A Husband's Final Goodbye

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Your wife took an extended leave to be with an important friend. You didn't know? The ER colleague's words slammed into my gut like a heavyweight punch.

Sadie was burning up with a 102.5-degree fever. She sobbed in my arms, begging for her mom, but my wife had ruthlessly cut off my desperate call for help.

A second later, a video notification lit up my phone screen.

There she was. My doctor wifethe woman who claimed she was in the middle of a life-or-death emergency surgerywas wearing a sexy, plunging dress I had never seen before. She was leaning in, intimately feeding a perfectly cut piece of steak right into another man's mouth.

I used to think we had it all. I thought we were set for a lifetime of happiness.

It only took one month of her first love being back in the country to turn me into the ultimate joke.

Chapter 1

Julian returned to the States. Sloane picked him up from the airport and threw him a lavish welcome party at the most expensive rooftop restaurant downtown.

She kept me in the dark.

On the phone earlier, she claimed an emergency surgery had come up at the hospital and she wouldn't be coming home tonight. I had just said okay and told her not to overwork herself.

After hanging up, I read Sadie a bedtime story. She fell asleep quickly, clutching her teddy bear.

But in the middle of the night, a weak, whimpering cry jolted me awake.

I reached out and pressed my palm against her forehead. She was burning up.

The digital thermometer beeped, the red numbers freezing at a staggering 102.5 degrees.

My stomach dropped.

I immediately dialed Sloane's number.

The first time, it rang into a long, agonizing voicemail. No answer.

I dialed again. It rang exactly twice before the call was ruthlessly cut off.

I didn't dare waste another second. I bundled a delirious Sadie tightly in a thick blanket, grabbed my car keys, and rushed to the city hospital where Sloane worked.

The midnight ER waiting room reeked of sterile bleach and pure panic, suffocating enough to make my chest tight. I held a drowsy Sadie, anxiously filling out tedious insurance forms in the ER and pacing back and forth in the freezing waiting area.

Sadie whimpered in discomfort against my chest. Her small face was flushed crimson, and she unconsciously mumbled for her mom. Every syllable felt like a white-hot needle piercing right through my eardrums.

Turning the corner toward the lab, I bumped right into Collin, a doctor from Sloane's department. He looked exhausted, having just stepped off a surgery rotation. He blinked in surprise when he saw me.

"Grant? What are you doing here so late with Sadie?"

I shifted my weight, letting him see the lethargic little girl in my arms. "Spiked a high fever."

Collin frowned, his expression twisting in confusion. "Oh, man. Why didn't you just call Sloane? She's off duty today. I thought she'd be home watching the kid."

My boots planted firmly onto the linoleum floor.

The chaotic noise of the ER was instantly vacuumed out of the air. The only sound left was the violent rushing of blood pounding against my temples.

My throat felt like sandpaper. "She's off today?"

"Yeah, she asked the chief for a few days off. Said she had something extremely important to handle. You didn't know?" Collin's pager buzzed before I could answer. He checked it, waved quickly, and hurried down the hall.

I stood frozen in the middle of the corridor, clutching my daughter.

I looked down at my daughter's flushed, feverish face. A harsh, hollow laugh scraped at the back of my throat.

Her mother took days off to accompany a 'very important friend.' Meanwhile, her daughter was burning up with a 102.5-degree fever, and her husband's desperate calls were ruthlessly disconnected.

At 3:00 AM, I carried Sadie, finally stabilized after her IV drip, back into the house. The empty rooms were dead silent.

I laid Sadie in her bed, but sleep evaded me. I pulled out my phone and mindlessly scrolled through TikTok.

The welcome party must have been too flashy to ignore. People were desperate to show it off. Her best friend, Julian's buddies, even random strangers in the restaurant.

Just like that, I swiped through over a dozen live streams and videos from every imaginable angle.

The algorithm was terrifyingly accurate.

It knew exactly that my wife was throwing a massive welcome bash for her first love, and it hand-delivered the footage right to my feed.

Chapter 2

The first video was posted by her best friend. The caption read: "My girl deserves to be happy forever."

