Chapter 1

The air in the house was thick and wrong. It wasn't the familiar scent of our shared life, of the lemon cleaner I liked or the faint smell of wood from the furniture Ethan had picked out. It was heavy with Chloe's perfume, a sweet, cloying scent that now felt like a warning.

I had just walked through the door. My suitcase was still in my hand. I was supposed to be smiling, happy to be home from a week-long architectural conference. Ethan was supposed to greet me with a kiss.

Instead, I found my best friend, Chloe, sitting on my sofa. Her face was pale, her eyes red and puffy. She wasn't looking at me, just staring at her phone clutched in her hands.

"Chloe? What' s wrong? Where' s Ethan?"

She flinched at my voice. Slowly, she looked up at me. There was no warmth in her eyes, only a strange mix of fear and defiance.

"Ava," she whispered, her voice trembling. "I have to tell you something."

My stomach tightened. I set my suitcase down, the sound loud in the silent room.

"I slept with Ethan."

The words didn't register at first. They were just sounds, meaningless and foreign. I must have misheard.

"What did you say?"

"On your wedding night," she continued, the words coming out in a rush. "After you went to bed. He came to my room. We were both drunk. It just... happened."

My world tilted. The beautiful living room, our living room, suddenly felt like a stranger' s house. The foundation of my life cracked right down the middle. My best friend. My husband. On our wedding night.

"And Ava... I' m pregnant."

She held out a positive pregnancy test like it was a weapon. Then, without another word, she turned her phone screen toward me.

It was a video. A grainy, poorly lit video of a bedroom. My bedroom. A man and a woman were in the bed. The man was Ethan. The woman... was me. I saw my own face, twisted in a way I didn't recognize. I heard sounds I never made.

But it wasn' t me. I knew it wasn' t. I was in that bed, but I was asleep, exhausted from the joy of the day.

"What is this?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper.

"It' s us, Ava," Chloe said, her voice breaking into a sob. "Someone leaked it. My face was in it at first, but someone changed it. They put your face on my body. Now everyone thinks you' re in some sick video. They' re calling you... a homewrecker."

She started to cry hysterically.

"They' re going to destroy me! My career as an influencer is over! I' ll have to kill myself!"

Just then, the front door opened and Ethan walked in. He saw Chloe crying, saw the phone in her hand, and then he saw me. His face, the face I loved, was a mask of guilt and anxiety. He didn't come to me. He rushed to Chloe' s side, wrapping his arms around her.

"It' s okay, Chloe. I' m here. I' ll protect you," he murmured, stroking her hair. He looked at me over her shoulder, his eyes cold. "The baby is innocent in all of this. We have to think about the baby."

The betrayal was a physical blow. He didn't ask if I was okay. He didn't deny anything. He just confirmed my worst nightmare. He chose her. He chose the baby that wasn' t mine.

"Ethan," I started, but my voice was drowned out by a noise from outside. A low rumble of angry voices was growing louder.

"There she is! The homewrecker!"

I looked out the window and saw a crowd gathering on our lawn. They were holding signs, their faces contorted with rage. They were shouting my name. They had seen the fake video.

Before I could react, a rock shattered the living room window. Glass sprayed across the floor. Ethan pulled Chloe further into his arms, shielding her. He didn't even glance at me.

I was frozen, unable to process the speed of my world' s collapse. My best friend, my husband, and now a mob of strangers who hated me for something I didn't do.

Fueled by a blind panic, I ran for the back door. I just had to get out, to escape the suffocating nightmare. But as I stumbled out into the backyard, a few people from the mob saw me. They surged forward, their shouts turning into a roar. I was surrounded. Someone grabbed my hair, pulling me to the ground. Fists and feet rained down on me. Pain exploded all over my body. Through the haze of agony, I heard Ethan' s voice, not shouting for them to stop, but shouting Chloe' s name, telling her to stay inside where it was safe.

The last thing I saw before I blacked out was Ethan' s laptop, left open on the patio table. A video editing program was on the screen. The source file was named 'Chloe_WeddingNight.mp4' . The output file was named 'Ava_Final.mp4' .

He hadn't just chosen her. He had actively, deliberately, destroyed me to protect her.