A Doomed Flight Exposes Their Affair

My best friend, Dominic Vale, and his girlfriend have created a couple's channel. Lately, their channel has gone viral on the Internet. I subscribe to their channel instantly. Every time they upload a new reel, I'll always watch it. But I keep having a feeling that Dominic's girlfriend, whose looks are censored in the videos, acts just like my wife, Cara Hartley. When I bring it up in front of Dominic, he punches me in the chest. "Oliver Beckett, you lovesick bastard! You see your darling wife in everyone! At this point, I'm going to get really jealous!" I just chuckle stupidly while rubbing my chest. Then, I quickly change the topic. When Cara's company goes on a field trip, I decide to drag Dominic along. Unexpectedly, something occurs during our flight back to the city. An air stewardess distributes notes to all the passengers so that we can write down our wills. With a trembling hand, I finish scribbling my note. When I glance at Dominic and Cara, I realize that they've written each other's names on their notes. Then, Cara turns on her camera, which shows both her and Dominic in the same frame. "Dominic, I'm very happy that I get to be with you during my final moments in life. Everyone, we won't be updating this channel anymore. Goodbye." But she fails to notice the way my face has gone pale outside the frame. Thankfully, the plane lands safely on the tarmac. All of us are still alive. Instead of kicking up a ruckus, I tear the note in my hands before opening the car door. "What are you still standing around for? Get in." Chapter 1 Oliver's POV I drove without saying a word. The silence inside the car was suffocating. Cara Hartley finally spoke up. "Oliver, it's really not what you think. Dominic and I just run a social media account together. We film a video every now and then. That's all." I let out a flat hum and went quiet again. She grabbed my hand and pressed it against herself, urging me to hit her. "Smack me, scream at me—I don't care. Just please don't go silent on me like this." I slammed the brakes. The car jerked to the side of the road. Dominic Vale, sitting in the back seat, broke the silence. "What exactly do you want him to say? We're all adults. Everyone knows what's going on." He met my bloodshot eyes in the rearview mirror. "We all nearly died today, so we might as well be honest. She and I have been sleeping together for a while. "The day your dad passed away and you flew home for the funeral, we did it in your bed. We even made a mess of the sheets. You washed them yourself when you got back." I clamped my hands over my ears, but his voice still seeped through my fingers. "And your last birthday, when you were sitting in that restaurant waiting for the two of us. And just now, in the airplane bathroom—" "Shut your mouth!" Cara snapped, cutting him off. She threw the door open and shoved Dominic out of the car, then moved me into the passenger seat. She took the wheel, but her voice wouldn't stop shaking. "All the things he said were just accidents. None of it meant anything. You know how we are when we drink together. They were all drunken mistakes, nothing more." Dominic was a big personality, brash and generous, always the first to throw himself in front of trouble for me. In college, when I was getting bullied and frozen out by everyone, he was the only one willing to call me his friend. He had my back for four straight years. I still remembered the wedding. Cara and I were making the rounds with toasts, and Dominic grabbed a bottle and challenged her to a drinking contest right there at the table. "If you can't even outdrink me, how the hell am I supposed to trust you to take care of my boy?" After that, whenever there was a dinner or a round of drinks, I stopped being part of it. The two of them would excuse themselves to go smoke and come back with their arms slung around each other, laughing at some joke I wasn't in on. It was like they already had a world of their own. And the truth was, their so-called friendship had crossed a line a long time ago. But this time was different. In what she thought were her final moments, Cara had reached for Dominic's hand. And the note she left behind said only one thing. "Never forget Dominic." That wasn't just lust. Even someone as dense as me could see it for what it really was. I sat there listening to her ramble on with excuse after excuse. I didn't know what I was supposed to feel anymore. I just exhaled. "Cara, I'm tired." She froze for a second, then her expression softened. "Of course you are. You've been on a plane all day. I'll make you something to eat when we get home." When we pulled into the driveway, she hurried out and came around to open my door. The phone she'd left on the driver's seat lit up. It was a text from Dominic. "I know him. If he didn't blow up, he's already over it. "We just cheated death. Want to come over for another round?" Chapter 2 Oliver's POV Sure enough, Cara saw the message and left. She never came back. I opened the social media account she and Dominic ran together as a couple. Every single post had a supportive comment from me underneath it. They'd traveled the world together and seen places I never had. Dominic used to tease me about it. "Jealous? Get your CEO wife to take you." He knew full well that Cara had turned me down at least ten times. "There's so much going on at the company, Oliver. Can you think about my schedule for once?" She was never busy. She