Austin stood up and walked through the living room like a stranger in his own life until he saw it on the coffee table. A watch was sitting there, large and gold with a distinct blue dial that was impossible not to recognize.
It belonged to Julian Vance, who was Brianna’s boss at the firm. Austin had seen him show it off at a company dinner while he laughed too loudly and looked at everything as if he could buy it.
Now that same watch was sitting in his living room on a table Austin had paid for with his own money. He picked it up carefully, feeling that if he squeezed it even a little harder, he might break himself apart.
The betrayal was no longer a suspicion because it now had a name and a forgotten object left behind. He did not sleep at all that night and instead lay fully dressed on the bed while staring at the ceiling until the darkness turned gray.
By the time morning came, he was no longer the same man who had walked into the house a few hours earlier. Beneath the pain, something colder and sharper was forming inside his mind.