Chapter 11
FELIX
I drove home on autopilot, exhaustion pulling on my limbs.
A month had passed since Stella had returned to the company, and I was yet to snatch five solitary minutes with my wife.
Ever since the scandal about Jake and his idiotic plan for blackmail broke, Stella had been wading knee-deep in shit. Finally, after a gruelling fortnight, we managed to break the contract and cut ties with the crazy asshole.
However, our sons were also feeling the strain. They primarily stayed with their grandpa, attending school and daycare—just while we dealt with the work emergency.
But they missed their mum.
When we did get time with them, they demanded her undivided attention. I didn’t blame them, as I was starving for the same.
I craved her energy, time and the searing connection that had always sparked when we caught eyes. I hadn’t seen that stare in a long time.
My fingers drummed against the steering wheel as my mind ticked over with strategies on how I could sequester my wife away from the world to have her all to myself.
I couldn’t remember when we last did something for ourselves—or even worse, when we were last intimate.
Fuck. How is Stella not the last person I’ve been with? How could I let that happen?
My grip tightened, which made my wedding band dig into my skin. A thought ignited from the sheen of jewellery I never removed… even when I was fucking someone else.
I pushed past the lingering shame and let the idea formulate. With all the commotion of work and children, I had forgotten our ten-year wedding anniversary that was in two weeks. Just another sin to add to the rest.
However, a pebble of hope began to form. Our anniversary was the perfect opportunity to show Stella how much I loved her. To display through actions that she was the one I chose, the person I wanted, and who I vowed to stay married to forever.
Despite my fucked-up transgressions and losing my way through a mere moment of weakness, there was one irrefutable fact.
Stella was mine, and I was hers. In every sense of the word.
I swore to never take her for granted again. And what better way to show her than by celebrating ten beautiful years of marriage?
I had fourteen days to create the most magical night. And right then and there, I vowed that it would be the beginning of a new chapter for us. I would move on from my regret and self-disgust, and pour all of myself into my family—where it always should have been.
As I turned the last street corner and my driveway came into view, that tiny piece of hope shrivelled into a burning pile of ash.
Heather’s car was parked outside my house. Why the fuck is she here? Thank god Stella is still at work.
Barely registering putting my car in park, I ran up to the front door, which was unlocked. Without making a sound, I slipped through the entrance and roamed the house, searching for the psycho stalker bitch.
That was when my heart nearly stopped dead in my chest as I processed Heather relaxing back on my couch as she chucked a piece of chocolate at her feet, where my two-year-old son, Phoenix, sat. My boy didn’t waste any time, gobbling the morsel up with speed.
I took one shaky step forward.
“What the fuck are you doing here… with. My. Son?”
I didn’t yell, hardly raised my voice, but that didn’t stop the sinister undertone from leaking through. I was livid.
I’ll kill her for this, for touching my baby. I’ll kill her.
“Finally,” she snapped. “It’s not in my job description to play babysitter. I should get paid extra for the inconvenience.”
Heather stood, ignored Phoenix and approached me with an extra sway to her hips. “Or maybe you can pay me some other way, Bossman?”
I circled her to stand in front of my son, creating a barricade. Phoenix didn’t look hurt, just messy and covered in mushed chocolate.
“What the fuck are you doing in my house?” I spat.
Fucking coming into my family home… my safe space… Stella’s haven… My kids’ fucking shelter. Fucking. Fuck! What have I brought into our lives!?
Heather dared to step closer, a flirty smirk playing on her lips. “Your wife ordered me to pick up your little gremlin from daycare and look after him until you got home. They called to say he was sick, but he looks fine to me.”
“Like you know anything about children. You should have said no.”
“No?” She clucked her tongue. “You know I’ve never been good at saying no, especially to my boss.”
“Get the fuck out of my house, Heather.”
“Stella said—”
“Now,” I interrupted before grabbing her arm and shepherding her out of the room to the front foyer. “Don’t ever come back here.” My skin was boiling, almost splitting from the rage pumping through my veins.
We were alone, and I was afraid… In case my fury spilled over, and I legitimately strangled her to death.
And instead of heeding the warning, that bitch shoved past those self-preservation instincts, and decided to run a loose hand down my chest.
“Felix,” she said, all breathy and inviting. “No one’s here, and I require payment. You’re going to give it to me, aren’t you?”
“Like fuck I am. Get your hands off me and get your crazy ass out of my goddamn house before I—”
That was when movement in my peripheral caught my attention. My gaze flicked to the cracked front door as dread engulfed my nervous system.
Eli was in the doorway, blue eyes—just like his mother’s—openly appraising and assessing the woman… whose palm remained on his father’s chest. My chest.
I staggered backwards, letting her hand drop between us. Then, Heather plastered on a fake smile and turned to my oldest. “Hi, you must be Eli. I’ve heard so much about you—”
“Eli. Go and grab your brother and get him cleaned up. He’s in the living room.”
Is my voice shaking? Do I sound suspicious? Am I acting normal? What did he hear? Is he going to ask questions?
My son hesitated a beat, his gaze bouncing to Heather once more. And when my lungs seized from lack of breathing, my eleven-year-old shuffled past without a word.
I was terrified of what he was going to say. Instead, it was his silence that said the most.