𝐅𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 [𝟏𝟖+]

25

This entire chapter is written in third person pov

6k words! Don't forget to vote and comment lol

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It had taken Hayden six days and seventeen hours to find his wife, who had run away again. He should have long given up on searching for her, and he would have if it was someone else but his wife. His wife, a woman filled with idiocy, was the only one who would make him this desperate. He found her in one of the living rooms of their guest house at Arkney Island. Since he was sure she was positively engaged with him, he anticipated her to be anywhere but this place where he had nursed her broken pieces to life.

Why was she mad at him, anyway? Whose mistake was it that she had not trusted him at all? Didn't she even have the common sense to talk to him first?

"What are you doing here, Katrina?" He enquired, drawing her eyes from the scene beyond the window to his figure.

"Contemplating how I should forgive a cheater." Her voice, usually so light and sweet, was edged with surliness.

Rage arced through him. "I thought you had no forgiving bone in your body."

"I don't," she agreed. "But when it comes to you, Hayden, I've been making shitty excuses for your infidelity. I want to blame it on alcohol. On Katalina's red hair. On the circumstances. I keep telling myself that you were heavily drunk and imagined it was me. Perhaps I would have believed that reason if you told me the truth."

"Would you, Katrina?"

Her eyes flicked to him. "Of Course, I would."

"If you do, we wouldn't be here."

"How do I trust you when every evidence points to your cheating? It was on one of those nights you were not with me. You left me back in London. How do I believe you hadn't cheated on me?"

"Regardless of our problems, I don't make such mistakes." Hayden held on to his patience.

"Look me in the eye and tell me you've not cheated."

Stalking closer to her, he met her gaze without wavering. They stared at each other in a wordless challenge.

A long moment passed, his wife's eyes not leaving his face. Finally, she glanced away from him and gave an imperceptible shake of the head.

"I did not." When his words were met with utter silence, he raised his voice and continued, "Stop projecting your insecurities onto me."

"Your son inherited your green eyes." A rueful note entered her voice.

A new fury flooded Hayden's chest. "The boy with green eyes isn't my son. He isn't my anything. The night you accused me of sleeping with that woman Katalina, had I been in that club? Yes. Had she served me drinks? Yes. Had I been toshed? Yes. But I had passed out in Liam's penthouse and not in a hotel suite, as your trusted evidence claims."

"Look, it's just..." Her voice cracked, fighting an irrational urge to burst into tears. "I desperately want to believe your words but I have been cheated on before, and I don't want to be put through the same thing. If it's a drunk mistake, just admit it as such."

Now he was truly annoyed.

"No, it wasn't a drunk mistake." He leaned forward and lowered his voice as if they were not alone in the house. "It was a very conscious decision on my part."

She jerked as if he had punched her.

"I hate you!" His incredibly stupid wife bit her lip and looked away, her fists clenching as if she could physically knock away the unpleasant words that hung so insistently between them.