In the clip, Sloane was wearing a stunning champagne evening gown I had never laid eyes on. She was smiling radiantly, leaning in intimately to feed Julian a perfectly cut piece of steak.

That dress was expensive, and dangerously revealingthe back plunged all the way down to her waistline.

She had never worn anything like that in front of me.

I kept my face expressionless and swiped away.

Seconds later, a second video popped up.

This one was shot by one of Julian's buddies. The camera was pointed directly at the two of them, set to the background track of Bruno Mars' Marry You.

Sloane was holding a wine glass, her cheeks flushed a deep crimson, gazing up at Julian.

The look in her eyes was laser-focused and utterly obsessed. I had never seen her look at me like that, either.

Dawn broke.

I swapped the cold towel on Sadie's forehead, having not closed my eyes for a single second all night.

The sound of a key turning in the lock was piercing in the dead silence of the house.

The door pushed open, and Sloane walked in.

Or rather, the woman wearing that exact champagne evening gown walked in.

The dress that had looked so radiant on screen was now severely wrinkled, clinging to her skin. A mystery alcohol stain marred the hemline.

A heavy, suffocating stench of hard liquor mixed with an unfamiliar men's cologne invaded the territory I had guarded all night long, hitting my nose before she even stepped fully inside.

It wasn't my scent. And it definitely wasn't the scent of this home.

She finally spotted me sitting in the dark shadows of the living room couch. Her footsteps instantly halted. Her eyes darted away instinctively, landing awkwardly on the dying potted pothos plant in the corner.

She tossed her five-thousand-dollar Hermes bag onto the entryway cabinet, letting out a dull, heavy thud.

"Last night I meant to tell you." Her voice was incredibly light, carrying the raspy scratch of a hangover. Her fingers nervously picked at the strap of her heels.

I didn't say a word. I just sat there, staring blankly at her.

She shifted her weight, refusing to meet my eyes. She reached up, awkwardly tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, and tried again.

"The department had an impromptu dinner. Richard, the chief, was there, so I couldn't get out of it. And my phone just happened to die on me."

She spun the lie with practiced ease. It even sounded reasonable.

In the past, I might have actually bought it.

Too bad the social media algorithm had given me a highly educational lesson last night.

I grabbed the bottle of children's fever reducer from the coffee table and slammed it against the glass top. A sharp, ear-piercing crack echoed through the room.

"Sadie's fever hit 102.5 last night." My voice was dead calm, yet it dropped into the room like a heavy boulder.

Sloane's face drained of color.

She rushed forward, her hands hovering in the air. "What about now? Did the fever break? Why didn't you call me?!"

That question was the absolute joke of the year.

I let out a low, hollow laugh that vibrated painfully against my ribs.

"I did." I picked up my phone, pulled up the call log, and shoved the screen directly into her face. "First call, you let it ring. Second call, you hit decline."

The harsh blue light from the screen illuminated her face. The muscles in her face froze.

Her jaw opened. She looked like she wanted to spit out another excuse, but not a single syllable made it out of her throat.

"Makes sense. After all, your girl deserves to be happy forever." I slowly pulled the phone back, staring dead into her eyes as I enunciated her best friend's caption word for word.

Sloane's pupils contracted to pinpricks.

I didn't give her a fraction of a second to recover.

"You look gorgeous in that dress, Dr. Sloane. Julian's friends have decent taste, too. Putting Bruno Mars' Marry You over the video of you two really set the mood."

My tone was completely flat. I could have been discussing the morning weather.

Yet with every single word I dropped, another layer of blood completely vanished from her face.

Chapter 3

"Also, you clearly took days off, yet you kept telling me you were working overtime at the hospital. Who the hell do you think you're fooling?"

She stared at me, her lips parting. Genuine panic finally fractured the calm surface of those eyes I used to be obsessed with.

"How how did you know"

"How did I know?" I pushed myself up from the sofa and stepped right into her personal space. Standing a full head taller than her, my shadow swallowed her frame.

I leaned down, my lips hovering right next to her ear. I dropped my voice to a lethal whisper.

