Emma stood on the balcony long after the city lights had begun to blur into indistinct smears of gold and white.
The night air was cool, sharp against her skin, but it did nothing to quiet the unease spreading through her chest. It only made her more aware of it, of the tightness beneath her ribs, of the way her breath felt shallow, restrained.
Maybe she was imagining things.
Maybe there was a reasonable explanation.
Six years together didn't dissolve overnight.
Dominic wasn't careless.
He wasn't cruel.
He wasn't—
A faint vibration cut through the silence behind her.
Emma froze.
Her fingers tightened around the cold railing.
Another vibration followed, soft but insistent, like a whisper she wasn't meant to hear.
Slowly…almost reluctantly…she stepped back inside.
The bedroom remained dim, bathed in shadows. Dominic lay sprawled across the bed, fast asleep, his expression calm, untouched by whatever storm was quietly gathering around them. His breathing was steady, deep, untroubled.
As if nothing in the world had shifted.
His phone rested on the bedside table.
Glowing faintly.
Waiting.
Emma hesitated near the edge of the bed, her heart pounding so loudly she was certain it would wake him. Every instinct screamed at her to turn away. To respect boundaries. To trust the man she had married.
She had never been the kind of woman who snooped. Never questioned. Never doubted.
Trust had been easy with Dominic.
Too easy.
The screen lit again.
And before she could stop herself, her eyes caught the notification.
Unknown Number:
"Don't be late. I already packed what you like 😉😈."
The playful wink hit her like a slap.
Her breath left her in a sharp, silent gasp.
This wasn't work.
This wasn't professional.
This wasn't innocent.
The intimacy in those words… casual, confident….spoke of familiarity. Of shared moments. Of something planned and repeated.
Real.
Her hands trembled as the meaning settled deep inside her chest, heavy and suffocating.
How long?
How long had this been happening?
Her gaze flicked back to Dominic.
At the man she had loved for six years.
The man she had trusted without hesitation.
Late meetings that stretched endlessly into the night.
Phone calls taken in other rooms.
Conversations cut short the moment she entered.
The way his attention drifted even when he sat beside her, his mind always elsewhere.
A slow, chilling realization crept over her.
This hadn't been sudden.
It hadn't been reckless.
It had been planned.
Carefully.
Deliberately.
Without her.
Her throat tightened painfully as another memory surfaced….. uninvited, unwelcome.
"You don't need to work," Dominic had told her back then, his voice smooth, persuasive. "I can give you everything. Just stay home and accompany me to the luxurious parties. Be a CEO's wife.. ."
She had smiled, overwhelmed by the certainty in his tone.
It had felt romantic.
Protective.
Safe.
She had given up her career without hesitation. Her independence. The parts of herself that existed outside of him.
At the time, it had felt like love.
Now, standing in the dark beside his sleeping form, the memory felt different.
Heavy.
Restrictive.
A cage disguised as comfort.
A numbness settled over her, thick and disorienting, dulling everything except the persistent ache in her chest. Her mind circled the same unbearable thought again and again.
Had she been blind?
Had she mistaken control for care?
Her heartbeat echoed loudly in the stillness of the room, each thump a cruel reminder of the vulnerability she had handed him willingly. She pressed a hand against her abdomen instinctively.
Against the fragile life growing inside her.
A bitter, terrifying thought followed.
What kind of man cheats on his pregnant wife?
Her vision blurred, but no tears came.
Just emptiness.
What did the future look like now?
The plans they had made. The promises whispered in quiet moments. The life she had shaped entirely around him.
All of it felt like an illusion….. beautiful, convincing, and now shattered beyond repair.
Doubt gnawed at her relentlessly.
Was there still a chance she was wrong?
Or had the man she loved betrayed her in the deepest, most unforgivable way?
The uncertainty was unbearable.
Emma sank slowly onto the edge of the bed, careful not to disturb Dominic. She stared at the dark ceiling, willing clarity to come…. yet dreading it at the same time.
Because clarity would mean acceptance.
And acceptance would destroy the last fragile piece of hope clinging to her heart.
Another vibration.
Her breath caught.
The phone lit up again.
Another message.
She didn't read it.
She didn't need to.
The damage was already done.
Dominic shifted slightly in his sleep, murmuring something unintelligible before settling again, completely unaware.
Or worse... completely unconcerned.
Something inside Emma shifted then.
Not just hurt.
Not just fear.
Something sharper.
Colder.
A fracture spreading silently through her chest.
She rose slowly, her movements careful, deliberate. Her gaze lingered on him one last time—the familiar lines of his face, the man she thought she knew.
And for the first time since she had married him, she felt like a stranger standing beside his bed.
As the phone screen faded back into darkness, one terrifying thought echoed in her mind, clear and unrelenting.
What if she had never truly known the man she married?
End of Chapter 2
******