One Night, One Mistake

Ava's POV The weight of my mother-in-law’s words hung in the air, thick and suffocating. I froze in my seat, my fork hovering just above my plate, and my breath caught in my throat. Surely, I must have misheard her. I blinked, trying to process what she had just said. I had expected something about children with their sudden visitation. It was something she always used as a weapon against me. Every visit was the same: a barrage of insults wrapped in concern, always circling back to my inability to conceive. But this? This was different and disturbing. Slowly, I lowered my fork. The soft scrape against porcelain seemed too loud in the quiet room. “I’m sorry,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. “What did you just say?” Regina, my mother-in-law, smiled her usual smug smile, her eyes gleaming with cruel satisfaction. “Kyle is going to be a father,” she repeated, her voice singing mockingly. My stomach dropped, and I just stared at her, the words refusing to make sense. My gaze flicked to Harold, Kyle’s father, who sat at the head of the table, his attention fixed on the phone in his wrinkled hands. Unbothered. As if this wasn’t something worth acknowledging. It shouldn’t surprise me - he had always been cold, a businessman first, a father second. But this? This wasn’t a business deal he could ignore. “A child?” I repeated, my voice cracked. My eyes darted toward the unfamiliar woman sitting beside Regina. She was young, round-faced, with chestnut brown hair, and quiet, her presence out of place in my home. I didn’t know who she was or why she was in my home with my in-laws, but that wasn’t important right now. “What are you talking about? I’m not - I’m not pregnant,” I stammered, confused, turning back to my mother-in-law. I knew that for sure because I couldn’t possibly be pregnant. And even if I was, which was a huge impossibility, I would be the first to know. So what was she saying? Regina laughed, waving a dismissive hand. “Oh, we know, dear. We’re talking about the other woman.” The words sliced through me like a blade. The room tilted even though I was frozen in my seat. The blood drained from my face, and my stomach dropped with something heavy, my mind struggling to process what my ears had just perceived. I followed Regina’s gaze back to the young woman, the odd one in the room. She looked away the moment our eyes met, her cheeks burning red. My heart pounded painfully against my ribs as my eyes trailed downward, and then I saw it. The curve of her stomach. A bump. A baby bump. My brain froze, and I couldn’t breathe. No. No, this couldn’t be true. Kyle would never do this. Never. He never even looked at another woman. Not in all the years we’d been together. I would have noticed. I would have known. “You shouldn’t look so shocked, dear,” Regina’s voice sliced through my thoughts. “It’s a natural thing. Kyle needed an heir, and he provided one.” The words struck like a slap and my inside flared with anger. My head snapped up, eyes blazing. “A natural thing?” My voice wavered with barely contained fury. “And what about me? What about my marriage? You bring a pregnant woman into my home and expect me to just accept it because it’s a natural thing?” My voice rose despite myself, and my fists clenched under the table, nails biting into my palms. The pressure kept my tears and anger at bay, but barely. I mean, how could she say that? How could they be so cold about all this? They had been pestering me, Regina, especially as been pestering me for a child even though they were very well aware of the reason I couldn’t. But saying this and bringing a pregnant woman whom my husband reportedly had a fling with was disrespectful and cruel of them. I still did not want to believe them, though, because Kyle wasn’t someone like that. However, deep down, my stomach shivered with fear. Regina scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Oh, don’t be dramatic, Ava.” Dramatic? Can she hear herself? It took all my willpower not to rise from my seat and knock her eyes out of her eye socket. “What’s a marriage without a child?” she continued with venom. “Huh? What’s a home without children running around? Tell me, because I fail to see the benefit of it.” Her voice was sharp, each word dripping with venom. My throat tightened, and my nails dug into my thighs as tears gathered in my eyes, the weight of her judgment pressing against my chest. What is a marriage without a child? I had heard this before, this same cruel sentiment, over and over for the last few years, and it was true but never like this. Never with a