Sarah sucked in a sharp breath, forcing herself back to the present moment. The memories of her friendship with Rebecca had turned from sweet to poisonous, but they weren't the first betrayal she'd endured in this marriage. A marriage that had cost her far more than the freedom she'd hoped to gain from her parents' control.
What she felt wasn't sadness over a failed marriage well no, that would have been too simple. This was about betrayal, layer upon layer of it, each one more devastating than the last. The marriage had never been about love; it had been about convenience. Yet somehow, in one fell swoop, she'd lost the two people she'd trusted most. Sometimes, in her darker moments, Sarah wondered: if they'd told her about their relationship from the start, would it have made a difference?
The signs had been there from the beginning, though she'd chosen to ignore them. The Marcus she'd married had been a stranger wearing her childhood friend's face, nothing like the boy she'd grown up with. Her situation had become the devil she knew versus the angel she didn't, and she'd vowed to manage whatever chaos he threw her way. But even she hadn't expected his mask to slip so soon.
Sarah's fingers tightened around her wine glass as the memory surfaced: his laptop, borrowed for a project, and that carelessly forwarded email chain discussing a weekend getaway to Bali. The language had been far from professional. When confronted, Marcus hadn't even tried to deny it.
She had accidentally lent his laptop for a project and had discovered it through a mistakenly forwarded email chain discussing their upcomingweekend getaway to Bali in a not so official way.
Sarah had been prompted to ask questions to clarify if this was a mistake, misunderstanding or if the email was sent to the right recipient and when he was confronted, Marcus had been apologetic. His apology had been smooth, practiced, promising it would never happen again.
He had not bothered to deny or offer an explanation for his infidelity, she had been stunned beyond words and was left with no option than to let their family know what had happened between in the couple in a bid to discuss the way forward. She'd been stunned beyond words, left with no choice but to bring their families into the discussion.
The meeting with her in-laws should have been her warning. Their reaction had been too calm, too rehearsed, as if they'd performed this scene before. Her father-in-law's condescending words still echoed dauntingly in her mind, "Men sometimes make mistakes. A wise wife knows when to look the other way." She'd swallowed her pride then and this became a decision that would become her greatest regret.
That first discovery had opened Pandora's box. Marcus grew bolder, as if daring her to catch him again. She knew what he was doing but could never quite prove it – until the second incident. This time, it had been with a client, a fact Sarah discovered through whispered gossips at a brunch session with New York's elite wives. She'd excused herself to the ladies' room, only to overhear two women discussing her husband's latest indiscretion in detail.
Sarah had attended the brunch session with other wives of the biggest and most influential families in New York and she had not expected to be the subject of gossip by the women at the small gathering. Sarah had excused herself to use the ladies room where she stumbled on two women discussing how her husband had cheated on her with a client o
Marcus's response had been chilling in its casualness: "It's just business. Sometimes you need to do what it takes to close a deal." The words had made her sick to her stomach, but still, she'd stayed, trapped by the weight of family expectations and her mother's endless mantra about saving face.
Her escape route from her family had become her prison, a cruel joke that felt like punishment for being the "ungrateful daughter." She'd been determined to prove her choice wasn't a mistake, clinging to the one benefit her marriage offered: freedom to do as she pleased. This freedom had become addictive, standing out as another reason why she'd turned a blind eye to her husband's exploits.
The irony wasn't lost on her and she had finally gained the independence she desperately craved, but at what cost? Her husband's infidelities had become something she could compartmentalize, (out of sight, out of mind.) The Chen family name still meant something to her, despite her attempts to escape its weight. Like every Chen before her, she'd vowed to protect it, regardless of the personal cost.
Sarah had her freedom as she had always wanted and craved. That seemed like the only benefit of her marriage to Marcus as at then. The freedom and time to do as she pleased was addictive and it obviously stood out as another reason why she never truly cared about her husband's exploits.
But then Marcus had crossed a line she never imagined he'd dare to cross. Of all the women in New York, he'd chosen Rebecca. Her confidante. Her best friend. The one person she'd trusted completely. It had been a betrayal that hit too close to home, shattering whatever fragile peace she'd managed to maintain.
Some betrayals, Sarah realized, couldn't be compartmentalized. Some cuts went too deep to heal.