“But that didn’t stop her from preying on you,” I snapped, my voice trembling. “It also didn’t stop you from letting her. So fuck you, Adrian.”
I drew a long, shaky breath. “Did any of your friends know about you and her?”
Adrian looked straight into my eyes before shaking his head. “God, no, Elena. No one knew.”
I let out a bitter huff. “Including Will?” I asked, my tone sharp.
Adrian hesitated for a second, then exhaled. “No, he didn’t know.”
“What else did you talk to her about? Tell me.”
“Just... normal things. Like people who—”
“People who are dating?” I cut him sharply.
He went silent. His jaw flexed, but he didn’t deny it. He couldn’t.
My voice cracked when I spoke again. “What about the message where she said she was happy with whatever you two had? When she begged you to stay? And when you promised you would, until she found someone else who could make her happy?”
Silence.
He didn’t say anything, but his silence was confirmation. And it made something bitter rise in my throat. I inhaled slowly, feeling the familiar heaviness settle in my chest, the kind of breath that came with pregnancy, the kind that scraped against my ribs and left me exhausted every time I opened my mouth.
“Well, congratulations. You didn’t have to look far. She already found you,” I scoffed, a bitter laugh slipping out before I could stop it. “I’m sorry for getting in the way of your happiness. Truly. Maybe I should’ve stepped aside earlier, so you two could continue whatever this was.”
“Elena—don’t,” he warned, eyes flaring with panic.
“No, really,” I pressed on, my voice sharp, trembling. “If I was just an obstacle, I should’ve moved. Let you be happy with the woman you chose.”
“I didn’t choose her!” he snapped, louder than before. “You don’t get to say that. You’ve always been my choice, Elena. Always.”
My anger detonated. “Then why the hell did you cheat on me?” I yelled. “Why did you talk to her like that? Why did you promise you’d be there for her? Why was it so damn easy for you to forget you had a wife?”
He opened his mouth, then closed it again. Because there was no answer, no defense, nothing that could undo the truth.
“Exactly,” I said, my voice cracking. “You didn’t remember me then. But now suddenly you do?”
The moment the words left my mouth, something inside me cracked painfully, like a fault line pushed past its limit. I didn’t even see Adrian’s expression anymore. I just felt the ache, sharp and suffocating, climbing up my chest until it choked the air out of me.
Before I could hold it back, the tears came uncontrollable, blurring everything in front of me. I pressed a hand to my mouth, but the sob still tore free. “It hurts, Adrian,” I choked out, my voice breaking apart. “God, it hurts so much.”
His jaw tightened. He looked desperate, but none of it erased what he had done, or what I had seen with my own eyes. He took a step toward me, but I stumbled back, shaking my head.
“Elena...” His face twisted with shame. “Please, Elena. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
But his voice only made it worse. Hearing him, wanting him, and hating him all at once clashed inside me until the tears blurred everything. I wiped my face with the back of my hand, breath still unsteady.
“I don’t know how to survive this,” I whispered, more to myself than to him.
Adrian bowed his head, his shoulders trembling as he fought to steady his breathing, but nothing—not even his tears—could reach me.
CHAPTER 3
Elena
People said grief came in five stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. If that was true, then maybe I was somewhere tangled between anger and bargaining, trying to make sense of something senseless.
Even though Adrian insisted that William didn’t know anything about his relationship with Phoebe, I couldn’t take his word for it. After all, what was I supposed to expect from someone who had already lied to his own wife?
