He took a deep breath, his eyes meeting mine, and I could see the anguish in them. “I never wanted to hurt you… I’ve been carrying this for too long, and it’s been eating me alive.”

The words hung in the air, heavy and ominous. My mind raced back to every late night he’d spent working, every moment of unexplained distance. I clenched my fists, trying to steady myself against the tidal wave of anxiety.

“Adrian, please,” I urged, my voice steady but soft. “Whatever it is, just tell me.”

His shoulders slumped, and the mask he had been wearing for days finally crumbled. “I made a mistake, Mia. A big one.”

The room seemed to shrink around us, the walls closing in. I waited, my heart pounding in my chest, for him to continue.

“There’s… there’s someone else,” he finally admitted, his voice breaking. “It was never supposed to happen. It was just once, a stupid, thoughtless night. I was lonely, we were distant… I don’t even know why I let it happen.”

The words hit me like a physical blow. I felt dizzy, like the ground had been ripped out from under me, leaving me suspended in a void of disbelief and betrayal. My fears had been realized, and the reality was more painful than I could have imagined.

I took a shaky breath, trying to process the confession. “Who?” I asked, my voice almost unrecognizable, a hollow echo of its usual self.

“It doesn’t matter,” he replied quickly, desperation lacing his tone. “What matters is that I love you, Mia. It was a mistake, and I swear it’s over. I should have come clean right away, but I was terrified of losing you.”

The pain in his eyes mirrored my own, and though anger simmered beneath my skin, I also felt an overwhelming sadness. This was the man I had loved for over a decade, the father of my children, and now a stranger I barely recognized.

For a long moment, neither of us spoke. The quiet was deafening, filled with unsaid words and the weight of broken trust.

“I don’t even know what to say,” I finally whispered, tears blurring my vision. “I trusted you, Adrian. I believed in us.”

He reached out, his hand trembling as it brushed against mine. “I know, and I’ve destroyed that. But I’ll do anything, anything, to make it right. Please, Mia. I can’t lose you.”

I pulled away, needing space to think, to breathe. “I need time, Adrian. Time to figure out if I can forgive this, if we can ever be okay again.”

As I turned away, I felt the weight of his regret and my own uncertainty pressing down on me. Our lives had been irrevocably altered, and the path to healing seemed impossibly long. But as I lay there, staring into the darkness, I knew one thing for certain: the journey had to begin with me finding a way to confront this new reality, one day at a time.