“I can’t believe this! What does he even see in her? That she’s older and ‘experienced’? That she already has a kid so he can play dad with no effort?”
“What a shameless woman! If it hadn’t been for you, he’d have been dead years ago!”
But I couldn’t hear a word. My eyes were locked on the three of them.
Ethan and Rachel each held the boy’s hand.
Soon the child ran off to the trampoline play area,
leaving the two of them on a bench together.
Hidden in the crowd, Sophia and I clearly heard their conversation.
Rachel sighed. “Ethan, you don’t need to do this. You have a wife.”
“Daniel is Daniel. You are you.”
Daniel Brooks—Ethan’s closest older brother.
Ethan’s voice was flat. “Daniel’s death was partly my fault. Rachel… this is what I owe you.”
“Admit it—after that night, you haven’t been able to forget me.”
At those words, Rachel Adams’s cheeks flushed red.
Ethan Brooks suddenly leaned closer, his eyes carrying that roguish arrogance.
With me, he had always been tender and gentle.
But this domineering, possessive look—it was just like the summer when I was eighteen and he first awakened my feelings.
A piece of my heart was wrenched out. So this side of him… was never mine alone.
Rachel pressed her hand against his chest, her eyes conflicted. “That night was an accident. If I hadn’t been drugged…”
My mind flashed suddenly—I remembered that Ethan owned a vacant property near the farmer’s market.
I pulled up the surveillance cameras.
The password was my birthday.
Yes, he had set it himself. He once told me, “No need for a complicated password. Remembering your birthday is enough, wife.”
My hands shook uncontrollably until the footage revealed the two of them, locked in a passionate embrace.
My suspicions were confirmed.
I gasped for breath, my eyes burning with tears.
Everything connected: a month ago, Ethan didn’t come home for the first time, saying he had to stay late for a project.
So it was… for a woman who had been drugged.
The first trip to the zoo, the first night away from home—
all along, Ethan had already been breaking his promises for her.
He had even said he wanted to turn that villa into our “second home.”
But now, in that very house meant to carry our vows, he was sleeping with another woman.
I clutched my chest as I heard Rachel continue: “But what about her? What about your wife?”
My heart clenched at Ethan’s silence.