I, 32M, am sitting here in my apartment, boxes of my ex-girlfriend's stuff stacked by the door, still processing the absolute audacity of what happened last week. Victoria, 29, and I had been together for three years. We lived together for the last 18 months in my apartment. Things weren't perfect lately.
She'd been distant, always on her phone, going out for girls' nights that seemed to happen three times a week. Classic signs, I know. But I figured we were just in a rough patch. Last Wednesday, she sat me down with this serious expression.
I'm thinking she wants to talk about our issues, maybe work through things. Nope. "I need to tell you something," she says, and there's this little smirk playing at her lips. "I've met someone, my actual soulmate. I'm leaving you for him."
The way she said it, like she was proud of herself, like she expected me to break down or beg. I just nodded. "Okay. Who is he?" The smirk got bigger.
"His name is Garrett. Garrett Reeves. You wouldn't know him. He's everything you're not. Successful, ambitious, romantic."
"He owns his own consulting firm. We've been seeing each other for two months, and I've never felt this way about anyone." That's when I couldn't help but smile. Because Garrett Reeves? Yeah, I know him pretty well.
He's been my brother-in-law for five years. "Garrett Reeves?" I repeated. "Dark hair, about six-foot-one, has that scar on his left eyebrow from a skiing accident?" Her face changed a bit.
The smirk wavered. "How do you—" I pulled out my phone, scrolled through my photos, and showed her a picture from my photo album. A wedding invitation, cream-colored with gold lettering. "You're invited to celebrate the marriage of Garrett Reeves and Natalie Cooper."
"That's my sister," I said calmly. "They got married five years ago. They have a two-year-old daughter named Lucy and another baby on the way." The smirk completely vanished.
Her face went white, then red. "No," she said. "No, that's... He said he was divorced. He said his ex was crazy and keeping his kid from him."
"He lied," I said simply. "They're very much married. In fact, they just got back from their anniversary trip to Napa two weeks ago. Nat posted tons of photos."
I showed her my sister's Instagram. There was Garrett all over it. Recent photos kissing my pregnant sister, playing with Lucy, family dinner from literally four days ago. Victoria stood up, shaking.
"This is... You're lying. You're making this up because you're jealous." "Call him," I said. "Right now. Tell him you know about Natalie."
She grabbed her phone, hands trembling, and stormed into the bedroom. I could hear her on the phone, voice getting higher and more frantic. Then silence. Then screaming.
She came back out, tears streaming down her face, and had the absolute audacity to yell at me. "You knew. You knew this whole time, and you didn't tell me." "You just told me about him five minutes ago," I pointed out.
"Was I supposed to be psychic?" "You must have known I was seeing someone." "I suspected. But you're the one who chose to have an affair."
"You're the one who believed whatever lies he fed you. And you're the one who just sat there smirking while telling me about your soulmate." She tried to flip the script then. Said I was heartless, that I should comfort her, that we could work through this together since we were both betrayed.