CHAPTER ONE: BETRAYAL #14
The texts were right there.
Maya didn't mean to look. She never meant to look. But Jacob left his phone on the kitchen counter while he showered and it buzzed three times in a row. She glanced over thinking it might be work. It wasn't.
Babe I miss you already
Last night was incredible
When can I see you again
The sender's name was just a heart emoji. No real name. Just a stupid little heart.
Maya stood frozen with a dish towel in her hand. Water dripped from her fingers onto the floor. She could hear Jacob humming in the bathroom. Steam crept out from under the door. Everything smelled like his cologne. The same cologne he wore the night they met ten years ago.
She should have been angry. She should have screamed or cried or thrown the phone against the wall. That's what normal people do when they discover betrayal number fourteen. But Maya just stood there feeling nothing at all.
Nothing except tiredness.
So deeply, deeply tired.
She put the phone back exactly where she found it. Screen down. Positioned near the edge of the counter like he left it. Then she walked to the bedroom on legs that didn't feel like her own.
She pulled out her old leather duffel bag from the closet. The one she bought years ago for a trip they never took. She started packing. Underwear. A few shirts. Jeans. Her toothbrush. She moved slowly and mechanically like someone completing a task they had rehearsed a thousand times.
Because she had.
This was not the first time Maya packed this bag. She had packed it after betrayal number three when she found lipstick on his collar like some cheap cliché. She packed it after betrayal number seven when he drained her savings account to cover his gambling debts and swore he would never do it again. She packed it after betrayal number eleven when she caught him in their bed with a woman whose name she never learned.
Every time she packed this bag. Every time she made it as far as the front door. And every time...
The bathroom door opened.
Jacob emerged in a cloud of steam with a towel wrapped around his waist. Water droplets clung to his chest. His dark hair was slicked back and his jaw was freshly shaved. He looked like something out of a magazine. He always did.
He saw the bag first. Then he saw her face.
His expression crumbled instantly. The charm vanished. The confidence disappeared. What remained was raw desperate pain. Or at least that's what it looked like.
Maya had seen this face thirteen times before.
"Baby," he whispered.
She didn't respond. She zipped the bag closed.
"Maya please. Please look at me."
She looked at him. Those deep brown eyes. That perfect face. The man who made her feel electric and alive and chosen. The man who made her feel worthless and small and invisible. The same man. Always the same man.
"I saw the texts," she said quietly.
Jacob's face went pale. Then red. Then pale again. He took a step toward her and she took a step back.
"It's not what you think."
"It never is."
"She means nothing to me. Nothing. You're the only one I love. You know that. You've always known that."
Maya picked up the bag. It felt heavier than it should. Like it contained ten years of broken promises instead of just clothes.
"I'm leaving Jacob."
He moved fast. Faster than she expected. Suddenly he was on his knees in front of her. His wet hands grabbed her legs. His forehead pressed against her thighs. His whole body shook with sobs.
"Please don't go. Please. I'll die without you Maya. I swear to God I'll die. You're everything to me. Everything."
She had heard these words before. After every betrayal. The same script. The same tears. The same desperate clinging.
And every time she believed him.
Because believing him was easier than being alone. Believing him meant she wasn't her mother. Bitter and abandoned and sitting in an empty house waiting for a man who was never coming back. Believing him meant she was loved. Even if that love came wrapped in lies and pain and humiliation.
"I'll go to therapy," Jacob begged. "Real therapy this time. Every week. Every day if you want. I'll change Maya. I swear on my life I'll change."
She looked down at him. This grown man weeping at her feet. Pathetic and beautiful and broken.
She thought about her father. The morning he disappeared. She was seven years old and came downstairs for breakfast. His chair was empty. His coffee cup was gone. Her mother stood at the stove with a spatula in her hand staring at nothing.
He didn't even say goodbye.
Maya's grip on the bag loosened.
"You always say you'll change."
"This time is different. I feel it. Something broke inside me when I saw your face just now. When I realized I could really lose you. Please baby. Give me one more chance. Just one more."
One more chance.
How many more chances had she given him? How many times had she stood exactly here in exactly this moment and made exactly this choice?
She knew what Zara would say. Zara would scream at her to walk out that door and never look back. Zara had been screaming that for years. But Zara didn't understand. Zara had a good husband and two healthy kids and a life that made sense. Zara had never been abandoned by someone she loved.
Maya had.
And Jacob was still here. Still begging. Still wanting her.
That had to mean something. Right?
She dropped the bag.
Jacob let out a sound somewhere between a sob and a laugh. He wrapped his arms around her waist and buried his face in her stomach. She felt his tears soaking through her shirt.
"Thank you," he whispered. "Thank you thank you thank you. I won't let you down this time. I promise Maya. I promise."
She said nothing.
She just stood there with her hands hanging at her sides while the man who had broken her fourteen times held her like she was the most precious thing in the world.
That night they made love.
Or at least Jacob called it making love. To Maya it felt like something else. A transaction maybe. A seal on an unspoken contract. She gave him her body and in return he gave her the illusion of being wanted.
Afterward he fell asleep quickly. He always did. His face looked peaceful in the moonlight. Almost innocent. Like a child who had never hurt anyone.
Maya lay awake staring at the ceiling.
She thought about the woman with the heart emoji name. She wondered what she looked like. Was she younger than Maya? Prettier? Did Jacob tell her she was special too? Did he memorize her favorite songs and surprise her with flowers and make her feel like the center of the universe?
Probably.
That was what Jacob did. That was his gift. He made women feel seen. Understood. Cherished. And then he destroyed them.
She turned her head and looked at him sleeping beside her.
I should hate you, she thought.
But she didn't. She couldn't. Hating him would require energy she no longer possessed. Hating him would mean admitting she had wasted ten years of her life on a lie.
So instead she felt nothing.
Just that deep deep tiredness settling into her bones.
She closed her eyes and tried to sleep. Tomorrow she would wake up and pretend none of this happened. She would go to work and smile at her coworkers and drink her coffee and act like everything was fine. She had gotten very good at acting over the years.
Maybe that was all life was. Just acting. Just pretending. Just getting through one day after another until eventually the days ran out.
She was almost asleep when her phone buzzed on the nightstand.
She picked it up expecting a text from Zara. Zara often texted late at night when her kids finally went to bed. But it wasn't Zara.
It was an email from an address she didn't recognize.
The subject line contained only two words.
WE NEED TO TALK
She opened it.
The message was short.
My name is Vanessa Cole. I know you don't want to hear from me. But there are things you need to know about Jacob. Things that go beyond the affair. Meet me tomorrow at Rosewood Cafe. 2pm. Come alone. This is not a trick. I'm trying to help you.
Maya's heart stopped.
Vanessa Cole.
She knew that name. It was burned into her memory like a scar. Vanessa was betrayal number eight. The affair that lasted three months. The one Jacob swore meant nothing. The one that almost ended them for good.
Why would Vanessa contact her now? After two years of silence?
Maya looked at Jacob still sleeping peacefully beside her.
Then she looked back at the email.
Her thumb hovered over the delete button. This was probably a trap. Some kind of sick game. Vanessa was cruel. Maya remembered that much. Why would a cruel woman suddenly want to help?
But something stopped her from deleting it. A small voice in the back of her mind. A voice she had been ignoring for ten years.
What if there's more?
What if you don't know everything?
What if the lies go deeper than you ever imagined?
She locked her phone and placed it back on the nightstand.
Tomorrow she will decide. Tonight she needed to sleep.
But sleep didn't come.
She lay awake until dawn watching shadows move across the ceiling and wondering what secrets Vanessa Cole was about to reveal.
