Fifteen Years of Lies My Partner's Secret Marriage

"Back then, you said this couch could never be replaced, no matter how much money we had."

"You said it was proof that we loved each other."

Luna's gaze flickered. She couldn't look at me.

I picked up the remote from the coffee table, turning it over in my hands. A strip of tape wound around its middle—Luna had dropped it one night after too much wine, cracked the battery cover clean off. I couldn't bring myself to replace it, so I'd just wrapped it in tape.

My thumb traced the edge of that tape now.

"But the truth is, everything's changed. Hasn't it?"

"No!" Luna rushed toward me. "That's not true!"

Her eyes were already rimming red, the same way they always did whenever she got worked up. Some things never changed.

"What happened with Jayden was an accident!"

"I don't love him!"

"I swear!"

She dropped to her knees in front of me and reached for my hands. I shifted away. I watched the hurt flash across her eyes before she spoke again.

"That night at dinner, I'd had too much to drink. I don't even know how Jayden ended up at the hotel. When I woke up, I was terrified. I'm not lying to you!"

Tears spilled down her cheeks.

"I was afraid that if you found out, you'd leave me. That you'd be furious. I didn't know how to face you, so I just—"

"How long."

"What?"

"How long." My voice stayed flat. "You and Jayden. How long has it been going on."

Luna went silent. She held my gaze for a long time, her lips parting and closing, before the words finally scraped out.

"Three and a half years."

I thought about how she used to say she'd come back to stay for a few days every year.

How, eventually, she never had the time.

She'd had the time. She'd just been spending it on someone else.

A dull ache spread through my chest. Then Luna was talking again.

"I wanted to end it. But Jayden kept clinging to me. He told me about his family, how they had nothing, how his parents favored his younger brother. I just... I felt sorry for him..."

Her voice grew smaller and smaller until even she didn't have the conviction to finish the sentence.

"There's something else."

"I'm pregnant."

The words hit like a clap of thunder, deafening and close.

My fists clenched so tight my knuckles ached. Even though I'd already known the full truth before coming here, hearing it from her own mouth sent ice flooding through every vein.

While I'd been looking forward to our wedding with everything I had—Luna had already given someone else the title that should have been mine. I was the outsider. And now I sat listening to her say:

"You're getting older, and IVF is hard on the body..."

Getting older.

Hard on the body.

What a joke.

"So," Luna looked at me, "I want to keep this baby. It's for your sake too."

For my sake.

My nails dug into my palms hard enough to break skin. I didn't feel it. Luna kept going.

"Just forgive me! I'll agree to anything!"

"Anything?"

I swallowed the rage boiling inside me and met her eyes.

"Anything!"

I smiled. I rose from the couch, walked to the front door, and pulled it open. The person standing on the other side stared back at me, and my smile widened.

"So. Did you catch all of that?"

"Tell me—who's the other woman?"

I looked straight at Jayden, then pulled out my phone, angling it toward the video call still connected on the screen.

"Morgan. This footage goes out uncut. Send it to every outlet, word for word."

"I don't care how much it costs. I want maximum coverage."

Then—

A hand seized my wrist and wrenched me backward. I stumbled, turned, and met Luna's eyes. They burned with fury.

I smiled.

"Luna."

"When you do something wrong—"

"You don't get to walk away clean."

"So tell me. Are you satisfied with how this turned out?"