Chapter 2

I looked at the table full of dishes I'd spent the entire afternoon preparing for her. Steam slowly faded from the food until they were stone cold. Somewhere along the way, so had my heart.

My phone buzzed with a text from an unfamiliar number.

It read, "You don't know when to quit, do you? Did you honestly think you could compete with everything Kristen and I have been through together? All it would take is a single phone call, and she'd leave you behind without a second thought."

I couldn't help but laugh at myself.

Once upon a time, if anyone had told me Kristen would abandon me for another man, I would've called them insane.

Now the truth was right in front of me, impossible to ignore.

Kristen didn't come home that night, either.

The next morning, I walked into the kitchen, finding Kristen already eating breakfast. She was smiling at her phone, her fingers flying across the screen as she texted someone.

The smile vanished the instant she saw me.

"We're going to see Jake tonight," she said coldly. "You're apologizing to him. Do you have any idea what your comment did? He was miserable all night. I even saw him wiping away tears when he thought no one was looking."

A humorless laugh escaped me. "You want me to apologize? For what? For being upset that my wife spent our wedding anniversary celebrating another man's birthday?"

Her expression hardened as she shot to her feet and raised her voice. "Peter York, Jake and I grew up together! If there were ever going to be something between us, it would've happened long before you came along.

"His family's gone bankrupt. He's having the hardest time of his life, and I'm just trying to be there for him as a friend. Why do you insist on twisting everything into something dirty?"

I stared down at the table before quietly asking, "So when you and Jake made out in front of everyone at the bar… Was that just what friends do?"

Her expression faltered for the briefest moment before anger took over. "I've already explained that! It was a stupid party game, and that was the punishment. Why do you keep blowing everything out of proportion?

"If you don't trust me, maybe we should spend some time apart. Stay home and think about what you've become."

I watched her walk away.

At some point, we'd forgotten how to have a normal conversation. Every word between us turned into an argument.

I couldn't remember when the kind, patient woman I'd fallen in love with had disappeared.

Or maybe, she'd only stopped being that person with me.

I lowered my head, my chest aching with a pain I could no longer endure.

From that day on, Kristen never came home again.

That said, thanks to Jake's social media, it wasn't hard to keep track of what she'd been up to.

"My favorite beef taco in the whole city. Watching you painstakingly pick out every last piece of cilantro for me almost made me feel like we'd gone back to the good old days."

"My brave girl was terrified of the drop tower but still rode it with me. Seeing how pale you were afterward almost made me feel bad…"

"A little kid mistook us for a couple today and asked when we were getting married. I nearly died laughing."

It was less a social media feed than a daily reminder that he intended to stake his claim.

In every photo, Kristen looked radiant—laughing freely, with her eyes shining brighter than I'd seen in a long time.

I stared at the screen, lost in thought. I couldn't remember the last time she'd smiled at me like that.