My husband insisted on bringing his secretary along on our honeymoon just moments before we boarded. I smiled, wished them a wonderful flight, and quietly walked away.
The departure terminal at JFK buzzed with travelers rushing toward their gates, rolling suitcases clattering across the polished floor.
I stood beside my new husband, Julian, at the check-in counter, my hand resting lightly on his arm.
We had been married less than twenty-four hours.
This was supposed to be the beginning of our honeymoon in Maui, a week of quiet beaches and uninterrupted time together after months of frantic wedding planning.
Julian cleared his throat, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.
He straightened the sleeve of his tailored jacket and looked everywhere except at my face.
“Clara… there’s something I need to tell you,”he began, his voice dropping into that careful, measured tone he used whenever he was about to deliver bad news at the office.
I kept my hand resting on his arm, waiting.
“What is it, Julian? Are we having trouble with our bags?”
“No, the bags are fine,” he said, offering a tight, apologetic smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
“Sienna has an important business report that can’t wait. She’ll be flying with us so we can work during the trip.”
I remained perfectly still.
The ambient roar of the terminal seemed to fade into a distant hum. “Sienna is coming to Maui?”
“Just for the first couple of days,” Julian insisted quickly, his hand patting mine reassuringly.
“She has her laptop. We can knock out the quarterly projections by Tuesday morning, and then she’ll take a separate room. It won’t interfere with us at all, I promise.”
“And you arranged this when?” I asked, my voice dangerously calm.
“Yesterday evening,” he muttered, avoiding my eyes. “She realized the audit numbers weren’t aligning.”
“Right. Of course they weren’t.”
Before Julian could answer, I watched Sienna appear through the crowd.
She wore a flowing white dress that looked far too bridal for someone claiming to be on a business trip, and she rolled an expensive suitcase almost identical to mine.
