Page 34 of The Hotel Room

The house felt fuller now.

The sound of Lily humming softly from her room. The dishwasher running. Noah’s footsteps thudding overhead.

They were home.Shewas home.

But it wasn’t the same.

James stood in the doorway of their bedroom—or what had once beentheirs. Now, it felt like it belonged to neither of them. Kate had been back for days, but she hadn’t slept here. Not once.

She was camped out in the guest room, the one barely big enough for the twin bed shoved against the wall. The same guest room she’d always treated like a storage closet.

It felt like a punishment.

The sound of her quiet footsteps carried from down the hall, the rustle of her moving around. Awake. Still keeping her distance.

It had to stop.

He couldn’t keep watching her slip further away, acting like their life—their entiremarriage—was disposable. Like one mistake,one night, had the power to erase everything they’d built together.

James knocked once, then opened the guest room door without waiting for an invitation.

Kate was sitting on the edge of the bed, folding Lily’s pajamas with slow, mechanical movements. Her back was straight, stiffwith tension, and when she glanced at him, her face was pale but hard. Cold.

“James.”

Her voice wasn’t quite hostile, but it wasn’t warm either.

He took a breath, forcing calm.Reasonable. Rational.

“We need to talk.”

She didn’t stop folding, just smoothed the fabric with an unnecessary precision.

“I’m busy.”

“I’m not leaving this room until we do.”

Her hands stilled. Slowly, she turned to face him. Those dark eyes met his—burning, sharp.Angry.

Good. Anger, he could work with. Anger meant shecared.

James stepped closer, keeping his voice steady. “Kate, I know you’re hurt. I know you’re furious with me. But you’re back here now. We’re under the same roof again. We have two kids who need us. We need to figure this out—together.”

Kate let out a bitter, humorless laugh, shaking her head.

“Figure this out?” she echoed.

His chest tightened. The fear had been gnawing at him since the day she left, but now it gripped him entirely. It was the realization that she might never look at him the same way again.

“I’m saying it wasone mistake,Kate. A single bad choice. That shouldn’t be enough to erase seventeen years—”

Her face twisted, eyes flashing as she cut him off.

“You downloaded the app. You messaged her. You booked the hotel. Youplannedit, James! Do you have any idea how many decisions you made between starting that conversation and taking your wedding ring off?”

“Kate, I didn’t mean to…” he started, his voice faltering. The words felt useless, too weak against the storm of her pain. Why wasn’t she listening to him?

His heart pounded, his chest tightening with desperation. They were married. She was hiswife.

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