Chapter 2
I just stand there.
Numb.
Too stunned to move, to breathe, to even blink. The hallway hums around me, quiet and low, the echo of Eli’s words still dripping in my ears like a leaky faucet. Disgusting and impossible to ignore.
Truth is... I wondered. I always did.
Back then, I was home with a baby, barely eighteen.
He was off at college, in a frat, built like something out of a catalogue.
Girls circled him. I knew they did. They always did.
And I was scared. Terrified that one day, he’d just stop calling.
That he’d forget what we had. That he’d look at someone else and finally realize how boring and tired and soft I’d become.
It got so bad after Jack was born; I stopped eating. Told people I wasn’t hungry. That I’d already had something. I wanted the weight gone. Fast. I wanted to be attractive again. Tight again. Worth something again.
Grandma found out and called him. I’ll never forget the way his voice cracked through the phone when he asked, What the hell are you doing, Katie?
He came home the next day. Angry. Scared. Shaking. He had grabbed me by the shoulders and told me, I love you. Only you. I don’t want anyone else. You’re it for me, okay?
And I believed him. I had to.
After that, whenever the doubts crept in, I’d shut them down with that memory. I’d tell myself; Aiden loves me. Aiden is faithful. We’re forever. Always.
But now… Eli’s voice wedges itself into that memory, twisting it. Warping it. He said the back with the stripper like it was just something that happened. Like it was nothing.
No. Maybe he’s lying. He’s never liked me. Hated that Aiden didn’t screw around like he did. Maybe this is just him taking a shot. One more jab in a long line of them.
I shouldn’t doubt him. I can’t doubt him. He’s my husband. My first everything. The boy I fell for when I was sixteen. The boy I trusted with my whole damn heart.
We lost our virginities to each other after junior prom. No one else has ever touched me. No one else matters . Pressing my palms to my face, I breathe. Just breathe.
“Mom?”
I blink, turning to see Alex standing at the edge of the hallway, his tie loose around his neck, hair already messy from whatever chaos the cousins started. His voice pulls me out like a rope from underwater.
“We’re waiting for you,” he says.
I stare at him for a beat, heart clenched. My baby. My sweet, fifteen-year-old baby. When did he get so tall?
“Coming,” I say, forcing the word out.
Running my hands over my dress, I try to straighten the imaginary crinkles. Heels clicking on the tile, I walk toward him. Whatever this is, whatever Eli thinks he knows, can wait. I’ve got a family to show up for.
We take a million pictures. I try to relax, to lose myself in the smiles and flashes, but the doubt sticks like a shadow I can’t shake.
I watch Aiden smile at the camera, he’s the man who stayed, who never walked away when most would’ve bolted.
Could he have done it? Could this amazing, devoted husband have cheated? And if he did… can I forgive him?
The night winds down. We say goodbye to the last of the guests. My parents are taking the boys for the week. Aiden and I are going to Bora Bora for a week. We’re gonna spend the night here and fly out in the morning, It’s our gift to each other, a break from everything, a second honeymoon.
Outside the hotel, after waving the kids off, I catch his eye. “Do you remember the night before our wedding?”
He doesn’t look at me at first.
“God, I was so scared. It sounds crazy, we were already a family but that night felt… real. The wedding shower with tea probably didn’t help. What did you guys do again? For your bachelor party?”
Finally, he turns. “Oh, we just went to a bar and got drunk.”
I smile, but inside I’m dying. He never told me about the strip club. The last time I asked, he said they’d gone to a casino. That’s the thing about lies, they’re hard to keep track of.
We decide to head upstairs to our honeymoon suite.
Our bags are already packed, waiting for the flight tomorrow.
The elevator ride drags on, slow and cramped, the elevator music, some cheesy, tinny tune is grating on my nerves with every note.
I try to breathe through it, but it just gets under my skin.
Finally, the doors slide open, and we step into the corridor.
Our suite is spacious, soft, warm lighting that casts everything in a golden glow.
A king-sized bed with crisp white sheets dominates the room, piled with fluffy pillows and rose petals.
Floor-to-ceiling windows open to a balcony overlooking the city skyline, lights flickering like distant stars.
There’s a sleek minibar in the corner, stocked with a few fancy bottles, and a small seating area with a leather couch and there’s a bucket with a bottle of champagne, I'm guessing, on the glass table next to it.
The bathroom gleams with marble counters and a deep soaking tub, candles flickering along the edges.
It’s beautiful, but it feels too quiet, too claustrophobic right now.
Aiden turns to me, hands sliding around my waist, his breath warm as he leans in for a kiss. I jerk my head down, hugging him. I can’t, not yet. Not until I know. It sounds crazy, because I trust him with my life, but the seed of doubt has planted itself deep, and it’s growing.
The days before our wedding, he was different. Irritated with me more than anyone. I didn’t ask why, too scared he might actually leave. He was the only one who ever stayed, besides Grandma. I couldn’t lose him, so I ignored the way he snapped at me, the way he pulled away.
