JUDGEMENT DAY

CHLOE’S POV

Bryan blinked his eyes at me, while his hand was still on the cheek that I had just slapped the shit out of. His mouth was opened wide with shock, but no words could come out of it.

“What the f**k, Chloe?” He asked, staring at me like I had gone completely mental. “The hell was that for?”

I didn’t move or stand. I just sat still on the edge of the bed, steadying my breath as I waited for the storm inside of me to break loose.

“Bryan, I have only one question for you,” I said calmly. “All I want to hear from you is the truth.”

He frowned, still rubbing his jaw. “Chloe, tell me what the hell is going on?”

I looked him dead in the eyes. “Are you cheating on me?”

The question came to him as I shock. I could see him falter and try to act unfazed by my question.

Bryan took a step back. “What?”

“I asked you a question. Just give me an answer.”

“Where the hell is all of this coming from?” he asked, voice rising. “Why would you even say something like that to me?”

“Just answer the damn question,” I said, firmer now.

His eyes looked deep into my soul, like he was hoping I would cut the crap and we’d go back to normal. “No.” He said at last. “I’m not cheating on you, Chloe.”

A tear began to move down my cheek, slowly and quietly.

He moved towards me. “Babe, I swear to you, I would never do something like that to you. You know me better than even my siblings know me.”

Do I?

That was the question in my head. I quickly reached for my phone on the nightstand and showed him the contents of my gallery.

“Take a look.”

Bryan leaned in slowly, then froze where he stood. The first picture was of him ramming his d**k into another woman who wasn’t me.

I swiped to show him another one. A different room but the same woman. His hands grabbing her hips and neck. I watched as his face turned pale.

“What the hell? Where did you get all of these?” he asked in a whisper.

I lowered my phone. “That,’s the first question that comes to your mind?”

He looked at me with his eyes wide open. “Chloe...”

“Please don’t tell me you’re going to keep denying this?” My voice began to break now. “All that matters to you is how I got them, right?”

He still didn’t say anything.

“How long?” I asked, standing up to face him.

Bryan looked down, taking the hand he had on placed on his cheek and running it through his hair.

“Please, don’t make me ask twice for an answer,” I ordered.

Silence took over and then I snapped at him. “How long, Bryan?!” I yelled at the top of my voice. “Two years,” he said to me, like he was confessing to a priest.

I watched the air leave my lungs.

Two years. While I was trying to hold our marriage together and going to therapy. While I was telling myself to try again, all for him.

My knees buckled and I sat back down, staring at the wooden floor like it could give me an answer I hadn’t heard already.

“How didn’t I know?” I whispered to myself.

He ran a hand through his hair one more time. “Because I didn’t want you to.”

I looked up, broken. “Why? Why would you do this to me? To us?”

Bryan paced. “Because I wanted a family, Chloe. I still do. And after the miscarriage... you just shut down and took away my dream.”

“I was grieving!” I snapped. “I lost our baby!”

“And I lost her too!” he shouted. “But you wouldn’t even speak to me. You locked yourself away in therapy and wouldn’t touch me, wouldn’t even look me in the eyes some days.”

“So cheating was your solution for this?” I said bitterly.

“I needed something,” he said, voice cracking. “Anything to feel like I wasn’t a failure!”

I shook my head in disbelief. “You had me.”

“No, I didn’t,” he said, pointing at me. “You were gone. You were here but never here for us. You pushed me away every time I tried to be close to you.”

“I was broken, Bryan!” My voice broke with the words. “I was scared to try again. Scared that I’d lose another child and lose myself in the process!”

“And I was scared I’d lost you forever!” he yelled.

I stared at him, tears blurring my vision now.

Without a word, I grabbed the divorce papers from the bfd and threw them against his chest.

“Sign them,” I said, cold.

Bryan picked up the papers, his eyes scanning the contents.

He scoffed. “You’re seriously doing this to us?”

“You started it the moment you lied to me and put your d**k in another woman.”

He looked up at me, fury burning behind his eyes. “You think you’re innocent? You think just because you didn’t cheat, you didn’t do this to us too?”

I didn’t answer because I was too tired and so done.

He threw the papers down on the dresser. “I’m not the villain here, Chloe.”

I turned toward the door, ready to walk away from this marriage for good.

My hand was on the knob when something inside me stopped me where I stood.

“Who is she?” I asked without turning around to see his face.

No answer.

I turned to face him now. My voice came out like ice. “Who is the woman in those pictures?”

Bryan let out a long breath, his face tightening.

“Cassie.”

Everything around me froze. I stared at him without blinking for a second. “Cassie?” I repeated back to him.

He nodded, ashamed by his extracurricular activities. ‘The woman you brought into our house and claimed she was a distant cousin?”

Suddenly, a bitter laugh left me and I could feel my hand trembling. I reached for my wedding ring that I hadn’t removed up to ten times since we got married five years ago.

I let it fall to the ground slowly, watching it as it dropped to the ground. It brought back memories of the time when we said

“We are over, Bryan.”

And I walked out.