Page 152 of Sins & Secrets

I stand up from the office chair so quickly it nearly falls over. I grip it so tight I think I’ll break it. Fuck, I want to break it. I can picture beating the piss out of him with the broken wood.

My body is hot, my mind in a daze of regret and sickness.

“I’m leaving,” I barely speak as I turn my back to him and start to walk off.

“The fuck you are,” he says.

My body whips around, tense and ready to let it all out. Every day it’s been building and building, the tension winding tighter and the need to destroy something climbing higher and higher. I only took a few steps away, and with his words I’m right back across the desk, ready to do something stupid.

My body heats as my fist moves from the chair to the desk and I lean closer. He may not want to show it, but I see the fear in his eyes.

He should be scared. He’s fucking with me. Threatening me. No one is going to take my wife from me. I won’t allow it.

“I need to get away from this. From you.”

I never should have listened to him and try to cover it up. He set me up. He used that night to his advantage and I played right into his hand.

It takes everything in me not to reach across the desk and haul him up by his collar. To fist the fine cloth in my grip and spit in his face.

Pure rage and adrenaline pump through my blood.

“Careful now, Evan.” James smiles as he says it, but I notice how he leans back. Both of us know he’s scared. If I throw this punch, if I push, he could bring it all to light.

And then I’ll lose her forever.

“I’m going home, and I’ll let you know when I’m available again.”Never.The word is whispered in the back of my head. I’m never returning to this office. I’m never doing another thing for this prick.

“You can’t leave me. I’ll ruin you,” he practically whispers with nothing but hate. He says the words I already know.

“Ruin me then,” I respond easily, looking into his dark eyes as I turn the doorknob and leave him behind me. On the surface I’m calm, but brewing just beneath my skin is nothing but chaos. Everything I’ve feared has finally come.

Proof I was there.

Proof I lied to the police.

I leave the office with the threat echoing in my head. I did this to myself, digging the hole deeper and deeper.

There’s no way Kat will stay when it all goes down.

KAT

Never trapped, never alone,

This city never sleeps.

Even in the daylight,

The sins are left to creep.

They tempt me and pull me,

And make me feel alive.

My mouth is dry, my body hot.

In temptation regrets will thrive.

My iPhone lights up as I push the top button to check the time again, and then again to look at the date. I’m anxious for this meeting; unusually so. Then again, I’m anxious all the time now.

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