His s*x Tape Exposed, I Leave Him

Chapter 3

That offhand little sentence hit Rose like a thunderclap right against her ear, leaving her eardrums buzzing and ringing.

"You're pregnant?"

A faint, almost unnoticeable flash of provocation glinted in Kaye's eyes, and a soft, knowing smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.

"Hmm, it was an accident. I'm already three months along."

Rose's mind snapped back to all the odd little changes she'd noticed in Kaye lately. Her body had filled out noticeably, and her stomach had started to stick out just a little. Back then, Kaye had brushed it off as weight gain from an irregular schedule. Rose had never suspected a thing, she'd just told herself she was reading too much into it.

"Kaye, I've never even met the person you're seeing. When are you free to bring him out so I can meet him?" Rose forced each word out one by one, every syllable dripping with ice-cold sharpness, while her heart hammered wild and hard against her ribs.

Kaye picked up her phone with a bright smile, her tone soft but dismissive. "No need, really. He's super shy and keeps to himself. He hates making small talk with strangers. He's been really busy and stressed lately anyway, so let's not force him to come out just for a meetup."

No sooner had the words left her mouth than Chris called, asking where Kaye was. It wasn't long before his car pulled up to the entrance of the teashop.

The second he stepped out and spotted Kaye, his normally warm, gentle expression hardened instantly. His face went dark as thunder.

"You said you had an emergency to take time off, and this is what you're really doing? Hanging out and messing around here?"

Before Kaye could even open her mouth to defend herself, Rose spoke first, "I invited her here for tea. Just drive her back first."

"Don't bother, I don't want to be a third wheel," Kaye said coolly, crisp and decisive. "I'll just unlock a shared bike and ride back. It's way more convenient."

She scanned the QR code and unlocked the bike in the blink of an eye, then swung her leg over the seat and pedaled away before either Rose or Chris could stop her.

Rose watched it all clearly. Chris immediately dropped his speed, creeping along right behind Kaye. The painfully slow speed was totally unnatural, and his gaze was glued straight to the woman on the bike ahead, like he was terrified something would happen to her if he looked away for even a second.

Then, in an instant, Kaye's bike jerked hard to one side. She and the bike went tumbling straight to the pavement with a heavy thud.

Chris slammed his foot down hard on the brake.

The brutal force of the sudden stop wracked the whole car, throwing Rose forward hard in the passenger seat. Her forehead nearly smashed into the center console, leaving every nerve in her body numb and her head spinning.

But Chris didn't even notice how flustered and disoriented she was. His entire heart and eyes were fixed only on Kaye, lying on the pavement.

He wrenched his door open and stumbled toward her as fast as his legs could carry him.

He dropped to his knees and pulled her up, his voice thick with barely concealed panic and sharp rebuke, every word dripping with anxious concern.

"What were you thinking? You fall off a bike on flat ground? Get in the car right now!"

Kaye turned her face away, her tone cold and sulky. "Leave me alone. Go home with Rose, don't bother me!"

Chris's brows drew together into a tight furrow. He pulled her to her feet before she could protest, guided her gently to the backseat, and settled her carefully, afraid she'd knock into anything even a little.

Only when he was done did he finally turn back to look at Rose, sitting pale as a sheet in the passenger seat.

A flicker of panic darted across his eyes, and he reached out for her hand, his voice soft and placating. "Sorry Rose, did I scare you? Kaye is your best friend. I panicked because I was worried if she got hurt you would be upset, that is all..."

Kaye immediately jumped in to back him up. "I'm sorry Rose, this is all my fault, I made you two worry for no reason."

Bitter irony flooded Rose's chest, and her stomach churned violently.

They were already completely wrapped up in each other, and yet they still put on this fake act, pretending everything they did was for her, that they cared about her feelings above all else.

Rose closed her eyes, forcing down the roiling nausea and searing pain in her chest, and answered in a flat, raspy voice, "It's fine. Just take her home first."

The whole drive dropping Kaye off, Chris was completely distracted the whole way. He kept glancing back at Kaye in the rearview mirror, his forehead creased with worry, and the car sped up and slowed down erratically.

Only after he got Kaye safely inside her door did Chris finally relax, and turn the car around to head home with Rose.

The entire ride home was dead silent, no one spoke a word.

Once they got home, Chris wrapped his arms around her waist from behind, his voice deliberately soft and soothing.

