Part 2The Price of a Betrayal

I immediately opened her Instagram. Every single post I scrolled past felt like a knife twisting in my lungs, suffocating me.

[July 15th: The lingerie my boss bought me is way too conservative. It doesn't show off my figure at all. He should just give it to his boring wife.]

That day was my birthday. He had surprised me by uncharacteristically buying me a gift.

When I opened it, it was a set of black, sheer lace lingerie.

Even though the sizing was completely wrong, I didn't think much of it. I just assumed he was clueless about women's sizing.

I even put it on that night and tried my best to put on a show for him.

I never realized... it was never meant for me in the first place.

[August 30th: I have to go on a business trip to Chicago soon. My boss is supposed to be taking his wife on a vacation to Aspen. We won't be able to see each other for days! But it's okay, because my boss specifically changed his itinerary just so he could be with me.]

That Aspen trip was a vacation we had been planning for over a year.

I had made endless spreadsheets and itineraries. But right before we were supposed to leave, he suddenly changed the destination.

He swapped our tickets to Aspen for flights to Chicago.

At the time, he looked me in the eye and swore with absolute sincerity.

"Babe, the altitude in Aspen is too high. Your body is still recovering, and I'm worried you won't be able to handle it."

I had just suffered a miscarriage. I genuinely believed he was just being protective of my health.

I even felt guilty for a long time, blaming my weak body for ruining his chance to visit Aspen—a place I knew he had always dreamed of going.

But now, I realized just how laughably pathetic and wrong I had been.

My trembling finger kept scrolling. There were so many stories. So many betrayals.

Until I stopped on this one.

[November 5th: The boss's mother-in-law passed away. He missed me so much he sent me the location. We went a few rounds right behind the casket in the funeral home! We almost knocked a candle over and burned the whole place down. It was such a rush!]

A violent wave of nausea hit me, and I violently dry-heaved over the side of my bed.

So the fire that broke out in the back room of my mother's funeral home wasn't an accident.

It was the result of them desperately screwing each other just feet away from my mother's casket.

The Mark I knew... was the man who, when I casually mentioned I was craving a specific pastry from a bakery across town, would drive a hundred miles in the middle of the night just to get it for me.

He remembered my menstrual cycle more accurately than my own calendar app, always having a hot water bottle and pain meds ready.

Whenever he brought me to company events, he would proudly introduce me to his colleagues.

"This is my wife. The absolute love of my life."

I didn't understand. How could the man who held me on such a high pedestal deceive me so flawlessly, so cruelly?

Hearing my agonizing retching, Mark, who had just returned to the hospital room with breakfast, rushed over.

"Babe, what's wrong?! Are you feeling nauseous again?"

He carefully rubbed my back, his voice incredibly soft and soothing.

"It's okay. You just had major surgery, the doctors said you'd feel sick for a few days. Just hold on a little longer, it'll pass soon."

I squeezed my eyes shut, gathering every last ounce of strength I had left in my shattered body.

With extreme difficulty, I raised my head and stared directly into his seemingly worried, affectionate eyes.

"Mark. I know everything about you and Chloe."