CHAPTER 2
Elena
By morning, my eyes burned, my body felt hollow, and the space beside me on the bed was untouched.
Adrian hadn’t slept here; he’d stayed in the living room or somewhere else in the house.
I hadn’t asked him to leave, but he knew I needed distance.
He knew being near me would only make the anger pulse harder.
The pain didn’t soften overnight. It didn’t ease just because the sun came up. My chest felt tight, as if something heavy was pressing down on me out of nowhere. I rested a hand over my stomach, hoping my baby was okay even when her mother was falling apart.
A soft knock came at the door before it opened, and Adrian stepped inside. Our eyes met, and something had changed. I looked at him with disgust, while he looked at me with guilt carved into every inch of his face. He looked exhausted, like he hadn’t slept all night.
But it meant nothing to me.
“Elena...” he said quietly, taking a step toward me.
“Stop right there,” I snapped. “I don’t want to hear anything from you. Nothing you say is going to make me feel any better.”
I wiped away the tears that had slipped down again.
“Alright,” he said softly. “I’ll wait until you’re ready to talk to me.”
“Whatever,” I muttered, pushing myself up from the bed. I moved toward the bathroom slowly. No matter how shattered I was today, I still had to go to work.
“You don’t need to go to work today,” he said gently. “Just tell them you’re not feeling well.”
“Don’t pretend you care,” I shot back.
He didn’t reply.
I stepped into the bathroom, my movements robotic, as if my body was moving on its own. When I came out, Adrian was no longer in the room. I cried again while getting dressed, wiping my face only for tears to fall again. I kept asking myself how everything between us had come undone so quickly.
When I went downstairs, Adrian was already in the kitchen, preparing his coffee. He was fully dressed for work; he must have showered in the downstairs bathroom.
For a moment, I just stood there, watching him move around the kitchen as if everything were normal, as if nothing had shattered between us the night before.
He noticed me and straightened a little, his expression careful.
He watched me getting ready for work. When I reached for my car keys, he stepped forward immediately, blocking my hand.
He insisted on driving me, and I didn’t protest. I didn’t have the strength to drive myself in this state, and he knew it.
We rode in silence.
I rested my elbow against the window, watching the road pass by. One hand lay on my stomach. I knew Adrian kept glancing at me, waiting for me to say something. But I let the silence settle between us because I had nothing left to give.
Honestly, I should not have gone to the office. I could barely function, my mind scattered and my chest still aching. But I had no choice. There was a meeting I could not miss, and life, as cruel as it could be, did not pause simply because my heart had broken.
I walked into the office with a smile that felt glued on, nodding at people who asked how I was, pretending everything was normal.
I held myself together in the conference room, taking notes, presenting, answering questions, doing everything except breathing properly.
But the moment I stepped into the empty restroom, I broke.
Silently. Desperately. Pressing a hand to my mouth so no one would hear.
— ? —
When we finally got home that evening, everything I had been holding back cracked open. The questions spilled out of me. I asked Adrian everything. Every ugly detail and every moment I didn’t want to know but couldn’t stop myself from asking.
He never raised his voice, not once. He just looked ruined.
“I swear, Elena,” he told me again and again, “it only happened once. Just once. And after that, I never saw her again.”
But it didn’t make it hurt less.
“Why?” I asked him, my voice cracking. “Why did you do it?”
“I don’t know,” he whispered, shaking his head. “I thought it was just talking to an old friend, nothing serious. I didn’t realize how far it had gone until—”
“Until you slept with her?”
He swallowed hard. “Yes.”
I let out a hollow laugh. “And that’s what you call a friend? Someone who checks in every day?”
He said nothing.
“Did you ever mention me?” I asked, my voice tight. “Did you talk to her about me? About us? Did you make it sound like our marriage was unhappy? Like you needed someone else to confide in?”
“No, of course not,” he said quickly. “I never talked about you, or us. I only mentioned that you were pregnant. That’s it.”
“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.