Chapter 1
The body wash at home had been switched to a different brand.
Even the air freshener was now jasmine-scented-a fragrance I’d always disliked.
I glanced at the bell around my ragdoll cat’s neck and noticed it had been replaced with a little jasmine charm. I call my husband, Riley Huxford.
“Has anyone been over recently?”
I’d only been away on a business trip for three months, but my home already felt unfamiliar.
“Last month, Brody brought his girlfriend over for dinner,” Riley said on the phone. “Why? What’s up?”
I forced a smile and told him it was nothing, then hung up.
Right after, I pulled up Brody’s girlfriend’s Instagram profile and scrolled to her pinned post.
“Oh my god! Who keeps saying jasmine is good? People with jasmine allergies never get a break.”
I stared at the blatant lie, riddled with holes.
My instincts screamed at me.
Riley was cheating.
But I didn’t want to believe things between Riley and me could become so tainted. Maybe I was overthinking. Still, I tapped into Brody’s girlfriend’s profile again. The pinned post was gone. My heart skipped a beat. I refreshed the page twice.
It really was deleted.
Then, a message popped up from Brody Krawley.
“Alora, did my girlfriend leave something at your place?”
“Riley just called and said you seemed upset, even snapped at him! If we did anything wrong at your place last month, please don’t take it to heart.”
I read Brody’s clumsy attempt at covering things up and replied with a single word, “Okay.”
Then, without hesitation, I messaged my best friend Nicole Enfield, a lawyer. “Help me look into Riley.”
With that done, I cleared every trace of jasmine from the house.
By evening, Riley came home with a bouquet of roses. I noticed, for once, he was wearing a tie clip. There was a small, barely noticeable jasmine motif on it. My eyes lingered on the flower as I asked, smiling, “What’s with the tie
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Chapter 1
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clip?”
Riley set the roses on the table and fiddled with the clip, his smile gentle.
“Just saw it and thought it looked nice.”
“If you don’t like it,” Riley said, taking it off, “I won’t wear it.”
He started to toss the tie clip into the trash, but paused, waiting for me to stop him. I just watched him quietly, saying nothing. In the end, when he realized I wasn’t going to stop him, he found his own excuse.
“Actually, I just remembered-it was a gift from a client.”
He slipped it back into his pocket. “Wouldn’t want to ruin any business over it. Better keep it.”
He came over and stood in front of me.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming home? I would’ve picked you up at the airport.”
“You have no idea,” Riley said, his hand caressing my cheek, “how much I missed you.”
His breath was warm against my ear.
A faint trace of jasmine drifted around my nose, making me inexplicably anxious. I pushed Riley away. He looked at me, confused, so I made up an excuse.
“It’s that time of the month.”
Riley always kept better track of my cycle than I did. If he thought about it, he’d know I was lying.
But he didn’t.
I saw a fleeting flash of relief in his eyes.
He told me, “I’m going to take a shower.”
I nodded, sitting on the edge of the bed, watching the bathroom fill with steam. Then, Riley’s phone lit up. A message came in from someone with a cartoon jasmine flower as their avatar.
“Did you touch her?”
My heart pounded. On impulse, I grabbed Riley’s phone and typed in the passcode. After a few failed attempts, I re- membered his mother’s death anniversary and tried again. The screen unlocked. I tapped into the chat with Jasmine Farlan.
Jasmine had written, “If you’re dirty, I don’t want you anymore.”
The previous message was from Riley. “She’s back. Let’s avoid contact for the next few days.”
I checked Jasmine’s Instagram profile.
It was spotless.
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No pictures showing her face.
But there were plenty of posts flaunting their romance-candlelit dinners, night cruises, rides on the Ferris wheel, movie dates. In every photo, there was a pair of hands intertwined. Hands I’d known for almost ten years-hands I could never mistake.
They were Riley’s.
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