My Best Friend Wore My Bathrobe While Stealing My Wife

That rainy Thanksgiving, I came home early from an "emergency" at work, hoping to surprise my wife, Chloe, who I thought was working late.

The moment I slid the key into the lock, I heard voices from the backyard.

A woman's muffled laughter, a man's low murmur.

My hand froze on the key.

Chloe had told me she was working late on a promotional event tonight and wouldn't be back.

But now, I heard two voices coming from our own backyard.

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1

I tiptoed through the living room and pushed open the glass door leading to the backyard. A damp, cold gust, thick with the smell of rain and chlorine, hit my face.

The newly installed outdoor hot tub was brightly lit, steam rising from it.

On the wooden deck beside the tub sat two half-empty whiskey glasses, and the expensive whiskey I treasured was lying on its side nearby.

In the tub, the sound of splashing water grew clearer, accompanied by heavy panting.

"Chloe, you're so much more fun than he is..."

That voice. I knew that damn voice.

Leo, my best friend since our days at the University of Washington, the colleague I recommended for a job at my company, the man I trusted like a brother.

"Don't mention him. Let's just enjoy ourselves..."

Chloe's voice was sultry, a tone I'd never heard from her, and it sent a chill down my spine.

I had never heard her use that tone with me.

We had been married for three years. With me, her sweetness always felt forced, laced with impatience.

Perfunctory. Distant. Like she was just going through the motions of being a wife.

But now, wrapped in another man's arms, her voice was sickly sweet, like melting caramel.

I walked into the backyard.

The two people in the hot tub froze instantly.

Chloe let out a scream and hurriedly submerged herself in the water, leaving only her shoulders exposed.

Leo sat up, his face a mixture of shock and guilt. He was still wearing my bathrobe.

"Ethan, let me explain..."

"Explain what?"

To my own surprise, my voice was eerily calm.

I should have been roaring, losing my mind, shoving his head underwater.

But I just stood there, looking at them coldly.

"Ethan, we..."

"We weren't doing anything!" Chloe interrupted Leo, her voice sharp enough to scrape glass.

I laughed.

Laughed so hard tears pricked my eyes.

"Not doing anything? So, what, you're discussing project deadlines in my hot tub? Naked?"

Chloe's face instantly flushed crimson.

Leo climbed out of the tub, fumbling to wrap my bathrobe tightly around himself.

"Ethan, man, about this..."

"Man?"

I repeated the word, my voice dripping with ice.

"Leo, we've known each other for ten years. Do you really think I can still call you 'man' after this?"

He froze, the bathrobe tie slipping from his hand.

I turned to look at Chloe.

The woman I had loved for five years and been married to for three.

She shrank into the corner of the tub, her gaze darting everywhere but at me.

"Chloe, I'm asking you, how many times has this happened?"

"How many times has what happened? I told you, we didn't do anything!"

She was still trying to deny it.

I walked over to the deck and picked up the half-empty bottle of whiskey.

I gestured with the bottle toward her.

"Is this part of your promotional event too?"

The color drained from Chloe's face.

Leo had already scrambled into his clothes and was trying to slip away.

"Stop!"

I called out to him.

"Leo, you think you can just walk away like this?"

"Ethan, we..."

"We're done."

I looked at this friend who had been inseparable from me since college.

Back then, we went to class together, pulled all-nighters coding together, and dreamed about the future together at our graduation ceremony.

I treated him like a blood brother, and he was sleeping with my wife in the new hot tub at my house.

"You two continue. I'm leaving."

I turned and started to walk away.

"Ethan!"

Chloe jumped out of the tub, naked, and ran over to grab my arm.

I shook her hand off.

"Don't touch me. You're dirty."

Her face crumpled as if I'd slapped her.

She stood there, stunned, her eyes instantly turning red.

"Ethan, what right do you have to say that to me?"

"What do you know besides work and code? That's all you care about—your precious 'emergencies' at work!"

"When have you ever cared about my feelings? When have you ever spent time with me?"

"At least Leo knows how to make me happy, how to enjoy life, how to watch the sunset with me!"

"And you? What can you give me besides money?"

I stopped and turned back to look at her.

This naked woman standing before me, hurling accusations.

This woman to whom I gave a large monthly allowance to maintain her glamorous influencer image.

This woman I thought was my wife.

"Chloe, you're right."

"I really can't give you anything but money."

"But starting today, I won't be giving you even that."

I walked out of the house without looking back.

The rain was still falling, hitting my face with a biting cold.

I stood at the entrance to our gated community with nowhere to go.

This place I had lived in for three years suddenly felt alien.

The place I called home... it had never really been one.

My phone rang. It was Leo.

I declined the call.

It rang again. Still him.

I turned the phone off completely.

Rainwater dripped from my hair, stinging my eyes like salty tears.

But I didn't cry.

I just felt tired. So tired I could just lie down on the pavement and never get up again.

But I couldn't.

I still had a lot of things to do.

I was going to make them pay for betraying me.