He followed my finger and then, seeing the mark, his face tightened. “Don’t get the wrong idea, babe. I probably just brushed against someone by accident.”
“Alright,” I replied.
My calm must have convinced him as he leaned in, wanting to reward me with a kiss, but I stepped aside.
If he thought I was “dirty,” why could he still act tender without missing a beat?
My refusal made him frown, and his face hardened. “I won’t be home for dinner. Don’t wait up.”
He then grabbed his keys without ever noticing the pregnancy test I’d left in plain sight.
“Ethan, I’m pregnant—” I began.
But he stood in the doorway, brow knotted, and cut me off irritably, “I’m on my way to meet a client. Stop acting paranoid. Security is something you should give to yourself.”
Once, after meeting a female client, he came back with a long hair on his shirt and the scent of perfume all over him. I teased him if another woman threw herself at him. He embraced me and said, with that indulgent smile, that with me, his favorite person, he had no reason to look at anyone else. Back then, I believed everything he said.
Shortly, he left tidy and primped, even spritzing on cologne like a peacock preparing to court a mate.
After he walked out, I bought a ticket to the piano competition and ordered a bouquet. I wanted to catch him in the act and hear how he’d explain it.
When I snuck into the backstage area, I found them together. Ethan had a water in hand, and they were enjoyingly sharing it like lovers.
“Ethan, I’m so nervous. If I don’t win first place, it’ll be so embarrassing,” Dulce fretted.
“Losing isn’t embarrassing. You don’t know what real shame is,” he shot back.
The words cut me like a blade.
As expected, she mentioned me.
“You’re too kind, Ethan. You saved Jillian, and that’s a great debt. But you don’t have to sacrifice your whole life. While I feel sorry for what happened to her, I just can't get it. If it were me in her shoes, I’d rather die than use my ruined body to shame the man who saved me.” Dulce puckered, deliberately letting her chest press against him.
Ethan’s ears flushed bright red, that telltale sign that he was moved. “Silly girl. Not everyone is as noble as you.”
“If you want, I can stir up the videos. Make them go viral again. Then Jillian won’t have to break up with you. She’ll walk away on her own,” she suggested.