INICIAR SESIÓNSloane woke up to an empty house. James had already left for work. The coffee pot was cold. No note. No apology. Just silence.She sat at the kitchen table, nursing a cup of tea she didn't want. The text from Ashton was still on her phone. She'd read it a dozen times. "I saw you today. You looked beautiful."She should delete it. Should block his number. Should forget he existed.She didn't. Instead, she finished her tea. Got dressed. Went to work.~~~The office was quiet. Mondays always were.She sat at her desk, staring at her computer screen. Spreadsheets. Emails. Reports. She went through the motions. Answered questions. Attended meetings. Pretended everything was fine.No one noticed anything was wrong. She was good at pretending.At lunch, she sat alone in the break room. Picked at a sandwich. Scrolled through her phone.Another text from Ashton."How are you?"She stared at the screen. Her heart was pounding."I'm fine."Three dots appeared. Disappeared. Appeared again."Liar.
The Moore estate looked different in the daylight.Sloane had been here before. For dinners. For holidays. For the wedding. But today it felt foreign. Like a place she didn't belong.She sat in the passenger seat of James's car, staring at the grand iron gates. The driveway stretched endlessly, lined with old oak trees and perfectly trimmed hedges.James killed the engine. Neither of them moved."You look nice," he said.She was wearing a simple blue dress. Nothing special. She hadn't dressed for him. She'd dressed for herself."Let's just get this over with," she said.He nodded. Got out. She followed.♦♦The dining room was already full when they walked in.Mrs. Moore sat at the head of the table, elegant and composed. A few cousins Sloane vaguely recognized. An aunt she'd met once. And a man she didn't know, sitting at the far end, half-hidden behind a floral arrangement.Sloane took her seat beside James. Smiled when she was supposed to. Nodded when she was spoken to.She was good
Sloane drove home in a daze.The city passed by in a blur. She didn't see the buildings. Didn't see the people. Didn't see anything except Ashton's face. The way he'd looked at her. The way he'd said he'd wait.She pulled into her driveway and sat in the car. Her hands were shaking. She didn't want to go inside. Didn't want to face James. Didn't want to pretend everything was normal.But she had to.The house was quiet. Too quiet. She walked through the door. The living room was empty. The kitchen was clean. No bottles. No mess.She walked upstairs. The bedroom door was open. James was sitting on the bed. Waiting.He looked up when she walked in. His eyes were red. He'd been crying."Where were you?" he asked. His voice was calm. Too calm.She didn't answer.He stood up. Walked toward her. "I called you. Ten times.""I know.""Where were you?"She looked at him. At his eyes. At the man she'd married."I was with someone," she said.The words hung in the air. Heavy. Final.He stared at
They arrived at his apartment. It was beautiful with tall windows bearing the view of the city. The whole place was clean. And cozy."You live here?" she asked."Most of the time.""It's so quiet.""James likes noise. Chaos. I like peace."She looked at him. "You know James?"He paused. Just for a second. Something flickered behind his eyes."Everyone knows James," he said carefully. "He's not exactly a low profile person."She nodded. Didn't push. She was too tired to push.He walked to the kitchen and opened the fridge. Pulled out a bottle of wine."Do you want some?""I shouldn't.""You're not driving. You're not working. You're not with him." He set the bottle on the counter. "You're here. With me. Just for tonight."She looked at him. At his eyes. At the way he was watching her."Okay," she said. "Just for tonight."He poured two glasses. Handed her one. She sat on the couch. He sat beside her. Close enough to feel. Far enough to breathe."You have a beautiful place," she said."T
Sloane was at her desk when the receptionist buzzed."There's someone here to see you," she said. "A man. He says his name is Ashton."Sloane's heart stopped.She hadn't seen him since that night. Hadn't spoken to him. Hadn't even known his name until he'd left the note on the nightstand. She'd spent the past week trying to convince herself it had been a mistake. A one-night thing. Something she could bury and forget.She should tell the receptionist she wasn't available. Should hide in her office until he left.Instead, she said, "Send him in."****He walked through the door like he owned the building.Dark jeans. White shirt. His hair was messy, like he'd been running his hands through it. He held a coffee cup in each hand.Then he set one on her desk. "I didn't know if you liked sugar."She stared at him. "How did you find me?""You told me your name. And I found your work online." He shrugged. "Wasn't hard.""You shouldn't be here.""I know.""I could call security.""You could."
Sloane laid in bed at home, staring at the ceiling, the stranger's note still clutched in her hand. She read it so many times the words blurred together. "You're too good for whatever happened to you. Don't let him win."She didn't even know his name. But he'd seen her. Really seen her. And he hadn't looked away.She should have felt ashamed. She was married. She'd cheated. She'd let a stranger touch her in ways James hadn't touched her in months.But she didn't feel ashamed.She felt alive. For the first time in a long time, she felt alive.She called in sick to work the next morning. Couldn't face anyone. Couldn't pretend everything was fine. She just needed to be alone.She sat on her couch and stared at the wall. Thought about James. Thought about the stranger. Thought about the life she'd built and the life she'd lost.She'd been so sure about James. So certain he was the one.Now she didn't trust herself to know anything.Then James came home that night. Sober. That was unusual.
“Fuck!”I hoisted my tote bag higher onto my shoulder and broke into a jog, my sneakers slapping against the sidewalk. Four o'clock. My landlady, Mrs. Harlow, had been very clear on the phone this morning. Cash, Lucy. I don't care about your bank's "technical difficulties." You show up with my mone
Every time I closed my eyes, I heard his voice. If I don't get away from her soon, I'm going to ruin everything. Her. Me. He was talking about me. I replayed the conversation a hundred times. I've spent ten years watching her. She looks at me like I'm furniture. Mason Chen had been watching me. F
Three days passed.Three days of avoiding Mason. Three days of hiding in the pool house like I was scared of something, him.I tried not to think about the nights he came home late.The job lead went nowhere. Mason made a call, like he'd promised, but the position had been filled by the time I reac
Mason's Mercedes pulled up forty-five minutes later. I knew it was his before I even looked up. I'd spent my entire adolescence listening for it, heart hammering every time Sloane mentioned he was coming home from the city for the weekend. Tonight, my heart hammered for a different reason. The c