"I just want to know when I called you that second time and you hit decline without a second thought, was Julian's hand shoved up your skirt, or was it just wrapped around your waist?"

"What the hell are you talking about?! Julian and I are completely innocent! That call I I just didn't hear it!"

"Innocent? Didn't hear it?" I let out a dry scoff. I slid my phone across the glass coffee table toward her. The screen was looping a crystal-clear HD video.

In the clip, she was smiling flirtatiously, handing Julian a glass of wine. As she leaned in slightly, the plunging neckline of her dress exposed plenty of cleavage. Julian's eyes were locked dead on it.

"Do you feel so filthy about this whole thing that you need to scrub it with this many excuses?" I straightened my six-foot-two frame, forcing her to look up at me.

"Let me remind you of something, Sloane. We are married. I am your husband. Keeping a safe distance from your precious first love is the absolute bare minimum respect you owe this marriage."

"See? This right here is exactly why I didn't tell you! This exact reaction! Julian and I have absolutely nothing going on!"

"Nothing?" I looked at her like she had just sprouted a second head. "Since when did the city hospital start offering new VIP services? Is throwing welcome parties for other men part of your overtime quota now?

Does the chief surgeon have to personally drink with the guest of honor and crash at a hotel for the night? What's next? Bringing patients straight to the strip club for a consultation?"

"Grant! How dare you humiliate me like this!" Sloane completely snapped, her eyes burning with a mix of fury and sheer humiliation.

"I'm just stating facts." I picked up my phone, unlocked it right in front of her face, and slowly scrolled through my contacts.

"Tell you what. Let's make it fair. Tonight, I'll hit the bar for a few rounds with my old college sorority sister.

She just went through a nasty divorce and she's feeling pretty down, so I really need to keep her company. And hey, if we have a few too many, I'll just grab a room at a motel with her for the night."

I paused and flicked my gaze up at her. My face was stripped of warmth.

"Don't worry, though. I'll be sure to remind you not to overthink it. We're completely innocent."

"Grant, don't you dare!"

I let out a sharp sneer. My thumb hovered right over my college friend's name, pausing mid-air. "Watch me."

After that absolute circus of a fight, Sloane actually behaved herself for exactly two days.

She started coming home on time. She took the initiative to give Sadie a bath and read her bedtime stories. Hell, she even washed the dishes once.

Watching her clumsy silhouette moving around the kitchen, for a brief, stupid second, I actually thought my hardline approach had worked. I thought this family could still be salvaged.

But that illusion didn't last.

By day three, she started coming home late again.

By day five, she was back to staying out all night.

Her excuses were the same recycled garbage: "The hospital is slammed," "An emergency surgery came up," "Department dinner."

I didn't fight with her anymore. I stopped interrogating her.

Like a homeowner staring at a yard totally overrun with stubborn, parasitic weeds, I didn't have the energy to yank them out by the roots one by one anymore.

Instead, I started seriously calculating whether it was time to just burn the whole property down and start over somewhere else.

Chapter 4

That night, after I finished reading Sadie her bedtime story, the little girl wrapped her arms around my neck and asked in a sweet, milky voice, "Daddy, why isn't Mommy home yet? She promised she'd come to Family Track and Field Day with us."

My ribs tightened.

The kindergarten's Family Track and Field Day was the day after tomorrow. The teacher had specifically emphasized that both parents needed to attend.

I rubbed Sadie's head, grabbed my phone, and opened Sloane's iMessage to shoot her a text.

"Sadie's Family Track and Field Day is the day after tomorrow. You promised you'd be there. Remember to come home early."

A long time passed before she replied with a single word: "Okay."

I stared at that isolated word on the screen. I tossed the phone onto the nightstand.

By the night before Family Track and Field Day, the entryway was still dead empty.

Sadie ran out of her room over and over again, standing on her tiptoes to peek at the front door, only to be crushed with disappointment every single time.

"Daddy, did Mommy get lost?"

"Is Mommy saving a really important patient?"

"Does Mommy not want Sadie anymore?"

The innocent questions of a child, yet every single syllable sliced like a scalpel right through my lungs.

