The Vitamin Packet

Maya found the orange bottle wedged behind the dog's vitamins on the third shelf. The label read 'Vitamin D3 5000 IU' — a dosage ten times what anyone needed unless they were treating a severe deficiency. She and Lucas got plenty of Florida sun. Their backyard was a forest of palm trees, dappled light streaming through the fronds every morning as they drank coffee on the patio.

She'd become a spy in her own marriage, hadn't she? Checking his phone while he showered. Noticing how he deleted his browser history now. How he'd started working late three months ago, claiming the promotion demanded it. Maya knew what late nights at the office meant. She'd lived through this with her first husband. The dog, Buster, sensed the tension. He'd taken to sleeping between them in bed, a furry barricade.

The timing gnawed at her. The vitamins appeared around the same time his behavior changed. Was someone sick? Was he sick? Was he seeing someone who was? The possibilities looped through her mind like a poisoned carousel.

When she confronted him that evening, his reaction wasn't what she expected. He didn't get defensive. Didn't gaslight her. Just sank onto the sofa, head in his hands.

"It's for your mother, Maya."

The words landed like stones. "What?"

"She has early-stage Alzheimer's. She made me promise not to tell you yet. She's not ready for you to know, for you to look at her like she's already gone. The vitamins help with absorption of her other medications. I've been picking up her prescriptions after work, taking them to her. That's why I've been late. That's why I've been—" His voice cracked. "—trying to hold everything together without breaking down in front of you."

Maya stared at him, then at Buster, who'd trotted over to rest his head on Lucas's knee. Outside, the palm fronds rustled in the wind, casting shadows across the floorboards. She'd been spying on the wrong person, hunting for betrayals that didn't exist while the real crisis was stealing her mother away in secret increments.

"She doesn't want us to mourn her before she's gone," Lucas whispered. "But I don't know how not to."

Maya moved across the room, wrapped her arms around him. The dog pressed closer. Some secrets, she realized, weren't weapons. Some were just love trying to protect itself from the inevitable.