It was the first time his voice contained real fear.
Daniel looked at him.
“Now you want me to stop?”
“Think about what you’re doing.”
“I’ve done nothing but think about it.”
“You don’t know the whole story.”
“Then tell her.”
Silence.
Daniel nodded.
“That’s what I thought.”
My voice shook.
“Tell me what?”
He unlocked the phone again.
I moved toward him.
This time, he did not stop me.
For the first time since the confrontation started, Daniel allowed me to stand beside him.
His shoulder brushed mine.
I looked at the screen.
But before he could turn it fully toward me, Ethan spoke.
“She’s going to hate you.”
Daniel stopped.
Ethan’s face was pale.
But there was desperation in his eyes now.
“You show her that, she’s going to know what you did.”
I looked at my husband.
“What you did?”
Daniel stared at Ethan.
“Careful.”
“No.”
Ethan laughed once, breathlessly.
“You wanted truth? Fine.”
He pointed toward Daniel.
“Ask him why he’s been tracking your phone.”
My blood went cold.
I looked at Daniel.
He did not deny it.
The room erupted again.
“What?”
“Daniel?”
“You tracked her?”
I could barely hear them.
I was looking only at my husband.
“You tracked my phone?”
“Yes.”
“Without telling me?”
“Yes.”
The answer hit like a slap.
“Why?”
Daniel looked at the phone.
“Because someone sent me pictures.”
The anger inside me stalled.
“What pictures?”
Ethan closed his eyes.
Daniel continued.
“Pictures of you.”
My heart thudded.
“Where?”
“Places you actually were. Grocery store. Gym. Parking lot at work. Your sister’s house.”
I felt suddenly exposed.
Observed.
“What kind of pictures?”
“Nothing obscene.”
Daniel’s voice softened.
“Nothing like that. But whoever sent them wanted me to believe you were meeting someone.”
I stared at him.
“They sent pictures of me?”
“For months.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I thought someone was trying to destroy our marriage.”
“And your solution was spying on me?”
“My solution was figuring out who.”
“You could have asked me.”
“I know.”
His voice dropped.
“I know.”
That quiet admission somehow made my anger worse.
I looked away.
Ethan watched us.
A faint trace of confidence returned.
He saw the crack between us.
Daniel saw it too.
“So that’s the plan?” Daniel asked him.
Ethan frowned.
“What?”
“Get caught lying, then make this about me?”
“I don’t have to make anything about you. You tracked your wife.”
“I did.”
Daniel looked at me.
“And when this is over, she can decide what that means for us.”
That silenced Ethan.
It silenced me too.
Daniel was not defending himself.
Not yet.
He looked back at Ethan.
“But first, we finish this.”
He turned the phone toward him again.
Ethan refused to look.
Daniel’s voice dropped almost to a whisper.
“You said she came to your house after midnight.”
Ethan said nothing.
“You said she drove there.”
Nothing.
“You said she was wearing a black dress.”
Still nothing.
Daniel tapped the screen.
Then he turned it toward me.
This time I saw it.
And my entire body went cold.
It was not a photograph.
It was video.
Security footage.
Timestamped.
Last night.
12:47 a.m.
Ethan’s house.