By 10:00 PM, Sadie had finally exhausted herself from crying, falling asleep against my chest with soft, jagged hiccups.

I carried her back to her room and tucked her under the covers. My phone screen lit up on the nightstand. It was Sloane calling.

I stepped out onto the balcony, slid the glass door shut, and answered.

"Hey. I can't make it home tonight." Her voice was faint. In the background, I could hear the muffled thumping of music and the chaotic buzz of a crowd.

I didn't say a word, just waiting for the punchline.

"An emergency surgery just came up at the hospital. I'm the lead surgeon, so I can't leave. It'll probably take all night. I'll just head straight to the preschool to meet you guys first thing tomorrow morning."

Another surgery. The city hospital sure had a lot of patients. So many, in fact, that their attending physician practically needed to live there.

"Got it." My voice was completely flat. "What kind of surgery?"

There was a very obvious beat of silence on her end. She clearly hadn't expected me to press for details.

"A perforated acute appendicitis. It's a pretty complicated case."

"Oh," I replied. "Well, get back to work then. Go easy on the alcohol, and stay safe."

I hung up right then and there.

I opened my social media feed, scrolling down out of pure habit.

Then, my thumb froze.

A mutual friend of Julian'sa guy I hadn't even added, but whose posts were visible due to shared connectionshad uploaded a video at 9:30 PM.

Inside a private VIP party room, the blinding club lights flashed as a crowd gathered around a massive cake. Julian was surrounded by the crowd right in the center, smiling brightly as he blew out the candles.

And my wifeDr. Sloane, the very same woman who was supposed to be standing at an operating table saving a patient with a 'perforated acute appendicitis'was standing right next to Julian.

She was leading the chorus of "Happy Birthday" with a look of absolute adoration on her face, clapping harder and louder than anyone else in the room.

She was wearing a soft white knit sweater today, making her look exceptionally gentle and sweet.

That laser-focused gaze, that radiant smile she looked like a different species from the wife I remembered, the one who wore a white coat and saved lives.

My face remained blank as I hit the buttons and took a screenshot.

Less than two minutes later, I refreshed the feed, and the post was gone.

Deleted fast.

Too bad it was too late.

Chapter 5

I stared at the screenshot glowing on my screen. In the photo, Sloane's head was tilted, resting comfortably against Julian's shoulder. A radiant, sickeningly happy smile was plastered across her face.

A bitter laugh scraped at the back of my throat. I was the ultimate clown, still out here trying to patch the gaping holes in her pathetic, swiss-cheese lies.

She wasn't scrubbed into an operating room. She was throwing a birthday bash for her personal god.

I dragged a sharp breath of frigid night air into my lungs, but the freezing temperature did absolutely nothing to extinguish the battery acid churning in my gut.

I opened my camera roll. My thumb tapped mechanically, selecting this brand-new screenshot along with every single video clip from the night before, and dropped them into a newly created folder.

I gave it a very simple name.

"Evidence."

At the registration tent for Family Track and Field Day, every other kid was practically glued to both their parents. Only Sadie stood there, her little face scrunched up in misery, her tiny fist white-knuckling the hem of my jacket.

Upbeat, high-energy pop anthems blasted on a continuous loop from the preschool's PA system.

I crouched down to her eye level, smoothing out the paper bib pinned to her shirt. "Ready to go, Sadie? Daddy's taking you straight to first place today."

She nodded hard, but the heavy disappointment pooling in her massive eyes was impossible to miss. "Is Mommy still coming?"

A beat of silence hung between us.

I rubbed the top of her head. "Mommy is busy fighting monsters right now. We're gonna go win that gold medal first, and she'll be right here when we're done."

Sadie and I totally crushed the three-legged race, taking first place.

With a shiny plastic gold medal swinging around her neck, the teacher called the little girl up to the microphone.

She gripped the mic with both hands. Her cheeks were flushed pink, but her voice rang out crystal clear over the speakers. "I had a lot of fun today but what I really want to say is, Mommy, you have to come next time. I miss you so much."

A wave of sympathetic applause rippled through the crowd of parents.

Standing in the middle of the bleachers, I stared up at my daughter. A thick, suffocating knot jammed itself right into my throat.

