A memorable birthday

Ivy’s POV

“Make a wish, Ivy!”

I stared at the candles flickering on the chocolate cake, their warm glow reflecting off the wine glasses scattered across our dining table. My cheeks hurt from smiling, but I didn’t care. Ethan’s hand rested on my lower back, his thumb drawing lazy circles through the fabric of my dress.

“Come on, baby,” he whispered against my ear. “Blow them out before the fire alarm goes off.”

I laughed and leaned forward, aware of everyone watching. Mom, Dad, Ethan’s mother sitting with her usual perfect posture, and Natalie bouncing on her heels with her phone out. This is how Thirty years feels like, married to the man i absolutely love. In our home, surrounded by everyone who mattered.

I closed my eyes and wished for more moments exactly like this one.

The candles went out to cheers and applause. Ethan kissed my temple, and I felt his lips curve into a smile against my skin. That smile that had made me fall in love with him seven years ago and still made my stomach flip every single time.

“Speech!” Natalie called out, already halfway through her third glass of champagne.

“No speech,” I said, cutting into the cake. “Just cake and maybe some dancing later…”

“Wait, wait!” Natalie rushed toward the TV on our living room wall. “I made something special for you girl.”

The lights dimmed before I could protest. I grabbed Ethan’s hand as the large screen flickered to life, and he squeezed back, his wedding ring pressing against my fingers.

The screen came alive and soon, my memorable pictures began showing. My throat tightened as the photos shifted. Our wedding pictures in all our glory, our honeymoon in Bali, sunset painting the sky behind us as we kissed on the beach. That terrible candid of us laughing at some joke I couldn’t even remember now, both of us doubled over, clutching our stomachs. Ethan asleep on our couch with our dog sprawled across his chest, his mouth open, completely dead to the world.

“You’re crying,” Ethan murmured, wiping my cheek with his thumb.

“Shut up. You’re crying too.”

He was. We both were, holding hands in the darkness while our life together played out in front of our families. 

I wanted to pause time right there and freeze us in that perfect minute where everything was still whole.

Suddenly, the music stopped.

And the next photo that appeared on screen made my brain to stop working for a minute. It was me. My face staring back at myself, my body on full display. 

But I was completely naked, straddling some man I had never seen before in my entire life. His hands were gripping my bare ass, fingers digging into my flesh. My head was thrown back, mouth open, looking like I was moaning. Like I was lost in pleasure with this stranger.

“What the hell?” Ethan’s hand ripped away from mine like I had suddenly turned to something disgusting.

The slideshow continued, each image worse than the last.

Me on my knees between the same man’s legs, his hand fisted in my hair, his thick cock halfway down my throat. My eyes were closed, lips stretched wide around him. Like I was having the best time of my life.

“Turn it off!” My mother’s voice cracked across the room, sharp and horrified.

But the photos kept coming, one after another, each one more explicit. Me bent over a desk, the man behind me, clearly inside me. Me with my hand wrapped around him, stroking. Another one with my legs spread wide on a bed while he went down on me, his face buried between my thighs.

Someone finally killed the screen, but that was definitely not the end of my problem, in fact that’s the beginning of my misery.

The silence that followed was suffocating, none of them could speak. My heart was slamming against my ribs so hard I thought they might crack.

I couldn’t move a limb, or come up with something to explain this shit. I knew this wasn’t real because I’ve never seen the man in those pictures before, someone was definitely trying to destroy my perfect marriage but how would I make them understand. That will be very hard to believe with this accurately photoshopped pictures. Everyone was staring at me like I was some filthy thing they had scraped off their shoes. Finally I gathered the courage to speak.

“Ethan.” My voice came out barely above a whisper. “That’s not real. I never… I don’t even know who that man is.”

Holy shit, Ethan was crying. Tears were streaming down his face, his chest heaving with harsh breaths as if it would cease anytime soon. I have only seen Ethan cry exactly three times in the seven years I know him. When his father died, when we got married, and we lost our first pregnancy.

Of course he would cry, for someone to see his beloved wife in that filthy mess with some random guy is the most degrading and humiliating thing a wife could ever do to her husband. No doubt, I know Ethan loves me, he was the perfect husband any woman would ever want. He’s handsome, successful, romantic and most especially faithful. And now he’s crying because of me, because he thought I had betrayed him in the worst way possible.

“Don’t,” he choked out. “Don’t lie to me right now.”

