That evening, I confronted Tom. After initial panic, he claimed the woman was Claire, a colleague helping him prepare for an important promotion. According to Tom, they were working in the basement when Claire accidentally spilled wine everywhere, ruining her dress and his shirt. Embarrassed, she borrowed one of my dresses to get home safely, and Tom said he hid the stained clothes to avoid alarming me. I wasn’t convinced, so I insisted on meeting Claire face-to-face.

When we met Claire at a restaurant the next night, her story matched Tom’s perfectly. She spoke highly of me and promised to keep her relationship with Tom strictly professional. Though her words eased my fears, I told Tom firmly that trust is fragile. If anything like this ever happened again, it would be the end of us. Tom promised there would be no more secrets, and I chose to believe him — though a small part of me still wondered if I’d heard the full truth.