When Denise’s husband tells her his phone is broken, she takes it to an old college buddy for repairs. But when she picks up the phone later, her friend shows her a note inside that proves her husband is hiding a dark secret.

I never would’ve imagined that a lost pair of earbuds would lead me to the most devastating discovery of my life.

There I was, dressed and ready for my morning jog when I realized I must’ve lost my earbuds in the Uber that brought my husband, Andrew, and me home the previous evening. I rushed into the kitchen, where Andy was making coffee.

“Babe, give me your phone, please?” I held out my hand. “I need to look at your call history.”

Andrew went pale as a sheet. “No, you can’t,” he replied quickly.

Now, I’m not going to claim Andy and I have a perfect marriage. We argue and sometimes get on each other’s nerves, but that’s normal, right? On this occasion, something about his response raised a red flag.

“Why not?” I asked.

“It’s… dead.” He looked away as he replied, stirring his coffee like it was the most important thing in the world. “I, uh, dropped it this morning.”

It was so obvious he was lying that I was speechless for a minute. I didn’t understand what was going on. Then I started thinking about all the times he’d come home late recently.

I also noticed strange appointments in his calendar when I double-checked the date for his parents’ upcoming anniversary celebration. It seemed so obvious in hindsight: Andrew was hiding something from me.

“Where is it now?” I asked. “I can drop it off to get repaired on my way to work, if you like?”

Andrew hesitantly went into the bedroom to fetch his phone. It seemed to take ages, but finally, he handed me his phone.

It was indeed dead, the screen as black as night. I tried turning it on while I was on the subway, but it seemed Andrew had been telling the truth.