Chapter 3

Gabrielle instinctively checked her wrist. It was bare. That gesture alone told me everything.

"How did you know?"

"Take a guess."

I didn't tell her the answer, though. The truth was, I found an empty jewelry box in her car's storage. Before heading out to meet Caleb, she had deliberately hidden the bracelet away, for fear of letting me know.

Gabrielle's face was washed white. "So what? It was just a bracelet, a present from an old friend. Do you have to get all dramatic?"

"I don't know. Do I?"

I slowly walked toward her. "Gabrielle, you wear the clothes I bought you and drove the car I paid for to meet up with your ex-boyfriend. He bought you a bracelet, and you happily accepted it.

"What about me? Did you remember what happened on my birthday last month?"

My eyes never left hers. Memories of that day resurfaced. I had excitedly booked a restaurant that evening, only to come home with the necklace she had eyed for the longest time and find her on the couch.

I had called her earlier that day, and she told me she had been at home all day because she had been feeling under the weather.

"I believed you then. I canceled all the bookings and came home to look after you," I said. "But when I came home, I found your delivery order in the trash—spicy buffalo wings, your favorite.

"It came from the very restaurant you never let me try because, apparently, it was too unhealthy for me."

I made my words count, though my voice was shaking. "You weren't feeling under the weather, Gabrielle. You were just too lazy to care, even if it was my birthday."

My words prickled Gabrielle's heart like thorns. Her eyes reddened.

"Liam, do you have to go so far and be so mean? All I did was forget—"

I cut her off. "You did forget because you don't love me. You only married me because you needed a safe space to heal from your heartbreak with Caleb. You're not introverted or lazy.

"You'd simply spent all your energy and passion for life on him in the past. Meanwhile, I'm nothing more than a landlord who happens to provide you three meals a day."

I paused. "You know what? No—at least a landlord gets paid. What have I gotten in return? A wife who can't remember my birthday, or a wife who still can't get over her ex?"

The living room became eerily silent.

Tears rolled down Gabrielle's face. "No, Liam… It's not like that at all…"

She tried to take my hand, but I dodged her. "Don't touch me. It feels dirty."

She froze. This was the first time I had spoken so harshly to her. Her tears spilled even faster. "I swear there's nothing between Caleb and me. It's all in the past—"

I scoffed. "Is it, though? As soon as he came back, you changed. The past? Stop lying to yourself, Gabrielle."

Just then, Gabrielle's phone rang. She scrambled to take out her phone from her bag. The screen flashed with Caleb's name.

She froze. The ringtone echoed through the quiet living room like a blaring alarm. Conflicted, she could neither answer nor decline the call.

I looked at her. "Go on. Answer it. Don't keep your concerned old friend waiting."

By then, Gabrielle had bitten her lip so hard that it had turned pale. In the end, she still answered the call and put him on speaker.

Caleb chuckled on the other line. "Hey, Gabs. Have you arrived home? Your husband isn't ruffled or anything, is he? If he's giving you a hard time, tell me. I'm not one to sit around and let you take it, you know?"

His tone was full of provocation, as if he were the one who wore the pants in this relationship.