I Can Smell Every Lie, and My Husband Reeked of Betrayal Chapter 07

I Can Smell Every Lie, and My Husband Reeked of Betrayal Chapter 07

After leaving his office, I pushed all those messy thoughts aside and stopped by the neighborhood baby boutique to pick out a few more things for my baby.

“You’re Ms. Reed, right? Your husband was in here last week with another woman.”

The shop clerk greeted me with a friendly smile before I could even browse the shelves.

My feet halted.

“Excuse me?”

“He came in with a little girl. That woman picked out a crib and a stroller, paid the deposit already.”

The world went dead silent around me.

“She’s got really great taste, all our top-selling items. Your husband said you’d just need to come

confirm the colors.”

She held out a handwritten shopping slip.

I recognized the handwriting immediately.

It matched the note Chloe had left on my coffee table when she’d visited our house, the one with her

phone number scrawled across it.

Baby crib, off-white.

Stroller, navy blue.

Car seat.

Temperaturecontrolled water kettle-a small side note underneath: For Shannon’s formula-making.

My hands started to shake, not out of anger, but from raw physical nausea.

The cloying scent of gardenia felt like it flooded straight into my nostrils off that piece of paper.

I couldn’t hold my voice steady.

“Cancel all of it.”

“Wait, but the deposit-”

“How much was it?”

“Four hundred dollars.”

“Reep the four-hundred-dollar deposit. Cancel everything.”

The clerk stared at me in shock.

I turned and walked out of the store.

I settled into the driver’s seat and shut the car door, my fingers wrapped tight around the steering wheel.

Tears didn’t fall. I hadn’t cried in years.

The last time I’d cried was the day my sister left home. I’d smelled that heavy, overwhelming bitter burnt odor clinging to her.

I’d grabbed onto her sleeve, and she’d ripped my hand away before climbing into a man’s car.

I’d learned that day-not every relationship is worth fighting to hold onto.

My phone lit up. A text from Finn popped up.

Finn: [I’m heading home. Wanna swing by that baby boutique together?]

I stared at the screen. I typed out a line and deleted it. Typed another, erased that too.

Finally I sent one short line.

Shannon: [The clerk told me you already went there with Chloe.]