The Day My Wedding Ring Outshone His Empty Promises

The afternoon coffee gathering dragged on for three hours. When it finally ended, I didn't even need to call Skyler; he was already waiting at the entrance right on time. He hurried over with a kind of reverence, wrapping his arm around my waist and gently clasping my left hand with his right, our rings softly clinking together. Onlookers often praised the unbreakable bond between us, but all I could sense was the sterile smell of hospitals and a cheap cologne.

Once the car started, the driver avoided meeting my gaze in the rearview mirror. Skyler handed me a takeaway coffee, its bag displaying the logo of the café downstairs. He took off the lid and gently blew on it.

"You’ve been wanting coffee lately, haven’t you? It's your favorite flavor," he said. "But just for the baby, hold off. Just take a sip, and I'll finish the rest."

Before I was pregnant, my guilty pleasure was a cappuccino from that café—half sugar. In the early days of my pregnancy, I often craved coffee in the dead of night. Skyler would tirelessly drive to the café late at night to get me a cappuccino, just so I could fall asleep to its rich aroma. Those were probably the times I troubled Skyler the most. I couldn’t control my mood swings, and giving up everything I loved for the baby made me feel aggrieved. When I was unhappy, Skyler would bear the burden with me.

After calming down, I'd apologize to Skyler, but he would hold my hand tightly, tears in his eyes, saying, “If I’d known having a child would cause you so much pain, I would never have asked you to go through with it.”

Thinking about it now, I haven't irrationally lashed out at Skyler in quite some time. When did that change? Probably since I became aware of Miss Lydia’s existence. I chuckled bitterly to myself.

Now, Skyler was actively bringing me cappuccinos, but was it out of sympathy for the struggles of my pregnancy or was he trying to cover up his recent meeting with Miss Lydia behind my back? I closed my eyes, which were stinging, and leaned in closer to the coffee cup, inhaling deeply. The soothing aroma that once brought me comfort was gone, overpowered by the sharp scent of Skyler’s unfamiliar cologne.

I couldn't hold back and gagged. Skyler immediately patted my back gently. He assumed it was just a normal pregnancy reaction and had the driver pull over.

As the acid churned unrelentingly in my stomach, I rubbed at the dull ache in my heart, feeling for the first time with clarity that the stomach is indeed a vessel of emotions. Tears rolled down my cheeks, and with a flushed face, I calmly said, “Skyler, I’m nauseous.”

He looked at me, full of concern. "Caroline, you can't even stand the smell of your favorite cappuccino now?"

I forced a smile and shook my head. "It's not the coffee. It's the smell on you that's making me sick."

Skyler froze, his eyes mirroring the tremor in mine. His voice came out dry, "What smell?"

What Skyler didn't know was that Miss Lydia and I had already secretly met.