Chapter 2

Emily hadn't cheated on me after all.

She was here to see her long-lost father.

All those urges, that anxiety, those feelings she said she couldn't control. It wasn't betrayal. It was the damage left behind by her past.

Suddenly, I felt like an absolute fool.

A fool who thought everyone had turned their back on me, without ever trying to figure out what was really going on.

I knocked softly on the door.

There was a brief silence inside.

"Who is it?" Emily's voice came from inside.

"It's me," I said, pushing the door open. I stood in the doorway, looking at Emily. Her eyes were red from crying, and the gentle-looking middle-aged man just stood behind her. "Emily, it's me. Alex."

Emily's expression changed in an instant. "Alex? What are you doing here?"

"I followed you," I confessed. "I thought you were..."

I thought she was cheating on me. I wanted to say that, but the words wouldn't come out.

But I couldn't bring myself to say it out loud.

The middle-aged man stood up and reached out his hand. "So you're Alex? Emily talks about you all the time. I'm her dad, David Lane. I divorced her mom over ten years ago, and we only reconnected recently. I invited her out for dinner today."

He paused, took a look around the motel, and gave an awkward chuckle. "Honestly, I wanted to take her somewhere nicer, but there's a little diner downstairs here and the food's actually pretty good. Didn't think you'd get the wrong idea, kid."

I held his hand, not knowing what to say.

Emily walked over and tugged at my sleeve, whispering, "Alex, I'm sorry. I should've told you before."

"No," I said, shaking my head. "It's my fault. I shouldn't have followed you, I shouldn't have doubted you."

That night, the three of us, Emily, her father, and me, ended up having dinner at the diner downstairs.

David was a decent guy. After the divorce, he'd been working down south all these years, and now he was back, just wanting to make things right with his daughter. He drank a lot and kept apologizing over and over.

Emily started crying, and I almost lost it too.

I thought I'd finally turned the tables.

I thought I'd finally met a woman who wouldn't stab me in the back.

I was wrong.

*****

The next morning, Emily asked me to meet her at the café where we'd had our first date.

She was wearing that same white dress from our first meeting, with light makeup and her hair falling softly over her shoulders. She looked so beautiful that it made my heart race.

But she was holding a letter in her hand.

No, not a letter. Just a piece of paper, folded twice, the corners crumpled from her grip.

"Alex," she said, looking up at me, her eyes red. "Let's break up."

I froze.

"What?" I blurted out.

"Let's break up," she said, her voice soft and steady, like she was stating a fact. "This is the best thing for both of us."

"Why?" I asked, my voice trembling. "Didn't we clear everything up last night? You didn't cheat, you didn't betray me, it was all just a misunderstanding!"

"It's not a misunderstanding," she cut me off. "Alex, please, listen to me."

She took a deep breath, like she was gathering every bit of courage she had.

"I swear, I didn't cheat on you. That man last night really was my father. But these three months we've been together, I've felt something I can't shake."

"What kind of feeling?" I asked.

"It's this urge I can't control," Emily said, her eyes reddening. "It's not that I don't love you, or that I'm not faithful, but whenever I'm with you, I keep getting attracted to other men.

"It's not intentional, I swear, I really can't help myself. On the street, I can't stop myself from glancing at other guys. At work, I find myself noticing my male coworkers without even meaning to. Sometimes, I even dream about being with someone else."

She broke off, unable to say more.

"Alex, I love you. I really do. But I don't want to ever do something that would hurt you. Before I actually mess things up, before I really betray you, let's break up while we can still look each other in the eye," she added.

I looked at her like I didn't even know her anymore.

"So you really can't help it?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"When did it start?"

"It started in the second week we were together," Emily said, tears streaming down her face. "I thought it was a passing thing, that it'd fade away, but it only got stronger. Alex, I've never felt like this before. Before you, I was never like this. I honestly have no idea why. I really don't."

She pulled the paper out of her bag. "I wrote this last night. I was afraid I couldn't say it to your face, so I wrote it down. Read it when you get home."

She set the paper on the table, stood up, and grabbed her bag.

"Emily," I called after her.

She paused, but didn't look back.

"Are you really sure about this?" I asked.

"Yeah," she whispered, her voice barely more than a breath. "I'd rather end things now than become someone you end up hating."

She walked away.

Her white dress disappeared out the café door.

I sat there, clutching that piece of paper, for a full twenty minutes.

Her neat handwriting was on the paper, just one sentence.

"Alex, when I'm with you, I can't control these urges to betray you. I don't want to hurt you, so I'm leaving. I'm sorry. Thank you for everything."

She couldn't control it.

Those words stabbed into my mind like a needle.

Why did she always lose control when she was with me?

Chloe was the same. Sophie was the same. Grace was the same.

After they broke up with me, they all went back to living normal lives. No cheating, no betrayal, just living quietly and peacefully.

It felt like I was the real issue here.

It was as if I had some messed-up curse on me, making any woman who got close end up cheating.