12/11/2024
Ethan knew, but he didn’t want his wife to realize. Not yet, anyway.
It had started with the small things. The late nights out, the whispering phone calls, the vague reasons why she suddenly needed “space.” She’d changed over the past few months. He’d watched, saying nothing, while pretending that he didn’t notice. But inside, he knew something was happening.
One day, he stumbled upon her journal left open on her desk. Ethan felt guilty reading it but couldn’t stop himself, needing answers. Flipping to the latest entries, his eyes widened as he skimmed the words: “I don’t know how much longer I can hide this. I don’t want him to be hurt, but I have to tell him eventually.”
Heart pounding, he read on.
It turns out, she’d been planning something. Not what he thought, though. He assumed she'd been pulling away because she was losing interest, maybe even falling for someone else. But what she had been hiding...was a surprise. For him.
Her journal detailed months of planning to book a vacation for their anniversary—a dream trip that they could barely afford but had always talked about. She had been working extra hours, even selling things on the side, to make it happen. All her secrecy was for him, for a memory she wanted them to share.
Ethan closed the journal and leaned back, conflicted and overwhelmed by guilt. She had been planning this with so much effort, trying so hard to keep it a secret just to surprise him. His wife had no idea he knew, and she had no idea that he'd suspected the worst.
As he put the journal back, he decided to act as if nothing had changed. He would let her have this surprise. And maybe, in the end, they would both learn a little something about trust and love.
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What do you think? It’s a mixture of suspense and a twist ending!
