Chapter 5 - Shattered Glass
“Maya—” Damon choked out, reaching for me. I stepped out of his reach. I didn't yell. I didn't cry. I just looked at him with nothing but disgust. “Don't ever touch me again,” I said clearly.
Chaos erupted. My mother gasped, sinking into a patio chair as my father lunged toward Damon. “You son of a bitch!” my father roared, shoving Damon so hard he stumbled into the mimosa table, sending crystal glasses shattering across the stone patio. Damon scrambled backward, hands raised. “It’s not what it looks like! Maya, please, it was a mistake! It meant nothing!” Across the patio, Claire was sobbing hysterically, reaching for Owen. “Owen, baby, please, let me explain! I was weak! He came onto me!” Damon spun around. “Are you kidding me? You’ve been sneaking into my house for months!”
The crowd was in shock. Friends were awkwardly grabbing their purses, desperate to escape the blast zone. Owen didn't flinch. He looked down at his wife of five years with absolute ice in his eyes. “I packed your bags this morning, Claire,” Owen said, his voice cutting through her sobs. “They’re in the trunk of your car. You have until tomorrow to get the rest of your things out of my house before I change the locks.” He tossed her car keys onto the grass at her feet.
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“Maya,” Damon begged, dropping to his knees on the shattered glass, ignoring the cuts on his hands. “Please. For our daughter. Don't do this.” I looked down at the man I thought I was going to spend my life with. “You did this, Damon. While I was looking at our daughter’s heartbeat on a monitor, you were in our bed with my best friend.”
I reached into my pocket, pulled out the manila envelope my lawyer had prepared, and dropped it on his chest. “You have one hour to clear your essentials out of the house. My lawyer has frozen the joint accounts, and a restraining order will be filed if you try to return after today.” I turned my back on him. I walked over to Owen. We didn't say a word. We just walked out of the backyard together, leaving Damon and Claire crying amidst the ruins of the perfect lives they had destroyed. Behind us, the projector screen still glowed brightly, a monument to their lies.
