Chapter 1

On Halloween, a delivery guy showed up at my door and asked me to sign for a package.

I waved him off. “I didn’t order any pads. My period ended two days ago. Is this some Halloween prank? Or do you have the wrong address?”

He checked his phone without looking up.

“No, this is the address. The recipient is listed as Mr. Bennett’s family. Nathan Bennett left the contact information.”

A few minutes later, my husband’s assistant rushed over, sweating buckets and apologizing over and over.

“I’m so sorry, Mrs. Bennett. I ordered these for my girlfriend and accidentally put down your address! Completely my fault!”

He had barely finished speaking when our front door opened.

Nathan came out and put an arm around my shoulders, then turned a dark look on his assistant.

“What were you thinking? Didn’t I tell you to have it delivered tonight? You can’t even handle something this simple.”

Then he pinched my cheek, his voice instantly softening.

“Sweetheart, don’t listen to him. I bought these for you. I was going to put them with your Halloween gift as a surprise, but he ruined it.”

I smiled and waved everyone off.

The moment they were gone, my smile vanished.

I always bought my pads in bulk. And because my flow was heavy, I only bought overnight pads.

But of those nine packs of expensive pads, eight were for daytime use!

Once we were inside, Nathan said he was tired and wanted a shower.

As soon as he went into the bathroom, I picked up his phone in the living room. His passcode was still my birthday.

I went through all his Snapchat conversations.

Aside from work messages, his exchanges with female coworkers and employees were extremely brief. Nothing but “Okay” or “Sure.”

His stories were all work updates, too. There wasn’t a single sign of an affair.

I sat on the couch, stunned. Had turning thirty really made me this paranoid?

The shower stopped.

I quickly cleared my searches and put his phone back where I’d found it.

Nathan came out drying his hair, steam still rising off his skin.

He hugged me from behind, rubbing his damp head against my neck.

“Miss me, babe?”

My body stiffened. I pretended to push him away playfully.

“You’re still wet. You’re getting water all over me.”

“So what if I am?”

That only encouraged him. His hands began wandering, his lips moving over my ears and neck.

“Let’s go to bed early tonight, sweetheart…”

Nathan had never held back when it came to sex. Once he was in the mood, nothing else mattered. I’d known that from our first day together.

Even when I was on my period and feeling awful, he would coax and pester me until I helped him some other way.

But just before his lips reached mine, I snapped back to reality.

Those nine packs of pads—especially the eight packs of daytime pads with mesh tops—stabbed at my mind like a needle.

It had started last month, hadn’t it?

He’d stopped pestering me during my period.

Every time he came home from work, he used the same excuse.

“Overtime wore me out. You’re tired too, sweetheart. Get some rest.”

I’d thought he was becoming more considerate. Now, every bit of it felt wrong.

I shoved him away, then looked up as casually as I could.

“Nathan, what made you buy me pads all of a sudden? You never used to bother with that stuff.”