What Lies Between Us

2

Ashley’s POV

My hands wouldn’t stop shaking. I sat behind the steering wheel, staring at my fingers as they trembled against it.

There was blood on them. Nora’s blood.

I quickly pulled my hands away and wiped them against my dress, but that only made everything worse. The red stain spread across the expensive fabric, reminding me of what I had done.

I had stabbed her. I had actually stabbed her. My stomach twisted.

I closed my eyes, but I could still see her lying on the marble floor. Her pale face. Her trembling hands.

The blood spreading beneath her.

The way she had looked at me when I told her Chris was my husband.

I gripped the steering wheel tighter.

I didn’t want to feel sorry for her. I couldn’t.

She was the woman who had been sleeping with my husband. The woman who was going to steal my husband.

The woman who was planning to marry him.

The woman who had unknowingly become the reason my entire marriage was falling apart.

For weeks, I had suspected Chris was cheating.

At first, I tried to convince myself I was imagining things.

Chris had always been busy. His work demanded long hours, business trips, dinners, meetings.

But then the little things started adding up.

He began keeping his phone turned facedown.

He would leave the room whenever someone called.

There were nights when he came home smelling different.

And there were mornings when he looked at his phone and smiled before quickly hiding the screen from me.

I had asked him. More than once.

“Is there someone else?”

Every time, he had looked me in the eyes and lied.

“No.”

I had believed him. Until I stopped believing myself.

So I hired a private investigator. I told myself I only wanted the truth. I paid him handsomely to stalk Chris’ every move.

What I discovered destroyed me. There was another woman.

Her name was Nora.

The investigator gave me everything.

Pictures. Messages. Places they had visited.

And then he gave me the one piece of information that made my hands go cold.

They were planning to get married. My husband was planning to marry another woman.

I couldn’t breathe when I read the report.

I remember sitting alone in my bedroom, staring at the photographs for hours.

Chris smiling at Nora. Chris holding her hand.

Chris looking at her the way he used to look at me.

I had spent years building a life with him.

And he was preparing to throw it away. For her.

I didn’t know what I was going to do.

I thought about confronting Chris.

I thought about killing him.

But anger swallowed every reasonable thought.

I wanted her to hurt. I wanted her to understand what she had done to me.

So I took Chris’s phone while he was asleep.

I sent Nora a message from his number.

“Meet me at the private lounge tonight. There are things I need to tell you.”

She agreed.

I remember staring at her reply for several minutes.

I should have stopped there.

I should have gone to the lounge and told her the truth.

Instead, I went there carrying all the anger I had buried for weeks.

And when I saw her sitting there, looking so innocent, so unaware of the destruction surrounding her, something inside me snapped.

I remember her asking who I was.

I remember telling her Chris was my husband.

And when she looked genuinely shocked, I should have realized that she had been deceived too.

But I was too angry. Too hurt.

I had already decided she was my enemy.

I had stabbed her in the chest.

Now, sitting in my car, I couldn’t stop replaying that moment.

The sound of her scream. The blood.

Her body collapsing. Her desperate attempt to crawl away.

I covered my mouth as a sob escaped me.

What had I done?

I started the car. I needed to go home.

I needed to wash my hands.

I needed to erase the evidence.

Most of all, I needed to forget what I had done.

But no matter how fast I drove, I couldn’t escape the image of Nora lying on that floor.

By the time I reached home, my entire body was trembling.

I parked in the driveway and sat there for several minutes.

The house looked exactly as it always did.

Beautiful. Peaceful. Safe.

Nothing about it suggested that I had just left a woman bleeding to death. I had just stabbed someone.

I finally stepped out of the car.

My legs felt weak as I walked toward the front door.

When I entered, I immediately saw Chris.

He was standing in the living room. My heart stopped.

He looked at me and his expression changed immediately.

“Ashley?”

I froze.

His eyes moved over me. My disheveled hair. My tear-stained face. The bloodstain on my dress.

He frowned. “What happened?”

I couldn’t answer. My lips trembled.

I looked at the man standing in front of me and suddenly felt sick. This was the man I had loved.

The man I had defended. The man I had trusted.

And because of him, I had become someone I no longer recognized.

“Ashley,” he said again, stepping closer. “What happened to you?”

I took a step backward.

He stopped. His eyes narrowed as he looked at me.

“Why are you crying?”

I opened my mouth but nothing came out.

Then—

Knock. Knock. Knock.

We both froze.

Chris turned toward the front door. Another knock followed.

Louder this time. His face changed.

“Who is that?”

I couldn’t breathe. My hands began shaking again.

The knocking came a third time.

Then a man’s voice came from the other side.

“Police. Open the door.”

My heart dropped.

Chris slowly turned to look at me.

And I knew. They had come for me.