After a pause, I heard him speak clearly, one word at a time:
“I won’t divorce her. But I promise never to have children with her. I’ll treat your son as my own. I’ll make sure he has a place in the Brooks family.”
A laugh burst from me, tangled with tears.
Ethan, you love her so much that you won’t even give me a child.
Rachel’s expression softened, and Ethan pulled her into his arms.
For a moment, I foolishly hoped Rachel might push him away.
But she didn’t. She clenched her fists, and then the last trace of resistance faded from her eyes.
Her arms slipped around Ethan’s neck, and she kissed him back.
Whispering, “Ethan, thank you.”
Sophia Miller shot up to her feet beside me, ready to charge forward.
“Shameless bastards! How dare they—”
I grabbed her arm, tears streaking my face, but my voice was steady.
“Not yet. Wait. I won’t let them go unpunished.”
It wasn’t enough. Nothing was enough.
Slapping Ethan across the face, clawing Rachel’s skin, shouting “They’re having an affair!”—
none of it could repay the agony ripping through me now.
Rachel, a fish vendor raising her child alone—maybe she was pitiful, maybe she had her reasons.
But what about me?
What had I done wrong?
I, Olivia Carter, had given my whole heart for eight years.
All 2,922 days and nights—whose love and time isn’t precious?
I bit down so hard that blood filled my mouth.
Every loving memory had become a blade, cutting through my heart until it bled raw.
The tears on my lips were bitter, unbearably bitter.
Ethan, you deserve hell—only then will it make up for every second of pain I’m living through right now.
That night, I posted an Instagram grid with photos of Sophia and me at the San Diego Zoo.
