Chapter 3

Early the next morning, I got out of bed before sunrise.

Ethan was frying eggs in the kitchen; Chloe hadn't emerged from her room yet.

I leaned against the doorframe, trying to sound casual.

"Ethan, I stayed up thinking about Chloe all night. We really need to talk this through."

He didn't bother turning around, his tone flat.

"There's nothing to discuss. I told you yesterday: we're helping her raise it, period."

"She's an unmarried pregnant woman living under our roof. Once her belly starts showing, what are the neighbors going to think? What will your coworkers say?"

I paused, keeping my voice low.

"I think she either needs to terminate it, or move out into her own place."

*CLANG.*

Ethan slammed the spatula onto the stovetop with vicious force.

He spun around, his face dark with fury.

"Vivian Vance, how can you be so cold-blooded?"

"She's your best friend! She has nowhere else to go, and you want her to get an abortion? You want to kick her onto the street?"

"To think she kept telling me what an amazing person you were!"

His sudden outburst took me aback for half a second, but I snapped back just as quickly.

"I just don't think this arrangement is appropriate. An unwed pregnant woman living with an engaged couple—if word gets out—"

"Gets out where?"

He cut me off, his voice rising sharply.

"My conscience is clean! What's wrong with helping a friend in need?"

"Only someone with a twisted, petty mind would think something disgusting about it!"

Right then, Chloe's bedroom door creaked open.

She stepped out in her silk robe, her eyes red and swollen as if she'd been weeping all night.

"Please, stop fighting. It's all my fault. I'll pack my bags and leave."

Her voice shook, tears spilling down her cheeks in heavy drops.

Ethan immediately rushed over to catch her arm.

"You're not going anywhere! We split the lease on this apartment. Nobody has the right to throw you out!"

Chloe lifted her tear-stained face, gazing up at Ethan, then glancing at me.

"Vivian, I know you don't want me here. But Ethan is just a good person. He's only trying to help."

"Can't you appreciate how kind-hearted he is? He's caught in the middle, and it's tearing him apart."

Looking at her crying her eyes out, she suddenly felt like a total stranger.

She was the one systematically dismantling my life, yet somehow I was the villain who failed to appreciate Ethan's "kindness"?

"Chloe, I never said he couldn't help. But helping someone still requires boundaries."

Chloe sniffled, sounding utterly wounded.

"Vivian, we lived together in college for four years. I thought you understood me better than anyone."

"Now that my life is falling apart, you won't even give me a roof over my head."

She started sobbing harder.

Ethan wrapped an arm around her shoulder, glaring at me as if I were a monster.

"That's enough, Vivian!"

"A vulnerable girl is pregnant and terrified, and you're trying to push her off a cliff?"

"Do you have a shred of basic humanity left in you?"

Standing in the hallway, looking at the pair of them, a wave of sheer absurdity washed over me.

"Ethan, get one thing straight. That child in her belly isn't yours. Why are you so damn desperate?"

The moment the words left my lips, the room fell dead silent.

A flash of pure panic darted across Ethan's eyes, quickly swallowed by manufactured rage.

"What are you implying? Are you accusing me of something?"

"I'm not accusing you. I'm saying your reaction makes zero sense."

"Vivian Vance!"

He slammed his palm onto the kitchen counter, rattling the glassware.

"I completely misjudged you. I thought you were sweet, caring, and supportive. Turns out you're just a selfish, vindictive bitch."

"If you can't make room for Chloe, then maybe we shouldn't be getting married at all."

Chloe tugged on his sleeve, whispering frantically, "Ethan, don't say that. Vivian didn't mean it..."

"No, she meant every word."

Ethan shook her off, pointing a shaking finger straight at my face.

"You need to take a hard look in the mirror and think about what kind of person you are."

With that, he grabbed his car keys off the table and led Chloe straight out the door.

*SLAM.*

The heavy front door shook the entire apartment.

Left standing alone in the living room, a bone-chilling cold settled over me.

Every dark suspicion I had harbored over the past twenty-four hours was completely validated.

If the baby truly belonged to Chloe's ex, Ethan would never have lost his mind like that.

The angrier he got, the more guilty he was.

The more Chloe played the helpless victim, the harder she was acting.

I walked back to my bedroom, leaning my back against the closed door as tears silently tracked down my face.

No matter how hard I had fought to deny it, the truth stared me right in the face.

They were sleeping together. They had betrayed me.

And the sheer audacity of it all...

To betray me, and then scheme to make me raise their bastard child?

No. Not in this lifetime.

I was going to drag them both straight down into the dirt.