Unfaithful: Web Of Betrayal

He knew. She could see it in his eyes when they got home from the party. The way he was looking at her … reading her. He was furious, jealous, he was holding it back for some reason, but he knew. She felt it in his thrusts. He had never fucked her like that before. He was raping her in his mind. That was the closest description she could think of. She was being punished. She felt it. How messed up that she actually thought it was the best sex they had ever had throughout their entire marriage?

She touched the bite mark on her left breast. The breast that Roman sucked in that bathroom just hours before. She put her hands on her face as the water washed over her. ‘Fuck’ she muttered to herself.

Declan was not in the bedroom when she stepped out of the shower. The greatest sex of their marriage didn’t change anything. He didn’t come back to bed the whole night as she lay awake until sunrise. He was nowhere in the house when she finally woke up at midday.

She didn’t contact Roman after the brief encounter in the bathroom. She wasn’t sure how she felt about it. And now that she suspected Declan had found out about the affair, she wasn’t sure about anything. She decided to contemplate it with a bottle of wine, and she curled up on the sofa and let her mind wander everywhere until she heard footsteps approaching.

Her heart beat faster. He was quiet. He was standing behind her. She felt him. Then he let out a long exhale. She waited for him to say the first words.

“I want him out of our lives,” he finally said.

She didn’t respond.

He walked over to the pantry and took out an unopened bottle of wine. “This deal with Brian … it’s National news … we can’t afford to have any scandal around it, the risk is too great … you have to get rid of him,” he continued.

He opened the bottle and poured himself a generous amount, then took big gulps while waiting for her answer.

She thought about it and laughed. Softly at first, then louder. He watched her in disbelief.

“Is that all you think about? Your business deal?” she asked calmly beneath her laughter.

It infuriated him.

“That is how I chose to see it! Because if I have to picture my wife’s naked body and another man’s cock … I swear to God, I will fucking kill him!” he screamed from the top of his lungs as he walked over to face her.

She turned her head down and didn’t dare to look at his fiery eyes, his hurt, his anger, she didn’t want to face him.

“How could you do this to me? After what we’ve been through? After everything I’ve done to fix this marriage! … I did everything I could for us to be happy again, Livy! How could you do this to me?”

She understood what it felt like to be at the other end of betrayal. She saw the look on his face and was reminded of it. She also knew nothing she could say or do would make him feel less like shit. It was done. It’s just a matter of time for everything to be out in the open.

“How long have you been lying to me? How long has it been? Ludus?”

She looked up at him when he mentioned the name. She shook her head.

“Did you fuck him on that trip? Which I paid for?” his anger built up with every sentence he produced. “To think he’s Brian Murphy’s son … I’ve been working on this deal for years! Do you know how stupid you make me feel?”

All these questions didn’t need her answers. However, her silence was driving him crazy.

“Well? Say something, God damn it!” he threw his glass over the sofa, and it crashed on the floor behind it.

She kept her head down the whole time and her hand over her forehead. She jolted as the glass crashed behind her. “What can I possibly say to make you feel any better?” she looked up at him. Her face was wet with tears.

“Help me understand, Livy, why? Is it his looks? Really? I never thought of you as someone who would fall for something so shallow … and for God’s sake, Livy, he’s a fucking boy!” he screamed at her.

She kept shaking her head.

Declan walked back and forth. He was in a trance. “It’s like I don’t know you at all!! What was it? Were you just curious? Were you drunk in that boat? And the sex was good?” he creased his brows, trying to make sense of things.

“And all these years … how did you manage to sneak out behind my back until he finally showed his face on our anniversary? The nerves!” he clenched his hand into a fist. These things he just figured out were fueling his anger even more.

Olivia shook her head again. “That’s not how it was … I didn’t see him for two years … until he came to our party.”

Declan grabbed her by the side of her arms. “Then tell me the truth! I need to hear it from you!”

The sudden realization that he’d been lied to for years was agonizing. He couldn’t decipher how she had lived another life he knew nothing about and wanted clarity.

“The truth?” she repeated his words. The last thing he needed to know was the truth. But everybody thought they could handle it and demanded it urgently. They look into each other’s eyes.

“I fell in love with him …” she paused as she witnessed something die in Declan’s eyes. “That’s the truth.”

He let go of her. He put his hands over his face. He shook his head.

“Just the way you fell in love with her … but I always tried to wrap my mind around other reasons why you did it because accepting that you fell in love with someone else while I was ruined was something I didn’t want to do.”

“Don’t you turn this around and make it about me! This is about you! And what YOU did! I buried my mistake a long time ago … I’ve paid for it with tears and sweat for eight years! Eight fucking years. Livy! This is YOU!” he raised his index finger at her. His eyes reddened, and tears were building up inside them.

“I’m not denying it … I fell in love, and I acted upon it … just as you did … that’s all I’m saying.”

“Oh, you want me to understand it? Is that it? Are you justifying it because it happened to me too?”

“No! I’m not justifying it! I hate this! It feels awful … no matter what I do … I’m hurting everyone … what do you want me to say?”This is from NôvelDrama.Org.

Declan fell silent. His jaw tightened. He stared her straight in the eyes, “Get rid of him,” his voice turned low. “End it … I don’t want him in our lives.”

Olivia wiped the tears from her face and sobbed, “And then what?”

His expression was stern, “And then we move on with our lives just as we did before.”

A sarcastic laugh escaped her, “And pretend like this never happened? Are you even listening to yourself? Have we really moved on with our lives? Just because I don’t talk about it doesn’t mean I’m not haunted by what happened … can you really sweep this under the rug and not let it torture you for years to come?”

His whole face was tensed, “If that’s what it takes to save this marriage … so be it! Because that’s what we do … we make mistakes, we forgive, and we move on!”

She shook her head and walked toward the pantry. “You’re in denial … you’re not thinking straight.”

“I’m not throwing our 15 years of marriage for your stupid monkey love with a fucking boy!” his voice went up again.

“It’s not about that, Declan!” she shouted. “Don’t you see?” she approached him. “This marriage is OVER! It had been a long time ago! We just didn’t want to admit it!”

“No!” He grabbed her. “It’s not over! I’m not going to let you give up on us … what about last night? That was us … you and me … we can still do this … and the timing is perfect … we’ll leave for London next month, just you and me … we’ll buy that house, and it’ll be our new start.”

—

Neither of them slept that night. Declan was relentless. He wouldn’t let the day end until he got what he wanted. He didn’t get to be where he is in his career by giving in when faced with hardships. He could talk his way out or into anything, and by God, he was going to talk his way to convince Olivia what a terrible idea it was to quit their marriage.

He loved her. That was his truth. And Roman was a lot lesser man than he was. The boy did not deserve to be with her. That was what he wanted Olivia to believe.

Roman was trying to ruin their marriage. He was sure of that and tried to convince Olivia of the same thing. It was hard to believe, but Olivia couldn’t dismiss it altogether after what happened in that bathroom. She saw another side of Roman he’d never shown before. She realized how much she didn’t know about … the boy.

The boy who fell in love with his Professor. The boy was thirsted by all his mother’s country club friends. The boy who lived on the fourth floor of his gallery. The boy whose every bit of him was not supporting a sustainable relationship with a woman of her stature. The boy hired a girlfriend to deceive his father.

Declan would stop time if he could to talk some sense into the love of his life until she realized why choosing Roman would be the biggest mistake she would ever make in her life.

Declan Hunt had lived up to his reputation as one of the best businessmen in the world when he managed to land the most passionate kiss on his wife’s lips before the Sun rose the next morning. And he saved up their make-up sex for the night after Olivia will finally end it with that fucking boy.