Our Affairs
For three long years, my husband Richard has refused to touch me. All because of one tragic accident that stole our three-month-old baby... an accident that wasn't even my fault.
I tried everything to win him back. I begged, I cried, I seduced. Nothing worked.
Desperate and burning with unmet desire, I found myself drawn to my new boss, Teddy. With one smoldering look, he awakens the fire I thought had died inside me. I crave him. I need him. But I'm still married... and I still love Richard with all my heart.
Then came the business trip that shattered everything.
In a single night, I discovered Richard's secret-he's been cheating on me all along.
Rage and years of pent-up hunger collided. That night, I finally unleashed.
But after the trip what becomes of me, my husband and my boss, even his lover.
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Chapter 6
A little while later I slipped down to the company coffee shop. I ordered a latte and was heading back when I froze. There she was-the same woman I'd seen with Richard in Hawaii. I could see her vividly from the glass door. Our eyes met; she blanched and quickly turned away, walking faster.
I started after her-instinct, not thought-when Brooke appeared, hurrying toward me.
"Where the hell have you been? I've been looking everywhere for you."
I stared at Brooke confused about what to say for a while.
I lifted the cup. "Getting coffee. See?"
She studied me for a long beat. "You've been acting strange lately, Payton. Is there something I should know?"
"No. Trust me." I said looking over Brooke if I could still see her but she was gone.
"You're supposed to be in your office-not me covering for you."
"Fine," I said, linking my arm through hers. "Let's go."
That evening I drove home, mind still churning. A sleek black car rolled past me just as I turned into the driveway. I frowned. We rarely had visitors, especially not in the evenings unless it was a special occasion.
I parked, stepped out, and glanced back toward the gate, still puzzled.
Inside, Richard was waiting right at the door.
"Baby, you're home early," he said, a nervous edge beneath the smile.
"Who was that?" I nodded toward the wide glass window that overlooked the gate.
He scratched the back of his head. "Huh? Just a friend. Business talk."
"At this hour?" I dropped my bag on the console and crossed my arms.
He closed the distance quickly, hands gentle on my upper arms. "I know we agreed-no late visitors-but this was important. Trust me, okay?"
I held his gaze for several seconds. "Is there something you want to tell me, Richard?"
He smiled-too easily-and slid his hands up to cup my face. "Actually, yes. We're going on that trip this weekend. Just us."
"Really?"
"Yes, my love. I've missed you." His lips brushed my ear-my weak spot-and he whispered, "Your beautiful body..." before capturing my mouth in a deep, hungry kiss.
For a moment I let myself believe it. The vulnerability, the heat-it felt like the old Richard. A dream I'd almost given up on.
But the truth clawed at the edges: him cheating. Me cheating. The lies stacking higher every day. I couldn't keep doing this.
I pulled back gently, cradling his face. "Why don't we wait until the trip? Make it special."
He searched my eyes, with concern flickering. "Baby, are you sure you're okay?"
"I'm fine. Just tired from work. I need to rest."
"Alright. Dinner's on me tonight." He pressed one last soft kiss to my lips.
"Hmm. I'll go, freshen up first."
I slipped away to the bedroom, closing the door behind me, finally able to breathe.
The weight of everything pressed down harder than ever.
I sank deeper into the warm bathwater, bubbles clinging to my skin, but all I could think about was Teddy.
The way his hands moved over me these past few weeks-slow, deliberate, possessive. The way his eyes darkened with raw hunger every time they locked on mine. A small, secret smile curved my lips. What more could a woman possibly want than to feel so fiercely desired?
But then there was Richard.
Suddenly he was trying to be nice again, playing the perfect husband. And that woman-his lover-had the nerve to show up at my workplace today. Something wasn't right. I could feel it in my bones.
I stood up, water streaming down my skin, dried off with a towel, and slipped into my silk robe. Grabbing my phone from the vanity, I fired off a quick text to my private investigator.
Me: Hello Tom, what have you found? Not quite long, he replied.
Tom: Hello ma'am. Her name is Elizabeth Andres, originally from Germany. Not much yet, but I'll have more for you before tomorrow night.
I set the phone down and took a deep breath. Time to face the performance waiting downstairs.
Richard had already set the table-fried chicken, noodles, hot dogs, and a bottle of my favorite red wine. Soft, slow music played in the background, the kind we used to dance to years ago. I smiled despite myself as he pulled out my chair like a gentleman.
"Here you go, my love," he murmured, pressing a kiss to my cheek.
