fell apart. Olivia, my wife, sat across from me at our dining table, the candlelight hiding

sistan

her voice trembling. "A one-night stand. I

or disappearing from under my feet. I loved her, and I believed her. When she saw the doubt in

a dark red line o

, the pain in her voice a weapon. "I wou

e her. I cleaned her wound, bandaged her arm, and held her all night,

s two y

ans thick in the air. Leo, her young, charismatic assistant, sat across from

voice casual, as if he were discussing th

ncrete table. It stopped right in front of my hands. I

I asked, my voic

leaning back in his

tack of photographs. The first one made my stomach clench. It was Olivia and Leo, tangled together in

m on a beach I didn't recognize. Them kissing in a car tha

rds landing like hammer blows. "Since before she even h

at meant she was with him even before she confessed. The conf

to his lips. "Her parents were pressuring her for an heir to the family

ft my lung

you talki

e dripping with false sympathy. "He's

sery I had never seen, in a house I didn't know. He detailed their secret meetings, their planned getaways that Olivia had passed off a

were together on

ary, just two months ago, when I thought we were ce

ng me. I stood up, the chair scraping loudly against the floor. I wa

ge, a stage for Olivia's elaborate play. She was in the living room, arranging flowers. S

ome early,"

I said. My voic

of something cold passed through her ey

hing, Olivia. The

d measured. She didn't deny it. There was no re

she said softly. "He

mission was more shockin

the words tasting like

ompletely without humor. "Divorce? Don't be

rds me, her eye

she said, her voice dropping to a low

od ran

ftening into a grotesque parody of reason. "You always said you didn't want children, so this is perfect. You don't have

was gone, if she had ever existed at all. In her place was a stranger, a manipul

from this life, from this entire web of lies. I couldn't fight her in a courtroom, n

word echoed

p. There was only one person I could call, one perso

g out my phone. I dialed a number I hadn't u

, my voice cracki