NONFICTION

I Looked Through My Husband’s Things and Found Something Vile

He doesn’t know that I uncovered his secret

Claire Franky
5 min readOct 24, 2024

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Letters and envelopes.
Photo by Liam Truong on Unsplash

I snatched my hand back as my fingers grazed something sharp. My thumb caressed my forefinger, inspecting it for injury. After finding only a red stain on my skin, I tugged at the envelopes piled high on the back seat of the car.

My black sneakers kicked at the empty whiskey bottles filling the footwells, searching for a place to throw the stack of unopened bills and letters stamped with “Final Notice”.

I glanced over my shoulder into the trunk of the SUV. Fast food wrappers, sweaters, empty cigarette packets, and crushed beer cans formed a mound of trash, consuming the space. I swung the envelopes over my shoulder and slid them on top of the mess.

My eyes scanned the back seat again for the source of the pain. A glimmer of something shiny caught my attention. I picked up the empty Budweiser box and peeked inside. The blade of a pocket knife shone up at me.

A sigh escaped my lips as I dropped the box into the footwell next to me. There was no way I would find it.

After my husband had passed out in the guestroom, I’d settled our baby down for a nap in the nursery and ran out to my husband’s car.

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