When Kira was bored, she imagined herself confronting the mistress. She thought the mistress would either arrogantly say, "Look at you, an old hag—no wonder your husband cheated," or sweetly coo, "Ms, love knows no order. If he doesn't love you, then you're the third wheel."
She would then tilt her face at a perfect degree angle to the sky, letting a single tear fall gracefully and sorrowfully, before slapping Orion hard, then slapping the mistress just as hard. After that, she would walk away pretending to be carefree, only to find a secluded spot to cry her heart out.
Back then, as they sat on the couch, Kira seriously talked about what she would do if Orion ever cheated. Midway through, Orion looked at her with a doting smile, "Make sure to get that degree angle right, I'll need to use a ruler to check if it's precise when you look up."
She pretended to be angry and pounced on him, and they ended up in a playful tussle. He kissed her breathlessly, whispering in her ear, "Sweetie, I love you. I promise, no third person will ever come between us."
How ridiculous. Kira looked at the girl standing nervously in front of her, too scared to speak—a girl with a high ponytail exposing a smooth forehead, round eyes, and a round face, dressed in a white long-sleeved shirt, blue jeans, and beige canvas shoes.
This was the woman Orion cheated with—so ordinary that she would be lost in a crowd. She was the receptionist at his company.
Orion wasn't bad-looking, and he was smart and smooth-talking. Ever since his business started to take off, there had been plenty of women around him, but Orion always managed to give Kira enough security.
His WeChat profile background was filled with her photos, and almost all of his phone passwords were her birthday. The bank card password hadn't changed in years, and he didn't like deleting chat records. He had almost no defenses or secrets from her.
Kira was in a similar situation, but she rarely checked Orion's phone because she trusted him so much.
And what did Kira, who trusted him so much, get in return?
Tears streamed down her face, like a flood surging from a newly opened valve. The girl in front of her was so frightened that she took two steps back, and after a moment, she timidly went to another table, picked up a pack of tissues, and handed it to her.
Kira took the tissues, her vision blurred with tears, but she stared at the girl, trying to see if there was any smugness, schadenfreude, or even a hint of a smirk or pretense in her eyes.
But the girl didn't have any of that. Instead, she looked ashamed and at a loss, her voice trembling as she said, "Mr. George is a good man… I'm sorry, sis. It's my fault."
Kira really wanted to find some evidence of this girl's moral downfall—not to threaten or do anything with it, but selfishly to help exonerate Orion. See, it's because this woman is loose and lacks morals that Orion fell into her trap and cheated.
Unfortunately, she couldn't find any.
Even now, she still chooses to believe that Orion isn't the one at fault. In her heart, the scales are tipped in his favor.
Maybe, she thought, she just didn't want to face Orion's betrayal. She didn't want to admit she had misjudged him, that twelve years of her youth had been wasted. She was in denial, but reality had brutally torn open the wound, forcing her to face it all, bleeding and raw.
The girl had returned the twenty thousand dollars Orion gave her and had already submitted her resignation, preparing to leave the city. And it was Orion who initiated the second time they booked a room together. If Kira hadn't impulsively checked Orion's phone the day before yesterday, she might never have known this girl even existed.
She tilted her head back, but the tears wouldn't stop, sliding down her cheekbones to her ears. She gasped for air, her mouth wide open, like a dying fish.
