Chapter 3

3

He thought I was asleep and crawled into bed beside me.

Within minutes, he was snoring like a chainsaw.

He was clearly exhausted from his evening activities.

I grabbed his phone and tried my birthday as the passcode. It failed.

He had changed it. He definitely had secrets.

I finally had to use his face to unlock it while he slept.

What I found inside made my skin crawl.

Meeting Yolanda was just the tip of the iceberg.

He had been using apps to meet women since we were in college.

He would book rooms every time I went on business trips.

There were videos―hundreds of gigabytes of them.

My "gentle" husband was actually into some very dark, degrading fetishes.

He enjoyed being treated like a dog by strangers.

I felt a wave of pure disgust that made me want to vomit.

No wonder Lucky always growled at him.

The dog could smell the filth and the scent of countless other women on him.

I lay back down, my heart as cold as ice.

Any lingering love I had for him died in that moment.

The next morning, I was jolted awake by Lucky's terrified yelps.

I sprinted out of the bedroom.

I saw Martha holding a massive kitchen knife, chasing Lucky through the hall.

"You stupid beast! I'll teach you to growl at me!"

Lucky was cornered, trembling with fear.

My heart nearly stopped as I screamed at her.

"Stop! What the hell are you doing to my dog?"

She stopped, glaring at me with narrow eyes.

"It's just a dog. In my town, we'd have butchered a disobedient animal like this for meat already."

I scooped Lucky up, holding him tight.

"Lucky is my family. If you can't respect that, you need to leave."

In my past life, they had killed him because his barking annoyed them.

I remembered him crawling to my room, dying on my clothes.

I started to cry as I stroked his fur.

"You're kicking me out over a damn dog?" Martha shrieked.

She dropped the knife and slumped onto the floor, wailing.

"She's throwing her mother-in-law out for an animal!"

"She has no heart! No soul!"

The noise woke Silas. He stumbled out, looking hungover.

He rushed to his mother's side to help her up.

"Mom, what happened?"

"I raised you for this? You married a woman who can't even lay an egg!"

"She lets her beast bully me! I should just die!"

Silas looked at me with deep disappointment.

"Hannah, my mom is getting old. Apologize to her right now."

I laughed, a cold, sharp sound.

"Apologize for what? My parents are dead, Silas. I don't owe this woman anything."

Martha's wailing reached a new decibel.

"Did you hear that? She's cursing me! Hit her, Silas! Show her who's boss!"

Silas stepped toward me, his face red with anger.

"Hannah, you've always looked down on us because we're from a small town."

"You treat Lucky better than my mother. You've gone too far this time."

I sat on the sofa, clutching Lucky, watching the man I once loved turn into a stranger.

Martha kept screaming from the floor.

"Slap her! If you don't slap her, I'll kill myself right here!"

When Silas didn't move fast enough, she grabbed his shirt, shaking him.

"Are you a man or not? She's insulting your blood! Do something, you coward!"