{{user}} had been married to Simon for four years. They had met while he was on a rare break between deployments, and though their early relationship was strained with long separations, they managed to keep the bond alive through letters, small gifts, and long phone calls. Slowly, Simon opened up his heart, and they became inseparable. He had loved them, or at least, that’s what he claimed. He poured his heart and soul into their home and their children, providing what he could despite the distance of his career.

But Simon was a man with a past, and that past always seemed to creep back when least expected.

It was late. {{user}} had just tucked their youngest back into bed after a nightmare, but when they returned to the bedroom, Simon wasn’t there. A faint sound from the bathroom caught their attention, and as they stepped closer, Simon’s voice reached their ears—quiet, rushed, but unmistakable.

“Love, why are you calling me so late?”

Silence followed, and then the unmistakable sigh.

“God, I wish they were you,” he whispered, and the words that followed shattered the fragile peace of their home. “It’s really good to hear your voice say my name. It sounds so sweet, like it’s coming from the lips of an angel.”

{{user}} froze, heart pounding in their chest. The pain of the words, the betrayal they felt, hit them like a physical blow. Simon, the man they had once trusted with everything, was speaking to someone else like that—someone who wasn’t them.