Chapter 10 #2
No. It couldn’t be. He wouldn’t have kept something like this from me, something that changes the trajectory of our lives so completely, but I wasn’t sure anymore.
He hadn’t seen my struggle with Alyssa. He hadn’t acknowledged the damage his silence and negligence had caused.
Could I really claim I knew what he was capable of, especially if he had convinced himself the betrayal wasn’t wrong?
I had been so focused on my own pain that I’d blinded myself to the possibility of something even worse, and now here I was, standing in the ruins of that ignorance, the evidence in my hand undeniable no matter how desperately I wished otherwise.
The test felt heavier, and as I looked at the two pink lines, the implications clawed their way through me, ripping at the last of my fragile hope, that there had been a way to fix us.
It felt like a final confirmation of my deepest fears, a cruel twist of fate that meant there was no going back.
Alyssa must have read the conflict in my face because she laughed again, a short, brutal sound.
“You can lie to yourself, Sadie. You can keep pretending there’s something left to fix.
But I’ll be moving forward with Patrick.
We’ll be a family now.” The finality in her voice struck like a physical blow, leaving me gasping for air that wasn’t thick with betrayal.
“Get out.” My voice was cold, but it wavered, betraying the storm of emotions surging through me.
Alyssa laughed. “You won’t be getting rid of me that easily, Sadie. But have your moment.” She turned to go, pausing at the doorway to throw me one last venomous glance. “I’ll make sure Patrick doesn’t bother you with any more of his pitiful attempts to fix this. You’re history now.”
As she walked away, her heels echoing in the emptiness, I could hear the laughter in her footsteps, the sound reverberating off the walls as if it would never fade.
I stood there, staring at the test in my trembling hands, the reality of what it meant sinking into my bones like cement, hardening and suffocating all at once.
I had feared losing Patrick, but the confirmation of how deep his betrayal ran felt far worse.
I was not only being replaced, but the life he and I were supposed to create, that possibility, had been handed to someone else, someone who had spent her whole life trying to steal whatever made mine mine.
And in the most cruel twist of fate, she had succeeded.
The silence of the museum offered no solace, only the reminder that I was utterly, painfully alone.
My hand clutched the pregnancy test like an anchor, the reality too heavy to let go of.
Patrick’s betrayal had become something much bigger, something irrevocable, and all I could do was stand in the wreckage of it, my world fractured beyond repair.
No, that wasn’t all I could do. I could use this hurt, this anger, and make Patrick pay.
While the museum was closing, I knew Patrick would likely still be at the office.
I could face him. I could make him own up to what he had done.
And then we would get everything straight, because the man I had loved had cheated on me with my conniving stepsister.
And now she was pregnant with his child.
It wasn’t that we hadn’t talked about that type of future, but we hadn’t got around to trying.
And to find out that he was somehow finding time for Alyssa while the two stayed late so they could supposedly work made it all worse.
I changed my clothes and got behind the wheel of my car, my thoughts racing as I headed to Patrick’s office, the confrontation brewing in my chest like a thunderstorm.
By the time I arrived, my hands were trembling, but my resolve had hardened into something colder.
I barely stopped at the front desk before heading back to the elevators.
When the door of his office loomed in front of me, my heart hammered in my ears.
I didn’t bother knocking, shoving the door open and stepping inside, waiting for him to look up from his desk.
For a moment, his face was a picture of relief, then confusion, when he saw the fury in my eyes.
His relief turned to apprehension as he took in the pregnancy test clutched in my hand, his expression faltering as his eyes widened, but the words were out of my mouth before he could speak.
“So this is what you’ve been doing while I’m falling apart.
” I threw the pregnancy test onto the desk, the two bright pink lines staring up at him like accusations.
“She’s pregnant. How could you?” My voice trembled, the betrayal and pain spilling out in a flood that I could no longer control, my body shaking with the force of it as my world tilted further on its axis.
Every emotion I had fought to suppress in the hangar came rushing forward, a torrent of anguish and rage I couldn’t stop.
I was raw, stripped down to my most vulnerable core.
He stared at the test, his face blanching, but there was something in his eyes that gave him away.
A flicker of panic, confusion, then regret as if it had only just hit him how monumental this was.
“Sadie,” he began, sounding desperate, but I didn’t let him finish, cutting him off with words that tore through what little remained between us.
“Don’t. You can deny it all you want, but this...” I gestured to the test, my hands shaking with fury and heartbreak. “This is everything I need to know. I don’t want your excuses.”
“I don’t know what this is, Sadie, but?—“
My laugh came out bitter, a twisted echo of what happiness used to sound like. “Save it, Patrick.” My eyes were wet now, but I refused to let myself fall apart, not here, not in front of him. “It’s over. You made your choice.”
I didn’t wait for his response, my hands already at the door, my feet carrying me away before he could say anything else, before I could hear any more lies or half-truths that might shatter whatever was left of me.
My chest felt like it was being crushed under the weight of it all, each breath labored as the reality of my decision hit me full force, but there was no turning back now.
By the time I reached my car, the dam inside me finally broke, tears spilling down my cheeks as I collapsed against the steering wheel.
The sobs came hard and fast, my body shaking with the force of them as all the months of hurt, anger, and disappointment surged at once, threatening to drown me in their wake.
There was no going back, no salvaging the us we used to be, only the harsh acceptance that this was the end, that the man I’d thought I knew was capable of destroying us in ways I hadn’t dared imagine.
My hands gripped the steering wheel as the sobs subsided into quieter, more painful tears, the kind that don’t stop, but settle into a persistent ache, a hollow reminder of what had been lost. The city outside the windshield blurred through my tears, and for a moment, everything felt unreal, like this wasn’t my life but someone else’s nightmare.
But it was mine. And as I sat there, staring into the fading evening, I knew with sickening certainty that Patrick hadn’t just betrayed my trust, he’d destroyed any hope we’d had of a future together. And nothing could undo that now.