His Love Is Not Visible Chapter 02
Everyone could see our relationship was uneven.
Garrett had always held the power to dictate my mood.
He wasn’t a man of many words and was used to keeping his emotions locked away. Except for that one fight, we had never really argued.
It wasn’t that we had no problems; it was that he met them with silence, and I exhausted myself trying to fill it.
Vanessa had returned to Salt Lake City after three years of dance training overseas. Their college friends threw her a welcome-back party.
Garrett was the one who picked her up from the airport.
That night, by sheer coincidence, I was on the same connecting flight home from JFK.
My flight was supposed to be later, but I’d changed it at the last minute. I hadn’t told Garrett; I didn’t want to bother him so late.
The moment I reached baggage claim, I spotted him standing near the exit.
In three years of marriage, he’d never once met me at the airport.
The terminal wasn’t crowded. He stood out in his dark coat.
A smile was already spreading across my face as I lifted my hand to wave.
I was still wondering how he knew I’d changed my flight.
“Garrett.”
A woman’s voice called out from behind me.
Garrett’s cool expression instantly softened. He was holding a bouquet.
It had clearly been arranged with care, not some last-minute red roses from an airport kiosk.
He smiled.
“Three years. You finally decided to come back?”
I knew at once. The woman was Vanessa.
Over the past three years, I’d heard her name mentioned by his friends now and then.
They said Garrett had loved her deeply.
If Vanessa hadn’t gone to London, they probably would have been married long ago.
Vanessa blinked at him.
“I couldn’t bear to leave you behind.”
Garrett’s smile faltered for a split second before returning.
I stared at him, wondering what had flashed through his mind in that single moment.
Did he regret not waiting for her?
A few minutes earlier, I’d thought my husband had finally learned to be romantic. It turned out he wasn’t there for me at all.
The sudden drop from hope to reality made my chest ache.
I called a Lyft and went home.
The next day, Garrett didn’t mention Vanessa. I didn’t say I’d seen him at the airport, either.
That night, one of his friends posted a series of pictures on Instagram.
In the group photo from the welcome party, Garrett and Vanessa sat in the middle.
If I hadn’t known what the gathering was for, I would have thought it was their wedding picture, with everyone gathered around to offer congratulations.
At the airport, I hadn’t gotten a good look at her face. The photos showed her clearly.
She was beautiful. Years of training had given her the lean, powerful grace of a professional dancer. Her family was as wealthy as Garrett’s, and she was accomplished in her own right.
I found old posts about her on a university forum and the Reddit alumni page.
[Vanessa from the dance department is insanely pretty. Anybody got her number?]
[Vanessa Hale? She has a boyfriend.]
[Don’t even bother. Her boyfriend’s a big deal on campus, too.]
The more I read, the tighter my chest felt.
Scattered posts and old stories pieced together the four years of their relationship.
In our relationship, I had always been the one more afraid of being left.
But when Garrett had been with Vanessa, he had been the one terrified of losing her.
Vanessa had an old Tumblr she hadn’t updated in years, full of snapshots from their college life.
Garrett remembered her periods and even washed her bloodstained underwear.
He had even believed the superstition that if they kissed at the top of the Ferris wheel, they would never break up.
The Garrett in those photos was nothing like the husband I knew.
I closed the page and then noticed the Instagram handle he had always used: V11.
Vee had been Vanessa’s college nickname. November 11th was their first date.
I had always made excuses for Garrett, telling myself his coldness was just his nature.
After seeing his past with Vanessa, I finally understood.
It wasn’t that he didn’t know how to be tender.
He just didn’t want to give that side of himself to me.