I FOUND MY SISTER WITH MY HUSBAND

The first thing I saw when I pushed open the bedroom door was my husband's bare back. The second thing I saw was my sister's face. I stood there for a few seconds because I could not understand what I was looking at. Damian was on our bed, and Sophia was under him, holding the sheet against her body while she stared at me. My handbag fell from my shoulder and hit the floor. "Amelia," Sophia said. Twenty minutes earlier, I had been sitting in my car outside a pharmacy holding a pregnancy test with two pink lines on it. After three years of trying, I was finally pregnant. I drove home crying because I was so happy. I had planned to tell Damian that night. I had a blue ribbon saved in my drawer for this exact moment. Instead, I came home and found him with my sister. "Amelia, please," Damian said, moving away from Sophia. "This isn't what you think." I looked at him, and then I looked at Sophia. "What am I supposed to think?" Neither of them answered me. Sophia pulled the sheet closer to her chest and started crying. She had always cried easily, and I had always been the one to comfort her. I protected her when we were children. I stayed on the phone with her through every breakup she went through. I stood beside her through everything that ever hurt her. She was my sister. She was my best friend. She had stood next to me on my wedding day. "How long?" I asked. Damian looked away from me. Sophia cried harder. "How long have you been sleeping with my husband?" "Amelia, let us explain," Sophia said. "I didn't ask for an explanation. I asked you a question." Damian stepped toward me, and I stepped back from him. "Don't come near me." "Amelia, calm down." "Calm down? You're standing here after I caught you with my sister, and you want me to calm down?" "That's not what I meant." "Then what did you mean?" He had no answer for me. I looked at Sophia again, and she could not meet my eyes. That was when I understood this was not the first time it had happened, because people do not look that guilty over a single mistake. This had been going on for a while. It could have been weeks. It could have been months. It could have been happening while Sophia sat across from me at dinner asking how my marriage was going. It could have been happening while Damian held my hand at the fertility clinic and told me we would have a family soon. The room felt hot, and my breathing became difficult. "Amelia?" Damian's voice sounded far away. I tried to step back, but the floor felt like it was moving under me. The last thing I remember is Sophia screaming my name. Then everything went dark. When I opened my eyes, I was lying on the bedroom floor. Damian was kneeling next to me with his hand reaching toward my face. "Don't touch me." He stopped moving. I sat up slowly. Sophia was standing near the window, wrapped in one of my robes. Damian was still beside me, and his face held an expression I did not recognize. I had known his face for four years, but I did not know this one. "You fainted," he said. "I know." "You scared us." I did not say anything back to him because the words felt like too much. Sophia stepped closer to me. "I'm sorry." Tears were running down her face, but I felt nothing when I saw them. "I never wanted to hurt you," she said. "You never wanted to hurt me, but you kept doing it anyway." She had no answer for that either. Damian tried again. "Amelia, I never meant for you to find out like this." I went still when he said that. He did not say he never meant to betray me. He did not say he never meant to sleep with my sister. He said he never meant for me to find out, and that told me everything I needed to know. My handbag was on the floor beside me. I reached for it and held it against my chest. Inside was the test with the two pink lines. Four hours earlier, I had been planning how to tell him we were having a baby. Now I did not know if he even deserved to know at all. Neither of them knew I was pregnant, and I decided I wanted to keep it that way. I stood up. "Where are you going?" Damian asked. "I'm leaving." "Please don't leave." I looked at him and said nothing. Sophia moved closer to me. "Amelia, please. We can talk about this." "You both had plenty of time to talk before I walked in on you." I went to the closet and packed a bag with some clothes, my charger, and whatever else I could grab quickly. "Where will you stay?" Damian asked. "Somewhere far away from both of you." Sophia was still crying when I walked past her, but I did not stop to comfort her this time. I went downstairs, and Damian followed me. "Amelia, please stop." I reached the front door and turned around to look at them one last time. My husband and my sister stood there together, the two people I had trusted most in my life. "You had months to think about what you were doing, so don't expect me to forgive you in ten minutes." I opened the door and walked out. The cold air hit my face as I got into my car and sat there without starting the engine. I looked at the test again and saw the same two pink lines. This baby was the only good thing left from this night. Damian did not know I was pregnant, and Sophia did not know either. I started the car and drove away from the house. One day Damian would find out he was going to be a father, but tonight he would only find out that he had lost his wife. By the time he learned the rest, it might already be too late for him to call me that again.