“Long day?” Landon asked, eyeing the way his wife’s eyes were drifting closed already. 

Hope nodded but didn’t say a word. Target practice with the Saltzmans felt like weeks ago even though it was just that morning. 

“Come here.” Landon wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her to his chest. Hope sighed contentedly. She loved laying in his arms. It felt so safe and so warm. 

“Don’t ever leave this couch,” she murmured as she clung to him tighter. 

He locked his wrists together. “Never.”

The constant drone of the movie mixed with the comfort of Landon’s protective arms around her put Hope right to sleep. When she woke up again well into the second movie, Landon was still smiling down at her.

“Have a nice nap?” he asked. 

“Mmm-hmm.” Hope nodded and crawled up his body to kiss him. He expected her to pull away after a quick kiss, but instead, she settled in. Her hand snaked around the back of his neck, fingers sliding through his curls. 

“A really nice nap then,” Landon said with a laugh. Hope could feel his laughter echoing in her own chest. She just murmured an unintelligible reply and moved her lips down to his neck. “Oh.” He let his head fall back into the pillow.

Things were getting hot and heavy when his phone first started to buzz, buried somewhere under his discarded t-shirt. Hope tried to ignore it and focus on the way his hands were touching her body, but it just kept going. Finally, she groaned.

“Sorry.” Landon leaned over and grabbed it. He squinted at the bright screen before he silenced it and tossed it to the side. “It’s just Rafael tagging me in a bunch of stuff.” He dove back into kissing her.

“Wait, wait, wait.” She pulled back, furrowing her eyebrows at him. “Tagging you in stuff? Like publicly? Don’t you think you should check that out after this morning?” 

Landon could feel her heart start to pound under his hand. “Yeah. Yeah, I’ll look if it’ll make you feel better.”

He clicked on one of the notifications and it took him to a video. The thumbnail was dark. He glanced at Hope nervously, but she held her breath, waiting for him to play it. It was footage from the camera on their front porch of Ryan and Hope talking in the middle of the night. Hope guiltily removed herself from her husband’s lap.

The next one was of her leaving that morning to meet the Saltzmans. It all went on like that. Landon leaving for work, Landon coming home, Hope getting the mail. Video after video of them living their lives. Each one tagged her and Landon. 

“I think I’m going to be sick.” Hope sprinted for the bathroom. 

Landon was almost grateful she left, because the further he got, the worse it became. Post after post about Hope and her affair and her body and her art. Line after line showed up next to his brother’s smiling face talking about how hot his wife was and how good her art was and how horrible of a husband he was that she had to cheat. He knew it wasn’t Rafael. It couldn’t be his brother. But it made his stomach twist all the same.

He closed out of all the apps and dialed Rafael’s number. Each ring made him feel worse than the last. The sound of Rafael’s voicemail starting was the worst of them all. 

“Hope?” He knocked at the bathroom door. The only response he got from his wife was the sound of her retching.