"Rose, are you angry at me? I am sorry, I really did overreact just now. You always say Kaye is your only best friend, the person closest to you. I panicked without thinking because I was scared her getting hurt would upset you."

Rose's chest took a brutal blow from a sledgehammer. It throbbed dull and sharp all at once, until her whole body went dead numb.

He had seen with his own eyes how the sudden stop had thrown her forward, leaving her shaken and disheveled, how her face had drained of all color. But not once, from start to finish, had he offered her a single word of genuine comfort. Every thought, every instinctive worry, was for the other woman.

His favoritism, his biased heart, it's never even been hidden. It's right out in the open, blazing for anyone to see.

"Chris, we should br—"

The word for 'break up' was still on Rose's tongue when Chris' phone suddenly buzzed to life with an incoming alert. He scanned the message, and his face drained of blood in an instant.

"Rose, there's an emergency at the company. I have to go handle it right away. Stay home and wait for me, okay?"

Before the words even faded, he grabbed his coat and bolted out the door.

Rose's heart seized up hard. She flipped open her laptop immediately and pulled up the security camera feed from their premarital home in the western suburbs.

On the screen, Chris rushed inside, and the second he stepped through the door, he hurried straight to Kaye's side, his eyes brimming over with worry.

"Did you hurt your leg? Let me see right now. Did you hurt it bad? Do I need to get you some ointment?"

He brushed his hand gently over her bruised leg, his movements so soft it made Rose's chest ache.

That doting, worried look in his eyes? She had never seen that look on his face once in all the time they'd been together.

Kaye leaned into his chest, her voice soft and laced with unease. "You were way too obvious today. Do you think Rose suspects something? Could she have already found out about us?"

Hearing that, all the softness drained from Chris's face in a heartbeat. He jerked upright, putting clear space between them, and his expression turned ice-cold.

"She won't find out. And from now on, you are not allowed to meet her alone like this. We can't give anyone reason to suspect us."

"Why not?" Kaye's face immediately crumpled with hurt, her voice thick with resentment. "She's your fiancée, but I'm the one who grew up with you! Am I really not even allowed to see you just because of her?"

"Our relationship can never come to light," Chris lowered his voice, his face grave as his gaze landed on Kaye's stomach. Determination hardened his eyes as he added, "And this child... I can't keep it."

"What the hell do you mean you can't keep it!" Kaye's eyes flushed red with instant fury, her voice cracking with sobs. "This is our first baby! It's our child! How can you just throw it away like that?!"

Dead silence swallowed the room. The air grew so thick and heavy it was hard to breathe.

After a long, dragging moment, Chris spoke in a voice ice-cold, every word ice-cold and merciless, "This child was a mistake from the very beginning."

"Chris, how can you be so cruel?!" Kaye's eyes glistened with unshed tears, consumed by utter despair.

But at the very next second, the two of them crashed into each other's arms, kissing wildly until their clothes went rumpled and disheveled. A thick, heated haze of lust swallowed the whole room in an instant.

"I'll help you get rid of the baby, then send you abroad. You'll be set for life, you'll never want for anything, and you'll live comfortably and safe forever."

Kaye fell silent for a beat, then she stepped closer and pulled Chris firmly against her, her grip iron-tight. She steered him toward the bedroom, her voice dripping with manic obsession and raw possession.

"Then you better make it up to me, properly."

The bedroom door slammed shut with a thud, locking every last bit of their ugliness and sin inside, hidden from the world.

Right after that, a notification pinged on Rose's phone. It was a message from Chris.

Chris: Rose, there's a ton of urgent work at the company. I'll stay at the office tonight. Get some rest early, love you.

The plain black words on the screen burned like searing red poison right into her eyes, every single one carving into her heart.

Rose's stomach churned violently. She doubled over, heaving and retching, a bitter, acidic rot spreading through every inch of her body.

How laughable was this? Every one of their secret trysts, every time they fooled around, even their recorded intimate livestreams, all of it happened right here, in the wedding home, Rose had poured her entire heart into preparing.

Her chest felt like it was being ripped clean open. White-hot agony surged through every nerve, every bone, every inch of her body.

Warm, heavy tears slipped down her cheeks silently, soaking right through the sleeve of her shirt.

That was when another message popped up, this one from the private investigator she'd hired.

Investigator: Ma'am, we found a private secret account. The content inside is probably the truth you've been looking for.