“You removed your ring at work,” Ethan says. Blow after blow hits me about the stranger I’ve been with for the past few years.
“You flirted with customers. Bankers, traders. You see Leo, that little place is their favorite stop, right in the middle of the action where their offices are,” Ethan continues pleasantly. “You’ve built quite the reputation, Sarah, according to my sources.”
“I never cheated. I was trying to network, get ahead, there is nothing wrong with that,” she shouts, trying to defend herself, but Ethan laughs softly in a mocking way at her outburst.
“You were hunting.”
I stare at her, at the woman I shared my life with. I can’t lie and say it doesn’t hurt that she kept me hidden away. To be so ashamed of who I am, to erase me from her life like that. It fucking sucks.
“You told me you hated it there,” I say, completely taken off guard by these revelations.
“I hate being poor more,” she snaps and the words hit their target.
“She stayed with you because she had nowhere else to go,” Ethan says before Sarah turns on him.
“You don’t know anything!”
“I know desperation,” Ethan replies. “It’s a smell that stays with you.”
“You were looking for someone to replace me. I knew you didn’t think much of me, Sarah, but to be so ashamed, what did I ever do to you to make you hate me so much? You could’ve just left,” I say.
She looks away without responding, just for a second.
“But the conniving part of you never planned to leave until you secured someone better,” I say, putting the pieces together.
“Yeah and so what,” she sneers. I don’t know who she is. Her honesty lands like a coffin lid, finally putting her in the past where she belongs.
“I thought… I thought you loved me,” I say, speaking my thoughts out loud as I timeline every part of our life together, looking for the signs. Sarah’s face hardens.
“You were safe, Leo,” she says coldly, and Ethan scoffs quietly.
“That’s not love,” he says and she whirls on him.
“And what do you know about love?” she says to him and Ethan’s eyes turn glacial.
“Enough to know that evil is not it. You’re rotten to the core. Greedy.” She rolls her eyes at his assessment, but it all becomes clear now. I’m such a fucking idiot.
“You were supposed to be temporary,” she says. “I didn’t want to be alone.”
My chest caves inward and Ethan steps forward slightly.
“You stayed because he paid half your rent,” he says. “And he made up for your failures,” he hisses before she gets in his face.
“At least I didn’t sell myself!”
Ethan smiles slowly. “No,” he says. “But you tried.”
Turning her fury towards me, she lunges at me.
“You’re disgusting, Leo!” Ethan moves instantly, placing himself between us like a wall.
“You don’t touch him,” he warns and Sarah laughs bitterly.
“You think he loves you, Leo? He’ll leave you when he gets bored. You’re just a bed warmer like all whores are to rich fuckers like him. I bet he already has the next one lined up.”
“I don’t care what you think. I’m not yours anymore, and it actually turns out I never was. So just leave.”
Sarah stares at me wide eyed at my indifference to her, but her expression quickly collapses into fury and humiliation.
