Sexy, Crazy, and Pregnant

What Betrayal Looks Like

Elara



“You’re going to turn me on again. Didn’t you say you have a meeting with a client later today? Do you want me to make you sore all over?”

Holy s**t!

“I don’t mind,” Bailey says, her tone teasing and breathy. “But tell me you don’t want this as well.”

He laughs. “You know I can do this all day. But I have to pick up Elara from work. Today is her mom’s posthumous birthday; we have to take flowers to her grave.”

“Right! I almost forgot," Bailey responds.

A pause. The air shifts.

“But I really don’t want to go. I hate seeing you two together. It makes me want to skin her out alive.”

My world freezes.

Bailey is supposed to be my friend… my best friend.

“Somebody is jealous," Ethan jokes. “But you still have to come. You know Chloe isn’t in the country to support her. And it’ll also make me happy if I can have a face as pretty as yours to stare at.”

I hear Bailey giggle. That makes me want to storm inside the room and call them both out on their bullshit.

But my legs just won’t move.

“So what happens after the wedding?” she asks quietly. “You’ll still want me, won’t you?”

The silence that follows feels endless. Then Ethan answers, and it’s worse than I imagined.

“Don’t start this again. You know how this works. The marriage was arranged by our fathers. It’s not about what we want. You know I don’t love her. I love you.”

My chest aches so hard I can’t breathe.

“So you’ll marry Elara because of business?” Bailey scoffs. “Because your fathers decided it?”

“Because it’s my responsibility,” he says firmly. “It’s the price I pay for being my father’s son. Our families have too much at stake for me to back out now.”

Bailey laughs bitterly. “Then you’ll marry her, live a lie, and still sneak around with me? That’s your big sacrifice?”

He doesn’t answer. He doesn’t have to.

Everything inside me breaks.

Completely.

The tears I’ve been holding since the hospital finally fall. My breath comes in shallow gasps, my chest tightening until it hurts to move.

I step back before they can hear me.

Somehow, I make it outside without calling their attention.

The sun burns against my skin.

My vision blurs.

“No… no… no,” I whisper, stumbling onto the pavement. “Why do I have to live her life? Why do I have to repeat my mother’s pain… page by page? I am going to die by the same illness that claimed her life. And just like my dad, Ethan is cheating on me with my best friend.”

Suddenly, I laugh. A hollow, cracked laugh that sounds nothing like me. One I can’t control. Because what kind of cruel joke gives me a year to live… and takes away the only person I thought I could live it with?

“So that’s it?” I whisper to no one. “I’m dying. Ethan doesn’t love me. And to crown it all, he’s sleeping with my best friend.”

After a while, I wipe my cheeks, my voice trembling but firm.

“Fine,” I whisper. “If I’ve got one year left, then I’m not wasting it crying over anyone. Not Ethan. Not Bailey. Definitely, not this f*****g disease.”

I take a shaky breath. “If death is coming for me, I might as well make it earn the trip.”

My phone rings.

It’s Dad.

I drag in a breath and swipe to answer, forcing my voice into something steady.

“Hello?”

“Elara, where are you?” His voice comes out sharp, impatient, and already irritated. “There’s a client waiting for you at the company. I’ve been told you haven’t been seen at the office all morning.”

My grip tightens around the phone.

“I… I’m on my way,” I say quickly, wiping at my cheeks with the back of my hand.

“You better be,” he snaps. “This client is important. We cannot afford to lose this contract. Whatever nonsense you’re dealing with, set it aside and do your job.”

“I understand," I exclaim without argument. I don’t have the strength to deflect them.

The line goes dead.

I inhale deeply, forcing my lungs to cooperate.

Start by walking back to where I parked my car.

“Elara?”

My name freezes me mid-step.

Bailey.

My spine stiffens, but I don’t turn.

“Babe?”

Ethan’s voice follows.

Babe?

The word scrapes against my skin like broken glass.

For a second, I close my eyes.

Then I inhale and bury everything. The tears. The rage. The heartbreak clawing its way up my throat.

When I turn, they’re standing side by side at the entrance.

Bailey looks… flawless. Not a single trace of guilt on her face. Her hair falls perfectly over her shoulders, her lips slightly swollen… God… and her expression shifts into an expression that almost resembles concern.

Ethan, on the other hand, looks caught off guard. His brows draw together slightly, like he’s trying to figure out how long I’ve been there. How much I heard.

Not enough, I want to say.

Or maybe… too much.

“What are you doing here?” Bailey asks… very anxious.

How dare she? Like I’m the one out of place.

I tilt my head slightly, a soft scoff slipping past my lips before I can stop it.

“What am I doing here? Or what are you doing here?”