Seduced By My Ex-Best-Friend’s Father

Aria I stepped into the hotel and hurried to the private lounge my friends and I normally booked. We were supposed to meet that afternoon to catch up. It had been months since we last saw one another. There was a time when we met every other week but adulthood had a way of changing things. Everyone was busy now, building companies, chasing careers, juggling responsibilities. Well, except for my best-friend, Tessa. Tessa had never worked a day in her life. She didn’t need to. Being the only child of a wealthy businessman had its privileges, and she wore them proudly. Expensive vacations, designer clothes, the latest cars. Everything she had was paid for by her father’s money. Sometimes, I envied her. If only my life could be that easy. My heels clicked against the marble floor as I increased my pace. The private lounge we booked was just ahead. The door stood slightly ajar, and the sound of laughter spilled into the hallway, light, carefree, familiar. I smiled faintly. It had been so long. This was what I needed after months of nonstop work. Just some time with my girls, some normalcy. My hands closed around the knob of the door to drag it open so I could walk in but I paused for a second to take in my friends. I’ve missed them so much. They were seated around a low glass table, expensive drinks glittering beneath the chandelier lights. And I smiled when my eyes came to rest upon my best friend, Tessa. We’ve been close friends since university. Tessa’s manicured fingers flashed as she lifted a champagne glass, the large diamond on her finger catching the light. “Oh my God, Tessa, that rock is huge!” one of the girls squealed, having seen the diamond at the same time as me. Tessa smiled, a smug tilt to her lips. “Ethan picked it out himself. He said he wanted me to have something special. Something that screams I belong to him.” All of them roared with laughter before they began to gush about how sweet Ethan was but my mind had gone blank as I frowned. Ethan? My Ethan? Or was it another man? Maybe one she met in the few months we’ve been busy. But we’ve been massaging each other regularly and Tessa never told me about any man named Ethan. Tessa was someone who didn’t know how to keep a secret and it looks like everybody knows the Ethan she was talking about except for me. Enya, a girl I met through Tessa leaned forward, eyeing the diamond. “But isn’t he still married to… Aria?” Tessa rolled her eyes dramatically. “For now. But not for long. He’s planning to divorce her soon. He said it himself. He only married her because she was stable and sweet and a good wife material, you know? But I’m the one he really wants.” The women laughed again, the sound harsh against my ear. Tessa was talking about Ethan, my husband. The one who I’ve been married to for the past three years. The same man that was in my bed last night and still there when I got up this morning. The man I kissed goodbye before he left for work. I could hear a loud ringing in my ear and the sound of my heart shattering into a million shards. A painful feeling rose in my chest as breathing became hard. I pressed her palm to the wall, suddenly feeling dizzy. My best friend and my husband were seeing each other behind my back. Ethan was even planning to divorce me? Was that why he had refused to touch me for months but kept giving excuses that he was tired from working hard during the day? He only got married to me because I was stable? What does that even mean? The betrayal burned through my chest like acid. The four people I called friends knew my husband was cheating on me with Tessa and none of them told me. They were even in support and were laughing at me. Humiliation washed over me at the thought that they’ve been laughing at me behind my back while smiling sweetly in my face. Humiliation quickly gave way to anger, hot and choking and I stepped fully into the room, slamming the door loudly behind me. The laughter stopped instantly and every head turned in my direction as I marched to their table. They looked shocked to see me but they quickly knew I'd heard everything when they saw the way I was glaring. Tessa’s smile also faltered but it lasted only a second before it came back, sharper and cruel. “Well, speak of the devil,” Tessa said, her tone dripping with mock sympathy. “The woman whose husband I’ve been sleeping with.” Her words hit like a slap and I stared at her for a moment, not having a comeback because I’d not been expecting her to come outright and say it. I’d been expecting her to try to stammer out an apology or try to cover up but it seems like that was not going to be the case here. “You and Ethan… the both of you…” I trailed off, unable to complete my sentence because of how much I was shaking from anger. Tessa leaned back in her chair, crossing her legs casually. “Sleeping with each other? Yes.” My eyes swept across the table and they all looked away when our eyes met. “All of you knew? You all knew my husband was sleeping with my best friend?” My voice cracked with disbelief. “You sat here, drinking and laughing and talking about it so casually like you’re talking about the weather and not about my husband and my best friend f*****g behind my back.” Samara shifted uncomfortably. “Aria, it wasn’t our place—” “Not your place?” My voice rose, breaking with hurt. “Not your place to tell me my husband is betraying me? That my best friend is sleeping with him?” No one met my gaze but at least they had the decency to look ashamed. Everyone except for Tessa who was smiling sweetly. I turned back to Tessa, my hands fisted at my sides. “How could you? After everything we’ve been through, after everything I’ve done for you, how could you do this to me?” Tessa didn’t flinch. If anything, she seemed bored. “Don’t make it so dramatic, Aria. It’s not like you didn’t see it coming.” I stared at her in disbelief. “You’re proud of this?” Tessa smiled lazily, tilting her head. “Why wouldn’t I be? I’ve always wanted Ethan. You knew that. I met him first, remember? At your cousin’s party. He came over to talk to us, and I thought he was interested in me. But then you swooped in and acted all innocent. He asked you out instead. You took him from me.” I blinked, stunned at her words. “Tessa, he wasn’t yours! He never was!” When he approached us, he spoke to me and I responded politely before he asked me to dance with him. What the hell was Tessa talking about? “Maybe not,” Tessa said, her voice harsh and her eyes glinting with dark light. The smile was on her face but she didn’t look so calm anymore. “But he should have been.” My heart twisted painfully. I've never heard such venom in Tessa’s tone before. The girl I’d once shared secrets with, cried with, celebrated birthdays with, now looked at her with something so much hatred in her eyes. And all because of a man. I could barely breathe. The air in the room felt suffocating, thick with perfume and deceit. My voice broke when I spoke again. “You’re unbelievable, Tessa. I didn’t steal Ethan from you. He came to me! If you wanted him you should have said so and I would have gladly stepped back.” It won’t be the first time. Tessa was a girl who was spoiled rotten by her father and used to getting everything she wanted. I’ve stopped talking to men multiple times because Tessa liked them. If she’d told me from the beginning that she wanted Ethan I would have left him for her too. Why did she have to go behind my back to be with him? Tessa’s chair scarped the floor as she jumped to her feet, her face twisted in anger. “I don’t need your hand-me-downs! I wanted him so I went for him. If he really was for you he wouldn’t have cheated. How about you blame yourself for not being enough?” She smiled, all teeth. Something inside me snapped and I saw red. I pounced on her, intent on slapping that cruel smile off her face. Tessa did not back down and in a few seconds, we were dragging each other’s hair, kicking, slapping and scratching faces. Our friends were screaming as they tried to separate us and stop us from either killing each other or falling on the table and breaking the plates and scattering the food on it. When they were finally able to separate us, I stared at Tessa, satisfied to see that her perfect makeup was ruined and she had scratch marks on her face. Her right eye was quickly turning red. Her hair was a mess. I could feel a sting on the right side of my face where she got me. I don’t know what I looked like but I’d done a number on her face. I knew it was not as bad. I was even more satisfied from the coolness of the diamond ring I’d snatched from her that was now resting on my palm. “Give me back my ring, you stupid bitch.” I shrugged off Enya and Samara’s hands. I bent to pick up my purse and marched out, ignoring Tessa screaming for me to get back there and give her back her diamond. My heels clicked hard against the marble as I left the lounge. My chest burned, my vision blurred but I didn’t think of slowing down because I knew exactly where I was going next. To my lying, cheating husband.