My boyfriend looked me straight in the eye and told me he wasn’t sorry for sleeping with my best friend. She stood beside him wearing my favorite gray cardigan, smiling as though she’d won something, while he showed me a photograph of them kissing on a rooftop. I thought discovering their affair was the cruelest thing that could happen to me, but nine days later, sitting alone in my car with six stitches across my hand, I realized I knew exactly how to make them regret what they’d done.
Chapter 3
The following Wednesday, shortly before three in the morning, Gloria rushed into the emergency animal hospital carrying her thirteen-year-old beagle, Peanut.
The little dog was struggling to breathe.
His chest moved rapidly, and his gums had an alarming bluish color.
Adrian followed his mother through the automatic doors.
I felt my stomach tighten when I saw him.
“Rachel, please,” Gloria cried. “Something’s wrong with Peanut.”
I took the dog gently from her arms.
“We’ll help him.”
Our veterinarian, Dr. Warren, examined Peanut immediately.
He suspected fluid in the lungs related to a heart condition.
We moved quickly to provide oxygen and begin treatment.
While Dr. Warren worked, Gloria stood beside the treatment-room window with tears streaming down her face.
Adrian held her shoulders.
Then the front doors opened again.
Melissa walked in.
She wore a winter jacket over pajamas, her dark hair pulled into a messy ponytail.
When she saw me, she gave a small wave.
As though we were still friends.
As though she hadn’t spent fourteen months sleeping with my boyfriend.
As though she hadn’t known the truth about my lie for weeks.
I felt something cold settle inside me.
Dr. Warren was adjusting Peanut’s oxygen when Melissa approached.
“Rachel, can we talk?”
“Not now.”
“Just two minutes.”
“There’s a sick dog in there.”
She glanced through the window.
“He looks stable. Please.”
Dr. Warren looked toward me.
“Take a minute if you need one. I’ve got him.”
I followed Melissa into the supply hallway.
The fluorescent lights hummed overhead.
The air smelled of disinfectant and clean laundry.
Melissa folded her arms.
“Jenna stopped answering my messages.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
“Don’t pretend you don’t know. She told you, didn’t she?”
I remained silent.
Melissa smiled.
“There was never a baby.”
My heart pounded.
“What did you say?”
“You heard me.”
She leaned against the wall.
“I knew you went to urgent care because of a dog bite. Jenna told me weeks ago.”
“Then why didn’t you tell Adrian?”
Melissa’s smile widened.
“Because I finally have him.”
I felt sick.
She continued.
“For years, he looked at you like you were the center of his world. Even after we started seeing each other, part of him still cared what you thought.”
I shook my head.
“Melissa, you were sleeping with him.”
“Yes, and I wanted more than that.”
She looked toward the lobby.
“Then you sent that message. Suddenly, he was terrified. He couldn’t sleep. He kept saying he’d ruined everything.”
She smiled again.
“And guess who was there to comfort him?”
I couldn’t speak.
“He needs me now, Rachel. He thinks I’m the only person who understands what he’s going through.”
“You’re letting him believe something you know isn’t true.”
She shrugged.
“You started it.”
I felt tears burning behind my eyes.
“He’s suffering.”
“So was I,” she snapped. “Do you know what it was like being second choice for so long?”
I stared at her.
“We were best friends.”
Her expression softened for a moment.
Then she said something I’ll never forget.
“Friendship wasn’t enough for me.”
The words seemed to hang between us.
I remembered the snowstorm when she’d driven to my father’s funeral.
The birthdays.
The late-night talks.
The years when I’d trusted her with every secret.
And now she stood before me admitting she’d watched me suffer because she wanted the man I loved.
Melissa moved closer.
“Here’s what happens now,” she said quietly. “You keep your mouth shut. You don’t tell Adrian anything.”
I looked at her.
“And if I do?”
“Then everyone finds out you invented a dead baby because you couldn’t handle being dumped.”
She smiled.
“Who do you think they’ll believe?”
I didn’t answer.
She reached out and brushed a piece of lint from my sleeve.
“Besides, he’s finally mine. You should be happy for us.”
At that moment, Dr. Warren called my name.
I turned and ran back into the treatment room.
Peanut’s breathing had become more labored.
We adjusted his oxygen and administered medication while monitoring his heart.
My hands trembled.
I missed the vein on the first attempt to place the catheter.
“Steady, Rachel,” Dr. Warren said.
I took a breath.
Tried again.
This time, I succeeded.
