When Betrayal Burns: A Husband’s Revenge
img img When Betrayal Burns: A Husband's Revenge img Chapter 4
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Chapter 5 img
Chapter 6 img
Chapter 7 img
Chapter 8 img
Chapter 9 img
Chapter 10 img
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Chapter 4

I sat in the driver's seat of my car, and a tremor started in my hands. It spread up my arms, into my chest, until my whole body was shaking. A cold sweat slicked my skin. It wasn't from the night air. It was the physical shock of the truth.

Sarah. My own sister. Why? The question hammered in my head, a frantic, painful rhythm. For a job? For a promotion? She would sell her own brother' s happiness, his marriage, his life, for a better title on a business card? It didn't make sense. It was monstrous. The person I thought I knew didn't exist.

I had to do something. I fumbled with the car radio, turning the volume up until the speakers distorted, blasting some pop song I didn't recognize. The noise did nothing to drown out the sound of their voices in my head. "He' s an idiot." "Keep him in the dark."

I drove to a drive-thru and ordered a black coffee. I took a sip. It was bitter and hot, and the pain in my throat was so sharp I almost choked. The simple act of swallowing felt impossible. Running away was useless. The truth was with me now, sitting in the passenger seat.

Then the shock started to burn away, replaced by something else. A cold, hard anger. They had played me for a fool. They had laughed at my trust, my love. They had stood in my home, my sacred space, and plotted my humiliation. They thought I was an idiot.

I would not be their idiot. I would not be their victim. A man has his dignity. They had tried to take mine. I was going to take it back. And I was going to find out everything. Every last sordid detail.

I started the car and drove home. The house looked different as I pulled into the driveway. It wasn't my home anymore. It was a crime scene.

I walked in. They were in the living room, their faces instantly twisting into masks of worry.

"Ethan! Where have you been? We were so worried about you!" Olivia rushed toward me.

Sarah stood up, her arms crossed. "We called you like ten times. What happened?"

I looked from one of their lying faces to the other. Disgust rose in my throat. "I' m fine," I said, my voice empty. I walked past them, into the kitchen.

My eyes landed on it immediately. The cheap, plastic keychain. The "surprise." It was sitting on the granite countertop, right next to Olivia's brand-new, five-hundred-dollar handbag. The one I hadn't bought. The one Mr. Davies had probably bought her. The contrast, the sheer, insulting audacity of it, made something inside me snap.

I grabbed the keychain.

"This surprise?" I said, my voice dangerously quiet. "This is the big surprise you had for me?"

Before they could answer, I threw it as hard as I could against the wall. It exploded into a dozen plastic shards.

Then I grabbed a framed photo of Olivia and me from our wedding day. I looked at her smiling face, then I smashed it on the floor. The glass shattered. The sound was loud and satisfying in the sudden, shocked silence of the room. I wasn't just breaking things. I was breaking the lies.

                         

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