Part 1Crisis of trust

My husband, Ethan, had a "girl best friend."

They were so close they slept in the same bed, shared ice cream cones, the whole nine yards.

I asked them to keep some distance.

He just got annoyed. "If something was going to happen between us, it would have happened a long time ago. Can't you just trust me?"

Fine.

So I went and got myself a "guy best friend."

* * *

The night Ethan, once again, didn't come home and stayed out with Hailey, I was surprisingly calm.

He showed up around noon the next day, carrying takeout from my favorite brunch spot. He saw me and, for once, actually offered an explanation.

"We haven't all hung out in a while," he said. "We had too much to drink, so we just crashed at a hotel. But we didn't share a bed this time. I slept on the floor."

He made sure to emphasize that last part. The last time this happened, we'd had a massive fight. I accused him of having no boundaries for a married man and insisted on confronting Hailey.

Hailey was a girl he'd grown up with, part of his tight-knit group of neighborhood friends. She was a "girl," but she acted like one of the guys—loud, boisterous, and overly familiar with everyone. I'd seen her, more than once, plop down on one of the guy's laps, laughing and joking, sharing drinks without a second thought.

At first, Ethan had been patient, explaining their dynamic. But eventually, he got tired of it. "If something was going to happen, it would have happened a long time ago, and you wouldn't be the one I married," he'd snapped, before slamming the door and leaving.

The funny thing was, his friends all tried to reassure me.

"That's just Hailey," they'd say. "We've known her forever. She's just like that. Ethan sees her as a little sister."

A little sister? She was twenty-five.

The whole thing made my skin crawl. I told him if he couldn't learn to keep his distance, I wanted a divorce.

After that, Ethan did keep his distance from Hailey, for a while. But the result was that Hailey would take every opportunity to make passive-aggressive comments to me in public.

"See, Amelia? I'm not sitting next to Ethan."

"Ethan, you should probably skip the after-party. We wouldn't want to make Amelia mad."

"He's not the old Ethan anymore, is he? Got a leash around his neck now. I wouldn't dare get too close."

She always said these things when I was around, creating a tense, awkward atmosphere. Over time, I gained a reputation for being petty, jealous, and unreasonable.

And that's when my relationship with Ethan started to turn cold and distant.

I snapped back to the present, looking at the takeout containers in his hands. It used to be my favorite food. Now, it just looked bland.

Ethan noticed my coolness. He put the food on the table and wrapped his arms around me, his voice a soft, placating murmur. "Honey, you've been wanting to see that new movie, right? I'm free today. Let's go. I heard it's really good."

I had been looking forward to that movie for months. The day it came out, I'd asked Ethan to go with me. He'd said he was busy. A few days later, I saw Hailey's post on social media. A picture of two movie tickets. She wasn't in the photo, but the hand holding the tickets was unmistakable—long, elegant fingers, with Ethan's wedding ring on the fourth one.

I could smell the faint scent of Hailey's floral perfume on him. I stiffened and pulled away. "No, thanks," I said, my voice flat.

I went back to packing my suitcase.

"Amelia." Ethan's voice was sharp with anger. He saw what I was doing and grabbed my arm. "Are you going to pull this 'running away from home' crap again? I already told you, there's nothing going on between me and Hailey."

"I know," I said, calmly pulling my hand away. "You're just friends."

He seemed taken aback by my response. His face was a mixture of frustration and awkwardness. He dropped his hand. "Then what's this all about?"

"I'm going on a business trip," I explained.

He looked even angrier. He stared at me for a long time, searching my face for any sign of a lie, of the usual hurt and anger.

But there was nothing. My expression was completely neutral.

Because I just didn't care anymore.

Who he saw movies with, who he spent the night with, who he went on dates with…

Whatever.