Chapter 5
The next morning, Justin woke with a pounding headache, rubbing his temples as he sat up in bed. Beside him, Leah stirred.“}
“Justin… why are you up so early?” she murmured, snuggling against him. The blanket slipped, revealing the red marks trailing down her neck and shoulders.
Any other man would have been tempted.
But Justin went rigid. His first instinct was to push her away.
Last night, when he thought Lara had drugged Leah, he had been furious. Without thinking, he had carried Leah upstairs, too blinded by anger to stop himself.
But when she leaned in to kiss him, he had hesitated.
For the briefest moment, something inside him screamed that this was wrong. That no matter how much he loved Leah, doing this right now was crossing a line.
Maybe, deep down, he even knew that this would hurt Lara. But Leah had cried, clung to him, begged him not to leave her.”
And so, he forced himself to go through with it. Now, in the cold light of morning, that anger had faded.
And all that was left… was regret. His gaze drifted to his left hand, the same one he had slapped Lara with last night.
Even though he believed Lara was the one who supposedly hurt Leah first, Justin still felt uneasy. Maybe, he had gone too far.}]
Hitting his wifo,in front of everyone? Even if he was furious, even if Lara deserved it in his eyes, something about it didn’t sit right.
Frowning, he pulled out his phone.M
Lara was probably losing my mind by now. A jealous woman like her had to be blowing up his phone, calling, texting, demanding answers, screaming at him for humiliating her like that.
But the moment he turned on his screen, his stomach dropped. The missed calls and messages were flooding in, but none of them were from Lara.
Not one. Every single notification was from his parents. A weird, unsettled feeling crept up his spine, but he ignored it and called Monica back.N
She picked up immediately and started yelling. “You bastard! Have you completely lost your mind?! You and Lara aren’t even divorced yet and you had the audacity to sleep with another woman in public?! And she caught you?! Are you insane?!”
Justin flinched, taken aback. “What-“W
“Your father nearly had a heart attack when he saw the photos last night!” Monica snapped. “And when we tried to call you, you were nowhere to be found!“W
Justin’s grip tightened around his phone. “What photos?” he asked, his voice suddenly dry. “Are they… from Lara?”
“Oh, now you want to ask?” Monica scoffed. “You seriously have no shame! I’m sending you the chat logs, take a good look at what you’ve done!”
The call ended before he could get another word in. A second later, his screen lit up with forwarded messages.
He clicked on them and then he saw it. The photo of him and Leah, tangled up in bed. His head buzzed. His stomach twisted.
For the first time since last night… Justin had the sinking feeling that he had seriously, seriously screwed up.”
11:05 AM N
