I Overheard a Secret Conversation with My Husband, but When I Raised a Toast at the Anniversary Table, Julian Suddenly Lost Color

Julian’s phone was still connected when his lover laughed about me and he said that he wanted to get rid of me.

I was standing in the kitchen, holding a baby bottle in one hand and the phone in the other. I should already have ended the call, but the timer on the screen was still running. I put a small wireless earbud in my ear so that Evelyn, Julian’s mother, would not hear, and that was exactly when I heard that laughter.

“Poor woman,” said an unfamiliar voice. “When she sends you pictures of the baby, she has no head left at all. As if she were a balloon from which the air had been let out.”

My fingers froze.

Julian chuckled. When he spoke with me, there was always tiredness and irritation in his voice, but now he was a completely different man—free, gentle, and dangerous.

“I hate her,” he said. “I will get rid of her soon. Then I will marry you.”

The sound of a kiss came through the earbud.

At that moment, Evelyn’s stern voice came to me from the living room:

“Anna, where is the tea? Taking care of the baby does not mean you should leave a guest thirsty!”

I pressed the phone and ended the call. Then I leaned against the wall. Such a cold poured into my stomach, as if all the windows in the house had opened at once.

That evening Julian returned with flowers from the store. He kissed my forehead and smiled.

“I missed my girls.”

I picked Maya up in my arms and smiled too.

“We missed you too.”

For six days I did not say a word. It was the most difficult acting of my life. I watched how he took his phone into the bathroom, how he changed the code, how he put on strong perfume every time he said that he was working until late.

At night, when I put Maya to sleep, I wound the small copper music box beside the bed. Julian had given me this box after our wedding. Three small swallows were engraved on its lid, and inside it played a slow lullaby. In those days, this sound was the only one that did not lie to me.

I was supposed to celebrate our second anniversary only with the three of us, but I changed the plan. I invited both families. On Sunday evening the house filled with the smell of roasted chicken, garlic potatoes, and warm pumpkin pie. Candles were burning. Everyone was smiling.

At the end of dinner Julian stood up. He raised his glass and spoke about loyalty, work, and sacrifices made for the family in such words that Evelyn nodded with pride.

“Every woman would dream of such a husband,” she said.

Julian looked toward me.

“Anna is my peace. My home. My everything.”

Applause rang out.

And I slowly stood up. The music box was under the table, in my bag. Julian’s smile immediately tightened.

“I want to make a toast too,” I said.

Silence descended over the room.

For the first time Julian looked at me as if he no longer knew who I was.

“My dear husband, Julian…” I cleared my throat and reached toward my bag…

I took the music box out of the bag and lifted its lid. A slow lullaby sounded in the room. Maya moved on my knees, while Julian gripped his glass so hard that his fingers turned white.

“What a lovely gift,” Evelyn said. “Only say the toast quickly, the child is already getting tired.”

“Certainly,” I answered. “I just want everyone to listen to me carefully.”

The music stopped.

I put the phone on the table. A voice recording was ready on the screen.

“Six days ago I called Julian and could not end the call,” I said. “Then I heard everything.”

“Anna, be quiet,” Julian said to me quietly.

“Why? You were saying that I deserved nothing.”

Evelyn stood up.

“Do not insult my son!”

I turned on the recording.

My own husband’s voice sounded through the room: “I hate her. I will get rid of her and marry you.”

Maya began to cry. My mother immediately picked her up. Julian came toward me, but my father stepped in front of him.

“One more step and I will call the police.”

Julian stopped. All color disappeared from his face.

“This is cut,” he whispered. “It was a joke.”

“Then why did you change the phone code?” I asked.

He could not find an answer.

At that moment a message came from my lawyer. It contained only one sentence: “Do not let anyone see the contracts before leaving the house.”

Julian saw this and reached toward the phone. I was faster.

“Let us listen to the recording to the end first,” I said.

But at the very end, the woman said something because of which Julian grabbed the chair…

Julian’s hand froze on the back of the chair. In the recording, the woman’s voice sounded again, this time much more clearly.

“If you really want to get rid of her, everything must look as if she herself abandoned the child and the house. I have already spoken to the doctor. A mother who has not slept for several days looks completely unstable.”

Someone in the room exhaled heavily.

Then Julian’s voice sounded:

“I have the documents ready. I will make her sign that I will temporarily take care of Maya. Then I will tell her to leave the house. Who will they believe? A woman who cries all day, or a successful man?”

I turned off the recording.

Julian fell onto the chair. Evelyn covered her mouth with her hand. My mother held Maya to her chest, while my father still stood between Julian and me.

“You planned to take the child away?” I asked.

“No, Anna, it was not like that…”

“It was exactly like that.”

“Nora forced me. She was angry.”

“Nora?” Evelyn pronounced the woman’s name for the first time. “You knew her?”

Julian was silent.

I took one more thing out of my bag—a lawyer-certified memory card and a letter. During the last six days I had not saved only the recording. My lawyer, Salome, was already working on Julian’s financial accounts, because in recent months I had noticed strange transfers from our joint account.

“This recording is saved in two places,” I said. “And your signed documents are with Salome too.”

Julian stood up.

“You were preparing against me?”

“No. I was preparing to protect my child.”

At that moment the doorbell rang. Salome came in, holding a brown folder. She did not even look at Julian.

“Anna, the police called me. A financial inspection has begun at Julian’s company.”

Julian turned around.

“What inspection?”

Salome put the folder on the table.

“The money that you took from our joint account is no longer only a matter of betrayal.”

Julian opened the folder. Within a few seconds his face changed.

“This is impossible.”

Salome looked at him for the first time.

“What was impossible was that you thought everyone would always remain silent.”

At that moment Julian’s phone rang. Nora’s name appeared on the screen. No one answered the call. It rang a second time. A third time.

Then a message arrived: “If you do not come today, I will tell everything myself.”

Julian put the phone on the table, but it was already too late. A copy of Nora’s threat was automatically sent to Salome too.

I thought I had already heard the hardest truth. But Salome told me that there was one part in Nora’s words that Julian had not yet seen—and it was exactly what appeared in the documents that the police were supposed to open that same night…