The Face in His Phone

Married to Eric for ten years, and his phone was always out of storage. He cleared his chat history every single day.
I told him to get a new one, but he'd always refuse, saying the old one worked just fine.
And I believed him. Right up until the moment I discovered hed deleted my messages and forgotten my birthday, yet somehow had space for over two thousand photos of him and a young colleague at a Halloween event at the amusement park.
That's when it hit me. The problem wasn't his phone's memory. It was that I was no longer worthy of taking up any of it.

1
On my birthday, after ten years of marriage, Eric came home late from work to find the dining table empty. He looked genuinely confused.
I stared back at him, my own feigned surprise masking a deep disappointment. "The cake? You were supposed to cook tonight, remember? Did you even buy groceries?"
Eric slapped his forehead. "Oh God, Kate, I'm so sorry. I completely forgot. I'll go right now."
The bubble of anticipation I'd been holding all afternoon popped. I felt deflated. "Forget it," I sighed. "It's too late. Let's just order something."
"Eric, can't you just get a new phone? You have to clear your chats every single day!" I grumbled, the frustration finally bubbling up.
He immediately tried to smooth things over, sending me a $5,000 transfer. "I'm sorry, honey. The phone still works, it's fine. But you should get a new one. Go buy yourself something nice."
I gave him a looka mix of annoyance and affectionand let it go. "Just go take a shower. I made soup. We can order a couple of nice dishes to go with it and still make it a feast."
Eric squeezed my cheek and disappeared into the bathroom.
While I waited, I started browsing new phones online, still thinking of getting one for him. To compare prices and avoid getting ripped off by targeted ads, I picked up Eric's phone and a notification immediately popped up: "Storage Almost Full. Clean Junk Files."
On instinct, I went to his photo gallery, planning to delete some old screenshots to free up space. But what I found made my blood run cold.
His gallery contained 2,438 photos. Every single one was of the same woman: his colleague, Norah.
The oldest ones dated back a year. Each photo was perfectly angled, capturing the soft, pale light on her face. Hed even caught candid shots of her turning to smile over her shoulder.
But the most recent ones made me physically tremble. It was a selfie of him and Norah together, their faces painted with bloody streaks, little devil horns perched on their heads.
The background was unmistakable: a Halloween pre-party at the amusement park. It was from last week.
The same day as our daughter Lily's parent-teacher conference. I'd been out of town on business and asked him to go. Her teacher later told me no one showed up.
When I asked him about it, he'd claimed he got stuck with last-minute overtime and forgot. He said he'd cleared our chat history and the reminder along with it. He was so apologetic, even buying Lily a gift to make up for it.
But his "overtime" wasn't work. It was a date with his colleague at the amusement park.
An image of Lily standing alone and confused in her classroom flashed in my mind, and a hot wave of fury washed over me. I wanted to storm into the bathroom and demand an explanation.
No wonder he cleared his chats every day. He was erasing his tracks. He must have trusted me so completely, so certain I would never check his phone, that he didn't even bother to hide the photos.
The doorbell rang. The food delivery had arrived. The sound snapped me back to reality.
I collected the food, called Lily to wash up for dinner, and calmly placed his phone back on the sofa. I thought for a long moment and made a decision. I would say nothing. Not yet.
He was confident I'd never look. But even the most careful person makes a mistake, and he wasn't even being careful. He was flaunting it, treating me and our daughter like we were invisible.
Fine. If that's how he wanted to play it, I would make him feel so guilty, so utterly indebted to me, that he would willingly give me everything before I made him lose it all.

