But I knew anger would not protect Ethan.
Only the truth could do that.
“Thank you for telling me,” I whispered.
“I’m sorry, Jenna.”
“So am I.”
After the call ended, I remained seated for a long time.
Every strange detail from the previous months returned to me.
The late nights.
The secret calls.
The guarded phone.
The hurried explanations.
The way Victoria’s face changed whenever she thought someone might ask too many questions.
The signs had been in front of us all along.
Yet suspicion was not proof.
Even Daniella’s account might not be enough for Ethan. He loved Victoria so deeply that he would search for any explanation that allowed him to continue believing in her.
I knew this because someone had already tried to warn him.
And Ethan had chosen not to listen.
Part Three: The Friend He Lost
Ethan had grown up with a boy named Owen.
They met in first grade and became inseparable almost immediately. Owen spent so much time at our house that he felt like a second son to me. I packed lunches for both boys, attended their school events, and watched them grow from mischievous children into dependable young men.
They supported each other through exams, breakups, family troubles, and the uncertain years after college.
I believed nothing could separate them.
Then Victoria did.
A few years earlier, Owen had seen her at a bar with another man.
According to Owen, Victoria had been sitting unusually close to him. Their conversation appeared intimate, and the man had rested his hand on her arm more than once.
Owen did not spread rumors or speak behind Ethan’s back. He went directly to his best friend and told him what he had witnessed.
Ethan confronted Victoria.
She cried.
She insisted the man was only a coworker who was going through a difficult time. She claimed he had asked her for advice and that Owen had misunderstood a harmless conversation.
Then she turned the accusation against him.
She suggested that Owen was jealous of their marriage. She accused him of interfering in their relationship and planting doubts in Ethan’s mind.
Ethan believed her.
The argument between the two friends happened outside my house.
I still remembered Owen standing in the driveway, hurt and frustrated.
“I’m telling you because I care about you,” he said.
“Then stay out of my marriage,” Ethan replied.
“You’re making a mistake.”
“No, the mistake was trusting you with something this personal.”
Owen’s face changed.
He looked as though Ethan had struck him.
After that day, they stopped speaking.
