Travel Betrayal

Three days at a music festival, and my boyfriend kept "getting lost" in the crowd every night. The cashless wristband on his arm remembered exactly where he'd been.

He said he was flying coach to save the company money. The airline app told a different story before his plane had even left the gate.

He sent a picture of his hotel room to prove there was nothing to worry about. The picture was innocent. The sound that came with it was not.

He kissed me goodbye and said he hated flying alone. Three hours later my best friend texted me a photo from the same airport lounge.

He said he was flying to Italy for the weekend. But a number on a screen refused to lie, and the truth it pointed to was worse than another woman.

He swore he was stuck at a week-long seminar in a forgettable town. So why did our shared airline account remember something he never told me?

He came home from his fishing weekend tired and tan and smelling faintly of something floral. I didn't think about it again until the credit card statement arrived.

He texted me that he had landed safely and was heading to bed. The trouble was, that day not a single plane had left the ground anywhere on Earth.

Three years of fishing weekends, and not once did I question them. Then the airline did the one thing my husband never planned for. It printed her name.

He said it was a mandatory work retreat, three nights, phones-off. Then a delivery van pulled up to our house, and the card on the flowers stopped my heart.

He called it a solo writing retreat, a quiet cabin where he could finally finish his novel. I believed him for months, until I went to book a family trip and read a stranger's review of his stay.

She came back from her girls trip glowing and tan. Three weeks later a woman I had never met walked into my store and asked for me by name.

She swore her ex was gone for good, blocked everywhere, ancient history. Then she came home grinning and said he'd just been hired into the sales team at her company.

He swore the writing retreat was a solo trip to finish his novel. Four months later, an automated thank-you note from the cabin host told a different story.

He said he was flying to Italy for a quiet week alone. The departure board told a different story, and I couldn't stop doing the math.

He said he was going off the grid for a weekend of silence in the mountains. I only opened the map out of habit, half-asleep, expecting nothing.

A gift I never bought turned up in our bedroom drawer. I only wanted to know where it came from. The email I opened answered a much older question.