Chapter 5

Tonight, Ethan came home unusually late.

He loosened his tie and said to me as I sat reading, "The investors tonight were so annoying. One of them spilled a drink all over me. I’m going to take a shower."

Ethan, who usually left his dirty clothes in the hamper, did something completely out of character. He threw his clothes directly into the washing machine.

He smiled warmly at me. "The smell is too strong. You’re pregnant, and I don't want it to make you sick."

How considerate of him. He must have spent the entire drive home drafting that pathetic excuse.

To him, facing me was probably more stressful than facing his investors. When I nodded in response, I saw him let out a massive sigh of relief.

The moment he stepped into the bathroom, I paused the washing machine. The strong scent of perfume on his shirt was indeed suffocating.

It wasn't just any perfume. It was from an international brand that Mia endorsed. She had once joked in an interview, "I absolutely love this scent. The brand sent me a whole crate of it. I’ll probably smell like it for the next few years."

If that wasn't proof enough, there was a faint lipstick smudge on the back collar of his shirt. It was the exact same shade of lipstick Mia was wearing in the photo she had sent me earlier.

My phone buzzed. It was a text from Mia: *“Don’t trust men too much. He came to see me tonight. Did you really think keeping him on a tight leash would work? The more you control a man, the more he rebels.”*

She was getting desperate. She wanted to sound confident, but she was only exposing her own insecurity about not being able to fully control him.

When Ethan walked out of the shower, I was sitting at the dining table with his shirt in my hands.

His relaxed expression instantly shattered. "Why did you take that out? Doesn't it smell bad?"

"It’s fine," I said calmly. "This perfume is quite famous for its scent."

He sat down in front of me like a guilty child, hanging his head. "At the dinner tonight, one of the clients brought a young girl. She kept throwing herself at me. I was so annoyed. That’s how the scent got on me. I was worried you’d be upset, so I wanted to wash it right away."

He sounded so sincere. His delivery was flawless.

"Is her last name Vance?" I asked, my voice flat.

He immediately snapped, "Just because I smell like the perfume Mia endorses doesn't mean I was with her, Chloe! You’re being paranoid!"

The moment the words left his mouth, his face went pale. He realized he had just walked right into his own trap.