Page 19 of Due Process
However, our sons were also feeling the strain. They primarily stayed with their grandpa, attending school and daycare—just while we dealt with the work emergency.
But they missed their mum.
When we did get time with them, they demanded her undivided attention. I didn’t blame them, as I was starving for the same.
I craved her energy, time and the searing connection that had always sparked when we caught eyes. I hadn’t seen that stare in a long time.
My fingers drummed against the steering wheel as my mind ticked over with strategies on how I could sequester my wife away from the world to have her all to myself.
I couldn’t remember when we last did something for ourselves—or even worse, when we were last intimate.
Fuck. How is Stella not the last person I’ve been with? How could I let that happen?
My grip tightened, which made my wedding band dig into my skin. A thought ignited from the sheen of jewellery I never removed… even when I was fucking someone else.
I pushed past the lingering shame and let the idea formulate. With all the commotion of work and children, I had forgotten our ten-year wedding anniversary that was in two weeks.Just another sin to add to the rest.
However, a pebble of hope began to form. Our anniversary was the perfect opportunity to show Stella how much I loved her. To display through actions that she was the one I chose, the person I wanted, and who I vowed to stay married to forever.
Despite my fucked-up transgressions and losing my way through a mere moment of weakness, there was one irrefutable fact.
Stella was mine, and I was hers. In every sense of the word.
I swore to never take her for granted again. And what better way to show her than by celebrating ten beautiful years of marriage?
I had fourteen days to create the most magical night. And right then and there, I vowed that it would be the beginning of a new chapter for us. I would move on from my regret and self-disgust, and pour all of myself into my family—where it always should have been.
As I turned the last street corner and my driveway came into view, that tiny piece of hope shrivelled into a burning pile of ash.
Heather’s car was parked outside my house.Why the fuck is she here? Thank god Stella is still at work.
Barely registering putting my car in park, I ran up to the front door, which was unlocked. Without making a sound, I slipped through the entrance and roamed the house, searching for the psycho stalker bitch.
That was when my heart nearly stopped dead in my chest as I processed Heather relaxing back on my couch as she chucked a piece of chocolate at her feet, where my two-year-old son, Phoenix, sat. My boy didn’t waste any time, gobbling the morsel up with speed.
I took one shaky step forward.
“What the fuck are you doing here…with. My. Son?”
I didn’t yell, hardly raised my voice, but that didn’t stop the sinister undertone from leaking through. I waslivid.
I’ll kill her for this, for touching my baby. I’ll kill her.
“Finally,” she snapped. “It’s not in my job description to play babysitter. I should get paid extra for the inconvenience.”
Heather stood, ignored Phoenix and approached me with an extra sway to her hips. “Or maybe you can pay me some other way, Bossman?”
I circled her to stand in front of my son, creating a barricade. Phoenix didn’t look hurt, just messy and covered in mushed chocolate.
“What the fuck are you doing in my house?” I spat.
Fucking coming into my family home… my safe space… Stella’s haven… My kids’ fucking shelter. Fucking. Fuck! What have I brought into our lives!?
Heather dared to step closer, a flirty smirk playing on her lips. “Your wife ordered me to pick up your little gremlin fromdaycare and look after him until you got home. They called to say he was sick, but he looks fine to me.”
“Like you know anything about children. You should have said no.”
“No?” She clucked her tongue. “You know I’ve never been good at saying no, especially to my boss.”
