Blinded By His Betrayal

arted to test the boundaries, con

r customary "visit," her tone lace

end at the dance company the other day. They were saying how Lou

throat, but I kept my

ction. "Someone really special. But then she had... well, an unfortunate accident. Such a tragedy. Of course,

dabout way, that my dream job, the one Mark had convinced me to

affection anymore. This felt different. Deeper. It was a professional attack. How

ified into certaint

r open and close softly. It was Mark, home early. He must have thought I was deeply

even, my eyes closed. I heard

h dip as Mark sat down near my feet. Through my eyela

isse

It was the way he used to kiss me. A wave of nausea rolled through me. This

unseen witness to my

I needed more than just the knowledge of their affair. I needed p

s home office for hours, headphones on, the robotic voice of the screen reader playing soft

n, and my fingers were fl

sy. My birthday. The irony was s

take long to find what I was lookin

gainst my ribs as

sband. There were emails from the Royal Ballet in London, from the New York City Ballet, from companies in Ber

there was a reply f

tunately, Ava is not looking to relocate

k from the demands of a principal r

have decided that her health and well-being

ematically sabotaged my career. He had clipped my wings while telling me he was the wind th

hey went back years. Her subtle suggest

ng herself too hard. Maybe you should tell

schedule is brutal. It would be terrible f

ismantling my dreams piece by piece, all

luminating a truth more horrific than I could have ever imagined. The af

n actively destroying it. The stepsister I

was nothing left but ash. I sat there in the silent office, surrounded by the evidence of my own foolishness, and a cold, pr

es, Summer Reed