Supplemental Truths

Elena stood in the kitchen, staring at the afternoon light filtering through the window. The vitamin bottle on the counter—his vitamin bottle—caught her eye. Vitamin D, he'd said. For his bones. But the label was peeling, and underneath, she'd seen different text last week when she'd reached for it herself.

The cable guy had left an hour ago, replacing the coaxial that had been fraying since winter. "Bad connection," he'd said, wiping grease from his hands. "Someone's been tampering with this line."

She'd laughed then. Who would spy on their cable? They watched HGTV and downloaded spreadsheets for work.

But now, with the house quiet and David at the office, she couldn't stop turning it over. The cable guy's words. The vitamins. The spinach wilting in the refrigerator crisper—David said he'd stopped eating it, yet she kept finding empty bags in the trash.

Water dripped from the faucet, a slow rhythmic tap. She twisted the handle, but it kept dripping. Everything in this house was leaking lately.

His phone buzzed on the counter. A message from someone named "K"—just a letter, no name. She'd asked about it once. "Work contact," he'd said, smiling that soft, careful smile she'd fallen for seven years ago.

But the cable guy had mentioned something else, almost to himself. "Your husband's line runs to the neighbor's house. Didn't think you knew."

The neighbor: Katherine, recently divorced, with a garden full of spinach she kept trying to share.

Elena's hands trembled as she picked up his phone. She didn't want to look. She wanted to make dinner, to chop that spinach, to take her own vitamins, to believe in the story they'd built together. But the cable was connected. The vitamins were a lie. The spinach in Katherine's garden was probably for David.

The water kept dripping.

She unlocked the phone. The messages weren't about work. They were about her.

"She suspects," Katherine had written.

"She's been taking my vitamins," David replied. "She'll find out."

Elena dropped the phone. It clattered against the counter, the sound echoing through the silent kitchen. Outside, the cable hummed with new life, carrying secrets that weren't theirs to keep.