SIGNED AND SEALED; Still falling

"Ahh... Javier, harder!"

My hand froze on the door handle. For a moment I couldn't breathe, couldn't move. The sound crept under my skin, unsettling and intrusive, echoing down the long hallway as if I didn't belong there.

I told myself no. My chest tightened as my mind scrambled for excuses, for logic, for anything other than the truth hammering against my ribs. *Javier would never do that*, I whispered, though the words sounded hollow even to my own ears.

I had left work early that afternoon, my heart at ease and my arms full of food from his favorite restaurant, a cheap bottle of champagne tucked under my arm. The whole way there I had pictured his smile, the way he would laugh when I told him I was dying to celebrate his promotion and our future together.

Another moan drifted from down the hall, higher than the last. "Javier, I want to feel all of you... please don't stop!"

"I'm not stopping." His voice, followed by the unmistakable sound of skin against skin. "Not until your legs are shaking and your body understands that you belong to me and should only want me."

"Ahh, I love you!" came the cry, louder this time.

The mansion suddenly felt colder, its polished floors and high walls closing in around me, heavy with old money and secrets I was never meant to uncover. My steps were slow and hesitant as I moved down the hallway, as though my body already knew what my heart still refused to accept.

I pushed the door open, and there they were. Javier Montoya, completely naked, moving over another body with sweat running down his face, unaware of my presence. My knees weakened as I stood in the doorway taking in the scene. Then the woman beneath him cried out again in that unmistakably familiar voice, and my eyes flew wide open as they found her face.

Paloma. My best friend.

The same Paloma who had eagerly helped me hand out my wedding invitations, who had sat beside me sobbing at my dress fitting as though she truly felt it, the same Paloma who had promised to be the godmother of my children.

For an instant the world went completely silent. Then everything shattered all at once.

The sharp crack of the door brought them back to reality. Paloma let out a strangled gasp and clutched the sheet to her chest, while Javier startled, looking caught like a criminal but without nearly enough remorse.

"Catalina..." his voice trailed off, thick with shock and guilt.

"No," I said quietly. My voice came out too calm, too steady for what I had just witnessed, surprising even me. "Don't you dare tell me it's not what it looks like."

Paloma ran a hand through her hair, visibly trembling. "Catalina, I never wanted this to happen."

"Really, Paloma?" I let out a laugh, but it came out sharp and cruel. "So are you sorry, or do you just feel guilty?"