For the next several minutes, all my attention belonged to the little dog struggling on the table.
Gradually, his breathing improved.
His chest stopped heaving.
His eyes opened.
By three thirty, Peanut lifted his head.
Dr. Warren smiled.
“Good work.”
I nodded.
But my mind was still in the hallway with Melissa.
When I stepped into the lobby, Gloria rushed toward me.
“How is he?”
“He’s responding to treatment. We’ll need to monitor him, but he’s doing better.”
She hugged me.
“Thank you, sweetheart.”
Adrian stood behind her.
His eyes were tired.
“Rachel,” he said quietly. “Thank you.”
I nodded.
“Peanut’s a good dog.”
He hesitated.
“I’ve been thinking about everything. Every day.”
I looked at him.
“I wish I could go back to that night.”
“You can’t.”
“I know.”
His voice broke.
“I just wish I’d answered.”
Before I could respond, Melissa called from across the room.
“Adrian, your mom needs you.”
He turned.
And I watched him walk toward her.
She put an arm around his waist.
Then she looked over his shoulder and smiled at me.
That was when I knew I couldn’t let the lie continue.
Not because Adrian deserved my forgiveness.
Not because Melissa deserved anything from me.
But because I’d allowed my pain to turn me into someone I no longer recognized.
And Melissa had taken my worst decision and transformed it into another way to control him.
I had to tell the truth.
Even if everyone hated me afterward.
During our conversation in the supply hallway, I’d activated a voice recording on my phone.
I hadn’t planned what Melissa would say.
I’d simply wanted a reliable record of a conversation that might otherwise become another argument about who said what.
Now I listened to it.
Her voice was clear.
“There was never a baby.”
“I’ve known for weeks.”
“He needs me now.”
And finally, the sentence that made my skin crawl.
“Guilt is the best way to keep somebody from leaving.”
I listened twice.
Then I went outside into the pale morning light and called Adrian.
“Can you meet me?”
He sounded worried.
“Is Peanut okay?”
“Peanut’s fine.”
“Then what’s wrong?”
“I need to tell you something.”
An hour later, we met in a grocery store parking lot.
Adrian arrived in the pickup truck I’d helped him buy.
He looked thinner than he had the month before.
His eyes were swollen.
We sat on a low concrete curb beside the shopping carts.
I held my phone in both hands.
“Before you hear this,” I said, “I need to admit something.”
He stared at me.
“The pregnancy wasn’t real.”
Silence.
I continued before I lost my courage.
“I wasn’t pregnant. I didn’t lose a baby. I lied because I wanted you to feel guilty about not answering my calls.”
He didn’t move.
“I was hurt, Adrian. I wanted you to understand what it felt like to be abandoned.”
His expression slowly changed.
Confusion.
Disbelief.
Then something like exhaustion.
“You lied?”
“Yes.”
“About a baby?”
“Yes.”
He looked toward the parked cars.
For a long time, he didn’t speak.
Finally, he whispered, “Why?”
I wiped my face.
“Because I wanted to hurt you the way you hurt me. And I was wrong.”
He closed his eyes.
I took a breath.
“There’s something else you need to hear.”
I played the recording.
Melissa’s voice filled the quiet morning air.
Adrian sat completely still.
When it ended, he stared at the pavement.
“She knew?”
I nodded.
“She’s known for weeks.”
He pressed his hands against his face.
“She watched me cry.”
I said nothing.
“She held me every night. She told me I was still a good person.”
His voice cracked.
“And she knew the whole time?”
“Yes.”
He lowered his hands.
“You both lied to me.”
I nodded.
“We did.”
He laughed once, a terrible sound.
“I cheated on you for fourteen months, and somehow I thought I understood what betrayal felt like.”
I looked down.
“I’m sorry, Adrian.”
He stared at me.
“I don’t know what to do with any of this.”
“You don’t have to decide anything right now.”
He stood slowly.
Then he looked at me.
“Do you know what the worst part is?”
I shook my head.
“The baby wasn’t real, but those four missed calls were.”
My chest tightened.
He continued.
“You were actually hurt. You actually needed help. And I didn’t answer because I was in your bed with your best friend.”
Tears filled his eyes.
“I can’t change that.”
Neither of us spoke.
Finally, he walked back to his truck.
Before getting in, he turned.
“I’m sorry for what I did to you.”
I nodded.
“I know.”
He drove away.
And I sat beside the shopping carts, crying harder than I had on the night I found them together.
Because the truth had finally come out.
And it hadn’t made me feel victorious.
