Page 73 of Vitamin Sea
“Found her—who is her? Whose Instagram?”
“Sophia’s.” There was trepidation in her friend’s voice.
Chloe felt her heartbeat speed up.
“What did you find?”
Lala gave her a wary look.
“Are you sure you want to hear this?”
Chloe nodded. She knew Sophia was no longer in Liam’s life, but what could Lala possibly have to tell her? Was Liam lying? Were they actually still together? Had they gottenbacktogether in the past couple of days?
“Brace yourself,” she paused. “Liam didn’t start a relationship with Sophia after he broke up with you. If the Instagram photos are anything to go by, he started seeing her a few weeks after she started working with him.”
Chloe felt like someone had punched her in the stomach.
“No,” she shook her head. “No. That can’t be right. Liam wouldn’t have done that to me.” There was small beat before she asked in a small voice: “Would he?”
There was no reassurance coming from Lala, and Chloe saw the truth of what her friend was saying written on her
face.
“I am so sorry.” Lala shook her head. “I thought it was
important that you know. Especially since he’s been trying to worm his way back into your life. I have her Instagram account if you want to see it.”
She thought for a moment. Lala didn’t know that she had already made up her mind about her ex-boyfriend. Chloe had closed that door, but left it unlocked—leaving open the possibility of a friendly acquaintance. But if what Lala was telling her was true, she would be taking a welding torch to the seams to stop the door from ever opening.
“Show me,” Chloe said wearily. She suddenly felt exhausted.
“Are you sure?” Lala looked hesitant. “I don’t want you to end up back on the couch in your pajamas, waterboarding yourself with wine and ice cream.”
“I want to see,” Chloe said firmly.
Lala pulled her phone out and pulled her chair closer to Chloe’s. She typed ‘blonde.banker.babe’ in the search bar of her Instagram and clicked on the sultry profile photo.
Chloe couldn’t understand it. During some of her lowest moments after Liam had dumped her, she had spent hours going through social media trying to find the workmate Liam had dumped her for. But it had all been for naught. The fact that she didn’t appear to have her name in her Insta handle would have made it difficult. Especially because Sophia wasn’t one of Liam’s 230 followers and Liam followed around 1,200 accounts.
Shamefully, Chloe had made it about halfway through the 1,200 accounts, squinting at each profile photo to see if it resembled the blonde bombshell Liam had left her for.
But blonde.banker.babe had somehow escaped her.
And good thing too. As Lala scrolled down through Sophia’s photos—and there were many; it looked like the woman spent most of her day posting on Instagram—she started to feel ill. It had been February when Liam had announced he was leavingher. He had told her emphatically that there hadn’t been anyone else, had denied doing anything offside when she accused him of cheating.
And yet, here, here was proof that revealed otherwise staring her in the face.
Of course, it wasn’t face shots. No. Sophia Sullivan was too savvy for that. She knew, of course that Liam had a live-in girlfriend. And apparently, she had seen no problem with having an affair. Six months prior to Liam leaving her, Sophia’s Instagram feed showed photos of the two of them together. A photo with Liam’s hand—she recognized his hand, she knew the freckles and the watch he was wearing. A photo of Liam from behind while friends of hers in the comment section asked who the mystery man was. As she scrolled through Sophia’s feed a wave of nausea overtook her. There was a photo posted when Chloe had been away on a travel assignment that showed Liam asleep in bed. In Liam and Chloe’s bed.
That bastard had actually brought Sophia into their home. Into their bed.
She thought she was going to be sick.
“Are you okay?” Lala saw the look on Chloe’s face.
Chloe shook her head and looked away from Lala’s phone.
“I am so sorry to be the one to do this,” she said sympathetically. “Seriously, Chloe. I agonized over whether or not to show you. I can’t imagine how devastated I would be if I was in your shoes.”
