My Cheating Girlfriend

Chapter 2 The Joke of the Circle

The shower came on. Elena was washing Julian off her skin before getting into my bed.

Her iPad still glowed on the kitchen island. I opened the notification that Victoria had sent.

The group chat filled the screen.

[Mark (CFO)]: Stop it, Vic. Don’t spook the golden goose. Arthur’s free labor is funding my new boat.

[Sarah (Marketing)]: LOL. I’ll believe he’s leaving when I see it. The man’s devotion is a brand asset at this point. I made a slide about it in the last quarterly review.

[Victoria Vance]: I’m just saying, the wedding is in three days. Someone put a timer on his heartbreak. I’ve got $100 on him not finding out until she’s on her honeymoon.

The shower kept running while I read it twice. The whole office knew. Mark had budgeted my humiliation into a boat, and Sarah had turned it into a presentation slide.

I scrolled up. The jokes went back years.

Every plan I made started with Elena and the next collection. Meanwhile, her friends had been taking bets on how long I would stay blind.

I waited for the anger. It never came. I stood in the kitchen and listened to the shower until the last excuse I had made for her stopped working.

I left the iPad where it was and went into the cramped room Elena called my studio. Beneath the drafting table, I lifted a false floorboard and opened the fireproof safe with our anniversary date.

That room used to feel like mine. That night, even the drafting table looked borrowed. Elena had never asked to inspect the safe beneath it.

Seven years of time-stamped work sat inside: original sketches, 3D rendering files, wax mold prototypes and the hard drives that held each revision.

On my first design, a silver locket, I had written, *For E. The start of everything.*

I slid the page into a protective sleeve with the rest.

The dates on those sleeves began before Eternal Vow sold its first piece. Every later revision led back to the same pages and working files.

Elena had always been clever about business. She’d insisted we keep things informal, no messy contracts between lovers. “It’s purer this way,” she’d said. “Our work is built on trust, not paperwork.”

There was no contract assigning my intellectual property to Eternal Vow. Elena owned the brand. The designs still belonged to me.

I packed the manuscripts and hard drives into a reinforced briefcase and locked it.

The latch clicked. Every original was ready to leave the apartment with me.

The next morning, Elena sat at the breakfast bar in a crisp white blouse. She smiled over her coffee as if she had spent the previous night on a business trip.

Elena made her voice small. “I have to ask you for a huge favor today, honey.”

I waited.

“Julian wants to be more involved in the creative process. He insists on personally approving the final modifications to the wedding set this afternoon.”

She set down her cup. “His investment is crucial. I need you there.”

She reached across the counter and took my hand. I left mine resting under hers.

“Come as my special assistant. Let him feel important. You know the technical details better than anyone.” She squeezed my fingers. “Please, Arthur. For us. For our future.”

Julian would claim my work and my ring with Elena beside him. She wanted me there to keep the lie running smoothly.

That was Elena’s version of a favor. I would answer the technical questions, make Julian feel like the designer, then go home and wait for her.

So I smiled.

“Of course, Elena. Anything for the brand.”

The briefcase was already waiting beside my drafting table.