Chapter 3

Emily’s POV

I stretched with a soft, lazy smile, rolling over in bed as the morning light filtered through the curtains. For a moment, the fears of yesterday were a distant memory. Then my phone buzzed on the nightstand, and I reached for it, mumbling, "Wonder who’s up so early..."

As I unlocked the screen, an unknown number flashed, followed by a message that made my heart stop:

Louis cheated on you.

"What?" I gasped, sitting bolt upright. "No, no, no. I must be dreaming.”

My phone slipped from my trembling fingers and clattered to the floor. I stumbled out of bed, my mind all over the place. A whirlwind of emotions coursed through me—disbelief, anger, and a terrible sadness. Was I the only one out in the dark? Did everyone else seem to know about this except me?

"Breathe, Emily, breathe," I told myself as I ran a shaky hand through my blonde hair. "It's probably just a prank. Yeah, that's probably it." But as I said it, I looked in the bedroom mirror and could see the doubt on my face.

"I need some air," I muttered, going to the kitchen. The walls of this opulent house felt like they were closing in, suffocating me with their judgmental silence.

Just as I reached for the back door, I heard the front door open.

"Emily! Yoo hoo!" My mother-in-law's cheery voice rang out.

“Not now, Lucy...” I muttered to myself. Her timing was impeccable, as always, and never in a good way.

She came into the kitchen, holding a large thermos. "I know you have been having some…trouble conceiving, which, as I’ve been saying all along is due to all that wine you drink.” Of course, she had to make me sound like the issue and like an alcoholic too! Her false smile widened. “So, look what I brought! It's my special homemade fertility soup. This'll knock you right up practically by itself!"

"Oh, um, thanks," I murmured, watching her pour the murky liquid into a bowl. I felt a wave of nausea, not just from the soup but from all that had come to light in the past 24 hours. "But I don't think I can—"

Lucy's plastic smile vanished immediately. "Emily, you are always so ungrateful. Do you think I'd go to this trouble for Louis, my own son? No! This is for you, and you're throwing it back in my face!"

Her words stung, a reminder of the constant pressure to conform to her expectations, to be the perfect wife, the perfect daughter-in-law. But how could I focus on that when I felt like my world was crumbling around me?

"I'm sorry, I just—" I started, but she cut me off by thrusting the bowl into my hands. As I peered into the soup, my stomach churned and I swallowed back bile. Floating among twigs and leaves were what looked like tiny, dead worms.

"Oh God," I choked, my hands shaking. The bowl slipped and crashed to the floor.

Lucy's face contorted with rage. "You ungrateful brat!" She screeched. “You’re doing this to spite me aren’t you? You think you can mess with my emotions, don’t you?”

I took a step back, looking down at the soup and ceramic pieces. It looked even more vile on the floor. “No, I—”

“You’re so manipulative, I knew my son picked a terrible wife, I knew it from the beginning!”

Despite it all, anger surged through me at the personal attacks. “Lucy,” I said with barely controlled rage. “You’re being incredibly rude and—”

Lucy laughed in my face. “You’re calling me rude! That’s rich!” She shook her head as if her abuse towards me amused her. Then a scowl returned to her face, and she whipped out her phone.

"I’ll show you rude. I’m calling your father, and I'm pulling my funding! I'll make sure his business is ruined."

Dread ran up my spine. "Lucy, stop!" I pleaded. "He has nothing to do with this!" My father’s business had a tough year already, they couldn’t afford to lose anymore funding. The fact that our lives were so intertwined made this whole situation ten times worse. What would I do if Louis really had…?

Before I could react, her hand flew out, slapping me hard across the face. The sting was sharp and I stumbled. Lucy shouldn’t have been able to hit this hard. I shouldn’t have felt so ruined by it. But I had almost collapsed under the hit. I breathed hard as I touched my cheek, feeling the heat rise beneath my fingers.

Memories from yesterday flooded back—the condom box, the blonde hair, the unfamiliar perfume. Each recollection felt like another nail in the coffin, so I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. Was it all paranoia? Or had I been ignoring all the signs? The thought that I might have been blind to the truth was almost as painful as the betrayal.

And Lucy. God, Lucy had been a thorn in my side throughout this marriage, even before we got married. She sabotaged my bridesmaid party, starting rumors about my little sister that made her cry. She insisted on coming on our vacation last year and bossed us around the whole time. And two months ago she told the whole family about my supposed infertility issues that I didn’t even think I had! Lucy was a menace of a mother-in-law and tormented me at every turn.

When I fully came to realize all of this, something snapped inside me. I grabbed my phone and dialed Louis.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Lucy shrieked in the background, but I ignored her, focused on a singular goal.

Finally, Louis answered. "Emily? What's wrong?" His voice came through, laced with concern. “You don’t usually call during the work day.”

"We're done!" I shouted. "I want a divorce!" The words tumbled out, fueled by anger and hurt and all the emotions that had risen over—I realized—the past ten years. They were words I had never imagined I’d say, but at that moment, they felt like the only way to reclaim some semblance of control over this situation.

"What? Emily, calm down. What happened?" Louis asked, his voice rising in panic.

But the room was spinning. As darkness closed in, I heard Louis calling my name, his voice fading away as I collapsed to the floor.