News anchors replayed the footage in slow motion, frame by frame: her stepping back, her arms crossed, her head shaking before she walked off into the rain. “What happened next?” they asked on loop. He didn’t know anymore. One thoughtless joke has ballooned out of proportion.
His PR team told him to stay offline for a few days, to wait it out, but he couldn’t resist searching his name. Every headline dripped with contempt: “Gas Station Husband Under Fire.” “Missing Wife, Viral Joke.” The comments blurred together until they all suggested the same theory: He must’ve done something to her. He must’ve got rid of her.