Purr Ever After

I was a soldier's wife. Less than two years into our marriage, I asked Lucian Summers for a divorce because I found a little handmade bracelet at home. It was not mine, and Lucian had never bought me cute little trinkets like this before.

Lucian scoffed and said, "All because of that little thing?"

I could not be bothered to explain this time, so I replied coldly, "Yeah. It's exactly because of that little thing."

When Anna Lowe, the cleaning lady, came to clean the house, she carefully approached me and asked, "Mrs. Summers, there was an unfinished bracelet hanging on the desk in the study, and I accidentally knocked it to the floor. Some of the beads spilled out. Would you like me to help you put it back together?"

I was stunned and instinctively asked, "Beads? A bracelet? We don't have anything like that in this house."

I was a pretty laid-back person who never showed interest in crafty things like that. Additionally, Lucian Summers had never given me any cute little trinkets. Besides, he was an active-duty soldier who had not taken leave yet.

Where on earth did this thing come from?

I could not help but wonder if someone had broken into our house.

Anna gestured for me to come take a look. Suspicious, I followed her into the study. There on the desk was indeed a bracelet with a lion charm.

The bracelet was a mess, its threads already snapping. The colors were mismatched, and the little accent beads were scattered everywhere.

I waved her off, saying, "Don't worry about it. Just keep doing your work."

I had just gotten a new phone and had not synced the home surveillance system yet. I sat in the study for a long time, then finally decided to insert the surveillance camera's memory card into my laptop.

The surveillance system was originally set up to keep an eye on our three cats. After scrolling through several days of footage, I finally found a familiar figure in the archives from three days ago: it was Lucian.

"Alright, got it. I know. I just got off the plane and came back to grab some clothes before coming to see you, so don't worry," he said into his phone as he walked through the door.

His tone was incredibly gentle, unlike anything I had ever heard from him. Yet, even with that tender voice, he still drove away one of the cats that came to greet him.

My heart sank in that instant. I had never received that phone call, and I did not even know he had come home.

So, where had Lucian gone, and who was he calling?

Lucian went into the study, then came out dragging his luggage and left again. There was no surveillance in the study, so that must have been when he dropped the bracelet.

On the monitor, the house returned to its deathly silence.

I opened my phone and logged into Lucian's shopping app.