Chapter 3The Calm Goodbye That Ended Our Love

Austin moved into our home after that.

Maybe it was out of guilt, but he was always trying to make himself useful, and he kept making a mess of it.

He'd break one of my expensive watches, accidentally throw out a birthday gift Lena had bought me, or ruin one of her designer dresses with the iron. It happened more than once.

But Lena, who had never had patience for carelessness, would actually bend down and comfort him.

She started to change. The woman who practically lived at the office began leaving on time every day.

She carved out an hour each evening to teach Austin how to speak properly, even staying up late to make vocabulary flashcards, guiding him through each word with her hand on his throat so he could feel the sounds.

It bothered me. I suggested hiring a tutor or enrolling him somewhere, but Lena shut it down.

"It's not safe leaving him with strangers. There are so many awful people out there. What if someone takes advantage of him?

"Besides, teaching him reminds me of you when we were kids."

I looked into her eyes, saw how much she meant it, and let it go.

After that, Austin found every excuse to be around Lena, asking her all sorts of odd questions, and she actually had the patience to answer every single one. I chalked it up to him being young and clingy, so I made a point of taking him out myself.

I brought him shopping, took him to upscale restaurants, and introduced him to my friends. I bought him a car, and I even bought him a house.

He grew better looking by the day, and more and more girls took notice. Every now and then, he'd punch my arm and call me his brother. He told me he'd follow me for the rest of his life and do anything I ever asked.

I was happy. I felt like I'd done something right. He was one of the few people in the world I could call family.

Eventually, I told him to leave the housework to the housekeeper, but he still insisted on ironing Lena's clothes himself. He said he didn't know how else to thank us.

I laughed it off, thinking he was just naive. After all, there was no need for thanks between brothers.

Then Nana got sick, and I spent my days at the hospital looking after her. Lena called, her voice soft and pouty, saying she missed me and wanted my cooking.

The way she whined melted something in me, and after several sleepless nights at Nana's bedside, I decided to rush home and cook for her.

That was when I found them. They were on my bed, clothes on the floor, Lena draped over Austin with his chest covered in bite marks.

Something inside me collapsed like a building coming down.

"What the fuck!"

The words ripped out of me before I could think.

I grabbed a chair and swung it straight at Austin, but Lena stepped in front of him, staring me down with ice-cold eyes. She was too small to take a hit like that, so I forced myself to put the chair down.

"Got it out of your system? Are you done with the tantrum? Now get out.

"Stop acting like a lunatic. You're going to scare him."

She sided with Austin without even trying to hide it. I grabbed her wrist and demanded she explain, but she wrenched free.

"Are you ever going to stop? We're already married. What more do you want from me? I said I'd give you a kid. No one's threatening your place.

"Austin's young. Don't bully him."

Austin peered out from behind her, a smirk playing at the corners of his mouth.

"Jude, don't be mad. I just lost my head for a second.

"But Lena's just so gorgeous, you know? And her perfume, I couldn't help it. I really like her.

"I'll do anything for you, Jude. Anything. Just let me stay."

I clenched my fists and squeezed my eyes shut. Lost his head? He'd do anything for me?

Wonderful, just wonderful!

I lost my mind after that. I turned into the kind of person I would have pitied before. I sent photos of Lena to her business partners and blasted the affair all over social media.

I tracked down every wealthy contact I could find and told them what I'd seen, the same story, the same details, over and over again.

At first people were curious, but soon they started dodging my calls. I was becoming the man who wouldn't stop telling his sad story, the one everyone crossed the street to avoid.

None of it mattered anyway. Most of those people had their own skeletons, and nothing I said could touch Lena.

I spiraled so far I wanted to take them both down with me. I put on a calm face, cooked dinner, and laced it with poison. I figured we'd all go together.

But Lena never brought Austin home that night. She just stayed with me, soothing me with something that almost looked like guilt. For the first time, she sat beside me and gently fed me with her own hands.

I woke up in a hospital bed, over ten pounds lighter.

But Lena never came to see me again.