Chapter 1
When I woke up, I realized my husband and I had swapped bodies. My husband, Wyatt, was wearing my silk nightgown, staring at me with sheer, unadulterated terror in his eyes. I was terrified too, but I kept my cool and tried to comfort him.
“It’s fine. I can go to work for you today. We used to be on the same team, so I won’t mess anything up. The kids and our parents won’t notice immediately, and we share the same friend group. We can easily fake it for a couple of days while we figure this out.”
We had been married for seven years, and our social circles were completely intertwined. Even though I was currently a stay-at-home mom, I used to be the top performer at his company. I could easily cover his workload.
To me, swapping souls was incredibly freaky, but it wasn’t a fatal blow to our survival.
But Wyatt was visibly trembling like a leaf in a hurricane.
I thought he was overreacting to the supernatural shock of it all, but I didn’t have time to dwell on it. I threw on his tailored suit, grabbed his phone, and prepared to leave for the office. Right now, keeping his job in this brutal economy was way more important than hyperventilating over a body swap.
Wyatt finally snapped out of his trance and yelled, “Laura, hand me the phone. Let me call in sick. I can’t let you go in today.”
I frowned. “Don’t you have a massive client negotiation today? Your company is actively laying people off. Don’t put a target on your back.”
Without waiting for a response, I picked up our daughter Lily and rushed out the door so fast Wyatt couldn’t catch me.
I had always been the one primarily responsible for dropping Lily off. But a year ago, Wyatt suddenly volunteered to handle the morning drop-offs. At the time, I thought he was just being a considerate husband.
Sitting in the driver’s seat, I glanced back at Lily in the rearview mirror. She was dead silent, sitting as stiff as a board.
I sighed internally.
Whenever Wyatt came home, all he did was play video games. There were times he let Lily hold her pee until she literally wet herself because he refused to pause his game to take her to the bathroom.
No wonder my daughter was so distant and uncomfortable around him.
I pulled up to the preschool entrance, leaned back, and kissed her cheek.
“Lily, eat your lunch and take a good nap today. Mo— I mean, Daddy will pick you up this afternoon, okay?”
Lily uncomfortably dodged my kiss. She clearly wasn’t used to Daddy showing her this much affection.
Just then, Lily’s teacher, Molly, walked out. After greeting the other parents, she leaned in to take Lily, her voice dripping with honey.
“Lily’s dad. I’ll take it from here.”
She glanced around to make sure the coast was clear, then flashed me an intensely seductive smile.
“My legs are so sore today I can barely stand straight.”
I blinked, confused.
I assumed she meant Lily was getting too heavy to carry, so I quickly grabbed Lily back and set her on the ground.
“Walk on your own, sweetie. Don’t make Miss Molly carry you.”
Molly shot me a bizarre, resentful glare, grabbed Lily’s hand, and huffed away.
What a weirdo, I thought.
Molly never acted this psychotic and flirtatious when she interacted with me as Laura.
I checked my watch and hurried toward the corporate office.
On the drive, Wyatt used my phone to call his phone multiple times. I only noticed because the screen kept lighting up in silent mode.
When I finally answered, Wyatt stammered for a full minute, unable to form a coherent sentence.
Assuming he was still in shock, I tried to reassure him before hanging up.
Wyatt suddenly shouted in panic. “Did you drop Lily off at preschool?”
“Yeah, obviously. What time do you think it is?”
“And everything was normal?”
“Yeah, perfectly normal. Except Miss Molly was acting super weird, telling me her legs were sore and she couldn’t stand straight.”
“Hack—cough, cough!”
Wyatt exploded on the other end of the line, coughing so aggressively it made my eardrums ring.
“Are you okay?” I asked, pulling the phone away.
“I’m fine,” Wyatt wheezed. “I’ll go pick Lily up tonight.”
I thought about it for a second and agreed.
Once I got to the office, I skimmed through the client briefs and marched straight into the conference room. I was actually the one who had acquired this specific client three years ago, so I knew their equipment specs inside and out.
If my mother-in-law hadn’t suddenly claimed health issues and refused to help with childcare, forcing me to quit, this job would have been mine.
The negotiation was a flawless victory.
As we walked out, the boss looked at me with deep approval.
“Your negotiation skills took a massive leap today, Wyatt. Impressive work.”
