“Ethan is such a sweet, thoughtful boy. I genuinely care about him, so of course I tend to look after him a little more. But I swear I don’t mean anything else… you really don’t need to feel so insecure…”
Jason’s face softened slightly, and he looked at me with an exasperated impatience, as if to say: See how considerate Ms. Emily is?
“You hear that? Ms. Emily already apologized, and Ethan did too. What more do you want? Isn’t that enough?”
Looking at the three of them—playing their parts in perfect harmony—I felt nothing but nausea rising in my stomach.
Ten years of marriage—it all felt like one cruel joke.
The truth was, in the early years after our wedding, when Ethan was still little, we did have warm, happy moments as a family of three.
But when did it all start to change?
Probably when Ethan started kindergarten—and his teacher just so happened to be Jason’s former classmate, Emily Brooks.
From then on, Jason, who had never bothered with school drop-offs or pick-ups, suddenly showed up rain or shine.
When the school organized field trips, he was more enthusiastic than Ethan himself.
And in Ethan’s mouth, Ms. Emily’s name appeared more and more often.