The Password That Locked Me Out of Love

The day we moved into our marital home, Rodriguez asked me to set the door lock code.

I typed in our wedding anniversary: 0521.

He glanced at it, then casually changed it to a different string of numbers — 0912. "This one's easier to remember."

I didn't think much of it at the time. It was only later that I started noticing 0912 everywhere.

The door lock, the safe, his phone, delivery payments — all 0912.

Eventually I found out: that number was his ex-girlfriend Hector's birthday.

And on my own birthday, he stumbled home in the middle of the night reeking of alcohol.