Eight Lives, One Love The Death Loop Marriage

How ironic.

A person could pour out her love for me with one breath and bring another man home with the next.

In that moment, I couldn't help but wonder. All those years of devotion I'd been so proud of—how much of it was real, and how much was a lie?

When had it started between her and that man?

I sat at the dining table for a long time, trying to steady myself.

Then something occurred to me.

The second it did, I called my parents and asked them to come over.

They must have heard the urgency in my voice, because they arrived faster than I'd ever seen them move.

"What's going on, Donnie? You sounded frantic on the phone," my father said.

I didn't hold back. I told them everything—every last detail about Ethel's affair, laid out in a single breath.

When I finished, my father looked like the ground had shifted beneath him.

"Donnie, is there any chance this is a misunderstanding? Everyone can see how good Ethel is to you. The girl adores you."

"And you know how her job works—she's a surgeon. She's on call around the clock. Maybe there really was an emergency she had to handle?"

"That post... couldn't it just be a coincidence?"

My mother slammed her palm on the table.

"Coincidence? Are you out of your mind?"

"The post said the car was parked sideways. Ethel parked sideways."

"Donnie walked in without calling first. The post described the exact same situation."

"The post said the wife snuck out to drive the lover home. Ethel made up an excuse and left."

"And there just happened to be another man's hair on the bed? You think all of that is a coincidence?"

My father frowned. "But Ethel has treated Donnie like he's more important than her own life all these years—"

My mother scoffed. "So what?"

"Just because she's been good to him means she can't cheat?"

"Every woman who's messing around on the side plays the perfect wife at home. That's the whole point."

"The better the act, the harder it is to see through."

My father had nothing to say to that.

My mother only grew angrier. "That Ethel Pruitt!"

"When she was chasing after Donnie, she knelt outside our door for three days and three nights. Knelt until her forehead was split open from bowing, swearing she'd love him with everything she had. That's the only reason I gave my blessing."

"And now? Two years of marriage, and she has the nerve to bring some man into their home? She's lost her mind!"

My mother was furious.

But what I felt more than anger was confusion.

Because my father was right.

All these years, Ethel had been incredibly good to me.

She was young, accomplished, and strikingly beautiful. There was never a shortage of men pursuing her. Even the hospital director's son had gone out of his way to court her, publicly declaring that if Ethel would be with him, he'd hand her the keys to the entire hospital.

Ethel hadn't so much as flinched.

She'd offended him for it, too. Nearly got blacklisted from the entire medical community.

Even then, she never wavered. She looked me in the eyes and said:

"I can lose everything else in this world. The one thing I can't lose is you."

It was precisely because I'd felt the depth of her devotion—felt it in my bones—that none of this made sense.

What kind of man could make someone like Ethel Pruitt, a woman who treated loyalty like a religion, change her heart?

"Donnie, what do you want to do?"

My father looked at me, his expression grave.

I paused, then answered steadily. "I want to catch them in the act."

My mother's eyes sharpened with interest. "How?"

I didn't answer right away. Instead, I pulled out my phone and scrolled to an app I'd never once opened.

It was a location-sharing app.