Then the day of the wedding, he showed up at my bridal suite.
I hadn’t even put on my dress yet. He looked damn good in his tux, too good.
I remember the look in his eyes. I thought he was about to end it, to say he wanted out.
I told him straight up: we could postpone, we didn’t have to do it if he wasn’t sure.
Right then Mom had come in with the boys, both in their tiny matching tuxes, innocent and loud. His whole mood had shifted. He had looked at me, apologized for his behaviour, and promised he’d do better. I thought it was love. Maybe it was guilt.
I’m used to guilt at work, people trying to hide what they’ve done. The trick? Make them think you already know. Make them believe you’re giving them a chance to confess something that isn’t a secret anymore.
“A woman came up to me today,” I whisper into the crook of his neck.
He hums softly. “A coworker?”
“No,” I say, voice low. “She used to be a stripper.”
He doesn’t react at first, just keeps his arms around me.
“She said she quit after hooking up with a guy at his bachelor party, ten years ago. Said it changed her life.”
Finally, he stills. I press, voice sharper now. “Is there something you want to tell me?”
He pushes me back by the shoulders, his eyes wild. “What?”
I step away completely, folding my arms. “She already told me her side. You want to tell me yours?”
His breath quickens. He’s panicking. “Whatever she said. It’s a lie.”
I don’t back down even though my heart is breaking. “That’s not a denial.”
His gaze softens, pleading now. “It was once, Kate. I was drunk, scared about the wedding. The guys dared me, so I just...”
I cut him off. “You just what?”
He swallows hard, voice barely a whisper. “I slept with her.”
“Sleeping implies a bed.” I don’t know how my voice gets so cold, so sharp it could cut glass.
“Please,” he whispers, desperate.
I don’t answer. Instead, I turn and move toward the sofa, letting myself sink into the cushions, the cold leather pressing against my skin like reality itself. “Tell me. From the start.”
He opens his mouth, eyes narrowing, ready to argue or deflect, but I cut him off before he can.
“If you don’t want me here, if you don’t want me to walk out that door and out of this marriage, you will tell me everything. Every damn detail about the night you fucked a stripper.”
The silence stretches between us, thick and suffocating. His jaw tightens, hands trembling slightly as he runs them through his dark hair. I keep waiting. Not just for the words, but for the truth, the part he’s been hiding from me for ten years.
Swallowing hard, Aiden finally speaks. “It wasn’t supposed to happen. I didn’t know it was going to happen. The guys egged me on. I was drunk, confused. She… she was there, and I just… I lost control.”
I don’t flinch, though every nerve screams. “Whose idea was it to go to the strip club?”
He shakes his head slowly. “No ones, we were at the bar, getting rowdy drunk when the bouncer told us to leave, that we were disrupting the customers. So, we just left, the strip club was right across the street and we just… stumbled in.” I guess he stumbled into her vagina too.
“I was already drunk; we had more drinks at the club. The guy’s got lap dances but I said no.” he looks proud of that, like I'm supposed to thank him.
“This woman… stripper kept running her hands through my shoulders, offering me a free dance. She came onto me. The guys were ribbing me, said how I’d only ever been with one woman.
They kept ordering drinks, the same woman kept bringing them over.
” Aiden looks stressed, he never expected he’d have to tell me this. He has to.
“I told them I was ready to leave, but they said not until I got a private dance. They told her to take me to the back room. I swear… okay I swear I thought it was just going to be a dance.” He shakes his head, “The guys kept pushing me, said I wasn’t man enough to follow her, that we weren’t leaving until I did.
I was so drunk, so pissed that I got up and I followed her.
” He stops like it’s the end of his confession.
“And then.”
He looks at me, pleading but I don’t give an inch. “I got to the back room; she pulled me in and locked the door. She pushed me to the couch and before I knew it, I.. I.”
I finish for him, “You fucked her.”
Aiden gets on his knees in front of me, grabbing my hands, “I regretted it as soon as it happened. I was going to tell you the next day but I couldn’t. I swore it would never happen again and it didn’t. whatever she told you, is a lie.”
“Did you wear a condom?” I ask. He got a vasectomy after we had our second unexpected baby at Twenty.
“What?”
“When you fucked her, did you stop and put on a condom.” I repeat.
“Yes.” He looks down.
“Did you bring it or did she?”
“She did.”
“Did she suck you off?” I ask
He says “Why does it matter?”
I just stare at him until he says, “No.”
I push off the sofa, away from him, “So, you went to a strip club and were goaded by your friends into following a stripper who just had to have you so much so that she kept coming onto you.” I start pacing, “You followed her into a back room and were apparently drunk enough to be manipulated but not so drunk that you couldn’t get it up without help.
” I stop pacing, turning to him. “Did I get that right?”
He stands up too, “I’m so sorry, Kate. Please, I -.”
“What forgive you? If I had done this, would you have forgiven me?”
Aiden has no answer to that, “I’m so sorry.”
I laugh bitterly, “Me too.”