Chapter 3 The Betrayal Behind Closed Doors

Not long after Tristan Hodges and I got married, he began smiling at his phone more and more often. Whenever he was around me, he would even instinctively turn his phone face down. And whenever he came home late after working overtime, his shirts invariably carried the scent of unfamiliar perfume.

Whenever I confronted him, he would offer an impatient explanation. "I'm smiling because someone in the group chat said something funny. Turning my phone facedown is just a professional habit. And as for the perfume, what am I supposed to do when a female client puts it on? Tell her to stop because my wife might get the wrong idea?"

Still suspicious, I sought out Edith and confided in her.

Edith leaned close to my ear and whispered, "The next time you find a clue, don't confront him. Investigate directly instead. Don't give him a chance to come up with excuses."

It did not take long for an opportunity to present itself.

Tristan suddenly announced that he had to go on a business trip. In the photo he sent as proof of his whereabouts, I spotted the reflection of a woman's silhouette in the glass window.

Edith was not answering her phone, so I gathered some other friends and rushed to the hotel. We forced the door open and found Tristan kneeling halfway on the floor, cradling a woman's bare left leg in his hands.

The woman, to my dismay, was Edith.

The moment he noticed the camera in my friend's hand, his expression changed completely. "Sabrina, have you lost your mind?"

My teeth chattered so violently that I could barely speak. "What are you two doing together?"

Tristan finally lost his temper. He slapped the phone out of my friend's stunned, outstretched hand.

"Edith and I studied the same subject. I brought her along because she wanted to sit in on a case discussion. She came to discuss some details with me and twisted her ankle. I was simply checking her injury! What the hell is wrong with you?"

But the perfume he had claimed belonged to a female client was exactly the same fragrance Edith wore.

I strode straight toward him and snatched his phone away. Edith was the only person pinned to the top of his chat list.

When I opened their conversation, I discovered that the two of them exchanged more messages in a single day than Tristan and I had exchanged in six months combined.

My blood rushed to my head, and a chill swept through my entire body. "So this is what you meant by group messages, professional habits, and female clients? Tristan Hodges, if you have nothing to hide, why have you been keeping all this from me?"

"Enough!" Tristan looked at me as though I had broken his heart. "Sabrina, look at yourself! What have you become?"

He threw two hotel key cards down in front of me. "I didn't tell you because I didn't want you jumping to conclusions and accusing Edith unfairly! Everyone knows how well she's treated you since childhood. How dare you brand her a homewrecker?"

At the sight of the two key cards, even the friends who had initially taken my side began whispering among themselves. "Sabrina, maybe things really aren't what you think they are…"

Edith immediately dropped to her knees in front of me. "I'm sorry, Sabrina. I shouldn't have handled things this way. Please, don't fight because of me!"

I did not miss the fleeting smile that crossed her face.

By the time I came to my senses, my hand had already struck her across the face. "Edith Rayburne, I treated you like my own sister, and this is how you repay me? You schemed against me?"

The next instant, a far more vicious slap sent me sprawling to the floor.

"You claim to treat Edith like your own sister, yet you've been ordering her around since childhood! You even made her give up her chance to attend a top law school just so she could go to an inferior one and look after you! Sabrina, how dare you play the victim?"

The metallic taste of blood flooded my mouth.

"How dare I? Without me, her mother would've sold her off to some remote mountain village long ago! Edith Rayburne, my parents paid 20 thousand dollars to rescue you from that living hell. Yes, you got into law school, but your parents took your scholarship money! You begged me to help you figure out what to do.

"That same year, my family went bankrupt. Law school tuition was exorbitant, and even after I split the money my parents had left me for studying abroad with you, it still wasn't enough. You had no choice but to apply to the same university as me because its tuition was more affordable. And after everything that happened, this is the story you chose to tell about me?"

The room fell silent, leaving only Edith's sobs.

Tristan's expression darkened as he stepped in front of Edith to shield her. "If you were really as kind as you claim, you wouldn't have exposed Edith's private struggles in front of everyone."

He helped Edith to her feet and walked away with her without looking back.