I just smiled humbly.
I used to be the sharpest shark in the building. Closing a deal like this was child’s play.
As soon as I walked back into the office, Frank, Wyatt’s absolute best work buddy, slipped in and quickly shut the door behind him.
He aggressively winked at me.
“So how was it? Did your three-hour marathon yesterday rock your freaking world?”
I froze for a second, but then I remembered yesterday was Sunday. Wyatt had asked for my permission to go over to Frank’s house to play video games. Frank had even called me personally to vouch for him.
Naturally, I agreed.
Keeping my composure, I chuckled. “It was just three hours of gaming, Frank. It didn’t rock my world.”
Frank raised an eyebrow.
“Playing the innocent family man today, huh, bro? I willingly played wingman to cover for your little love-shack rendezvous. How are you gonna repay me? Better hook me up on my performance review.”
Honestly, I had no idea what he was talking about, but my gut twisted with a sickening intuition.
I gave a subtle nod, neither confirming nor denying anything, and asked casually, “So what exactly happens in the love shack?”
Frank winked again and backed out of the office.
“Alright, alright. I get it. You’re a saint. Once I walk out this door, I don’t remember a damn thing.”
He slipped away.
I stared at the closed door for a solid minute before pulling out my phone.
I was about to Google whether there was a specific video game with a “love shack” map or NPC, but before I could open the browser, a text notification popped up from Brenda, my mother-in-law.
“I bought Kieran’s formula, but I forgot the address. I’m shipping it to your office. Take it to them after work.”
I stared at the screen, totally baffled.
Who the hell was Kieran, and why was my mother-in-law buying him baby formula?
Normally, Brenda was completely cold and distant with my daughter Lily. Wyatt always excused it by saying his mom just didn’t like young children.
But looking closer, I noticed she had changed her profile picture to a newborn.
I quickly typed a reply from Wyatt’s account.
“Who is Kieran?”
Brenda immediately replied, annoyed.
“You literally paid a psychic to pick that name for him and you already forgot?”
I was just about to press her for more information when Wyatt called me again.
I picked up.
Wyatt sounded incredibly cautious.
“Did everything go okay at the office? Was the negotiation smooth? The guys at work treat you alright?”
“Everything’s totally fine. Relax,” I said.
I checked the time and automatically shifted into wife mode.
“Wyatt, go ahead and start boiling the soup on the stove. When you bring Lily home, it’ll be ready for her to drink.”
Lily’s immune system had been weak lately, so I boiled fresh herbal bone broth for her every single afternoon.
Wyatt fell completely silent.
His tone suddenly shifted.
“You want me to make soup?”
I was confused.
“Yeah. What’s the problem? That’s what I do at this exact time every day. If you wait until I get home from work, it’ll be way too late.”
Wyatt hesitated for a long time before begrudgingly agreeing.
Then he added, “When you get home tonight, let’s trade phones back. I can’t get used to yours.”
“Whatever,” I said, completely unbothered.
But less than a minute after we hung up, a text message popped up on the screen.
I immediately recognized the phone number.
“Check the secret app.”
I opened the messaging app on Wyatt’s phone.
There was nothing new.
Just as I was about to reply to the number, Brenda texted again.
“Kieran’s one-year photoshoot pictures just came in. Molly wants us to help pick the best ones.”
She instantly spammed me with a dozen professional photos.
“My precious grandson looks so damn handsome in these.”
My brain completely flatlined.
A high-pitched ringing echoed in my ears.
Brenda only had one child.
Wyatt.
If that baby was her precious grandson…
I stared at the phone number from the anonymous text message.
I finally remembered why it looked so familiar.
It was Molly’s cell phone number.
The digits were sequential, which was why I remembered them from the school directory.
With trembling fingers, I navigated into the phone’s settings and clicked Switch Account on his messaging app.
My index finger hovered over the screen, shaking violently.
A desperate voice in my head screamed:
Please. No. Please, God, no.
Do not let there be a second account.
Wyatt had sworn on his life that he only used one profile and would never keep a secret burner account.
He had sworn it with absolute conviction.
But apparently, the harder they swear, the more brutal the betrayal.
I tapped Switch Account.
A hidden profile instantly loaded onto the screen.
The profile picture was the exact same infant boy from Brenda’s photo.
I felt like I had fallen straight into an ice pit.