The Revenge Affair My Bestfriend's Husband Offered Me Chapter 3: Chapter 3 The Collision

Read chapter 3 of The Revenge Affair My Bestfriend's Husband Offered Me by NaykoAyasame on NovelPedia.

"Jovienne." Just her name. It hung there like a verdict. He took one step forward. "There you are." Jovi shrank. The confident, radiant woman I'd known since childhood seemed to disappear into herself. She looked from Vance's impassive face to mine, her eyes wide with a panic I'd never seen. This wasn't a drama she could control. She was looking at two facts she couldn't spin: her husband and her best friend, the wife of her lover emerging from a hotel room together at dawn. "Vance," she whispered. Her voice broke. Zane found his voice first. A raw, protective anger tore out of him. He stepped slightly in front of Jovi-a protective gesture of a devoted lover shield her from danger, or anything that could hurt her. It hit me right into my chest. That had always been his position. Her shield, her protector. I'd always been the one standing beside him. Not behind him. "What the hell is this, Nerissa?" His gaze burned into me, ignoring Vance entirely. Vance answered. Quiet. Calm. Deadly. "The question, Mr. Sullivan, is what this is." His cold gaze swept the inch of space between Zane and Jovi. "Are you here as her marriage counselor? Or as the lover she'll leave when it gets difficult?" Zane flinched. "You don't get to talk to her like that." "And you," Vance said, turning his full attention on Zane, "do not get to question my employee after you were caught with my wife. There's no confusion about who is more at fault here." Jovi made a small, hurt sound. "Vance, please. Nothing happened with Zane. We were just talking. We fell asleep. It was innocent." The lie was so weak, so insulting, that a bitter laugh almost escaped me. I saw the same disdain flicker in Vance's eyes, just a second before it was completely gone. "You're not a convincing liar, Jovienne." He held out his hand, not to take hers, but as a demand. "We're leaving. Now." Jovi looked at Zane. A silent, desperate message passed between them. I saw Zane's jaw tighten, the conflict in his eyes. the need to protect her fighting with the understanding that he'd lost any right to do so. That we'd lost it. With a shaky breath, Jovi stepped away from Zane. She walked past Vance's outstretched hand, her head down, looking utterly defeated. She stopped by the elevator, a picture of beautiful misery, defeated by the frost of her cold powerful husband. Vance gave Zane one last look of pure contempt. Then his eyes shifted to me. Just for a second, his cold CEO expression changed. I saw something fierce and controlled-and a question. Are you with me? Then he turned and joined his wife at the elevator. The doors slid open, then closed, and they were gone. Leaving me alone with my husband in the bright, quiet hallway. The fight seemed to go out of Zane the moment the elevator left. "Nerissa..." he began. His voice was rough. I thought he would apologize. Instead- "What were you doing with him, Nerissa?" His voice was sharp. Accusing. "What am I supposed to think?" I stared at him. The audacity of it, after what I'd walked in on, was almost laughable. He stepped closer. "I saw the way he looked at you. I saw you coming out of that hotel room together, both of you in the same clothes as yesterday. What am I supposed to believe?" "You want to know what happened?" I heard my own voice, empty and hollow. "I went to a bar. I got drunk because I was too broken. I almost got attacked by two strangers. And then he showed up and stopped it. That's it." Zane's face went through a series of emotions, relief, guilt, then suspicion again. "You expect me to believe that? That he just happened to rescue you? You spent the night in a hotel room with him, Nerissa. Don't tell me nothing happened." I stared at him, stunned. The fact that he didn't believe me right now burned the guilt and shame I had felt before. I tugged at a smile so strained it hurt worse than crying. "That' s right. I should have stopped expecting anything from you long ago." I could feel the exhaustion settling into my bones. I wa