An intact family was undeniably crucial for a kid.

But was it really crucial enough for me to swallow all this garbage?

Right at that second, a familiar silhouette appeared at the edge of the field. Sloane had finally arrived, just in time to catch the back of Sadie's head as she stepped off the podium.

She was dressed in casual weekend wear. There wasn't a single trace of the grueling exhaustion that usually followed an all-night surgery. In fact, her makeup was flawless.

"Mommy!" The second Sadie spotted her, the floodgates opened.

She launched her tiny legs across the grass, slammed into Sloane, and wrapped her arms dead around her thighs, sobbing until she couldn't catch her breath.

Sloane looked completely caught off guard. She crouched down, awkwardly patting Sadie's back and murmuring stiff, empty comforts.

I walked over, my tone perfectly level. "Let's just go grab some food. We can pick out a toy for Sadie on the way to cheer her up."

Sloane nodded, clearly relieved.

We hit a family diner. Sadie had just finally stopped hiccuping when Sloane's phone started vibrating on the table.

She glanced at the caller ID. A flicker of unnatural tension flashed across her features. She snatched the phone and briskly walked out to the patio.

When she came back to the booth, she lowered her eyes and pressed her lips tightly together. "Grant, I'm so sorry. There's a massive car pile-up trauma case at the hospital. Severe hemorrhaging. They need me in the OR right now. I have to go."

Another surgery.

Her emergency trauma calls were more punctual than Uber Eats deliveries.

I gave a curt nod, keeping my eyes fixed on my plate. "Got it. Better hurry, then. Can't keep a patient waiting."

She blinked, clearly thrown off by how easily I let her off the hook. She quickly grabbed her purse, dropped a hasty kiss on Sadie's cheek, and practically sprinted for the door.

Chapter 6

Watching her disappearing figure, I pulled out my phone and dialed a number.

"Hey, Brody. You busy?"

Brody was my old college buddy. He worked in General Surgery at the city hospital, right next door to Sloane's department.

"Nah, just scrubbed out of surgery. What's up?"

"Nothing major. Just wanted to askdid your ER just take in a massive car pile-up trauma case? Sloane said it was pretty severe."

A two-second pause hung on the line. When Brody spoke again, his voice was laced with confusion. "Car pile-up? Not that I know of. Besides, didn't Sloane call out today? I literally saw her leave request on the chief's desk this morning."

"Oh, is that right?" I let out a dry chuckle. "Must have misheard her."

"Grant, something's off with you." Brody's gossip radar was fully pinging. "Are you and Sloane having issues? Because people in the department have been talking. She's been super cozy with that new hotshot hire from overseas, Julian. They literally grab lunch together every single day. You better keep your eyes peeled, man!"

His tone shifted into genuine irritation. "Damn it, what a mess! Just wait. I'll keep an eye out for you. If I catch them flirting in the hospital hallways again, I'll snap a picture and send it straight to you!"

I hung up and stared down at my plate. My appetite completely vanished.

Not long after Sadie and I finished eating, my phone buzzed with a sharp text tone.

It was a photo from Brody.

The background was a high-end steakhouse. Sloane and Julian had their heads pressed close together, staring at something on a phone screen. A radiant, glowing smile was plastered across her face.

Sloane was still wearing the exact same casual weekend outfit from this morning.

So this was her emergency operating room.

In my arms, Sadie suddenly started crying again. Her tiny fists bunched up the fabric of my jacket, her chest heaving with jagged hiccups.

She had accidentally seen the screen.

"Daddy Mommy is a bad person. I don't like Mommy anymore. I don't want her"

I held my daughter tight, gently patting her back. I couldn't force a single word past the tight knot in my throat.

On the screen, that blindingly bright photo was still lit up.

My thumb tapped the screen, saving the image directly into the folder labeled "Evidence."

I had just coaxed Sadie into a restless sleep when my phone vibrated violently against the nightstand.

The caller ID flashed an unknown number.

My stomach tightened instinctively. My very first thought was that Sloane had been in an accident.

