Her head snapped up, bristling like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, her voice shrill enough to cut glass:
"Julian! What the hell are you talking about?!"
"Following me is bad enough, but now you're going to slander me too?"
"Five years! Five years together, and you can't even give me the most basic trust?!"
I nearly laughed. I actually nearly laughed.
She hadn't addressed a single word of her own deception. Not one. Instead, she'd flipped the entire thing on its head, piling every ounce of blame onto me—as though the one in the wrong wasn't the cheating wife, but the husband who'd uncovered the truth.
Trust.
I turned the word over in my mind, and it felt like the punchline to the worst joke of the century.
"You're the one who lied to me first. And now you want to lecture me about trust?"
Louise faltered, her mouth opening and closing. Then she stiffened her neck and barreled on:
"So what if I lied to you?"
"Do you have any idea how much pressure I'm under every single day? And what do you do? Cook. Clean. That's it. What else have you ever done for me?"
"Bill and I grew up together. He's family to me. He's like my brother!"
"He felt sorry for me and wanted to give me a professional spa massage so I could relax for once!"
"How does that become something filthy in your eyes?"
Every word rang with righteous conviction.
If it weren't for the trail of intimate red marks covering her skin, I might have almost believed her.
"Julian... you really have the wrong idea. I—I just thought Louise has been working so hard lately, and I wanted to help her unwind..."
Bill peeked out from behind Louise, half his face visible, his voice small and trembling.
"There's nothing between us. I swear. I would never have any inappropriate thoughts about her."
He spoke carefully, watching me the whole time—as if I were some kind of monster that might devour him alive.
A cold laugh escaped my throat.
"A misunderstanding? No inappropriate thoughts?"
"Do you even believe the words coming out of your own mouth?"
I stared at him with open contempt.
No inappropriate thoughts—and yet he'd sent me photos of them in bed together just to provoke me?
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. It's all my fault. Please, Julian, don't fight with Louise because of me."
Bill's eyes reddened at the rims, making him look like a wounded puppy begging for mercy.