Page 9 of Due Process
Each step felt like I was walking to the gallows, my fate blatantly laid before me with the tallied list of sins shackled to my ankles.
All I could wish for was a clean break of the neck rather than the long-winded suffocation that squeezed my throat.
The comparison was dramatic but hauntingly accurate all the same. My gaze clouded, and a roaring echoed in my ears as I approached.
After a short embrace between Alicia and Stella, the former left the building before I could catch her, leaving me in the foyer, alone… with my wife.
My knees threatened to buckle when blue eyes pinned on me. I didn’t even know how I came to be before her.
My voice had deserted me, words completely failing as I looked down at my beautiful Stella and awaited her spit on my face.
Instead, her lips shifted into a lopsided frown as the back of her hand pressed against my forehead. “You reallyareunwell, aren’t you, darling? You’re heating up, and your heart is pummelling.” She finished by placing her palm to the middle of my chest.
She may as well have grabbed a gun and shot the bullet straight through me.Keep your hand there. Don’t let go.
Unintentionally, I raised my hand to cover hers. She flinched, her fingers freezing cold, yet I grasped on anyway—the last remaining tether of contact that I refused to release.
On my third attempt at clearing my throat, I managed to croak out a statement. “Is… was Alicia, okay? She seemed in a rush.”
What did she say? What do you know?
Stella hummed in concern. “She said she had a family emergency and that she had to leave immediately. I hope everyone’s okay.”
A flash of relief registered, which quickly transitioned into self-disgust.Oh, my Stella. Always concerned about everyone else.
Alicia hadn’t disclosed what she saw. Which meant I had to talk to her as soon as possible.
When she had caught us, it was like an electric shock of devastating proportions. It jolted me back to the present, where I was faced with the stark realisation that I was on the verge of losing every-fucking-thing that mattered to me. All for a cheap thrill and mediocre pussy.
Fucking hell.How did I get to this point?So low and loathsome that I even contemplated having sex with another woman in the same vicinity as my wife, much less acted on it.
Disgusting.
“You should go home, Felix. Rest up.”
“Come with me,” I implored once more, despair coating the lining of my voice.
“I can’t. I know you’ve been working hard for us, and you deserve some rest,alone. Do you want me to grab Heather so she can give you aride?”
Heather?My pulse stuttered. Hearing my wife sayhername… It felt wrong, grotesque, like it was an abomination on her lips.
I closed my eyes as they began to burn. I didn’t want her to see the guilt, the deep-seated pain beneath.
“No. I can get myself home.”
Like a coward, I took the offer of escape. I would use that space wisely to regroup and figure out a way to sort my mess of a life out. I wasn’t going to let my marriage derail, especially not for a fucking secretary.
I was a businessman, thrived in a challenge and brokered deals on the daily. I could do it. Operation Save My Marriage was underway.
Stella led me to the glass doors, practically shoving me through. “Go, Felix. I’ve got it from here.”
I nodded, acting like a damn zombie without a brain.
“Oh, wait,” she said, pressing closer. “Have you got a spare pen? Wouldn’t be a good look on my first day, would it?”
Stella giggled, and my mind short-circuited until I noticed too late that she was reaching for my jacket pocket. The same one that Heather had deposited her panties.
Sheer panic had me staggering backwards until I ripped away from my wife.
