MY HUSBAND WENT ON A WORK TRIP WITH HIS FEMALE COLLEAGUE—HOURS LATER, HE CALLED ME IN TEARS.
My husband has a female coworker he’s really close to—basically his assistant—and they’ve both been competing for the same promotion. I’ll admit it: I was jealous. He spent more time with her than with me, and then he told me they’d be traveling together for a week-long business trip.
What he didn’t mention was that they’d be sharing a hotel room.
Before I could confront him, he called from the airport in tears. Their plane had to make an emergency landing because of smoke in the cabin, and he thought they were going down. The scare left him shaken, and he confessed that he’d been neglecting me while obsessing over the promotion. He swore nothing had ever happened with his coworker, Natalie.
He sent me constant updates from St. Louis, even videos with Natalie in the background looking perfectly normal—not flirty. When he came home, we hugged, talked, and started reconnecting. A week later, neither he nor Natalie got the promotion, and he seemed relieved. Life actually felt good again.
Then I got a text from an unknown number:
“You don’t really know your husband. Ask him about Chicago. –N”
Chicago wasn’t on the itinerary. When I asked Marcus, he denied everything—but his expression slipped just enough to worry me. That night I checked his credit card statement.
There it was:
Hotel Indigo – Chicago. One night.
My stomach dropped.
