Truth Behind False Love

Zach hurried to call the family doctor, but I stopped him.

"Sometimes dizziness leads to nausea," I said. "Maybe it's because I skipped breakfast. It's nothing serious."

His tense expression softened slightly. Without another word, he lifted me gently back onto the bed and carefully tucked the blanket around me.

Watching him move with such tenderness, it was hard to reconcile this man with the cruel things I had overheard. If I hadn't heard it with my own ears, I would never have believed he could be so skilled at pretending.

I closed my eyes and pretended to fall asleep. From the bathroom, I heard his low voice over the phone.

"Kayla, don't worry. Whatever you want, I'll give it to you at any cost."

When he emerged, he found me awake. For a fleeting moment, surprise flashed across his face before he recovered, offering me a smile.

"Something came up at the office," he said. "Get some rest. I need to head out."

I nodded, watching him leave. The moment the door shut behind him, I got out of bed, dressed quickly, and went straight to the hospital.

The waiting felt endless. I was terrified that I might be wrong—that all my suspicions were just paranoia. But I was even more afraid that the contraceptives he had been secretly giving me had harmed the child growing inside me.

When the results finally came, my hands trembled as I held the report. Tears spilled down my cheeks, unstoppable.

I was pregnant.

My fingers shook as I told the doctor about the contraceptives. His expression turned serious. "It's too early to determine the baby's health," he said, "but if you're already pregnant, it means this child is meant to be. Do your best to protect it."

That night, while Zach was in the shower, I opened his laptop.

The password didn't work at first. I tried several combinations before something occurred to me. I typed in Kayla's birthday.

The screen unlocked instantly.

A folder on the desktop was encrypted. I entered her birthday again. It opened without hesitation, revealing hundreds of photos—all of her.

Each image was a dagger to my heart. Kayla smiling. Kayla asleep on her desk. Even a blurred photo of her back. Every moment of her life seemed to be a treasure he had carefully collected and preserved.

Zach, Matt, and I grew up together. They were like knights by my side, always there, protecting me as I grew.

Then, when I was fifteen, Kayla transferred to our school and became my friend.

What once was the three of us walking together to and from school became four. But slowly, the pace began to change. Zach, Matt, and Kayla walked faster, leaving me behind. No matter how much I tried to catch up, the gap widened.

It wasn't that I couldn't keep up. It was that the knights I once knew had found someone else to love.

I picked up Zach's phone and checked the banking app. The passwords, unsurprisingly, were all linked to her birthday.

His transaction records were tangled and complicated, but two regular transfers stood out. One was a monthly payment of thirty thousand dollars—to Kayla. The other was a smaller sum, transferred without fail on the last day of each month. I noted down the account numbers and took photos of the transfers and the images on his computer.

Out of curiosity, I tried sending a small amount of money to the second account. A name popped up—a woman's name I didn't recognize.

I deleted our wedding photo from my phone's lock screen. That night, I lay awake, staring at the ceiling until the first light of dawn crept through the curtains.

When morning came, I splashed cold water on my face in the bathroom. My phone alarm rang, and Zach, still half-asleep, reached over and turned it off.

"Victoria," he asked casually, "why did you change your wallpaper?"

I glanced at him, my expression unreadable. "You always said happiness doesn't need to be displayed. Since you never take photos with me, I figured there was no point in keeping it as my wallpaper."

He rubbed the back of his neck, chuckling nervously. "Love is something you carry in your heart. As long as we know, that's what matters."

A cold smile curled my lips. "But if you never say it, how can anyone be sure who you love?"

My words seemed to catch him off guard. He tilted his head, watching me closely.

"Honey, you're talking strangely today," he said.

I laughed softly. "It's nothing. You should get going. Don't you have an important meeting today?"

Still puzzled, he brushed it off and moved toward the door. As always, he laid out breakfast for me, then kissed my forehead before leaving.

"Call me if you miss me," he said with a smile.

I nodded, watching him walk away. I didn't bother tearing off the mask of his hypocrisy—not yet.