She chopped some zucchini and eggplant, along with draining the beans. Once that was done, she left the kitchen, heading to the en-suite bathroom to freshen up. She hadn’t showered in two days.
After removing her clothes, she stepped beneath the warm spray of the water, allowing it to wash away all of her fears.
Whatever happened, she could handle it. She had no choice.
Children. Marriage. Drake. This life with him, so long as there was love, they would fix this.
She washed her body, her hair, and then stepped out, feeling like a new woman. There was no way she was going to be beat by this. Her life was her own, and she was a strong woman, in love with one of the most amazing, yet misunderstood men she’d ever met. There was no way any of this could go wrong, and worrying about it was just silly.
Feeling much better, she walked to the sink, brushed her teeth, and realizing the head on her electric toothbrush needed changing, she crouched to the cabinet for a replacement. As she opened it up, a small bag tumbled to the ground, spilling out Drake’s razor and creams, along with several strips of pills.
She stopped putting all the items in the bag and looked at the pills. Turning them over, she couldn’t make out what they were.
She got to her feet, and something twisted in her stomach as she walked to the drawer on her side of the bed and slid it open. The packet of birth control she used and had stopped taking looked exactly alike.
This made no sense.
Why did Drake have her pills?
She checked the packet where she still had a couple of strips remaining, and as she pulled them out, she saw a slight difference in the packaging. It was only slight, but she just knew without question, Drake had swapped her pills.
The realization caused her to drop them.
No.
This couldn’t be happening.
Drake wouldn’t do that to her. All his life, he had people jumping to conclusions.
She grabbed both packets and made her way toward his office.
His laptop was turned off, but she turned it on and sat waiting, staring at both packets. There was a nasty emptiness beneath her chest, and it had started to freak her out. She rubbed at the spot right over her heart.
The moment his laptop was on, she heard the sound of an incoming email. The subject caught her attention: Pills.
This was a rabbit hole she didn’t want to go down but found herself clicking on the email, and any doubt she had about her husband’s betrayal was erased with a single glance.
Drake had ordered the placebo pills. She scrolled through the previous emails and discovered he’d taken a picture of the packet so it was an exact replica of hers, and unless she looked at them side by side, she wouldn’t have known. In fact, she didn’t know until she saw them right now. The pills contained a small shot of vitamins, harmless in most cases.
Mira didn’t need to look anymore.
Standing in only a towel, tears filled her eyes.
The betrayal cut so deep. She felt sick, and anger swirled inside her. With her hands clenched, she stormed into the bedroom, changing into a pair of sweats and a large shirt.
Drake had done this on purpose. He hadn’t listened to her concerns or been willing to wait. Like so many other times, he did what he wanted without a thought or care for anyone else.
She was so mad. Furious.
She walked back to the kitchen, putting the vegetables and beans into the stew pot. Checking the time, she knew Drake would be back within the hour.
After leaving the kitchen, she went back to the bedroom. There was nowhere else for her to go, and now that she was pregnant, she couldn’t exactly leave him. Medical care was expensive. She wouldn’t be able to afford this child on her own, nor did she want to raise him or her alone.
Everything was so messed up, and it was all because Drake refused to listen. He just charged ahead without thinking about anyone else.
She wouldn’t leave him, but she certainly wasn’t sleeping in his bed tonight or any other night for the foreseeable future. He was going to have to learn the hard way. The ring felt heavy on her finger, but she didn’t take it off.
For the next hour, she transferred her belongings into the spare bedroom, making up the bed and trying not to break down in a fit of tears.
By the time Drake arrived, she had the table set, dinner ready, and had composed herself enough to be able to listen to him.
He came in, and where he would normally pull her into a kiss, she turned so he only grazed her cheek.
“Is everything okay?” Drake asked.
“Fine. Never been better.”