Chapter 2 - The Early Return
Lauren had been stationed temporarily at Fort Carson for a training assignment scheduled to last six more weeks.
She returned early because the final exercise had been canceled by severe weather. Rather than tell Colin, she decided to surprise him and Piper two days before Christmas.
She imagined hot chocolate.
Piper running into her arms.
Colin pretending he had not forgotten to buy wrapping paper.
During the drive home to Colorado Springs, Lauren called twice.
Colin did not answer.
She assumed he was busy with Piper.
The house had been purchased four years earlier using Lauren’s military housing savings and an inheritance from her late grandfather. Colin contributed toward monthly expenses, but the down payment and closing costs came from Lauren.
She never used that fact against him.
They were married.
The house was supposed to be theirs.
For the previous three months, however, Colin had become distant. He stayed late at the marketing firm, guarded his phone, and complained that Lauren’s career controlled their lives.
Whenever she asked whether something was wrong, he blamed deployment stress.
“You see threats everywhere,” he told her.
Lauren believed him because guilt was easier than suspicion.
The woman beside the Christmas tree was Brooke Ellis, Colin’s coworker.
She was also wearing Lauren’s slippers.
But even that betrayal became secondary when Lauren found Piper outside without a coat.
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An affair could end a marriage.
Putting their child in the snow revealed something far worse.
