My Husband Cheated With My Cousin, I Let Him, He Regretted

Chapter 2

I first found out Julian was cheating three years ago.

That day, Julian suddenly canceled every single one of his appointments and said he wanted to take me shopping.

He looked at me with a big warm smile on his face and held out a handful of beautiful new dresses for me. "It has been ages since we have had any alone time together, not since Nora was born," he said. "We left her with the nanny today. How about we go out shopping just the two of us?"

"You have always loved looking your best," he continued. "Do not let having a kid trap you at home. I had a designer custom make these just for you. Every single one is one of a kind. Go try one on, then we can head out."

I was over the moon, so giddy I did not even catch that complicated flicker of emotion in his eyes. I slipped on my favorite of the bunch and headed out with him.

We had just stepped through the mall entrance when we ran into a familiar face.

"Ivy!" Raina Reed came sprinting over and threw her arms around me. "What a coincidence!" she exclaimed. "You two are out shopping too?"

She was my best friend and had even been my maid of honor at my wedding. When Julian was chasing me, she actually helped him come up with a lot of ideas to win me over.

I glanced over at Julian to check what he thought. He smiled and nodded. "Sure, she can tag along," he said.

And just like that, our romantic date turned into a three-person outing.

Julian was shockingly patient that day, trailing after us from one store to the next without a single complaint.

When our feet started aching from all the walking, we picked the closest restaurant to stop for lunch. Halfway through our meal, I fumbled my fork and sent it clattering to the floor with a sharp metallic clang. I bent down on instinct to grab it.

And that was when I saw it. Under the table, two hands snapped apart in a hurry.

I froze for a second, then lifted my head to stare at the two of them.

Raina was chattering away cheerfully. Julian was leaning in like he was hanging on every word. Both of them looked totally normal, not a single thing out of place.

I must have been seeing things.

I chewed myself out for overthinking.

How could Julian ever do something like that to me?

He had chased me for three whole years and turned down every other woman who came on to him just for me. His hands were shaking so badly when he proposed that he could barely get the ring on my finger. The night Nora was born, he held her the whole night, too scared to put her down even to sleep.

It had just been an accident, right? Their hands must have brushed by mistake.

After we finished eating, I tried to drop a few subtle hints that Raina should head out on her own, but she acted like she did not pick up on it at all. Instead she tugged me into a clothing store, saying she wanted to try some new outfits on.

Julian had already bought me a ton of new dresses, so I had zero interest in trying more on. But Raina stuffed armfuls of outfits into my hands and practically shoved me into the fitting room anyway.

"Come on, we are already here," she said. "Just try them on, okay? Wouldn't it be fun to get matching bestie outfits?"

I could not argue with her. She was too persistent, so I picked one set and went in to try it on.

But when I stepped back out of the fitting room, both of them were gone.

"Raina? Julian?" I called out.

"Ivy... I'm... I'm in here..."

Raina's voice drifted out from the fitting room right next to mine, muffled and thick with a weird, strained tension.

I walked over, worry gnawing at me. "What is wrong?" I asked. "Are you feeling sick?"

"I-I am fine..." she stammered, her words coming out broken and halting, followed by a strange, muffled grunt that sounded off.

"Look, Ivy," she said, her voice trembling, "c-could you... could you go buy me a pack of pads? I just started my period out of nowhere and I did not bring any with me..."

But the second those words left her mouth, I froze solid.

I knew for a fact Raina was not supposed to get her period right then.

My eyes darted across the whole store on instinct, but I could not spot Julian anywhere. No matter where I looked, he was gone.

In that split second, the scene I had seen under the dinner table flashed back into my head, and a wild, insane idea crashed into my mind and crowded out every other thought.

I fished my phone out of my bag, scrolled to Julian's contact, and hit call.

The very next second, his phone's ringtone blared loudly right out of the fitting room where Raina was.