.

Renee’s place.

I sat on the couch all night. Elliot didn’t come home until dawn.

He hung up his coat and paused when he saw me.

“You didn’t sleep?”

“I was waiting for you.”

“Why? I told you I had a meeting.”

He came over and placed a box of tiramisu on the table.

“Didn’t you say you wanted some from that place? I passed by on my way home and picked one up especially for you.”

I looked at the number above his head.

The number changed to two.

His second lie. Again, because of Renee.

“Elliot, I wanted chocolate, not mango.”

He tugged irritably at his tie.

“What’s the difference? Jenna, I’ve been working all night. I’m exhausted. Can you stop being so dramatic?”

I didn’t answer. He went into the bedroom and closed the door.

I picked up the mango tiramisu. A little sticker on the bottom right corner of the box read COMPLIMENTARY.

It was a complimentary dessert Renee hadn’t had room for. Elliot had handed it to me as though he were getting rid of trash.

I threw it away.

As I approached our bedroom, I heard Elliot speaking gently on the other side of the door.

“Does it still hurt? I’m here. Go to sleep.”

I stood outside, cold from head to toe.

I’d been awake all night, and Elliot hadn’t even asked if I was okay.

He’d told me to stop making a fuss.

Then he’d saved all his tenderness for another woman.

I took out my phone and opened the transfer application my supervisor had sent me two days earlier.

A position in San Francisco.

I tapped Confirm.

I wasn’t going to wait until that lie grew into something too painful to bear before walking away.