Chapter 3

3.

The force of her shove caught me off guard, and I tumbled down the stairs.

My forehead slammed against a hard step, and a blinding pain took over.

"Seraphina! How could you push Silas like that?" my friend Leo shouted.

Seraphina finally realized what she had done as I lay at the bottom.

She rushed down, her face pale with guilt as she checked my wound.

"Silas, I'm so sorry! I was just panicking... I didn't mean to..."

If she cared so much, why didn't she even look at me when I was falling?

I wondered how much of her concern was genuine and how much was a performance.

She frantically insisted on taking me to the hospital, her eyes full of tears.

Caspian chimed in weakly from above, "I think I twisted my ankle. Seraphina, could you take me too?"

Seraphina didn't even hesitate before snapping back coldly. "Find someone else, Mr. Drake."

Her focus was locked on me, as if nothing else in the world existed.

She called the driver and held my hand, whispering sweet words of comfort.

I forced a smile and turned to Caspian.

"Sorry, my wife gets a little overprotective when I'm hurt."

Caspian's face went pale, and he managed a sickly grin. "I'm jealous of how much you two love each other."

Seraphina acted perfectly normal, showing no signs of guilt.

But she was gripping my hand so hard I thought she might break my bones.

On the way to the hospital, she seemed completely distracted.

I looked at her, thinking back on our three years of marriage.

It started as a business arrangement, but it had turned surprisingly sweet.

She rarely talked about her past and was always warm and attentive.

I used to think I was the luckiest man alive to have such a happy home.

Now, I realized that entire foundation might be built on lies.

After getting patched up, we went home, and she brought me a glass of milk.

I pushed the glass away coldly. "I'm allergic to dairy, Seraphina."

She froze, looking embarrassed.

"I'm sorry, honey. I guess I'm just shaken up from today."

I stared at her, feeling like I was looking at a complete stranger.

She made an excuse to shower, and I headed straight for the study.

Out of respect, I had never touched her private laptop, but now I had to know.

Her friend list was small, and her chat history was almost empty.

Then I found her hidden digital journal―nearly two thousand entries, all private.

They were all letters to Caspian, spanning from teenage crushes to bitter longing.

The earliest was from seven years ago; the latest was from just three days ago.

For seven years, she claimed to love me while keeping another man in her heart.

The final entry was the one that broke me.

"If he didn't look so much like you, I couldn't stand being near him."

"Maybe God pitied my broken heart and gave me a substitute to hold."

I felt a suffocating pain in my chest and had to lean against the desk to stay upright.

"Silas? Where are you?"

Seraphina's voice came from the hallway, as sweet and tender as always.

Silas and Caspian. The names sounded so similar when she whispered them.

When she called for me, who was she really seeing in her mind?