Semua Bab Craved By My Husband's Best Friend : Bab 91 - Bab 100

Marissa POVXavier did not even blink when I tilted my screen toward him. He just looked at the tiny thumbnail, then at my face, then at the twenty or so pairs of curious eyes pretending not to watch us from across the floor."Not here," he said quietly. "My office. Bring your laptop.""Mr. Sterling, I have the Kensington phase two files to...""Miss Jennings." His tone was perfectly professional, but his eyes were not. "Now."I grabbed my laptop and followed him, feeling the whole department's attention burn a hole between my shoulder blades. Behind me I heard Vivienne whisper, loudly enough for the next building to hear, "She is going into the lion's den and she is smiling. Somebody write that down."The moment his office door clicked shut, Xavier pulled the blinds halfway down, took the laptop from my hands and set it on the glass table. He sat on the edge of his desk and nodded at the screen."Play it."I plugged in my earphones, then paused and handed him one of the buds. He took

Marissa POV"You are telling me," Hailey said, pointing a chopstick at my face, "that in the span of one week you have acquired a divorce weapon, a boyfriend who rents aquariums, and a masked stranger you think might be the boyfriend. Marissa. Babe. This is a Wattpad plot.""I am aware.""No, I do not think you are." She slurped a noodle with great dramatic emphasis. "I think you are living inside a telenovela and you did not even get a script."We were sitting in the corner booth of a tiny ramen shop two streets from my building, steam fogging the windows, a bowl of spicy miso in front of each of us. After the lobby scene with Ethan, which I would rather not relive, Xavier had put me in the back of his car, driven me home in grim silence and then, at my insistence, let me go and meet my best friend alone. He had stood at the curb with his hands in his pockets watching me walk away like a man learning to be patient for the very first time.I pulled a napkin toward me and uncapped the

Marissa POVThe archive room on the twelfth floor smelled like old paper and secrets, which was exactly why I went there on Wednesday morning. John had asked for the original Kensington site drawings from five years ago, and nobody else in the department was brave enough to enter a room with a motion sensor light that only worked when it felt like it.I pushed the heavy door open with my shoulder, balancing a coffee in one hand and my tablet in the other.The light flickered on. Then I heard a very small, very guilty gasp.I looked up. At the far end of the shelves, pressed against a rolling rack of blueprint tubes, were two people who were definitely not looking for blueprints. One of them was a tall man in an impeccable navy suit with his tie dangling from his pocket. The other was a woman in an emerald dress with her lipstick very obviously smudged and her arms still wrapped around his neck."Oh my God," I whispered."Marissa!" Alina yelped. She unwound herself from James Roosevel

Marissa POVSteve Fenwick's office looked like a place where hope came to be audited.It sat on the thirty first floor of a glass tower downtown, all dark wood and leather chairs and framed degrees, and Steve himself stood at the window with his arms crossed, a tall man in his fifties with silver streaks in his black hair and a gaze that could slice a contract in half."Sit," he said. "We have nineteen hours.""I have been sitting for three years," I answered. "I would like to stand.""Then stand, but listen." He tapped a thick folder. "Pruitt called me at seven this morning. He wants to settle."My stomach tightened. "What does he offer?""Fifty percent of the apartment, no alimony, and you drop the claim that his delay was in bad faith." He raised an eyebrow. "In exchange, Ethan signs on the spot and you never speak of the video.""He knows about the video?""He suspects there is something. I told Pruitt nothing." He almost smiled. "I let him squirm. It is my favorite hobby.""No,"

Marissa POVThe corridor outside the courtroom was bright and wide, with tall windows and a long bench of dark wood, and for one second I stood in the middle of it and simply breathed. The air tasted different. It tasted like nothing was owed to anyone."Marissa, please."Ethan caught up to me near the stairwell, his tie loosened, his hair ruffled, a thin sheen of sweat on his forehead. Julian, who had been waiting by the water fountain, took one step toward us. I shook my head slightly and he stopped, though his hand stayed inside his jacket as if he were holding something heavier than a phone."You have thirty seconds," I said."That was not fair in there." His voice was hoarse. "You ambushed me. You got a stranger to trick me into saying things I did not mean.""You said them, Ethan. In your own voice. In a hotel room.""I was drunk. I was angry. I did not mean a word of it.""You meant every word." I folded my arms. "You just did not expect to be held accountable for them.""This