He Cheated With My Friend My Parents Helped Chapter 01
Gabriel Cross was having an affair with my best friend, Sienna Price. After it came out, my dad beat Gabriel so badly he was blinded in his left eye.
My mother grabbed Sienna by the throat and choked her until she passed out.
When Gabriel threatened to press charges, I begged him to spare my parents. He gave me two conditions.
“First,” he said, “I’ll end things with her and come back to you. But you can never bring up divorce again.”
“Second, you can only see your parents once a year. No contact with them the rest of the time.”
I agreed. For the next three years, I only saw my parents at Christmas.
This Thanksgiving, Gabriel said he had to travel for work again.
I bought a pumpkin pie and planned to sneak over to my parents’ house in Bellevue.
I was standing just outside the glass door to their backyard when I saw my father playing chess with Gabriel.
“That punch I threw was too hard,” my father said, looking at Gabriel’s left eye. “It’s a damn shame about that eye.”
Gabriel just waved it off.
“It’s fine. Without you two running interference, a woman with Mags’s temper would have divorced me for sure.”
“This is much better,” he continued. “Your house has become our little safe house. A place for me and Sia to meet. No one suspects a thing.”
Just then, my mother appeared at the door, her arm around a visibly pregnant Sienna. She called the men inside for dinner.
They looked like a family.
Whatever hope I had left died in that instant.
Gabriel had probably forgotten. When we got married, he’d signed a postnuptial agreement. All it needed was my signature to be executed by a lawyer.
…
They helped Sienna inside and took their seats around the dining table.
I couldn’t hear what they were saying through the glass, but I could see the holiday feast spread across the table.
Once everyone was seated, my father held up a hand for quiet and took out his phone.
A second later, a FaceTime ringtone blared from my bag.
I shrank back against the wall, wiped the tears from my face, and answered with trembling fingers.
My father’s face appeared on the screen.
“Mags, Happy Thanksgiving. Have you had dinner yet?”
My mother leaned into the frame.
“You’re home alone again, aren’t you? This is our fault. We never should have lost our tempers like that.”
“Now you don’t even have anyone with you on the holidays.”
They said things like this every year, twisting it until I felt like I was the one who’d almost gotten them sent to prison.
I forced the tremor from my voice and managed a strained smile.
“If it’s just the two of you, why did you make so much food?”
My father paused. My mother immediately snatched the phone.
“It’s a holiday. Your father and I were just rattling around in this big house, and it felt so empty. I guess I made a few extra dishes.”
“Don’t you worry about us. Christmas is coming. We’ll get to see each other then.”
I looked past her, into the house. Gabriel and Sienna were sitting on the other side of the table.
“Mom, turn the camera around. I want to see what you made.”
Everyone at the table froze. My mother’s face darkened.
“My phone’s about to die. I’m hanging up.”
The call ended abruptly. She put down her phone and told everyone to eat.
The others kept passing serving dishes to Sienna. She would smile and wave them off, as if to say she already had more than enough.
Gabriel lowered his head and patiently peeled the shrimp on her plate.
My stomach clenched. I turned and walked away.
On the Lyft ride home, some part of me still refused to believe what I’d seen. But the ache in my chest was real, and so were the photos I’d snapped on my phone.
Back home, I took the agreement out of the safe in the study.
Eight years ago, Gabriel had placed it in my hands himself.
“Mags, I will never divorce you.”
“I’m signing this first to hold myself to being the husband you deserve. But it’s your out, too. If I ever let you down, you don’t have to stay trapped.”
The agreement stipulated that all marital assets would be divided equally. Both our lawyers had reviewed it. All it lacked was my signature.
Three years ago, when I first found out he was cheating, I had taken it out.
That day, tears had blurred the ink, and my hand shook too hard to sign.
I was about to sign it now when the doorbell rang.
I put the agreement back in the safe and went downstairs.
A delivery driver handed me a bag heavy with takeout containers.
“This was ordered for you by Thomas and Laura Archer. Please confirm here.”
I signed for it and carried the bag inside.
It was my mother’s cooking. Just like every other holiday, every single dish was spicy.
I used to think my parents’ tastes had changed. It never occurred to me that they were cooking for Sienna.
I rushed to the sink and dry-heaved, my stomach empty. Then I dumped every last container into the trash.