He Used My Money, I Left Him

Chapter 3

"I went up and asked him why he wasn't coming to see you. I asked who the woman was. He said she was a new secretary he hired for the company. Said things have been hectic lately, so he brought her home to work."

Natalie finished and looked at me, worry written all over her face.

My heart dropped straight to the floor. A secretary.

'The company's been running for a while now. Having a secretary is normal, isn't it? Work gets busy. Bringing someone home to work together is normal too, isn't it?'

Natalie's voice shook with anger. "The neighbors said that woman has been coming out of the apartment with him every morning lately. They said the two of them act very intimate."

I lowered my head and touched my belly. My voice came out hoarse. "Did Damian say he'd come to the hospital to see me?"

Without quite meaning to, my mind drifted back to our school days. Back when Damian and I were together, he'd bound into school every morning full of energy, breakfast in hand. He'd walk right up to me in front of everyone, hand it over, and tell me to eat more. He'd say my face looked too thin and it worried him.

On the way home from school, whenever he saw a little kid, he'd tell me how much he loved children. How much he wanted to have one with me someday. He said when our baby arrived, he'd handle all the childcare and I could just focus on staying beautiful. He promised he'd make sure I was happy, no matter what.

Whenever I got mad at him, he'd do everything he could to win me over, to coax me back.

Everyone said he was crazy about me, and I believed them.

I loved being adored by him like that. That was why, through all these years, I'd never let go of a single memory of our time together.

It was like I'd been poisoned by him. I'd layered filter after filter over our past until it looked perfect.

He must have loved me so much.

We just got lost somewhere along the way, that's all.

Maybe that simple, beautiful thing we had just couldn't fit into real life.

'Has he changed?'

Natalie stayed quiet for a long moment. Then she spoke. "That bastard said the company is at a critical stage right now. He'll come see you once he gets through this busy period. He said for you not to overthink things."

Aside from the years we spent apart, Damian had never stayed angry at me for this long.

Something felt off. After listening to Natalie vent for a while longer, I changed out of my hospital gown and slipped out.

On the way home, my mind was racing. I tried desperately to talk myself down.

No. It couldn't be. Damian always told me he was too particular, too fastidious, to fall for another woman easily.

But the moment I stood outside that door, my courage failed me completely.

"Honey, your wife has been in the hospital for over a month now. Are you really not going to go see her? She's carrying your child, after all." A woman's voice drifted out. Familiar.

Damian let out a dismissive grunt. "I'll deal with that after things settle down. She's pregnant now anyway. She's only going to be more devoted to me, not less. Trust me, she loves me so much, she'll take good care of herself and my baby. Besides, being with her is so dull. I always have to coax her and cheer her up. Being with you is far more fun. What, are you jealous?"

The woman laughed. "Of course I'm jealous. But we have to think about the bigger picture, don't we?"

Their laughter rose and fell, threading through the heavy door. I felt a wave of dizziness crash over me.

A sharp, piercing ache bloomed deep in my chest and spread like wildfire.

That voice. It gnawed at me. I stood outside, racking my brain until it finally clicked. Selene Ashford. That was Selene's voice.

The two of them. Behind my back.

Selene was my close friend from high school. She knew everything about my relationship with Damian. Every detail.

She knew how much I loved him. She knew I had never stopped thinking about him all those years.

It had never, not for a single second, occurred to me that these two could join forces and stab me in the back like this.