“I’m not lying!” My voice broke, desperation clawing up my throat. “I swear to God, Ethan, I have never cheated on you. I would never…”

“Well, that’s rich.” That was Ethan’s mother, she stood up, her face twisted with disgust. Her perfectly applied makeup couldn’t hide the hatred burning in her eyes. “We all just watched you fuck another man, Ivy. We watched you suck his cock and spread your legs for him like the whore you are.”

I would honestly prefer a physical blow than her words.

“How dare you!” My mother shot to her feet, her face flushed red. “Don’t you dare speak to my daughter that way!”

“Your daughter?” Ethan’s mother laughed viciously. “Your daughter just humiliated my son in front of everyone. She destroyed him. And you want to defend her?”

“Those pictures could be fake!” Dad’s voice boomed through the room. “Photoshopped or… or something!” Exactly, why wouldn’t they give me the benefit of doubt. 

“Did they look fake to you?” Ethan’s mother turned on him viciously. “Because they looked pretty damn real to me. Every single detail. Her face while she was riding him.” She turned back to me, lip curling. “You always did think you were too good for this family. I guess you found someone who met your standards.”

Now the room was spinning, this couldn’t be happening. None of this made sense. Who wanted to drag me into the mud on my birthday.

“Mom, Dad, please.” I reached for them with shaking hands. “You know me. You know how you raised me. You know I wouldn’t do this.”

My father’s face had gone from red to gray, aged ten years in ten minutes. He looked at me like he was seeing me for the first time. Like some suspicious stranger.

“I don’t know what to believe anymore,” he said quietly.

What the hell. I could feel the way my heart broke. 

“Get out.” My mother’s voice followed emotionless. Now I’m officially doomed. It’s crazy how things can go south in a blink of an eye without you realizing.

“Gladly.” Ethan’s mother grabbed her purse. “I won’t stay another second in this house of lies.” She stopped next to Ethan, putting her hand on his wet cheek. “Come home with me, son. You don’t have to stay here with her.”

But Ethan didn’t move a single move. He just stood there, staring at me like I had ripped his heart out of his chest and stomped on it.

“Natalie,” I spun toward my best friend. She was pressed against the wall, mascara running in black streaks down her face, looking absolutely destroyed. “Nat, please. You know me better than anyone. Tell them this is insane. Tell them I wouldn’t…”

“How could you?” She was sobbing now, her whole body shaking. “How could you do this to us? To your husband? He loves you… so much. He would have done anything for you.”

“I didn’t do anything!”

But she was already running out like i was some contagious virus. Her heels clicked frantically across our hardwood floors as she fled toward the front door, unable to even look at me anymore. Holy jehova!

My parents followed suit without another word. My mom intentionally bumped into me and didn’t even care to spare me a glance.

Ethan’s mother gave me one last look of pure contempt before she left, slamming the door hard enough to rattle the picture frames on the wall.

It was now only me and Ethan in our home, our living room where we had made love on the couch countless times. I would watch my marriage go to drain for a sin I never commit. I need to explain myself no matter what.

“Ethan.” I took a step toward him, “Please look at me. You know who I am. You know my heart.”

He finally met my eyes, and what I saw there broke me completely. There was nothing like love in them. All I saw was an angry broken person, and knowing that I caused him all this pain made me feel pathetic.

“I want a divorce.”

The words sucked all the air out of the room. My legs gave out, and I caught myself on the back of the couch. 

“No, Ethan, please don’t do this. Don’t give up on us. We can figure this out. We can…”

“There’s nothing to figure out.” His voice was flat now, which made chills run down my spine. The tone clearly shows he has really believed what he saw and was no longer interested in me.

“Ethan, what you saw were lies! Someone is trying to destroy us! Why can’t you see!”

“Well, they’ve succeeded.” He walked toward the stairs, everything looked like a dream.

“Tomorrow I’m calling a lawyer.”

“Ethan, wait…”

He stopped on the third step with his back still facing me. For a second I thought he would turn around, come back down and hold me, and tell me we would get through this together like we always do.

“I loved you more than anything in this world,” he said quietly. 

“But I’m done!”

He then climbed the rest of the stairs and disappeared, leaving me standing alone in the ruins of my thirtieth birthday party. And somewhere out there, someone was laughing at how perfectly they had destroyed my entire life in less than ten minutes.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Who could that be?