“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.
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.