just gave all her free time to Dominic. What looked like him showing off their adventures was really him rubbing it in my face. I was still staring at the screen when a new video appeared on their page, set so that only I could see it. The sheets were tangled, toys were scattered across the bed, and Dominic's muscular back was arched over Cara as he pinned her beneath him, taking what he wanted without a shred of restraint. "Feels better with me, doesn't it? Come on, let me see." Just the night before, Cara had curled up against me, warm and flushed, letting me have all of her. "If I go a single day without you, I feel like I'm losing my mind. I can't live without you, honey." Every word she'd whispered in bed kept replaying in my head, and now each one cut like a knife through my chest. The camera shifted, and that was when I noticed the tattoo on her hip. It read D, not O. It wasn't smudged ink like she'd always told me. I touched my face. It was cold and wet. The tears had come before the grief had even registered. I closed the video, but a moment later, my heart lurched painfully in my chest. That was when the hospital called. "Is this Mr. Oliver Beckett? Your mother suffered a sudden cardiac arrest. I'm so sorry, but she's passed away." The world collapsed. By the time I stumbled through the hospital doors, her face was already covered with a white sheet. I couldn't think straight. I could barely get the words out. "How could this happen?" I held her ice-cold hand, and every breath felt like swallowing glass. Out of pure desperation, I called Cara. The first time, she didn't pick up. The second time, she hung up on me. The third time, her phone was off. Back in college, when I was at my lowest and getting bullied by everyone, she promised she would always pick up when I called. Now all I got was the same cold, automated voice, over and over, each repetition chipping away a little more of whatever was left inside me. I stopped trying. After I said my goodbyes to my mother, I asked the doctor one last question. "Her heart condition hadn't flared up in years. How did this happen so suddenly?" He shook his head. "It was very sudden. A courier came by earlier and spoke to her briefly, and she collapsed almost immediately after." Something pulled me back into her room. On the floor lay a lab report. It was a prenatal report with Cara's name at the top. She was 12 weeks along, and Dominic Vale was listed as the father. There was blood on it, coughed up by my mother. Dominic and I once made a pact that we'd have kids around the same time and be godfathers to each other's children. Now his child with my wife was what had killed my mother. I made the arrangements for her funeral, went home, and started packing. I called a lawyer and had divorce papers drawn up. That was when Cara walked through the door. Chapter 3 Oliver's POV "Oliver, what are you doing?" Cara glanced around at the clothes strewn everywhere and the dark circles under my eyes, and a flicker of panic crossed her face. "Nothing. I just feel like getting out for a while." She seemed to relax at that and crouched down in front of me. "I knew you wouldn't shut me out for long. Honey, once I free up some time, I'll take you on a trip. "Oh, and come to the company banquet tomorrow. We all nearly died on that flight, so it's worth celebrating." I thought about it for a long time before I finally agreed. It would be my way of closing the book on this pathetic marriage and this pathetic friendship. At the banquet, Dominic was working the room with a bottle in one hand and Cara's wrist locked in the other, dragging her along from table to table. It looked exactly like the night Cara and I made the rounds at our own wedding. Every mocking, pitying glance in the room landed on me. "A near-fatal plane crash, and what comes out of it? Two people who were actually in love the whole time. Who knew that couple's account was run by Cara and Dominic?" "Ms. Hartley hates being on camera. She must really be crazy about him." "That makes Oliver the joke, doesn't it? Take those two away and he's nothing." "How long do you think he can keep his mouth shut? 50 bucks says he doesn't have the guts to say a word." Every word dripped with mockery, and all I could feel was how absurd it all was. The two people who once held me like I was the most important thing in their world had shoved me off a cliff without looking back. Cara didn't push back against any of it. Instead, she just watched Dominic helplessly and snatched the glass out of his hand. "You're about to be a father. You need to start cutting back on the drinking, you know?" My gaze followed hers and landed on the prayer bracelet around Dominic's wrist. I recognized it. Back when I was getting bullied, Cara had shown up out of nowhere and chased those people off without a thought for her own safety. Then she went to a church and spent hours praying over it until they blessed it for me. She tied that bracelet around my wrist herself, and her voice was shaking as she said, "All I want is for this to keep you safe for the rest of your life. That's the only thing I'll ever ask for." At some point, it had disappeared, and I could never find it again. She told me it probably just fell off somewhere. It hadn't fallen off. She'd given it to the person she actually wanted to protect. "Oliver, I was up too late last night with your wife. You're not going to get all sensitive about it again, are you?" I clenched my