Chapter 3

Less than a minute after the message was sent, Sarah initiated a FaceTime call.

I took a deep breath and swiped to answer.

On the screen, Sarah was still wearing her professional office suit. The background was clearly her private office at the law firm.

"Babe, what kind of ridiculous screenshot is this?"

She frowned slightly, her tone laced with exhaustion and frustration.

"I’ve been in my office reviewing case files all night. I haven’t even had dinner yet."

"Are you just too tired from work lately? Why are you letting your imagination run wild again?"

She panned the camera around. Her desk was piled high with documents. She was indeed the only one there.

Looking at the red veins in her eyes, my tense nerves suddenly relaxed. A wave of immense guilt washed over me.

"I'm sorry, Sarah... I just... that bracelet looked exactly like yours."

"Silly," she smiled gently.

"There are millions of similar bracelets out there. Go to sleep. I'll be home soon."

In the middle of the night, I heard the front door click open.

Sarah wrapped her arms around me from behind, whispering softly in my ear:

"Stephen, happy birthday."

"Babe, I missed you so much."

A sudden, unnameable urge surged inside me. I turned around, returned her hug, and initiated a kiss on her lips.

Sarah stiffened for a fraction of a second, but soon began to respond passionately.

We kissed and touched in the dark. Everything was going incredibly smoothly.

Just when I thought we were finally going to cross that barrier, Sarah suddenly pushed me away as if she had been electrocuted.

She stumbled and rushed into the bathroom. Immediately after, the sound of violent, painful throwing up echoed from inside.

I lay frozen on the bed. Her warmth still lingered on my skin, but my chest felt like it was being crushed by a heavy stone.

It was hard to breathe.

As expected, she still couldn't do it. I shouldn't force her...

The next day, I gathered my emotions and went back to Marcus’s apartment to finish the job as agreed.

Marcus was in an exceptionally good mood today, lounging around in a loose bathrobe and chatting with me:

"Man, yesterday was such a close call. My girlfriend’s fiancé almost caught us!"

My hands paused in the middle of folding a shirt.

He continued to brag proudly:

"But my girl is just too smart."

"To keep that idiot quiet, she literally dragged me to her office!"

"You have no idea how thrilling it was on that office desk. When she was on FaceTime with her fiancé, I was literally kneeling right between her legs."

My brain went entirely blank.

I quickly pulled out my phone and opened the screenshot of my FaceTime call with Sarah from last night.

I zoomed in on the picture. Farther, and farther.

Finally, in the shadow under the right corner of Sarah’s desk, I spotted the cuff of a pair of men's sweatpants.

It was the exact same pair Marcus was wearing right now!

"What are you looking at?"

Marcus leaned in, his eyes landing on my phone screen.

He froze for a second, and the smugness on his face instantly vanished.

He looked me up and down, a sudden realization dawning on him.

"Wait... so you're the fiancé?"

"What was your name again? Stephen, right?"

My blood ran cold as I stared dead at him.

Marcus curled his lip, deciding to lay all his cards on the table.

"Did you seriously think that 'accident' three years ago was some kind of destiny?"

My heart squeezed hard. "What do you mean?"