I glance out the window and see his car parked beyond the fence.How did he manage to get past the locked gate?
I find him standing in the living room, his expensive suit wrinkled, his hair disheveled, his eyes wild with barely controlled rage.This isn't the polished, controlled man I was engaged to.This is someone I barely recognize.
"The kids aren't here," I say carefully."Maybe you should?—"
"Are you fucking him?"The words explode out of him, crude and vicious."Are you spreading your legs for that criminal piece of shit?"
The vulgarity of it makes me flinch.In all our time together, Ethan never spoke to me like that.He never used language designed to degrade and humiliate.
"That's none of your business."
"None of my business?"His laugh is sharp, bitter."I was going to marry you.I spent years of my life building a future with you, and you throw it all away to play house with some biker trash.So yeah, it's my fucking business."
"We're not together anymore, Ethan.What I do with my life isn't your concern."
"Did you cheat on me?"He takes a step closer, and I instinctively step back."While you were wearing my ring, planning our wedding, were you thinking about him?Fantasizing about what it would be like to fuck someone dangerous?"
"No.I never?—"
"Bullshit.I saw the way you looked at him at family gatherings.Like some lovesick teenager with a crush on the bad boy."His voice turns ugly, mocking."Did you think I was blind?Did you think I didn't notice the way you'd light up whenever he was around?"
The accusation hits too close to home because there's truth in it.I was attracted to Hades long before I had any right to be.But I never acted on it, never crossed any lines while I was with Ethan.
"I was faithful to you," I say quietly."Whatever you think you saw?—"
"You were faithful with your body, maybe, but not with your heart.Not with your mind."He's getting closer, and there's something predatory in his movements."You were already gone, weren't you?Already imagining what it would be like to be with him instead of me."
"Stop."
"Is he better than me?Is that what this is about?Does he make you feel things I couldn't?"
"Ethan, you need to leave."
"I need to what?"His voice rises to something dangerous."I need to leave my fiancée?Walk away from the woman I love because she's lost her mind over some criminal?"
"This isn't your house.And you don't love me."
"The fuck I don't!"
The explosion of rage makes me take another step back.I've never seen him like this, never seen the controlled facade drop so completely.
"You love the idea of me," I say, trying to keep my voice steady."The perfect wife who'd make you look good at dinner parties.But you don't love who I actually am."
"And he does?That piece of shit who barely knows you?He sees an easy mark.A desperate woman he can manipulate into taking care of his family obligations."
The words are designed to hurt, to plant seeds of doubt about Hades' motives.But they bounce off me because I know better now.I know the difference between manipulation and genuine care.
"You're wrong."
"Am I?Or are you so desperate to feel wanted that you'll believe anything he tells you?"
"Get out."
"No."He takes another step closer, close enough that I can smell the alcohol on his breath."I'm not leaving until you admit what this really is.A midlife crisis.A grief-induced breakdown.A fucking fantasy that's going to destroy your life."
"Get out of my house."
"Everything I gave you," he snarls, his face twisting with rage."The security, the lifestyle, the future.And this is how you repay me?By throwing it all away for some biker who'll get bored with you the second something younger and easier comes along?"