woman carrying my husband’s child sitting across from me, her hands resting protectively over her stomach. Who even does that? The annoying part was that the pregnant lady was sitting innocently across the table as if whatever was happening was a natural thing. I was angry. I wanted to scream. I wanted to throw something, to make them feel the same pain that was tearing me apart from the inside. It hurt more because my mother-in-law used to be kind. She was once like a second mother to me - before my family lost everything, before Kyle and I married, before she decided I was worthless without an heir. And now she had brought this woman into my home like it was the most normal thing in the world. And to make matters more bitter, her husband, Harold, didn’t even lift his head. He just continued scrolling through his phone as if his wife wasn’t tearing my life apart with every sentence. As if this was nothing but a business negotiation. The room blurred. My vision swam with unshed tears. But before I could respond, the front door creaked open. Every nerve in my body tensed. Kyle. He stepped inside, looking exhausted - his shirt wrinkled, tie loosened, his jet black hair slightly disheveled. His hazel-blue eyes met mine for a fleeting second, and hope surged in my chest. Surely, he would deny it. Surely, he would tell them they were mistaken. But instead, to my surprise, his gaze flicked away from mine. He turned to his parents, or rather, to his mother because even now Harold didn't life his head from his phone. “Didn’t I ask you to give me some time?” His voice was low, tight with irritation. The air in my lungs turned to ice, and my hope shattered just like that. Time for what? To prepare me for the humiliation? To soften the betrayal? To ensure the betrayal felt like a slow burn rather than a sudden stab? Or what did he mean by that? Maybe I was just being over-emotional. Maybe he was talking about something else. Yes, definitely. “Kyle.” My voice trembled. “Is it true? Did you? Did you…” I couldn’t complete my sentence because it was too stale and bitter to say. But what made my heart drop even further was my husband’s reaction. He didn’t answer. Didn’t even look at me. His jaw clenched, his veins taut beneath his skin, but he said nothing. Nothing. And in that silence, I had my answer. My heart plummeted, then dropped so hard I felt the room spin. “You’re asking a pointless question,” Regina interjected, clearly enjoying the moment. “It’s obvious, or why else would the girl be here?” I barely heard her. My focus was locked onto Kyle, onto the man I had loved, trusted, and built my life around. But he wouldn’t even give me the decency of a denial. He wouldn’t even meet my gaze. A cold, hollow ache spread through my chest. My limbs felt numb. I turned my gaze to the woman again, who looked younger than me, although I knew that was all because of her baby face - then to the child she carried, the child that belonged to my husband. She shifted uncomfortably under my stare, cradling her belly like she feared I’d rip the child away from her. And God help me, for a brief, fleeting moment, I wanted to. But I couldn’t. I wouldn’t. Instead, I turned back to Kyle, blocking out the noise, the voices, and the taunting smirk on Regina’s face. My world had always revolved around Kyle. He was the one man who cared for me all these years when no one would. He was my husband, my lifeline, my last hope, and right now, he was the only person who mattered. “Kyle,” I whispered. “Did you… did you cheat on me?” The room held its breath. For a long moment, his gaze stayed stuck above my head until, slowly, his eyes eventually moved to mine. For the first time since he walked in, he held my gaze. I don’t know for how long. I couldn’t tell for how many seconds or minutes, but for that short period, I saw it. The guilt. The regret. And just like that, the remnants of my heart shattered once again. The truth, unspoken yet undeniable, settled over me like a cold blanket filled with thorns. I stumbled back, my vision swimming. No. No, this couldn’t be happening. Not Kyle. Not my husband. He wouldn’t do this to me. But he did, a bitter voice whispered in my head, as if mocking me. Before my tears could fall, before the sob in my throat could escape, I turned and ran. My legs carried me up the stairs, away from their voices, away from the humiliation, away from the betrayal threatening to consume me whole. Regina’s voice rang after me, sharp and cruel. “Ava! Don’t be childish! Come back here!” But I didn’t stop. I didn’t look back. Because if I did, I knew I’d break completely.