jaw so hard that it ached and had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from losing it right there. Then Dominic's eyes drifted to Cara's stomach, barely showing, and a vicious smile spread across his face. "Almost forgot to ask. Your mom must've been thrilled when she heard that I'm going to be a dad, right?" That handsome face of his twisted into something ugly. By the time I realized what I was doing, my hands were already around his throat. He didn't even flinch. He just laughed. "Oliver, have you lost your mind?" Cara pulled us apart. "Do you want my kid to grow up without a father? What if you'd actually hurt him?" Her hand came up before she could stop it and cracked across my face. Blood seeped from the corner of my mouth, and only then did she seem to register what she'd done. She stepped toward me, reaching out. "Oliver, the baby's—" "He killed my mother, Cara. I should have lost my mind a long time ago." I was running on nothing, but I shoved her away with everything I had left. She stared at me, stunned, and then her expression hardened again. "Your mother is perfectly fine at home. I can't believe you'd say something that awful just to smear Dominic." The disappointment in her eyes was unmistakable. "When did you become this kind of person, Oliver? Dominic went out of his way to track down the people who used to bully you and made them come here to apologize. You should be thanking him." The words barely left her mouth before a group of painfully familiar faces stepped forward, every one of them with the same cocky swagger I remembered. I stood frozen in place as my mind went blank. Chapter 4 Oliver's POV In college, they stripped me naked, poured urine on me, and forced me to my knees to bark like a dog. Cara was the first one there. She got hit with bottles and had three tendons torn in her hand just getting them off me. She then wiped my tears away with her crooked fingers. "It's over. No one's ever going to bring it up again." It took me three full years to claw my way out of that darkness. I looked up in disbelief. "How would Dominic even know about that?" Cara couldn't meet my eyes. Dominic walked over to me. "She told me one night in bed, like a little bedtime story." The blood in my veins went cold. The worst thing that ever happened to me, the pain I'd carry for the rest of my life, was just a story Cara used to keep him entertained. I stared at her, my eyes burning. She looked away. Dominic pointed at the group of men and put on his best righteous act. "But as your best friend, I figured I should help you get some closure. These lowlifes owe you an apology." The three of them closed in, grinning with the same menace I remembered from all those years ago. "Oliver, long time no see." "I remember when you used to crawl around on the floor like a dog. Look at you now, all dressed up in a suit." "We came all this way just to apologize, man. Don't be scared." I lashed out blindly, swinging at anything near me. "Get away from me. Get the hell away from me!" In the struggle, I accidentally kicked Dominic to the ground. Cara rushed to help him up, then turned back to me with pure disgust on her face. "Dominic does something kind for you, and this is how you repay him? "The baby isn't going to take anything away from you. When the child grows up, they'll still call you Dad. How can you be this heartless?" Dominic shook his head with practiced grace. "Don't blame him. He's probably just too embarrassed to do this in front of everyone. Let them go up to a private room and talk it out. They can apologize, and maybe Oliver will stop having nightmares every night." Cara's eyes softened with gratitude. "You always think of everything." She waved for the men to take me upstairs to one of the private rooms. I fought with everything I had, begging her with my eyes. "They're not going to apologize!" "Enough." Cara cut me off, already out of patience. "Dominic is trying to help. You can thank him after." "Cara, please help m—" The door slammed shut before I could finish. Something yanked me backward. On the other side of the door, Cara paused at the muffled sound of my voice. Then she shook her head. "It's just an apology. He's making a scene just to make Dominic look bad." Behind that door, my fingers clawed at the wood, leaving bloody streaks down the surface. Just like before, they tore the clothes off my body and ground a shoe into my mouth. "You want us to apologize? Then we'll give you something to really remember." I fought back as hard as I could, throwing punch after punch, but it was useless. They got more and more worked up, filming the whole thing and blasting it across every group chat they could find. They didn't stop until my body was wrecked and covered in filth, with several ribs cracked under their boots. At some point, the room went quiet, and I was alone. I lay there, my eyes hollow, tossed aside like a ragdoll on the floor of that private room, with my blood soaking into the carpet. Then I picked up a shard of broken porcelain and dragged it across my wrist. "Cara, you will never see me again." … Third-Person POV Three hours later, the banquet ended. Cara had turned down Dominic's dinner invitation. Instead, she hurried into the elevator and headed up to the 20th floor. The door to the private room was slightly ajar, and the smell that hit her was a mixture of blood and something worse. She pushed the door open, frowning. What she saw inside shattered her completely.