Whispers of Deceit.

Chapter 16

It's been a week since we last heard from Jared's parents, and he's been on edge ever since. We've been skating around it, both pretending nothing happened.

After we got back from Helen and Patrick's, Jared went straight for a shower while I curled up on the sofa with Breeze. When he came downstairs, he kissed the top of my head, headed to the kitchen, and started making breakfast. That was it. No conversation, no acknowledgment. We shifted the focus to what we should do with the rest of the day and that was that.

It's Friday evening. Jared's gone out for a few drinks with Max and Tom, and I'm on standby to pick him up whenever he's ready. Meanwhile, the girls are over for dinner, and tonight's hot topic? Jared's mother.

"She is a fucking weirdo," Matilda laughs, swirling her wine before taking a sip.

"Yeah, mate. Fuck that," Amber adds. "I don't know how you cope."

"I don't," I shrug. "I barely tolerate the woman. Luckily, Jared's finally starting to see her for what she is—a manipulative bitch."

"Do you remember your secondary school boyfriend's mum? What was his name again—James?" Lizzy asks, eyebrows raised.

"Jake," Daisy and I say in unison.

"Ah, yes. Jake. His mum? Adorable. She was the nicest woman."

I smile, remembering how she practically worshipped the ground I walked on. Jake and I had been together all through secondary school—we started dating when I was in year seven and he was in year eight. We made it all the way until year eleven, when he left me for a girl in his college class. They got married, had two kids. It was a brutal breakup, but when I met Jared, it was like I'd never truly been in love before. The rest is history.

"Yeah, she was so sweet," I agree.

"Have you seen Jake's getting divorced?" Lizzy gasps, wide-eyed.

"What? No! How do you know?" I ask, already halfway through a sip of wine, curiosity piqued.

"I ran into him last week. His wife left him for some older guy. And she's not exactly keeping it low-key—she's plastered all over Facebook with him."

We all gasp like teenagers, wine glasses in hand, the gossip suddenly electric.

"No way," Daisy says, wide-eyed. "I thought they were one of those forever perfect couples. The kind who peak in their twenties and annoy everyone with how in love they still are."

"Please," Matilda scoffs. "There is no such thing. Those are always the first to crash and burn. People who make it look that perfect? You just know it's chaos behind the scenes."

Amber nods knowingly. "Facebook families are the most unstable. The more polished the feed, the messier the reality. It's a rule."

I laugh with them, but there's a quiet sting under my ribs. It's not about Jake. It's about how fragile everything is—how easily love can turn, how often people stay blind to the cracks until they're already standing in the rubble. After everything between Jared and I, I am reminded of the secret I am keeping and how quick he would be to divorce me if he found out the truth. I take another sip of wine, letting it burn slightly at the back of my throat.
"What did he say to you?" I ask Lizzy.

"Not much. Just small talk. But he looked... tired. Sad. Like he hadn't slept in weeks." There's a pause. A shift. We all feel it.

Then Daisy breaks the silence. "I still can't believe you and Jake dated for that long. That was, like, the blueprint for all our relationships in school."

"I know," I say softly. "And at the time I thought it would last forever. But it didn't. And thank God."

There's a flicker of agreement in the room—soft smiles, nods, the quiet solidarity of friends who've all loved the wrong person at least once.