Page 2 of What Broke First
Lily smiled, a knowing look in her eyes. “We’ll see,” she replied, hopping off the desk and straightening her skirt. “But I have a feeling this is just the beginning.”
As she left the office, the smell of sex and stupidity lingering, Matt slumped back in his chair, running a hand through his hair. He knew he had crossed a line, but a part of him wondered if Lily might be right. Maybe this was just the beginning.
He had just cheated on his wife. Not with love.
Not even with lust.
With loneliness. With ego.
Chapter 1: The Confession
The kitchen was eerily quiet, the only sound the soft tick of the clock on the wall.
Matt sat at the table, his hands clasped tightly in front of him, his eyes fixed on his wife, Sarah, across from him. He had just confessed to the affair, and now he waited, the weight of the words, “I slept with someone else,” hanging in the air.
Sarah blinked once. Slowly. Like she hadn’t heard him right. Then, finally:
“Who?”
He hesitated. A heartbeat too long.
“Lily,” he said, his voice thick. “The assistant from my office.”
Sarah laughed. Once. It wasn’t a genuine laugh; it was sharp yet hollow.
“The one in the tight skirts and see-through blouses? That Lily?”
He flinched. “It wasn’t planned. It was stupid. It…”
“It was your exit strategy,” she said, cutting him off. Her voice was steady, but every word hit like a slap. “You have two children upstairs. A wife. And apparently a wandering eye and a restless dick.”
Her face drained of color, and for a moment, he thought she might hold it together. But the tears broke through anyway, spilling unchecked. She didn’t wipe them away. She just stared at him as if the man she’d married had been swapped out for a stranger.
“How could you?” she whispered. “How could you do this to us?”
Sarah reached for her coffee cup with trembling hands. It was empty, but she gripped it anyway, like it was the only thing anchoring her to the table.
Something crumpled inside Matt, slowly and painfully. He wanted to reach out to comfort her, but he knew he had no right to do so.
“I’m so sorry, Sarah,” he said, his voice thick with emotion. “I never meant for this to happen. It just... it just got out of control.”
Sarah shook her head, a sob escaping her lips. “Out of control? Matt, we have two children! Tommy and Emily need their father. I need…” She trailed off, covering her face with her hands.
Then, quieter: “Was something wrong with us? With me?”
Matt’s chest clenched. “No,” he said quickly. “God, no. You’re… Sarah, this wasn’t about you.”
“Then why?” she asked, her voice small now. “Was it... was it our sex?”
Matt looked down at the table. “We hadn’t had sex in a while,” he said softly. “But that’s not…” He looked up. “But that doesn’t mean this was your fault. I was tired and weak. I didn’t even know how lonely I was until it was too late.”
She dropped her hands and looked at him. Her expression was a jagged blend of pain and disbelief. She didn’t recognize the man across from her. Not the man she married. Not the man who used to make grocery lists on napkins and dance in the kitchen when no one was looking.
This man was tired. Hollow. A stranger with her husband’s face, saying things that shattered everything she thought she knew.
“Do you love her?”
“What?” His eyes widened. “No! Sarah. No. I don’t love her. I don’t even know her.”
