Chapter One

Donald's POV

Hunched over the desk, I tried to make heads or tails of the work before me but my brain was too tired to provide meaning to it. A headache was niggling at the back of my brain and I raised my hands to my temples, soothing the spot.

Too tired to think, I stood from the chair heading towards the kitchen to make a fresh pot of coffee.

Once it was ready, I made it the way I liked it. Black and two cubes of sugar.

Once the semi-bitter taste of the coffee touched my tongue, everything simultaneously felt better.

Sighing, I leaned against the counter taking my sweet time before I walked back to my desk, my brain prepped to work.

I had barely sat down for ten seconds when my phone buzzed with a notification.

Reluctant to check it but curious, I craned my head towards the direction of the phone, my phone's screen was lit up, with a message from Tessa.

Now, that piqued my curiosity. Tessa was a friend of my wife, and it was a bit odd that she would be texting me. 

Abandoning the work, I stretched my hand out to pick up my phone. 

Rapping on the message icon, led me straight to her inbox. There, I found out that it wasn't simply a text but a video.

Things were taking a strange turn, but I clicked on it nonetheless...The video showed my wife, Rose jumping up and down excitedly then the next seconds cut to where she was kissing a man, passionately I might add.

People around them were chanting ‘Kiss her, Kiss her!’

I almost fell down from my chair in shock,squinting, I turned my phone upside down trying to make out the features of the guy and to my surprise, I do know him.

His name is David, Rose's ex and her first love. My teeth ground against my gum so hard but I tried to tamp down the anger that was making its way to my head. I knew it, I fucking knew it!

When Rose was dressing up to go to the party, she spent extra time picking out her clothes, shoes, and makeup… almost like she was trying to look good for someone else.

Of course, it means that David was back in town. I had only just learned of his presence when he came back last month, and in this short frame of time, Rose had turned into another person entirely.

She would stay out late without calling to inform him and when she did come back, she would be drunk and smelling of alcohol.

Whenever I tried to pry information out of her, she grew defensive and turned it around, so I always dropped it but this…

Unconsciously, my hands fisted against the back of the phone cracking the plastic. The sound of something breaking alerted me and I dropped the phone.

Taking in deep breaths to calm down, I scrolled through my contacts until I got to Rose's name.

My hand under my chin, I waited for her to pick up but it rang and rang before her voicemail came on.

“Come on, Rose,” I muttered under my breath, watching the screen. “Just pick the call, Rose!”

She didn't, unfortunately. But I wasn't one to give up so easily, I kept calling and by the tenth phone call, she picked up.

“Rose, I've been calling you for several minutes!” I growled out in anger. “Why didn't you pick it up?”

“Huh, I didn't hear the phone ring.” The nonchalance in her voice was evident, only provoking me the more. “It's loud in here.”

Her excuses sounded weak and pathetic to my ears.

“Aren't you supposed to have your bag close by?” I thundered. “What if it was an emergency and something happened?”

“Well, nothing happened now, did it?” She snapped. “Gosh, you're so annoying sometimes. I didn't even know the phone was ringing and when I did, it just kept going on and on so much that my friends mocked me. You embarrassed me, Donald.” she whined as if it was my fault.

Chewing on the inside of my cheek, I breathed through my nose maintaining the effort to remain calm. “I want to ask you something, Rose and please don't lie to me about it. I saw a video and you were kissing David, why?”

She said nothing over the next couple of seconds, probably thinking up a new lie. “Gosh, Donald, is that why you kept calling me?” She snorted out a laugh. “It was a silly game of truth or Dare, and I chose to dare. Obviously, you can guess what they told me to do.”

Her flippant tone grated on my nerves, wearing them down. “What the hell is wrong with you, Rose?! Have you forgotten that you're married, who the hell goes ahead with kissing their ex anyways?!”

“I'm perfectly fine, Donald!” She retorted. “For fuck’s sake, it's just a silly game! You've always been petty and a control freak but right now, I can't deal with that shit.”

Her words, spoken in anger rubbed me wrong. So this is my fault? She's blaming me for kissing David?

Examining my emotions properly, I realized that underneath the anger I felt for being disrespected, what was prominent was the acute disappointment I felt. 

I think, maybe deep down a part of me has always known that this was coming but I managed to hide from the truth.

Not any longer though, my hand dropped slowly to the table but the line was still connected.

I could overhear Rose talking to some of her friends but it was their reply that came through clearly.

“You know the rules of the game, Rose. Letting your husband call you isn't cool at all.” Someone groused.

Before I could even get a word in, Rose hung up much to my shock.

Knowing there was nothing I could do about it, I set the phone down facing my laptop.