“You’ll just stand there and take it like the bitch you are!” Vanessa hissed at me over his shoulder, her brown eyes blazing. “How fuckingdareyou!”
I had expected this. Vanessa was a wildcat at the best of times, but over Lila? Yeah. I deserved this.
“Vanessa. I said—” I rubbed my cheek and stared at her, hoping she’d at least listen to what I had to say.
She went for me again, but Enzo held her steady.
“Calm down,” he muttered as she scowled at him through furious eyes. “I know you’re mad, but you’ve already hit him twice since you got here. Try using your words.”
But Enzo’s calm words did nothing. She was like a hellcat.
“I’ll kill you!” Vanessa threw over his shoulder, before he carried her to the opposite couch with throw blankets and scatter cushions, sitting her down with firm hands on her shoulders.
“No one is killing anyone in my house,” Enzo said, staring daggers at me. “Even though he deserves it.”
“Thanks,” I muttered, still bracing for my sister to come at me. I’d been at the receiving end of her wrath before, but I think this was the wildest I’d seen her.
Fuck.
I didn’t think I could feel any worse.
Wrong.
“After herdadleft her mom for another woman,youfucking did this? You absolute piece of shit!”
Also, true. I bowed my head, wanting to die. It felt like I’d been living underwater, reality a million miles away from me. Lila would never forgive me.
“Who is this bitch? Did she know you were married, huh? I’ll find her, and I’ll crack her head like a fucking watermelon!” Vanessa glared at me, her chest rising and falling.
I winced, knowing full well my sister would, too. She was fearless, very like our mother. Our Italian, feisty, don’t-fuck-with-me-mother.
Fuck, my mom’s going to kill me too.
I stared at the floor while my sister continued ranting, throwing threats around like grenades.
“You’re a cunt! I swear to God, I’ll scratch your fucking eyes out for doing this to her!”
Eventually, Enzo took her into another room, where I heard something worse.
My sister was crying.
I hung my head in shame. They wanted an explanation, didn’t they? Didn’t everyone? Why did I do it? When I had the perfect woman, a solid marriage. Why would you risk that?
Because I’d been unhappy. And I’d tried talking to Lila, and she didn’t want to know. She’d snapped at me and told me to deal with it, and I couldn’t.
I missed my wife when I was lying next to her in bed.
It wasn’t an excuse, but I felt like she hated me. I still loved her, and I’d have done anything for her…but her for me? I didn’t think so.
I’d tried talking, but she didn’t want to know. She shut me out. Nearly a year without sex and refusing to talk about it, except for one drunken fumble she couldn’t wait to forget.
“Vanessa has promised to listen to you, but only if you tell her the real reason why you cheated on Lila.” Enzo huffed, darting a concerned look back to the other room where my sister paced like a lioness.
I nodded. I could tell her the truth, but it wouldn’t ever be enough for her. I got it. It sounded pathetically selfish, and in hindsight, it probably was.
Vanessa strode in, standing across from me with Enzo in the middle of us, watching her warily. She had her arms crossed, and her foot tapped the floor the entire time.
“I know no reason is good enough,” I began, finally making eye contact with her.
