After a quick pitstop at The Rocky Mountain to pick up my car and then another one at home to drop off my stuff and change into something a little more comfortable – an oversized sweater and cuffed sweatpants as that was just the kind day that I was having – I made my way to our favourite brunch place; Mama Jemima's Pantry.

As far as I was concerned, it was the best brunch place in the city but then again, I was a creature of habit and had been a regular of Mama Jemima's since the first week I officially moved to America for college.

"Sorry, I'm late." I apologised the moment I took a seat at the table, more than twenty minutes late as I may or may not have taken my time in the shower to cry my eyes out.

Glancing around the table, I felt slightly better already just being around my friends, some of whom I had known for years and others, not as long. One thing that I had learned was that it was not the amount of time that you knew someone that defined the strength of a friendship, but rather, the quality of the relationship.

"You look haggard. Did you come here straight from the airport?" Zara asked curiously, glancing at me from over the rim of her glass of wine.

Pursing my lips, I simply nodded my head and made a show of glancing down at the menu. While I had thought that I was ready to face everyone, it was very apparent to me now that I was wrong. Too bad I wouldn't be able to sneak out without anyone noticing or asking questions which I was far from prepared or even capable of answering right now. Not when the despicable truth that I had walked into had yet to sink in fully yet.

"How are your parents? How is your dad doing?" Sophia asked from where she was sat directly in front of me across the table.

"He's doing much better. Just focusing on recovering now." I smiled softly, grateful that I was blessed with a group of friends who when all together, we seemed mismatched and unconventional but when infiltrated, you'd see just how well we all fitted together; all pieces of the same puzzle.

Without my friends, I would be nothing and the fact that they cared enough to ask about the purpose of my trip even after having kept in contact through various forms of social media these past two weeks just made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Too bad I couldn't say the same about my husband.

Sophie especially, who had only been welcomed into the group not even a year ago when we all met her at the last Thanksgiving charity event that we had held where she and her fiancé at the time – now-husband – had been one of our sponsors. From that moment on, we had taken her under our wing.

"And they're in Miami right now, right?" Zara asked, having met my parents a few times over the years.

Out of everyone, Zara was the friend that I had known the longest, having been roommates in Columbia University together for four years. I studied fashion while she majored in English Literature. We had both met our now husbands around the same time and by the end of it, they had started a business together, one which they continued to pursue even after college.

Unfortunately, it all came to a swift standstill when they couldn't afford to continue funding it. That's where I came in.

As Sung was my husband and Frank was both a friend and Zara's husband, it was an absolute no-brainer for me to take part of my trust fund to invest in their business – 49% to be exact – and help get it off the ground. With the funding to hire staff and office space, they were able to start with designing and creating websites for friends, family, and people from college, as well as clients they were able to lure in through the power of online advertising. Now, eight years later, the money was pouring in as they had expanded their business scope I always knew Sung and Frank had it in them.

I nodded in confirmation. "As soon as dad is feeling better, they're planning on going back to Italy for a while. Something about feeling much better once he's back in the motherland."

"It's probably best if they hold off on that for a while. Or at least until your dad is feeling up to it. Just to be on the safe side." Rashmi hummed aloud as she moved to reach for the wine and top up everyone's glasses.

Rashmi, I had met shortly after getting engaged to Sung and we both decided that we needed to upgrade from our penthouse apartment to an actual house, fitting for the family that we had planned to have in the distant future. She had been the only real estate to truly get my vision and sell to me the perfect house; the very same one that we still lived in today. Since then, we've become close friends as well as occasional colleagues as I dabbled in interior design as a hobby. We had clicked so well that she had even played the role of one of the bridesmaids at my wedding.

A lot of things had changed since then. For one, Rashmi was no longer with her husband for reasons she chose not to disclose to even her closest friends, and two, she had toughened up a fair bit – no doubt due to the messy divorce she struggled to put behind her – but she was still the same Rashmi that we had all come to know and love.

"I couldn't agree more but you know what parents are like." I couldn't help but chuckle, pausing to thank her as she poured me a glass. "They never listen to us."

"You can say that again." Rashmi snorted without a care in the world, tipping her glass back and downing its contents, ignoring the looks that some of the rich and snooty patrons sent our table, not that any of us cared in the slightest.

Just because we all had money – I with my trust fund and money from both the company and family business, Zara with Frank having become a successful businessman, Rashmi with her highly-esteemed real estate business, Sophia with a trust fund of her own, and Honey with her husband being a successful, big-shot partner at one of the biggest law firms in the city – didn't mean that we were better than anyone else or held on a higher pedestal, something which separated us from the rest of the upper-classy and snobby wives of New York.

That was probably why we all got along so well.

"Valentina?" A voice sounded aloud and when I glanced up, I was met with a pair of light brown eyes that belonged to none other than my best friend.

Last but not least, was my best friend Honey Goulding whom I had only met a few years ago through mutual friends. While we hadn't known each other for long, fast forward four years and I've never been as close to a person as I was to Honey, trusting her with each and every secret of mine, even those that I was scared to admit to myself.

