I knew before I pulled off the highway that something felt different. Not necessarily wrong, but more like out of place. For some reason, I’d been getting these feelings a lot and no matter what I did, I could never quite shake them.

Every time I got one of these feelings, I told myself that it was nothing. I reasoned that I was just being paranoid and to not let things bother me. Besides, it’s not like I could pinpoint why things felt the way they did.

Normally, I would have been at work at that time of day. Unfortunately, my morning appointment called to cancel at the last moment. I was annoyed because it was happening more and more often lately. A lot of it had to do with the housing market.

People would see a house with one of my for sale signs in front of it and decide right then and there that they just had to see it. They’d call the number on the sign immediately and I’d set up a showing for them. After that, they’d have time to think about it. Maybe they’d look the house up online and the inside wasn’t what they expected or perhaps they realized that the house was out of their budget and there was no way they could afford it. Regardless of the reason, I’d be sitting at the property waiting to show it and the potential buyer wouldn’t show. It wouldn’t be until I called them that I found out they weren’t going to make the showing. They’d apologize profusely, but it was still a waste of time.

I could have easily gone back to my office to field phone calls from potential buyers that weren’t calling in off a sign. We had a central phone number from advertisements and each agent in the office would take turns answering the phone each time it rang. We never knew if it would be a potential sale, so luck of the draw was the best way to do it.

The only thing that kept me away from the office was the fact that Stephanie was going to be spending the day there as well. Don’t get me wrong, I like Stephanie a lot, but she was eight-months-pregnant and was driving everyone insane.

I wasn’t going to be able to spend an entire day in closed quarters with her talking about the reviews of all the latest cribs and the pros and cons of breastfeeding her new baby. She would literally talk to whoever would listen, but the problem was that I just didn’t care.

When it comes to babies, I don’t dislike them at all. I’ve been known to pinch a chubby cheek whenever I’m around an infant. The problem was that I’m just not the maternal type and could never see myself being a mother, no matter how much she tried to convince me that it would come naturally once I became pregnant.

Instead, I was going to spend the day at home, following up with potential leads and getting in contact with sellers who had put their homes up for sale without an agent. As I got closer to my little piece of suburbia, the feeling that something was off continued to grow. When I pulled into my subdivision and turned onto my street, it became clear what was different. Steve’s car was in the driveway.

I wondered what in the hell he was doing home at that time of day. We’d talked about what his plans were he told me that he had meetings all day in the city. Maybe his meetings got cancelled as well. That would be nice.

A warm flush started to pass through my body as the thought of him being home excited me. If we both had an unexpected day off, an afternoon full of sex and cuddling could be in the cards. It had actually been a while since the two of us had been intimate. He’d been working a lot and was coming home and going right to sleep most nights.

Maybe he would be just as happy to see me. Perhaps he would grab me, throw me down onto the bed, and take me like I dream about on a nightly basis. That was exactly what I needed.

It’s true that our sex life hadn’t been the greatest. It had certainly been a while since I’d been completely happy with it, but there was more to life than just sex. I loved Steve. He was my soulmate and I was happy that we had started a life together. In less than a year, we’d be married.

I pulled in and parked my SUV next to Steve’s BMW. It was his baby, the car that he dreamed about owning since he was a little boy. I used to think it was cute when he’d tell someone about it, but the story got old quickly. I gave my makeup a quick check in the mirror before getting out and making my way to the front door.

As soon as I stepped out of my vehicle, I could hear the sound of bass pumping. It was so loud that I could feel it in my chest. As I got closer to the door, I realized that it wasn’t one of the neighbors playing their music way too loud. The sound was coming from inside my house.

There was hip hop music blaring from my living room. Steve and I can’t fucking stand hip hop music. We’ve always been the hard rock type who would break out the air guitars when our favorite songs would come on. Maybe he was a closet hip hop fan and only played the music when I wasn’t around.

The front door wasn’t locked like it normally was so I opened it up and walked right in.

“Steve!” I yelled out of habit.

He’s always doing something in some random part of the house so I always yell his name instead of going room to room looking for him. Of course, there was no way he could have heard me. Not over the loud noises that some people call music blasting in the living room.

Determined to save my ears from the awful sounds, I set off the find the source. I grabbed the iPod that was connected to the stereo, expecting to see that it belonged to Steve. I was already planning to look through it and tease him about his hidden music. Instead, I got a surprise. The iPod that was being played belonged to me.

Oh hell no! I knew for a fact that I’d never download any hip hop, rap, country, or anything that wasn’t rock onto my iPod. Maybe he did it as a joke. Maybe his was dead and he really wanted to listen to whatever ear shattering music was playing. That was something I’d be able to figure out later.

Looking around the living room, I froze in place with my mouth hanging wide open. Steve’s clothes were thrown all over the floor, which wasn’t like him at all. He was always very neat and clean. He always took off his clothes at the hamper before getting in the shower. But there I was, staring at the suit jacket he was always so careful to hang up snd wondering what the hell he could have been thinking.

I started to pick up his clothes and that’s when I saw them. On a neat little pile on the sofa, there was a small purple dress and a skimpy matching bra and panties set. They definitely weren’t mine as I’d never be able to squeeze my boobs into such a small bra.

My mouth hung open as the realization of what was happening was beginning to wash over me. As much as I wanted there to be an innocent explanation, I knew better.

Please God, no! Do not let them be in my fucking bed!

I started to feel dizzy. My vision blurred and my head started to pound. The music that was still playing was little more than background sound to the noise playing in my head. My stomach turned as nausea tried to get the better of me. I gathered myself, turned, and began slowly making my way up the stairs.

The amount of thoughts that went through my mind as I climbed the stairs astonished me. I was more than ready to confront whoever was in that bedroom with my fiancé.

Funnily enough, there was still part of my brain that was trying to convince me that there might still be an innocent explanation to everything. I kept telling myself that I couldn’t be completely sure until I got upstairs and found out for myself. Seven years of happiness was about to be destroyed.