"Thanks, hun."
We ate in near silence for a while. I watched him across the table, studying the familiar lines of his face, the way he cut his chicken with precision. I remembered the first time we met-him nearly running me over in the parking lot because he was late for some important meeting. How he'd jumped out of the car, wide-eyed and apologetic, insisting on making it right. He'd taken me to a fancy restaurant to "make it up to me," and we'd laughed until the place closed. God, I really did love my husband.
But Teddy...
"So... Do you like it?" Richard's voice pulled me back.
"Like what?"
"The food."
"Oh-yes, my love." I tilted my head, genuinely curious. "What's the occasion? It's been years since you last cooked for me."
He reached across the table and took my left hand, his thumb brushing over my wedding ring.
"Babe, I'm sorry. For everything. I love you. I want this-us-to work." His eyes were soft, sincere. "Business has taken too much of me lately, but I swear I'm going to make it up to you."
Business. Right.
I stared at him, searching for cracks in the performance. His eyes looked earnest, almost pleading. For a moment I almost believed him.
"You look extremely handsome tonight," I said quietly.
He froze for half a second, then let out a loud, genuine laugh-the same deep, unguarded sound he used to make when we were new and stupid in love. The first real laugh I'd heard from him in three years. My heart lurched. I wanted to climb across the table, wrap my arms around him, kiss him until we both forgot the last few years.
Then his phone rang.
His expression changed instantly, the laughter dying as if it had never existed. He glanced at the screen and stood up.
"I have to take this," he said, already standing. "Be right back."
He walked into the living room, phone to his ear, trying to keep his voice low. Every few seconds he glanced back at me and flashed that practiced smile, as if to prove everything was fine.
I wasn't fooled.
It was her. I knew it was her-that bitch-calling my husband.
And Richard? He was just putting on another show so I wouldn't suspect a thing. I don't know what game he is playing or what he thinks all this is all about but I will make sure to get to the bottom of this. I have to know what is really going on.
Elizabeth. Who is she really? And what does she really want?
He returned to the dining room and sat down. As he began to eat, it was clear he wasn't himself. After the phone call, he seemed distant-confused, slightly troubled.
"Richard, what's wrong?" I asked. concern tightening my voice.
"Oh babe, it's just business issues," he said quietly. "I'll have to go back to Seattle."
Fear stabbed through me the moment he said Seattle. He was going to see her again. I couldn't believe he was lying to my face-again.
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7.9
For years, Elara Park endured being called "half-breed" and "weak blood" at pack meetings. Because she was a hybrid wolf, she trusted Zack Blackwood's sweet promises.
Then he rejected their fated mate bond moments after claiming her body.
Before she could even breathe through the soul-crushing agony, the news was already celebrating his engagement to her vindictive stepsister, Selina. The headlines gushed about their "perfect pureblooded union."
Her mother's call came like a final blow: "Elara, you're twenty-three now. It's time you contributed to the family."
Marry the worthless second son of a prominent Alpha family or lose her father's empire forever. They had her trapped, ready to steal her birthright and leave her powerless.
But as the heartbreak bled out, ice-cold determination took its place.
Elara went to the arranged meeting at the city's most exclusive club, determined to turn her mother's matchmaking scheme to her advantage. She would agree to marriage-but on her own terms.
When she found who she believed was Damian Sterling in the private suite, she cut straight to business: a contract marriage with clear boundaries, separate lives, and a guaranteed escape route.
What she didn't know? The devastatingly dangerous man who'd just signed her contract with a predator's smile wasn't the pathetic playboy she expected.
He was Dominic Wolfe-the Alpha King who'd been relentlessly hunting her for years.
And now, she'd just signed herself over to him completely.
9.7
I was seven years into a perfect relationship, engaged to the man who helped me overcome my fear of commitment. I was even secretly pregnant with our first child.
A pet-sitting gig led me straight into the heart of his betrayal-a luxury apartment he shared with his mistress of a year. She had hired me personally to discover it all.
She then framed me for stealing the family ring he had promised me. At the police station, my fiancé rushed in not to defend me, but to shield her.
When I confronted him, he shoved me. Hard.
I hit the floor and lost our baby.
In the hospital, he had the audacity to beg for forgiveness, promising we could just "try again."
I saw the guilt in his eyes and used it. I made him sign over every asset we owned as penance. The moment the money was mine, I vanished. He thought he was buying my forgiveness.
He was funding my revenge.
