Chapter 3 - THE CRACKS IN THE ARMOR
Ethan stayed on my porch for three hours.
He didn't move,
even when it started to drizzle.
The boys were upstairs,
playing a video game,
unaware that their entire world was shifting.
Eventually,
the guilt and the exhaustion wore me down.
I unlatched the chain and opened the door.
“Ten minutes,”
I said,
standing back to let him in.
He entered my home like a man walking into a cathedral.
He looked at the photos on the walls,
the drawings pinned to the fridge,
and the small sneakers scattered by the rug.
“They’re nearly five,”
he noted,
his voice thick with emotion.
“They’ll be five in November,”
I replied,
crossing my arms over my chest.
He sat down at the kitchen table,
the same table where I had spent countless nights doing engineering blueprints.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
he asked,
finally looking at me.
The anger I had been holding back finally bubbled over.
“Tell you?”
I laughed,
a sharp,
bitter sound.
“You had me followed by private investigators.”
“You told the world I was sleeping with your business rival.”
“You froze my accounts and told me I was lucky you didn't sue me for fraud.”
Ethan winced,
the memories of his own cruelty hitting him.
“I was angry,”
he defended,
though it sounded weak.
“I was hurt.”
“You were wrong,”
I snapped.
“I never touched another man,
Ethan.”
“Those messages you found… they were faked.”
“I tried to tell you that for months,
but you wouldn't listen.”
He looked down at his hands,
the hands that used to hold mine with such tenderness.
“I know that now,”
he whispered.
My heart stopped.
“What did you say?”
“I found out a year ago,”
he said,
tears finally welling in his eyes.
“I found out who sent them.”
“It was Marcus.”
Marcus had been Ethan’s second-in-command,
a man I had always distrusted.
“He wanted to isolate you,”
Ethan continued.
“He knew if he broke us apart,
he could manipulate the company's direction.”
“I fired him,
Olivia.”
“I’ve been looking for you for twelve months.”
I felt the room spin.
He had known for a year.
And in that year,
I had still been hiding in the shadows.
“If you knew,”
I asked,
my voice trembling,
“why didn't you come sooner?”
“I thought you hated me,”
he said.
May you like
“I thought you had found someone better.”
“But I never imagined… this.”
