Chapter 8 The Confrontation

Chapter 8 The Confrontation

“Why did you do this?” I asked Olivia, my voice trembling with the pain of betrayal. “I treated you so well, but you went out of your way to ruin my life. What were you thinking? Why?!” I’d gone to confront the person who’d started all this.

“Why?” Olivia snapped, her face suddenly twisting with bitterness. “Because I’m jealous! I’m better than you in every way—my looks, my figure, my poise—but why do you get to live a better life than me? It’s not fair!” Under my repeated questioning, she even started bragging about her plan, a hint of pride in her voice.

She admitted that from the first time we’d had dinner together as three, she’d been jealous when she saw how wealthy and good-looking my husband was—and that’s when she’d started plotting.

Next, she’d played the role of a vulnerable, abandoned wife in front of us to win our sympathy. Then, she’d deliberately posted her selfies in our three-person WeChat group, hoping to make my husband compare us and think less of me.

Later, she’d lured me into the trap at the class reunion, using my past with James to create trouble. She’d secretly taken videos and photos to drive a wedge between my husband and me. And when I’d started suspecting Michael of cheating, she’d diverted the blame to me, encouraging me to spend more money on myself to “improve”—all to distract me from the truth.

“It takes two to tango,” Olivia said, seeing that I still wouldn’t back down. “If Michael hadn’t believed those lies, if he hadn’t been attracted to me, nothing I did would have made him change his mind. So you can’t blame everything on me.”

Her words left me speechless.

She was right. If my husband had truly loved me, he would have been willing to trust me, to ask me for an explanation, to listen to me. He wouldn’t have hurt me like this. Maybe he’d already grown tired of me long before—tired of the 10-odd years of marriage that had worn away all the passion. He’d just wanted a taste of something new.

Human nature could be so ugly. In just a few days, my life had turned upside down, plummeting to rock bottom. I never would have thought that the man I’d shared my bed with would hurt me so deeply, or that my closest best friend would betray me like this—rewarding my kindness with treachery and sleeping with my husband. How unlucky could my life get?