What the Cat Saw

Margaret found the iPhone at 2 AM, glowing softly on her husband's nightstand like a trapped ember. Duke lay beside her, their orange tabby, kneading the duvet with proprietary paws. The cat had been sleeping between them for thirteen years, through promotions and miscarriages, through the gradual erosion of whatever they'd once promised each other.

The notification was explicit in a way that needed no interpretation: *Can't stop thinking about Tuesday.* A name she didn't recognize. Her fingers moved before her hesitation could catch up.

The messages unfurled like bruised fruit. Three months of them. Photographs she couldn't unsee. Plans for next week—her birthday week, as it happened. Duke stopped kneading, fixed her with those amber eyes that had witnessed everything in this marriage and said nothing.

The iPhone grew slick against her palm. She wanted to smash it. Instead she called Sarah.

Sarah answered on the third ring, sleep-thick voice sharpening to concern. "Margaret? Everything okay?"

"He's cheating." Her voice sounded strange, like it belonged to someone else.

The silence stretched. Then: "Oh god. I thought—I mean, I suspected, but I didn't want to..."

"You knew?" Margaret heard the crack in her own voice.

"Not for sure. Just—he canceled our lunch last month, said he had a meeting, but I saw him at that wine bar on 4th with a woman. Not someone from work. I almost told you, but I didn't want to be the one who—"

"Who what? Who told me the truth before I humiliated myself?"

Duke butted his head against her arm, purring loudly, demanding attention with that selfish confidence of cats who know they're beloved. Margaret buried her face in his fur, inhaling the familiar musk of him, this creature who had never lied to her, never pretended to be something he wasn't.

"I'm sorry," Sarah said. "I'm so sorry. I'm coming over."

"No." Margaret stroked the cat's spine, feeling the vibration of his purr travel through her hand. "No. Don't."

"What will you do?"

She looked at the iPhone again, at the evidence glowing there like a curse. At Duke, who had already gone back to sleep, the most faithful creature in this room.

"I don't know," she said, setting the phone on his nightstand exactly as she'd found it. "But I think I'll feed the cat first. He's been honest with me since 2011."