001

Lavanda

They say once a cheat, always a cheat.

I believe in second chances. I stayed back to prove it wrong.

I scribble the word _CHEAT_ on my husband's desk. Red lines slash across his documents. Then I slip back to my desk.

Watching. Waiting for him to walk in.

I pick up my phone and send him a message:

Happy anniversary, Desmond.

I imagine his facial expression. He was good with words but bad at hiding emotions.

It ticks double blue. He's online. That's a good sign.

I pretend to work on my laptop until I hear his door slam shut.

I put my ear to the wall.

I don't hear screams.

I stand and snoop toward the corridor. His secretary isn't at her seat.

Alvarez Software Company was one of the first in the tech industry and the market.

I build software and my husband protects them. Except now, what I do is mostly paperwork.

I check my watch again. She's supposed to take the contract from him now.

Unless...

I grab my phone and bag and head straight for his office.

I fling the door open. There he was.

Smiling from ear to ear at his phone instead of at his wife. The lines on his lips were obvious. Whoever was on the phone was very important.

The minute our eyes met, he pulled it all back like an invisible thread and replaced it with scorn. I know that look too well.

He ended the call abruptly. "What are you doing here?"

I grip my handbag tightly for answers. I glance at the floor in shame for allowing my paranoia once more.

There was no one inside.

I trail the lines on the floor with my shoe. "I came for your assistant. For the contractttttt."

He raises an eyebrow. "No, Lavanda. You do this every time. Snooping on me like I’m a toddler. I don't like it."

"I'm sorry. I thought that..." I hesitate.

"That I was cheating on you?" he finishes the sentence.

My eyes stay glued to the office floor rather than his pissed face. He hasn't seen the red lines yet.

I am officially screwed.

"I told you," he pulls me close. "There's no other woman."

"I don't believe that."

I don't believe he isn't cheating. Not after the lipstick stains and the cold nights.

He kisses my forehead with care. "I love only you. With or without a child."

I relax, but deep down those words don't calm me.

"I trust you, Desmond." It comes out like a repeated chore. Fully knowing that Red had been trailing him for months.

"I just don't trust any woman with you," I reply.

He lifts my chin, looking deep into my eyes. "I am all yours, baby."

I kiss him briefly on the lips, afraid I’m going to spill with the way he’s looking at me.

I want to tell him he's lying.

That he's a big cheat.

And I haven't gathered the courage to text Red yet about whatever evidence he might have.

"I have to work now. I'll be back before 9 to celebrate our anniversary," he smiles wildly at me.

Wait. Did he remember? I had just behaved like a lunatic barging into his office.

Regret colors my face as I search for something to say. "I'll be cooking your favorite. Don't be late."

I run out of his office. My head bumps into someone.

"Sorry, ma'am. I didn't see you there," I hear his assistant say.

I touch my head, checking for injuries.

A red bouquet of flowers stares back at me with a message embedded on it.

It came too early. I smile at the thought of him actually gifting me.

His assistant plays with her glasses while I move away from the door.

"Don't tell him I saw it," I whisper, walking away to the parking lot.

💋

I drive home thinking about what dish to prepare.

I had purchased very hot lingerie for this occasion. The look in his eyes as he skimmed my body made me wet.

I could almost feel his kisses on my lips.

I swallow hard. It's been long since we had sex. Tonight will seal the deal. I bite my lower lip in excitement.

The security opens the gates. Each one of them in uniform. The maids too, all lined up. A protocol put in place by my husband, Desmond.

I enter the mansion, painted white with tiles everywhere and an enormous kitchen.

That was the only thing I loved about it, the kitchen, even though I hardly cook.

I was prepared to forget about the other imaginary woman I jump into the bathtub to prepare myself.

After that, I take out my phone to check my messages. I see a lot of missed calls from Red.

I make a mental note to call him the next day.

I search my bag, stripping it bare. Pen, books, and makeup fall out.

It wasn't in my wardrobe either.

"Where is it??" I groan. I'm standing naked in my room. I thought I had kept it in my bag or... Fuck. I never did.

The time is 8:30pm. I throw on my work clothes and run over to the office.

I didn't want my husband to pick it up for me. It was meant to be a surprise.

Everywhere is dark except his office. It isn't strange. A small smile appears on my lips. Always the hard worker.

I walk into the office. The security guard jumps.

"I came to take something. I'll be real quick," I say without looking back.

After much struggle, I find the parcel on my table. I hug it. This night is going to go well.

I hear strange noise from my husband's office. My phone flashlight scans the office area. I see nothing. I have to check to be sure.

There have been lots of robbery attacks in Seattle. Maybe they are here too.

Or else why was the security guard jumpy? Desmond could be struggling for his life.

I triple my movement to his office.

The blood drains from my face as I flash the light through the office door.

Each moan deeper than the last. Desmond was...

He... was actually... My breathing is hard. Every lie clears up.

The flower petals on the floor with the red-stained contracts. He had bought the flowers for his mistress, not me.

"Fuck me... hard." The moans bounces through the doors.

"Aggghhh, Cyanne, your pussy is my heaven," I hear my husband say, pounding deep into... my sister.

He was cheating on me, but not with some random girl.

My fucking sister.

I clutch my chest, fighting for air as I fall to the floor with the parcel clutched to me. I’m in pain, like the air has been zapped out of my lungs.

How? Why? Those are the only words ringing in my head.

For a moment he had me fooled. The fake smiles, kisses, and even the rose were all a lie.

It was for my sister. I taste the words in my mouth. I believed him over my better judgment.

I hit my chest. "I hate you. I hate you for clinging to this son of a bitch." I sob on the floor.

It was over. Everything was over.

Each thrust from behind the door pierces through my heart like a dagger. Tears flow freely from my eyes.

I don't know why I'm crying. I expected this. I knew he was cheating on me.

I didn't want to believe it, but that was the pure truth staring back at me.

My husband's dick was buried in my stepsister's pussy right there on his office table.

Rose petals decorated the floor and the table, and my desperate sister was clinging to him.

The stupid flowers I thought he had gotten for me. Who was I kidding?

Once a cheat, always a cheat.

He wasn't even trying to be careful.

The same arms I longed for, he had given away. The same lips I was hungry for, he was using on her.

I want to barge in there and scream, but I know it wouldn't change anything.

Slowly, I pick myself off the floor and walk back down the stairs as their moans hit the roof.