Crestfallen [COMPLETED]

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ - 37

Alex

My palms are slick with sweat, my heart racing as I stand outside his apartment.

The realization dawns on me that I could uncover something even worse than the pain I felt yesterday.

The man who has become my nightmares - Jason, the other man, the one my wife had an affair with.

Is she here?
The doubt gnaws at me.

I hesitate for a moment, dread gripping me, before I summon the courage to knock on the door.

The door opens, and I enter without sparing a glance for the guy standing by the gate.

"Where's my wife?" My voice is tense, my anxiety barely concealed beneath the surface.

"I don't know," Jason replies, his face a mask of indifference.

"Where is she?" My voice tightens with urgency, my heart pounding in my chest.

"She left with you last night. That's the last I've seen of her," Jason responds, his voice calm.

Without another word, I walk into his bedroom, my steps lagging and cautious.

I can't bring myself to look directly at the bed, where she was with him. last night and countless others.

The very thought twists my insides with disgust, anger and heartbreak coursing through me.

As I scan the room for any trace of Joanna, my eyes fall on her absence. She's not here, not in this place.

Finally, I decide to leave the apartment. As I turn to go, his voice breaks through the tension-filled silence.

"What did you do to her?"

I pause, my body tense as I face him.

"What did you say?" My voice is laced with an anger I can't suppress.

"What did you do to Joanna that she left in the middle of the night? Did you hurt her?" Jason's voice is probing, his expression wary.

"That's none of your business, asshole. What I did with my wife. Where she is. Stay out of our marriage." My words are sharp, a venomous warning.

"I won't if you hurt the woman I-" Jason starts, his voice wavering.

"You love her?" I interrupt mockingly, my voice dripping with cynicism.

"You can't. Not more than me. No one can."

My words, though aimed at him, are also a desperate reassurance to myself.

I can't let the doubt creep in, the fear that he might be able to provide something to her that I never could.

"Neither does she. You were just a fling. But it's over. Stay away from her," I fire back, my anger fueling my resolve.

"Or?" Jason's challenge hangs in the air, his gaze unwavering.

"Or? I can do much worse." I gesture towards his wounded jaw.

"You can't meet her, you can't touch her, you can't look at her.
you can't breathe the same air she does.
You are not even allowed to think about Joanna.
If you do, I will kill you, and not a muscle in my body would flinch doing it," I warn him leveling him with a deadly stare.

I begin to leave, to distance myself from this hellhole.

But his words stop me, force me to face him one last time.

"No matter why she left you..." Jason's voice trails off, and I turn to face him.

"Joanna is an amazing woman. I knew it the first time she stormed into that court, swept away the case as if it were nothing."
Jason's words hit me leaving a bitterness in my mouth.

He smiles his eyes turning darker.

"But even more. When we kissed for the first time, in the office, that night. I knew it for a fact that she'll be a goddess in bed."

I flinch gulping back the disgust his words evoke. I want to hit him again, maybe break a few unfixable bones. But my priority right now lies in bringing back my wife home.

"Maybe she can never love me the way she loves you," Jason's words pierces through me, striking at my insecurities.

"But you don't deserve her," he adds, his words resonating in the space.

"She's too good for both of us, actually," Jason's statement hangs in the air, the truth of it hitting me with a force that leaves me reeling. " I will still try though, for her."

I exit his apartment, his words linger in my mind, poisoning my thoughts.