8.1
On my wedding day, the wedding planner looked at me with pity in her eyes.
She told me the groom had called with a last-minute request. He wanted the name on the floral arch changed from "Elena" to "Sofia."
Five years of loyalty to Dante Romero, and I found out he was planning a "secret" ceremony with his mistress an hour before ours.
He claimed she was dying of cancer. He said it was her final wish to be a bride, and that as a good mafia wife, I should understand. He swore it was just charity.
But I had seen the texts where he called me "furniture."
I had watched him step over my body when I fell down the stairs at a club, just so he could leave with her.
And this morning, I watched Sofia walk into the hotel lobby wearing *my* custom French lace wedding dress, smirking as she clung to his arm.
Dante thinks I'm crying in the bridal suite.
He thinks I will sit in the front row of his "fake" wedding and wait for my turn like a dutiful puppet.
He is wrong.
I wiped my tears and picked up my phone. I didn't cancel the wedding date. I just changed the location to the ballroom next door.
And I changed the groom.
As Dante says his vows to his mistress, I am walking down the aisle to meet the only man the Romero family fears.
The Reaper.
7.5
Daisy spent her birthday cooking a perfect dinner, waiting in their massive penthouse for her billionaire husband, Emmett.
Instead of coming home, a breaking news alert flashed on her screen: Emmett was at the hospital, protectively shielding his old flame, Eryn. When Daisy rushed to the VIP ward, Emmett physically blocked her to comfort a crying Eryn, completely forgetting it was his wife's birthday.
Heartbroken, Daisy demanded a divorce and fled. In response, Emmett ruthlessly froze all her bank accounts and trust funds, leaving her penniless in the freezing Manhattan rain. When she cornered him with divorce papers at a public funeral, a heavy metal cart slammed into her, tearing her calf wide open. Bleeding onto the marble floor, she begged him to sign. Instead, Emmett violently ripped the bloody papers to shreds.
"Unless I am dead, you are my wife," he snarled, locking her inside a room.
Daisy risked her life to escape through a window, dragging her bleeding leg to a dingy motel. But the real nightmare began when Eryn called. The tragic car crash that killed Daisy's adoptive parents ten years ago wasn't an accident—the brake lines were cut. And Emmett, the man she loved, had been using his vast corporate empire to protect the murderers all along.
Why did Emmett bury the police report? What was the deadly secret behind her true identity and the antique "Venus" necklace? Staring at her blood-stained hands in the cracked mirror, the terrified wife died. Daisy grabbed her coat and limped out into the dark, heading straight for the Navy Yard to burn his empire to the ground.
9.6
For five years, Elyse loved Trevor with everything she had, yet it meant nothing when his former lover returned-pregnant.
Reduced to the city's joke, Elyse chose dignity and handed him divorce papers, walking away with nothing.
But when both women fell into the water, he didn't hesitate-he saved the other.
"I'm sorry... she's pregnant," he said, shattering what remained of her love.
She disappeared without a trace. Three years later, she returned as a world-renowned actress, radiant and untouchable.
When Trevor knelt before her, begging, "Don't leave me..." She only watched, her heart long turned cold.
He pleaded, "Please give me another chance, okay?"
9.0
Angelena was the proud heiress of the wealthy Beasley family, until a single drink shattered her life.
Drugged by her jealous cousin and best friend, she stumbled into the wrong hotel suite and lost her innocence to a terrifying, authoritative stranger.
The next morning, reporters burst through the door, their camera flashes blinding her.
"Look at this mess! You were so desperate for money you'd sleep with some old man?"
Her cousin orchestrated the entire scandal to steal her inheritance. Her grandmother publicly disowned her, stripped her of her trust fund, and banished her from New York in absolute disgrace.
Seven months later, bleeding out in a freezing off-the-grid cabin, Angelena gave birth to quadruplets.
But as she slipped into unconsciousness, a corrupt black-market midwife stole her two newborn sons and sold them into the blizzard, leaving Angelena with only her twin daughters.
She clutched the single platinum cufflink the stranger had left behind, her heart shattered. She couldn't understand why her own blood relatives would destroy her so viciously, or who the monster was that took her innocence.
But the agonizing betrayal ignited a white-hot, burning vow for revenge.
Five years later, she returned to the city not as a broken outcast, but as a legendary underground doctor and a ruthless biotech CEO.
And the very first billionaire she clashed with was Fabian Richmond, a paranoid tyrant who unknowingly possessed her stolen sons—and the exact same platinum crest.