He Cheated With My Friend, I Ended It

Chapter 1

Ethan Miller's eyes were red. His fingers were clenched around my sleeve, his body rigid, and panic shook his voice.

"That isn't what happened..."

He shook his head frantically. His Adam's apple bobbed as he tried to deny everything I had seen, but the guilt on his face gave him away.

Before I could speak, the doorbell rang.

Ethan's face turned even worse.

I smiled as if I had expected it. "She sent you another package."

They had been careful about the affair. They never texted or called in front of me. Instead, they hid letters inside the mountain of packages Ethan kept receiving.

Ignoring Ethan's attempt to stop me, I opened the door and signed for the package.

"Open it yourself."

Ethan stared at the box. His hand moved toward it, then pulled back.

My patience snapped. I ripped the package open myself.

There was no letter inside.

Only a compact piece of workout equipment.

Ethan's tense shoulders loosened at once. Relief flashed across his face, and he pleaded in a hoarse voice, "Victoria, please let me explain."

I looked down, picked up the device, and turned it over. Then I saw the name "Chloe Sullivan" engraved on the bottom.

She was the woman Ethan had secretly loved since college. She'd also been my best friend and my roommate.

I rubbed my thumb over the engraved name and let out a self-mocking laugh.

"I thought you had forgotten her. So you never did. Where do you two usually meet?"

The moment I finished speaking, I grabbed Ethan by the hand and headed out, putting the clues together as we walked.

"Two weeks ago you told me you'd found a great trainer at the gym and signed up for a membership. That's where you've been seeing her, isn't it?"

My tone left no room for argument as I pulled him into the car.

Ethan liked spacious cars, so as soon as we decided to get married, I bought him a Cullinan SUV as a wedding gift.

I never imagined that all that space would make it easier for him to cheat.

I sat in the driver's seat in disgust. Under my foot was a pair of navy-blue men's boxer briefs.

I clenched my jaw and made up my mind.

When I got back, I'd smash that filthy car to pieces.

"Victoria, it's not what you think! Chloe heard the slim-cut suit you had custom-made for the wedding was too tight on me, so she offered to help me tone up and drop the weight. She's my trainer, that's it. Nothing ever happened between us, I swear..."

He kept running the same excuses the whole drive over.

I'd heard enough. I hit the gas and pushed the car to a hundred and ten. The car lurched forward hard enough to slam him back into his seat, and the color drained right out of his face. He grabbed the seat belt with both hands and finally shut up.

Twenty minutes later, we were standing outside the gym.

The first thing I saw was roses. Roses everywhere. And Chloe standing in the middle of them with a bouquet in her hands.

She walked around the front of the car with practiced ease and pulled the door open.

The instant our eyes met, my heart sank.

Old and fresh hickeys overlapped on her neck. A matching couple's necklace hung there, the same one Ethan had given me two weeks earlier.

My fists clenched. Anger and pain almost tore me apart.

In the frozen silence, I could still hear the confused whispers of the gym employees nearby.

"Chloe and that guy she's seeing are honestly the cutest. They meet up every three days, and she fills this whole place with flowers every single time, just for him."

I was so close to losing control that those words actually made me laugh.

After a stunned pause, Chloe rushed to explain.

"Victoria, it isn't like that. Ethan only comes here to work out. There's nothing else between us."

Ethan, still in the passenger seat, grabbed my hand and quickly backed her up.

"There's really nothing between us."

Then he glared at Chloe.

"Were you bored or something? Why did you bring so many roses? Were you trying to make Victoria think there was something between us? I'm canceling my membership, and I'll never set foot in your gym again."

He shoved the door open, strode over with a dark expression, snatched the flowers from Chloe's arms, and hurled them to the ground. Holding back his irritation, he snapped at her in a cold voice.

"Victoria and I are getting our marriage license soon. You had better give up whatever ideas you have and stop pestering me."

The thorns on the roses hadn't been trimmed properly, and they left several bloody scratches across Chloe's face.

Chloe froze. Hurt flickered through her eyes.

She gazed at Ethan with desperate affection, her voice weak and hoarse.

"I understand, Ethan. But whenever I think about all the years we missed, I can't help myself... I only wanted to stay by your side as a friend and talk to you a little more."

Ethan lowered his eyes. His jaw was clenched tight, and emotion churned in his gaze as he forced himself to let her go.

A mocking smile touched my lips.

Back then, the two of them really had secretly liked each other.

The reason they never ended up together was simple.

Ethan had found out that Chloe was secretly in love with four people at once.