If there was any question about the friendship being mutual, they were quickly squashed when she named me as Godmother of her second and youngest child, Yvonne.

As the waiter dropped by then to serve our orders, I forced a polite smile and was granted a few more moments of solace until I knew that it was time to come clean. Even though I wanted nothing more than to tell them what had happened these past twenty-four hours, I still struggled to wrap my head around it all.

The moment the waiter retreated; Honey was quick to pounce on me again.

"What's wrong, Val? You haven't seemed quite yourself since you arrived." She frowned, placing her glass down on the table to give me her utmost attention, evident concern swimming in her eyes. "Is it about your father? Is there more you're not telling us?"

"It's not my father." I sighed and shook my head, very aware that it was probably better if I came out with the truth instead of keeping it bottled up inside me until I felt sick to my stomach.

Glancing around the table to spy the other four pairs of eyes that were paying more attention to me than the food in front of them, I sighed and nodded my head; giving in. If I was going to be spilling the beans, then I refused to do it on an empty stomach.

"I wanted to surprise Sung so decided to come home a day early." I started, only pausing to appreciate the perfectly seasoned eggs that I had chosen to go along with my pancakes, toast, hash browns, and the other assortments of food on the table that we had ordered to share. Probably too much as I doubted we would be able to finish it all.

"Wait, I'm confused." Zara frowned with a thoughtful expression on her face. "I thought you were supposed to get in today."

"I lied." I shrugged. "I was supposed to get in today but I called ahead and managed to get my flight rescheduled to yesterday instead of today." When no one disrupted me this time, I forced myself to continue. "Well, it turned out that surprising Sung was a mistake because when I got home, I found him fucking his assistant," I replied dryly, the eggs in my mouth that I had previously found delicious now tasting bland and rubbery, not the least bit appetising despite how hungry I was.

"That fucker!" Rashmi roared abruptly as the rest blinked back at her in response, having not suspected such a response. "How dare he cheat on you? Who does he think he is to treat you like that? What a scumbag!"

"Rashmi, babe," Zara whispered harshly under her breath, turning her head to glance at Rashmi. "You need to calm down because people are looking."

"I don't care if people are looking. Val just said she caught Sung cheating on her. How are we supposed to take that lightly? How are you guys not livid right now?" Rashmi whispered back just as harshly and when Zara sighed and nodded her head, they both turned their attention back to me, almost as if seeking me out to play mediator.

While my friend's reaction seemed dramatic and over the top – certainly loud enough to earn ourselves some strange looks from other brunch-goers at the tables surrounding us – I appreciated the concern and sent her a thankful smile, though it didn't quite reach my ears.

"What did you do after you found out?" Honey asked in a quiet voice as she reached out and placed her hand on top of mine, giving it a gentle squeeze.

"I left." I shrugged before sighing and moving over to lean my head on her shoulder, no longer hungry for food but rather, for comfort which was the only thing that could get me through this uncomfortable confession right now.

"You caught him cheating and you left?" Sophia asked in a quiet voice, her eyes wide and her lips parted in shock, almost as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing.

I couldn't blame her. Before yesterday, I had thought that our marriage was solid and that I would spend the rest of my life with my loving husband, Sung-min Kim, by my side but now, I wasn't so sure. How could I be when in the span of a few short hours, the tables had completely flipped for us?

This time yesterday, I loved Sung with all of my heart but now, just thinking about him made my heart constrict painfully. I wasn't even sure how I would be able to face him for dinner tonight, especially after knowing that his assistant, Roxy, was the one that would be booking the table for us, let alone continue to spend the rest of my life playing house with him.

Not to mention the fact that I had acted out in revenge by sleeping with the first man that paid me attention. The fact that this man had rocked my world and made me cum in a way that Sung never had, was beside the point.

"When I got home, I could hear them." I couldn't help but wince at the painfully fresh memory. "I went into the living room only to find him fucking Roxy from behind. I think I stood there watching in shock for a few seconds but once I snapped out of it, I just turned around and left."

"Do you think he heard you?" Zara asked with an indiscernible look in her eyes, carefully gauging me for my reaction.

"I have no idea and frankly, I couldn't care less about him finding out that I know what he's been getting up to while I've been away." I sighed in response and shrugged my shoulders. "If he had heard me, I'm sure he would have blown my phone up by now."

"Where did you go afterward?" Honey asked quietly, smoothing a gentle hand through my dark locks in a calming manner, one which I had seen her do to her children numerous times before when they were upset.

"I didn't know what to do so I just went to a bar." I sighed and squeezed my eyes shut, willing for all of these problems to disappear when I opened my eyes but unfortunately, that was not the case.

"The Pearl?" Sophia asked quietly, not that the name of the bar I had frequented last night was all that essential to the story.

"No, The Rocky Mountain. I shook my head and sighed. "The Pearl is closed for the next couple of months for renovations."

"You should leave him." Rashmi leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest, a firm expression on her face, almost as if she expected me to pick up my phone right now and call my lawyer to demand that he draw up divorce papers.

"I think that's a bit rash." Zara pursed her lips, a sullen expression on her face. "Before you do anything, I think you need to speak to him, Val."

