Chapter 3

The incident seemed to pass as casually as a cloud drifting by.

The music in the villa started up again. People ate pizza, drank beer, played board games. The room was full of laughter.

But I felt like a ghost drifting outside of all of it.

I watched it all with cold, detached eyes.

I noticed that Sophie and Ryan were going out of their way to avoid any appearance of closeness.

They wouldn't even let their eyes meet. They kept to opposite ends of the room.

But the way other people looked at me had changed.

It was subtle. But I caught it.

Pity. Mockery. The kind of amusement you reserve for someone who doesn't know how big of a fool they are.

They were probably losing their minds internally: Look at Ethan, that idiot -- his wife is cheating on him and he doesn't even know. Someone feeds him a line and he swallows it whole.

At some point I excused myself to use the bathroom. I stood at the sink, staring at the man in the mirror -- well put-together on the outside, face like a storm underneath.

Ethan, you're pathetic.

Then someone knocked on the bathroom door.

It was Cassie.

She was holding a glass of warm water, and the giddy smirk from earlier had been replaced by something that looked almost earnest.

"Ethan, drink some water."

I didn't take it. Just looked at her steadily. "Something you want to say?"

Cassie let out a sigh and leaned against the doorframe, dropping her voice. "Ethan... look, we're all adults. Some things, it's better not to dig too deep."

Something sank in my chest. I kept my face neutral. "Meaning?"

"I mean -- Sophie is still good to you. Women sometimes make mistakes, get caught up chasing something new and exciting. But her heart is still at home. You're still her husband."

Cassie looked at me with the kind of expression that made it clear she thought she was doing me a favor.

"We're all in the same circle, we're all friends. If this blows up, nobody wins. Sophie's career is really taking off right now, and you've got your reputation too. Digging into this only makes things ugly for everyone. Life can still be comfortable. You know what I'm saying?"

Now I understood.

She wasn't here to comfort me.

She was here to deliver a message.

She was telling me: We all know Sophie is cheating. But you should play dumb, keep being the good husband, and don't blow this up for everyone.

I looked at Cassie's self-satisfied face and felt a wave of something almost absurd wash over me.

"Cassie," I said, holding her gaze, speaking each word deliberately. "Ryan -- your boyfriend -- slept with my wife. And instead of being angry, you came here to tell me to let it go?"

Cassie's expression stiffened for a flicker of a second. A flash of discomfort crossed her face, but she smoothed it over quickly with that same breezy indifference.

"Ethan, that's not how you frame it. We're all here to have fun, right? And Ryan, he's... it's complicated." She glossed over it. "Bottom line, I'm saying this for your sake. Don't push Sophie into a corner. You don't want to end up with nothing -- not her, not the lifestyle."

"For my sake?" I let out a short, cold laugh. "Well, thanks so much."

I pushed past her and walked straight back to the living room.

I didn't lose it.

Because I knew that losing it now would only get me a wall of denials and people turning it back on me. That's it.

They had the numbers. They had a unified front.

What I needed was evidence.

The kind of evidence that would nail every single one of them -- undeniable, inescapable proof.