Chapter 4: The Slap

I slapped her.

It was a clean, hard crack across the cheek, and it hurt my palm.

Roz's head turned with it. She stood there with her eyes shut and the red coming up on her face.

"Again if you need to," she said.

"I don't need to."

"Then why does your hand still look like that?"

I looked down. My hand was shaking.

"Because you stood in my kitchen and let her cut you a slice of cake," I said. "You didn't say anything. Nothing at all."

"I know."

"She said you'd make a proper wife. To my face."

"I know, Jules."

"And you let her."

Roz opened her eyes. They were wet and green and furious, and not at me.

"I was too ashamed to open my mouth," she said. "I'd have said the wrong thing. I'd have said yes."

The wind came up off the lake and tore at both of us.

I should have gone inside. I stayed where I was.

"Here is what I can't forgive," I said, low. "Not that you wanted him. People want people."

I made myself keep going.

"It's that for fourteen months you and he made a decision about me. You decided what I could handle."

"Jules..."

"You decided I'd rather be lied to. You both did. That's what I'm furious about. Not the sex."

"Then be furious," Roz said. "I'll stand here."

She stepped forward.

I didn't step back. I should have.

She put her cold hand on my jaw.

Keep reading free with an account. Start My Husband Cheated With My Best Friend, So I Took Them Both from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.