2
After Eric got out of the shower, we ate dinner as a family. Later, he retreated to his study, claiming he had some reports to review.
I opened my laptop and searched for "Norah" and the name of his company. Big data did its thing, and her social media profile was the first result.
I clicked. There were hundreds of short videos, and nearly all of them featured Eric.
A stolen glance. Feeding each other bites of food.
Eric, at least, seemed to have some reservations; his face was often cut off, showing only his chin and mouth. But the small mole on his jawline was unmistakable to anyone who knew him.
Norahs captions were interesting.
"He said he wishes he could go back ten years and drive me to school every day. Lol!"
"He bought me a Children's Day gift today! Said he was making up for the last twenty-something years I missed out on!"
"A client was giving me a hard time, and my guy stepped up and put him in his place! Total hero."
Reading that, a memory clicked. About six months ago, I'd gotten a call from the police station saying Eric had been in a fight. I rushed over, frantic with worry, only to find him calmly consoling a young woman.
He seemed flustered when he saw me, quickly explaining that some guy had been harassing his colleague and hed stepped in. Norah had even thanked me profusely, telling me how much Eric had helped her. She even took us out to dinner afterward to show her gratitude.
How pathetic. Looking back now, it was so obvious. It wasn't about justice; it was his chance to play the white knight. And I, like an idiot, had praised his "strong moral compass" and even joined them in bad-mouthing the client.
I kept scrolling and found the video from the amusement park. Her caption read: "Halloween pre-party! He promised he'd take me again on the actual night!"
I checked the date and a plan began to form.
The next morning, Eric did something he rarely did: he made breakfast.
As we sat at the table, I brought up Halloween. "We should do something for Halloween. I saw a lot of people going to the amusement park. It looks fun!"
Eric shot the idea down immediately. "No, that's for young people. It'll be too crowded. What if Lily gets lost?" he said dismissively. "Besides, it's a foreign holiday. What's it got to do with us?"
Lily looked a little disappointed. "My teacher did say we should celebrate our own traditional holidays more."
Eric ruffled her hair. "Exactly."
I could see the sadness in Lily's eyes. "But we could just go for a little while. There are other rides and things to do there, too," I pushed gently. "Think of it as a little break. The next day is a Saturday, anyway."
Lilys head perked up. "Yeah! Let's go!"
I looked at Eric. He sighed, his voice heavy with resignation. "Fine. You two decide."
Lily and I exchanged a triumphant smile.
I knew exactly what he was planning. He'd "accidentally" clear his chats and forget all about it. I just nodded, playing along.
On Halloween, just before leaving work, I sent Eric a text with the plan. Let's meet at the main gate. And please, don't delete this message.
He replied with a simple "Got it" and then went silent. I knew what that meant. He was going to stand us up and then play the "I was so busy I forgot" card.
I pulled up Norahs social media. A new video had just been posted. They were already in the car.
"He's taking me out for Halloween! Tonight is all ours!" she captioned it, complete with heart emojis.
The comments were a flood of envy.
"OMG, total daddy-boyfriend goals!"
"Wait, a guy that handsome and successful can't possibly be single, right?"
"How did you snag such a great guy?"
Norah replied to that one: "It was fate. He's always been focused on his career, that's why he was single. We're the perfect team!" And then, a truly defiant one: "So what if office romances aren't allowed? He's willing to risk it all to be with me!"

3
Everyone in the comments was fawning over her. Using a burner account, I typed a simple question: "I see a tan line on his ring finger. Is he married?"
Norahs reply was instant: "He's a desirable man. The person he lives with isn't the person he loves."
The commenters understood immediately.
"So you're saying he's already taken? You're a homewrecker?"
"I knew a guy that good wouldn't be on the market. Knowingly being the other woman is disgusting."
Norah quickly deleted the negative comments, but not before I screenshotted everything.
Oh, Norah, I thought. You have no idea how much people despise the other woman. Your defensiveness just proves one thing: you're not as confident as you pretend to be. To know your relationship is wrong and dive in headfirst anyway isn't brave; it's just cheap.
I took a deep breath, said nothing, and took my daughter straight to the amusement park.
On the way, Eric called. "Honey, I just remembered I ordered some fresh groceries online. They're being delivered right now. You need to get home and put them in the fridge before they go bad!"
I almost laughed. There were no groceries. It was a pathetic attempt to keep me at home so he and Norah could have their perfect date night.
"Okay, I will," I said, my voice perfectly calm.
My composure must have unsettled him, because he quickly added, "Listen, something came up at work. I don't think I can make it tonight. But I promise, I'll take you and Lily another time!"
"I know."
I hung up and checked the video from our doorbell camera. Sure enough, a delivery person was at the door. I texted my neighbor, asked him to accept the package, and sent him $20 for his trouble.
Then, Lily and I walked through the gates of the park.
Nothing was going to stop me. I was going to make Eric understand that his actions had consequences.
Just then, an email from my lawyer arrived with the draft of the separation agreement. I had already compiled a list of Eric's assets, including every expensive gift hed bought for Norah that she'd so conveniently flaunted in her videos. It was all marital property. I forwarded everything to my lawyer. All that was left was to serve him the papers.
The park was packed. I bought Lily a little devil costume she loved, and we walked hand-in-hand, having the time of our lives. I took dozens of photos of her, and even a few of myself. Our family of three was split in two tonight. In Norah's mind, a washed-up wife like me had no place here. This was a playground for the young.
But who made that rule?
I followed the trail of Norah's video posts, easily tracking their location in the park. Lily was ecstatic, her joy infectious. I even bought her a huge pink cotton candy.
We were busy taking pictures with a costumed monster character when I saw them. Just a few feet away, Norah was wrapped in Eric's arms, kissing him as they posed for a selfie.
Lily saw him first. Her face froze. "Daddy?"
Before I could stop her, she ran towards them. "Daddy!"
The sound of her voice made Eric whip his head around. His eyes met mine, and raw panic flashed across his face. He shoved Norah away from him so hard she stumbled.
"Kate! II can explain!" he stammered, his face a mess of shock and regret.
Lily reached him, her small voice trembling. "Daddy, you said you had to work."
I walked up to him, a slow, cold smile on my face, and slapped him hard across the face.
"Eric," I said, my voice ringing with finality. "I want a divorce."

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