All Chapters of My Husband’s Brother, My Filthy Trainer: Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

MIA I told Ryan I was going to the store. It was a bad lie. I still used it. The gym parking lot looked the same as the mornings I used to come before opening. Same glass doors. Same black mats visible from the sidewalk. My hands stayed on the wheel for a full minute after I parked. Don’t text me at the house. That was all Jake had given me. Not a denial. Not Clara’s name. Nothing I could hold. So I got out of the car. The front desk was not empty. Sophie was there in a cropped jacket, hair in a clean ponytail, phone in her hand like she belonged behind that counter. When she saw me, her smile came first. Then it thinned. “Well,” she said. “Look who broke the ban.” I stopped at the desk. “Is Jake here?” She set the phone down. “No.” The answer was too fast. “When will he be back?” “He’s not coming in this morning.” Sophie glanced at the schedule screen. “He’s meeting someone. Marcus is covering his sessions.” “Meeting someone.” “That’s what I said.” She loo

MIAIt was just sex.Those words rode home with me. Every red light made them louder. I kept seeing the dark office, the other trainer, Sophie’s tired face when she said she had looked for him too.Then I turned onto our street and saw the car.It was not Ryan’s. It was not Jake’s. A dark, expensive sedan sat in the driveway like it belonged there. Illinois plates. Clean. Out of town.My hands tightened on the wheel.I parked at the curb instead of behind it and sat for a second with the engine off. In the rearview mirror I looked flushed, shiny, like a woman who had run somewhere she was not supposed to go. I pressed my palms to my cheeks until the heat went down a little.The front door opened before I reached it.My mother-in-law smiled too wide. “There you are. Come in. We have guests.”“Whose car is that?”“Clara’s family.” She said it like I should have known. “You went to the store looking like that?”“It was hot.”“Wipe your face. You look flushed.”The living room was already

MIAClara’s question sat in the room after she asked it.“Mia,” she had said. “How do you like being trained by Jake?”Every face turned toward me. Ryan’s hand stayed on my waist, heavy, claiming. Jake leaned back in his chair like he had all night.“It’s fine,” I said.Clara waited. “Fine is a short answer.”Ryan filled the space for me. “She needed structure. Jake gave it to her. That’s all.”Jake’s mouth curved. “That’s one way to put it.”Clara looked at him, then at me. “Does he push you?”“Yes,” I said.“Good.” She smiled, sharp and polite. “People waste money on trainers who only flatter them.”Ryan’s fingers pressed in. “She doesn’t need flattery. She needs discipline.”Jake picked up the water pitcher and poured into Clara’s glass before hers was even empty. Not a big move. Just first. Just hers.“Thank you,” Clara said.“You were talking,” he said. “I didn’t want you to stop.”It was small. It was worse than small.Ryan noticed. I felt it in his hand. He still didn’t let go

MIAI sat on the guest bed longer than I meant to.The house had gone quiet after Clara left, but my head had not. I kept hearing the word engagement in Ryan’s mother’s voice, like she was already picking napkins. I kept seeing Jake pour Clara’s water. Hold her jacket. Smile at the right time.I told myself I was tired. I had driven to the gym on a store lie, let Sophie talk to me like I was one more girl in line, then come home to a living room dressed up for someone else. Anyone would feel off after that.That was not what this was.Jake was not mine. I knew that. He had never said I was. Sophie had said it was just sex, and the way he looked at Clara made that easier to believe. She fit. I did not. She had a clinic and a straight back and his number. I had a guest room and a husband who thought my body was a project.So the feeling in my chest made no sense.It was not even a clean feeling. It was messy. I was angry at him. I was angry at myself. I was jealous of a woman I had just

MIAnext morning~Ryan left before the coffee finished brewing.He kissed the side of my head like last night had settled something. His bag was already by the door. His mother stood in the kitchen with her robe tied tight, talking about traffic to the airport as if that was the biggest thing in the house.“Three days,” he said, checking his phone. “Don’t make Mom do everything.”“I won’t.”“And don’t start sleeping in the guest room again.” He looked at me over the screen. “Last night was good. Keep it that way.”I nodded because it was easier than telling him last night had not taken Jake off me. It had only made the bed feel used.The door closed. The house changed shape.Without Ryan in it, the rooms sounded bigger. His mother moved through them like she had been waiting for this version of the week: just us, and plans, and Jake coming to dinner “like usual.”She set a mug in front of me. “Eat. You look tired.”“I didn’t sleep much.”“Married people don’t always sleep.” She said i