《The Affair Revenge My Bestfriend's Husband Offered Me》全部章節：第 21 章 - 第 30 章

The ride home was silent. Zane drove with both hands clenched on the wheel. He kept looking over at Nerissa, his eyes red and worried. She stared out her window. The city lights slid past, not really reaching her. The pain in her body was a steady, deep ache. But the feeling in her chest was worse. Empty. Like everything inside her had been scraped out.Meanwhile on the other side of the city, Vance’s car was quiet and cold. He drove without a word, his face hard in the dashboard light. The quiet between him and Jovi was different tonight. It was heavy, filled with what we had all just seen and heard.Jovi sat in the passenger seat. The printed sonogram was in her hand. She looked at her husband. She knew all his silences. The angry one. The bored one. The one where he was thinking about work.This was new.His shoulders were tight, like he was carrying something heavy. His jaw was clenched. But it was his eyes. They were looking at the road, but they seemed far away. He was seeing the

The town car came at 8:45 the next morning, just like the note said it would. She was ready. The suit was black, the sort that doesn't show wrinkles or weakness. Her hair was pulled back tight. She looked at herself in the hall mirror. The woman looking back had hollows under her eyes, but her jaw was set. She looked like someone who could walk into a room and not be the first one to look away.Zane was in the kitchen, holding a coffee mug. He watched her walk to the door."You're going in?""Yes.""You don't have to. You could... take more time.""The time has been taken," she said. She didn't look at him as she opened the door.The ride to the Astera Spire was short. The elevator up felt longer.In the polished doors, her reflection stared back. The woman from this morning's mirror—jaw set, eyes hollow. She looked capable. She looked like a VP. But beneath the surface, something churned. The fight with Zane replayed. It's always been her.The suit was armor, but it hung on a frame th

Zane stood in the doorway of her office, breathing hard like he’d run here. He was wearing jeans and a wrinkled t-shirt under his open coat. He looked completely out of place against the clean glass and sharp lines of her workspace.Her first feeling was a hot flash of violation. This was her space. Her new ground. He didn’t belong here.“We need to talk,” he said again. He shut the door behind him, the click too loud.She didn’t stand up. She leaned back in her chair, making space between them.“How did you get up here?” Her voice was calm. Cold.“I told the woman at the front desk I was your husband. That it was a family emergency.” He ran a hand through his hair, making it messier. “Nerissa, it’s Jovi.”Of course it was. Her stomach tightened, but not with hurt. With irritation.“What about her?”“She’s… she’s not doing well. After the hospital. She’s scared. Really scared.” He took a step closer to her desk. His eyes were pleading. “She thinks you hate her. She thinks he’s going to

The printed email sat on my keyboard. I picked it up. The words were careful, but the meaning was clear. Chen was trying to cause doubt. He was trying to hurt the project, and to hurt me.The handwritten question mark at the bottom was the only note. It wasn't an order. It was a test.I didn't feel mad. I felt clear. This was an attack on my work. On the one thing I had left.I didn't go to Vance. I didn't talk to Chen. I opened a new email.I wrote to the Legal and Compliance department. I copied Vance and the two board members Chen had written to. I said I had found this email during my work. I said while I was sure it was just a misunderstanding, I believed in being totally clear. I was sending it to them to make sure all talks about the project were correct and followed the rules.I attached Chen's email. I read my words again. They were good. They made me look like a good employee protecting the company, not someone attacking a co-worker. I hit send.Two hours later, Lydia from Va

Three days after I put the contract in front of Zane, a courier delivered a sealed envelope to my office. Inside was a single sheet of paper. The signed signature page. Zane’s familiar, loose handwriting was at the bottom.He had taken the deal.I filed the paper without feeling anything. It wasn’t a win. It was a step in a plan.That evening, I was in my apartment, trying to eat some toast I didn’t want, when my phone rang on the counter. The screen lit up with a name I knew by heart, a name I hadn’t seen call me in weeks: JOVI.I stared at it. The last time she called me, we were planning a birthday party for Zane. I let it ring three times, then swiped to answer. I didn’t say anything.“I hope you’re happy.” Her voice was quiet, but it vibrated with a clean, cold anger I’d never heard from her before. The sweet, breathy tone was gone.“You boxed him in. You knew he couldn’t say no after I put my name on the line for him.”“It was a standard project contract,” I said, my voice flat.