Chapter 7

Reid came down the stairs slowly, his face pale, his jaw tight. His eyes were cold, yet there was pain buried deep in them.

“Reid…” I whispered, my voice shaking.

He stopped at the bottom step, staring at me as though I were a stranger. “If you didn’t cheat on me, Karline…” His voice was low, dangerous. “…then prove it.”

I blinked, stunned. “Proof? Reid, what kind of proof can I possibly give you? I’m telling you the truth I didn’t do anything with him!”

He stepped closer, his eyes narrowing. “Then tell me why you were so comfortable with him. Why you let him touch your hand and didn’t move it away. Why you were laughing at his compliments like a lovesick girl. Why you were so damn close to him that night.”

My chest tightened. “I..I was trying to make you jealous…” The words rushed out, desperate. “You were so busy with Natalie, so blind to how I felt..I wanted you to see me, Reid! I wanted you to fight for me!”

His lips curled in bitterness. “So you wanted to make me jealous… by sleeping with him?”

“No!” I shouted, my throat raw. “No, I never slept with him! I never wanted him, Reid! I only wanted you!”

He laughed, but it was hollow, broken. “Do you even hear yourself? I walked in and found you in his arms. You weren’t fighting him off. You were lying there like you belonged to him. How the hell am I supposed to erase that from my head?”

Tears blurred my vision again. “Because you know me! Because you love me! You should know I would never, ever betray you that way.”

Reid’s fists clenched at his sides, his voice breaking as he snapped, “I don’t know you anymore, Karline.”

The words cut sharper than any blade. I staggered back, clutching my chest as if I could hold myself together.

“You don’t mean that,” I whispered, choking on sobs. “You’re just angry..”

“I mean every word.” His tone was ice.

And in that moment, I felt the ground vanish beneath me. The man who once swore he’d never let me go was now looking at me like I was already gone.

His words rang in my ears like a death sentence. I don’t know you anymore, Karline.

Something inside me snapped. The begging, the pleading, the endless tears, it all burned away, leaving only anger and fire.

I lifted my head, wiping my face with trembling hands. My chest heaved as I looked him dead in the eye.

“Fine,” I shouted, my voice echoing through the room. “You want proof, Reid? I’ll give you proof.”

He froze, his jaw tightening, but I didn’t stop. My pain came out as fire now, every word trembling with rage.

“You think you can throw me aside because of a scene you walked into? You think you know the truth from a single lie Adrian spat in your face? No! You don’t get to destroy me like this without consequences!”

“Karline__” he started, but I cut him off, my voice breaking into a scream.

“You’ll regret this, Reid! You’ll regret doubting me! You’ll regret ever believing him over me!”

The room went still. My own words shook the air between us, heavy with fury and heartbreak.

His face flickered shock, then guilt, then hardening again as he looked away.

I clenched my fists, my body trembling. “I’ll prove it to you. I don’t care what it takes, I’ll prove I never betrayed you. And when I do…” My voice cracked, softer but sharper. “…you’ll remember this moment. You’ll remember how you broke me when I needed you most.”

Silence swallowed us both. My scream still echoed in my ears, my chest rising and falling violently.

For the first time, I saw Reid look at me not with anger, but with something else, fear.

It had been a month. Thirty days of living with a man who felt more like a ghost than my husband.

Reid still came home every night, but he might as well have been living on the other side of the world. His side of the bed stayed untouched. He slept in the guest room. He never once touched the food I cooked, not even a sip of coffee.

And worst of all, he stopped looking at me.

***

I set the table as always, toast, eggs, fresh coffee. My hands were steady now, not trembling like before. I told myself I wasn’t expecting anything anymore.

Reid walked in, his tie already in place, his jacket slung neatly over his arm. He glanced at the spread of food and then past me, as though I were air.

“Morning,” I tried softly.

“Morning.” His tone was flat, clipped. He reached for the keys on the counter instead of the plate in front of him.

“You’re not eating?”

“I’ll grab something at the office.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Reid, we can’t keep living like this. Please, talk to me.”

His jaw tightened. He didn’t look at me. “There’s nothing to talk about.”

And then he was gone.

The coffee went cold.

***

I lay in our bed, staring at the ceiling. The silence was deafening. From the guest room down the hall, I heard the faint creak of the mattress, the opening of a drawer, his footsteps.

I closed my eyes and whispered into the darkness, “Goodnight, Reid.”

No answer came.

***

One evening, I walked into the study and froze. Reid was there, his head bowed over documents. His sleeves were rolled up, his glasses perched low on his nose. For a moment, my chest ached with the memory of how I used to curl into that space, my head on his shoulder while he worked.

“Do you want some tea?” I asked cautiously.

“No.”

“Reid…” I stepped closer. “I miss you.”

He looked up then, and for just a second, his eyes softened, pain flickering across them. But it was gone as quickly as it came. He closed the file in front of him and stood.

“I have work to finish.”

And he walked past me, leaving me standing in the doorway, my heart in pieces.

***

Sometimes he didn’t even come home until after midnight. I smelled perfume on his jacket once, not mine. My stomach twisted, but I didn’t dare ask.

The few times I mentioned Natalie’s name, his expression turned to stone.

“Don’t start,” he warned coldly.

So I stopped asking. But the silence between us grew heavier by the day.

***

ONE MOTHER LATER.

A month ago, I had screamed at him that he would regret doubting me. Now, I wasn’t sure who was regretting more, him, for believing Adrian… or me, for still loving a man who had already shut me out.

And how should I confront him that I am pregnant?