All Chapters of The Affair Revenge My Bestfriend's Husband Offered Me: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

I was in charge now. I helped him to a corner, propped him up, and wrapped his ankle with strips from a blanket. He watched me the whole time, his breath making clouds in the air.Hours passed. The wind screamed. It got so cold now. I sat close to him so we could share heat. It wasn't romantic. It was about not freezing.In the dark, tired and hurting, things felt different. His head leaned back against the couch."You came," he said. It wasn't a question. It sounded like he was realizing something."You're my partner," I said, my voice muffled."It's more than that now." He said it quietly, like he was admitting something he didn't want to be true.I stood up to put another log in the small stove. My own muscles hurt. As I turned back, I stumbled. It was not a graceful trip. I lost my balance completely. I fell forward right toward the couch where he sat.I landed hard. One hand caught the back of the couch. My knee hit his good leg. And my face, my cold lips brushed against his.It w

Vance's POVThe afternoon meeting was a study in controlled tedium. Numbers. Charts. More numbers. Vance sat at the head of the table, his pen moving in precise strokes across the margin of his notes. He'd learned to find comfort in the monotony of data—it was clean, predictable, and never betrayed you.Nerissa was across the table. He didn't need to look at her to know she was struggling. He could feel it in the way the air in the room had shifted. She'd been distracted all afternoon. Her eyes kept drifting, her focus slipping. He'd noticed. Of course he'd noticed.She'd been doing that since the park. Since Zane.Then he saw it. The sudden pallor that washed over her face. The way her hand pressed against her stomach, a gesture so automatic she probably didn't realize she was making it. He knew that gesture. He'd catalogued it in the hospital, filed it away in the part of his mind that never stopped observing.His pen stopped moving.Pain. The word surfaced in his mind, sharp and unw

Jovi, having deposited the elderly woman at her door with theatrical warmth, turned back toward the group. Her smile was radiant.Her eyes found Vance first, instinct, always looking for her husband's approval, even now.She saw him looking at Nerissa.Not a glance. Not a casual observation. Looking. The kind of look she'd never received from him in seven years of marriage. The kind that suggested the person being watched mattered.Her smile faltered for just a fraction of a second. Then she smoothed it back into place and walked toward them, Zane slightly behind her."What a sweet lady!" she called out. "She invited us for coffee, can you imagine?"Zane caught up, smiling too. "She reminded me of my grandmother."Nerissa met his eyes. "You noticed her struggling before anyone else. You always did that."It was a small thing to say. But it landed.Zane's smile changed, became less automatic, more real."You noticed too. You just weren't fast enough." A beat. "You never were. I always h

Dinner was a quiet affair. Zane barely ate, pushing food around his plate. Jovi kept glancing at him, then at Vance, then at Nerissa, a triangle of worry and suspicion. Vance was composed, professional, asking Liam about his grandfather's thoughts on the project.Nerissa said almost nothing.After dinner, she went to her cabin. He didn't read it, she thought. He never reads the fine print. Gets excited, signs, assumes it'll work out because it always has.Except this time, it won't.Through the wall, she heard him moving. Pacing. The soft curse when something dropped.She pulled on her coat and walked out into the cold.The lodge's common area was a large room with a fireplace, bookshelves, and a long table where guests could spread out work.Zane was there.He sat alone at the table, surrounded by blueprints and printouts and a laptop with multiple tabs open. His hair was disheveled; he'd been running his hands through it. His reading glasses, the ones he only used when he was exhaust

Three Days LaterThe first sign came on a Tuesday morning.Vance was reviewing the project updates in his cabin when an email pinged from Sigrid, the site manager. Subject: Preliminary Design Submission – Section 4 Approved.He opened it, frowning. Section 4 was the sustainability metrics, the most technically complex part of the requirements. Zane should have been drowning in it for weeks.He clicked through to the attached files.The submission was... competent. More than competent. The data was clean, the methodology sound, the local benchmarks correctly referenced. Someone had done their homework.Vance leaned back. Interesting.Two Days LaterThe group had a working lunch in the lodge's dining room, sandwiches and coffee while Sigrid walked them through the next phase. Zane sat at the far end of the table, quieter than usual, but something in his posture had shifted. Less defeated. More focused.Jovi noticed too. She kept glancing at him, a small smile playing at her lips."He's b