Matias froze for a moment, his lips curling into a bitter smile.
"I didn’t think you’d still be in the dark after all these years."
His gaze shifted upward, locking with mine, a strange intensity behind his eyes.
"Irene," he said softly, his voice barely above a whisper, "because I like you."
I froze; my breath caught in my throat.
His voice was gentle but held a weight and he continued, "Irene, all these years, my friendship with Clayton was because of you."
A small, rueful smile tugged at his lips as he added, "I even liked you before he did."
Matias, Clayton, and I had known each other since university, and Clayton and I had fallen in love at first sight. In what felt like the blink of an eye, we had become a couple, a love story that spanned from campus to marriage for eight years.
But Matias, Matias had never once dated anyone.
Everyone around us had whispered, joked even, about his “unusual” orientation, but he had always stayed distant, refusing to get close to any woman.
"See? I’m an actor, Irene. No one ever figured it out, did they?"
He lowered his eyes, a self-deprecating smile curving his lips as if to laugh at his own hidden truth.
"You—you're joking, right?"