The joke of it all was that when the thought crossed my mind, a jolt of surprise hit me, but there wasn't a single drop of genuine panic.

I answered the call. Sloane's mother's frantic, tear-choked voice poured through the speaker.

"Grant! Your father he suddenly collapsed! We're at the city hospital right now. Please hurry! I can't get through to Sloane's phone no matter how many times I call"

A loud ringing pierced my ears. I immediately vaulted out of bed.

I jammed my legs into my jeans, balancing the phone between my ear and shoulder. "Mom, don't panic. Which department? I'm on my way."

I rushed to the hospital, sprinting back and forth across the linoleum floors to handle the admission paperwork, sort out the insurance forms, and track down the attending doctor.

By the time my father-in-law was finally stabilized in his hospital bed, it was the dead of night.

My mother-in-law sat by the edge of the bed. Her eyes were bloodshot. She grabbed my hand, her face etched with deep exhaustion and guilt.

"Grant, thank you again. Sloane sigh. I know things haven't been right between you two lately. Please bear with her. If you two are having issues, you need to lay it all out on the table. Don't just bottle it up."

I gave a stiff nod. I didn't say a word.

Lay it all out on the table?

Lay what out?

Should I ask her what brand of cologne Julian wears?

Or should I ask her whose bed she's been tossing and turning in?

Chapter 7

My father-in-law, Gerald, finally woke up. His clouded eyes slowly flickered open and landed on me. He gestured weakly for me to come closer.

"Grant, come here." His voice was a raspy thread, but his gaze was sharpdangerously lucid.

I leaned down.

"Don't listen to her mother's meddling," Gerald panted, his chest rattling. "Sloane is my own flesh and blood. I know exactly what kind of lie she's spinning just by the way she blinks. Her heart is somewhere else right now. I see it."

He paused, a flicker of guilt crossing his face before it hardened into resolve.

"Back at that hellish intersection years ago if you hadn't shoved her mother out of the way, she would've been lying in a cemetery for six years already. Our family owes you, Grant. Everything."

"If Sloane did something to betray you don't worry about us. You do what you have to do. I've got your back."

"Just take care of Sadie."

A thick, suffocating knot formed in my throat. My eyes burned. In this house full of lies, someone finally treated me like family.

I gave a heavy, solemn nod. "I will, Gerald. I promise."

I stepped out of the hospital, the biting winter wind hitting my face. It was a cold splash of reality. I drove toward my mother's place to pick up Sadie. Halfway there, my phone shrieked.

It was Sloane.

I barely tapped the 'accept' icon before her voice exploded through the speakers, sharp as a serrated blade.

"Grant, you've really outdone yourself! You went behind my back and ratted me out to my parents? I should've known you were just playing nice to set me up! How petty can you be? Your heart is so damn black that you have to turn everything into something filthy!"

I could hear her mother sobbing in the background, trying to talk her down.

I listened to her screeching, but the expected anger didn't come. I felt nothing but a profound sense of exhaustion. It wasn't even worth an argument.

In her mind, the staying out all night and the endless web of lies weren't the problem. The real 'sin' was me making her lose face in front of her parents.

"I'm not that bored."

I dropped those four words like a guillotine and disconnected. There was no point communicating with someone who lived in their own deluded reality.

Inside the hospital room, I stood there, paralyzed, clutching my disconnected phone. I gripped the plastic edge of the hospital chair.

My mother was beside herself, tears streaming down her face. "Look at you! Still acting like you're the one in the right! You're a married woman who hasn't been home in days. Who are you trying to fool?!"

In the bed, my father's chest was heaving. His hand shook violently as he pointed a finger at me.

"You told me you were working overtime. Which department? Was Julian's birthday party part of your surgical rotation?"

The blood drained from my face. My lips trembled. "Dad what are you you're talking nonsense"

"Nonsense?" My father let out a cold, jagged laugh. He reached for his phone on the nightstand and started dialing. "Hey, Richard? It's Sloane's father. Do me a favor. Send me Sloane's attendance records for this month. Yeah, right now. I want to see exactly how much 'overtime' my daughter has been putting in!"

My stomach bottomed out