“Don’t move,” he’d say. “I’ve got everything. Just rest. I love you more than anything.”
I believed him. God help me, I really did.
Then Hanabi came home.
She’d been overseas for years studying fashion. When she returned, she was polished. Beautiful. Confident. The kind of woman people looked at twice.
Gusion noticed.
I noticed him noticing.
The way she laughed too easily around him. The way he suddenly paid attention. The way conversations stopped when I walked into the room. I told myself I was imagining it. She was my sister. He was my husband.
I didn’t want to see it.
Until one night, I walked into our bedroom and found them in my bed.
Together.
I couldn’t breathe.
“Gusion?” My voice sounded small. Weak.
Hanabi jumped up, pulling the blanket around herself. Gusion didn’t even sit up properly.
“Relax,” he said, rubbing his face like I was annoying him. “She wasn’t feeling well. She fainted. I was just helping her.”
And I let it go.
Because Nana was sleeping nearby.
Because I was tired.
Because I didn’t want my world to end.
Now I knew how stupid that was.
They didn’t just betray me once. They’d been doing it for a long time.