Page 4 of Hades

“What the fuck!” Devon yells as he kicks Hades, knocking him to the ground. Hades yelps before returning to my side. Only then does Devon notice me standing in the doorway to our bedroom.

“Shit,” he breathes out as he sits up. Only then do I get a good look at the mystery woman.

“Carley?”

My heart breaks even more when I realize that my best friend for the past six years is fucking my fiancé.

Without another word, I turn around and walk back into the living room with Hades by my side. I’m proud of myself for remaining as calm as I am. I wonder if that should tell me something about the state of my relationship with Devon. At this moment, I’m much more hurt by Carley than by him.

I think back to the last conversation Carley and I had over drinks. She talked about a guy she was head over heels for, and I was happy for her. I even gave her advice because she was afraid he wasn’t ready to commit to her.

Devon only takes a few minutes to emerge from the bedroom. He looks disheveled and a bit distraught as he sits beside me on the couch. I scoot over a few inches, putting a good few feet between us.

“Say something,” he urges, as if I have some explaining to do.

I’m a ball of mixed emotions as I look over at the man with whom I was ready to spend the rest of my life. Only then do I realize that I’ve been sitting here twisting my engagement ring around my finger. Without a word, I remove it and place it on the table. The room is so silent that even a tiny piece of gold placed gently on the table seems to echo through the apartment.

“Aradia, don’t,” Devon says more as a reflex of what he thinks I want to hear than him pleading for me to stay.

I’m not sure what I would do if he sounded sincere. Stay? Doubtful.

Carley picks that moment to slink out of the bedroom, fully dressed and a bit more put together than Devon. She rushes by us without a word or even an attempt at eye contact.

“Did you grab everything? I wouldn’t want you to forget anything in my bedroom,” I sneer as if I’d forgotten that Devon’s dick was inside her only moments ago.

Dropping her head even lower, she chooses not to say a word and heads for the front door.

A wise move.

When I hear the snick of the door closing behind her, I take a deep breath and look at Devon. He still doesn’t appear to be even the slightest bit remorseful about what I walked in on. If I had to put emotion to the look on his face, I’d have to say he appears angry.

“Aren’t you even going to say something?” he barks at me when I remain silent.

“My best friend? Could you be any more cliché?”

It only takes me a few minutes to decide whether to stay in this apartment, city, or even the fricken state. “I’ll be out of here in a few hours,” I finally say with no inflection. I want to scream, but not at him. At myself for being so blind.

Devon and I have only been living together for six months. I guess that’s a good thing, considering the state of our relationship. I was hesitant to move in, but I did, and then a few months later, he proposed.

And a few months after that… whelp, here we are.

“That’s it? Don’t you even want to know why or for how long? Don’t you even give a shit that I was fucking your best friend?” he snarls as if I were the one who pushed him into the arms of another woman.

I feel the metaphorical knife twist in my chest a little deeper at the mention of him fucking Carley. But, like the rest of my life and everyone in it, friends come and go. So often, I’ve seen those groups of women out together, tight-knit friend groups. Girlfriends that would rather die than see each other hurt. I, however, have never been able to keep friends for very long. Still, Carley lasted almost six years, and I expected better.

A small laugh escapes me when Devon clears his throat, waiting for my answer. “Why? Any reason you’ll give me will only be for your peace of mind. So, no, I don’t need to know any of those things. Your reasons are your own.”

Devon abruptly stands, and the sudden movement has Hades taking a protective stance in front of me with a show of his teeth. I rest my hand on his massive head and give him a scratch behind the ears.

“Fucking irritating mutt,” Devon grumbles under his breath as he pushes past us and heads for the bedroom.

I should have taken the hint when I got Hades from the shelter, and he didn’t like Devon immediately. He’s an Akita-Shepherd mix, probably where he gets his protective side from, or maybe he’s just a better judge of character than I am. Either way, it’s him and me now.

“You know you’re fucking insane, right?” Devon yells as he heads to the bedroom. “Constantly talking about past lives and trying to figure out what every little thing in your fucked-up dreams mean. They mean nothing, Aradia. They’re just fucking dreams. Everyone has them.”

I can hear him grabbing items and slamming drawers. It only takes him a few minutes to return, holding a duffle bag overflowing with clothes.

“Let me know when you’ve moved out,” he says as he grabs my engagement ring from the table. “And I do suggest you get some professional help.”

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