"I agree." Honey sighed from beside me, giving my hand another gentle squeeze, almost as if trying to squeeze all of the problems away but unfortunately, things just weren't as simple as that. "Cheating is despicable and someone has to be vile and absolute scum to cheat on their partner. There's no doubt about that, but I still think you need to speak to him."

At her words, I squeezed my eyes shut but it was too late. A few tears had already escaped before I could stop them; this being the exact thing that I was scared of but hoping I would be alone and at home, before I finally broke down.

Clearly, those few tears I had shed in the shower earlier were not enough.

"Val, sweetie," Honey cooed with a sorrowful, apologetic expression on her face. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to upset you."

"I'm vile and scum!" I couldn't help but sniffle unattractively as I pushed myself up to sit properly in my chair, reaching for my napkin to wipe away the traitorous tears.

"I don't think Honey was speaking about you, Val," Sophia murmured quietly, reaching across the table to hand me another napkin which I accepted gladly.

"I cheated on Sung last night!" I couldn't help but exclaim in a harsh whisper but it wasn't as quiet as I had initially anticipated it to be as more sets of eyes turned to glare at us, clearly believing us to be discussing too much of a controversial and scandalous matter over brunch, but I couldn't bring myself to care.

It was my life that was falling apart. Not theirs!

"What?" Three voices asked in sync while Rashmi's lips curled up into a sinister smirk and at the sight, I couldn't help but pause the tears to chuckle despite how much more disgusted I felt after having just admitted how fucked up my life had suddenly become, and all because I had returned home a day early.

"I went to the bar and ended up getting a hotel with some guy who I later found out is still in college."

As the image of the handsome hunk from this morning ran through my mind, I couldn't hold back the way my lips stretched up into a full-blown grin.

"He must have been cute." Rashmi leaned forward and locked eyes with me, both of us with matching grins on our faces despite the severity of all the truth that I had just spilled.

"He was." I sighed and slowly but surely, the smile slipped off my face and instead, turned down into a frown. "For a man of twenty-four, his moral compass was set right."

"What do you mean?" Rashmi asked curiously.

"After speaking to Sung on the phone this morning, he started asking me all these questions." I paused briefly before continuing, unable to believe the direction that my life had suddenly turned; on the phone to my husband while I was in bed with a lover. "Long story short, I ended up telling him that I was married, and to say that he was furious about it would be an understatement." I paused to purse my lips at the recent memory, still miffed off with the way he had been so quick to judge me but in the long run, that was only the icing on the cake. "Something about making him an accomplice in cheating and guilty by association," I paused to roll my eyes at his particular choice of words, "but I didn't stick around to hear the rest of it.,"

It wasn't like I was going to see him again, anyway. That was what I wanted to say but for some reason, I bit my tongue and dared not utter those words. Instead, I glanced around the table and groaned at all the pitiful looks my friends were sending me.

"I really don't know what to do." I couldn't help but groan again, reaching for some more wine in hopes of numbing the pain somewhat. It wasn't Dolce, but it would have to do.

Quicker than me, Honey acted quickly to move both the bottle and glass out of my reach, aware of what my intentions were.

"You can't drink away your problems, Val." Honey stated with a stern expression on her face.

"Why not? It's what I do. To be honest, that's exactly what I did." Rashmi snorted but was quick to brush over the issue, painfully evident that she didn't want to attract much attention to herself.

"You need to talk to Sung, Val." Honey insisted from beside me, her voice firm and strong. "You need to decide what you're going to do about all of this and talking to him is the first step in the healing process."

"I can't talk to him about this just yet. It hurts too much." I shook my head, reaching a hand up to brush away a few annoying strands of hair away from my face.

"You could always get your own back." Rashmi offered even though Honey glared at her, clearly unappreciative of her less than helpful suggestion but honestly, I didn't mind all that much. It was a nice break from the tense ambiance around the table.

"I think I already got my revenge by sleeping with that college kid." I couldn't help but wince at the reminder, partly because I felt guilty for cheating on Sung even if he had been the one to do it first – and for how long, I had no idea – but mostly because of how sore I felt this morning.

After all the time that he had spent between my legs last night and well into early this morning today, it was impossible to deny that I could still feel him between them right now but was quick to force those thoughts away as I couldn't be thinking like that right now. Not when I was on the verge of an early mid-life crisis.

"Yes, but you could do it again. This time, have Sung walk in on you in the act just how you walked in on him. Only then will he be able to realise just how much it hurt for you to see him do that to you and everything the both of you have worked so hard toward."

A moment of brief silence passed between us as we all stared back at Rashmi, not sure where the sudden outburst and outrageous plan had come from.

"Okay, you are so not doing that." Zara was quick to shake her head and invalidate the suggestion.

While I appreciated Rashmi's efforts in providing a solution, the problem of both my husband and I being cheaters still remained.

Since it was all just too painful to talk about, I forced everyone to enjoy the rest of our brunch and act as nothing had happened. As ridiculous as it was, I couldn't deny that Rashmi's suggestion had played on my mind well into the afternoon until finally, it was time to see the man in question.

-

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Layla Knight

25.12.2020