“I told you, it was an accident.”
“Are you not going to stop until you've made everyone miserable?”
He bent down, picked his jacket off the floor, and draped it over Bonnie's shoulders.
“Bonnie's had a scare tonight. I'm taking her home.”
“Cool off on your own. I'll come back when you've figured things out.”
He put his arm around Bonnie's shoulders and walked toward the door.
When he passed me, he didn't spare me so much as a glance.
Bonnie leaned into his arms and looked back at me with the smile of someone who had already won.
The door closed softly. I was the only one left in the house.
The air still smelled like them.
My phone screen lit up. A message from Antony.
【Clean up the study. Don't let Bonnie feel awkward the next time she comes over.】
I sat on the sofa without moving for the entire night.
The next morning.
Antony walked in carrying a few takeout boxes, acting as if nothing had happened.
“Crab roe buns from that place on the north side. Waited in line half an hour for these.”
“Pippa, come eat breakfast.”
I stared at the steam curling off the boxes and didn't move. He used to buy me breakfast from that shop all the time—but after I found out I was allergic to seafood, he never went back. Not once.
Bonnie loved crab roe buns.
I stood up and walked to the table.
I swept every box and everything inside them straight into the trash.
Antony's hand froze in midair.
He drew a long breath and looked at me, barely holding his temper.
“Philippa, how long are you going to keep this up?”
“I already explained last night. It was an accident.”
I looked at him, my eyes dry and raw：“Let's break up.”
Those three words had circled inside me all night. When they finally came out, they were surprisingly easy to say.
Antony blinked.
Then he reacted like he'd just heard something funny.
“Break up?”
He stepped closer, reaching out to touch my hair.
I turned my head away.
His hand fell on nothing. For the first time, something shifted in his face.
“Pippa, don't joke about things like this.”
“I know last night was on me. I apologize. But the person I love has always been you.”
His voice was earnest, his eyes even carrying a trace of tenderness.
“You know how Bonnie is—she's careless, she gets carried away.”
“I promise I'll keep my distance from her from now on, okay?”
If I hadn't seen with my own eyes how he shielded Bonnie last night.
I might actually have believed that garbage.
“Antony, do you honestly think cheating is something that can be forgiven?”
I took a step back, putting distance between us.
“You love me, so you slept with my best friend?”
“What do you call that? Spreading the love?”
Antony's patience finally ran out.
He yanked at his tie, and his voice went cold.
“I said it was an accident. Why do you have to keep dragging this out?”
“I'm out there every day making money, keeping us afloat. You have no idea how much pressure I'm under.”
“All you do is sit at home painting those worthless pictures nobody wants to buy, and I still have to come home and coddle you.”
“Every man alive has made the same mistake. You really need to turn it into a federal case?”
Every word cut into me like a blade.
So that was what he really thought.
I had given up my career to take care of him, and in his eyes, all I did was paint worthless pictures.
My eyes burned red. I pointed at the door.
“Get out.”
Antony scoffed.
“This is my house. If anyone's leaving, it's you.”
“Philippa, don't overestimate yourself. Without me, you couldn't even make rent.”
