Panic bloomed in Grace's chest. It was one thing to sneak away for secret meetings, but this… this was something else entirely.
"I… I think Ted's already getting suspicious, Ross," she admitted, her voice quiet. She swallowed, glancing away. "I've been with you every weekend. He's bound to notice sooner or later."
Ross chuckled, pletely unconcerned. He reached for her chin, tilting her face up until their eyes met. "Let him suspect," he said smoothly. "That's better than him knowing just how wild and naughty you've bee in my bed."
Grace's face burned, but she couldn't deny the truth in his words.
Ross smirked, his thumb brushing against her lower lip. "You're ing, Grace. Don't disappoint me."
She swallowed hard, torn between fear and the undeniable pull he had over her.
In the end, she knew she had no choice but to agree.
***
"I'm going on a team-building seminar with the pany, Ted. I'll see you on Monday, okay?" Grace lied to her husband for the umpteenth time.
The words had bee second nature to her, spoken without hesitation, but deep down, she couldn't shake the unfortable feeling that was growing inside her.
It wasn't the first time she'd lied, and it probably wouldn't be the last, but as she spoke, part of her almost began to believe her own lies.
She had repeated them so often that they were starting to blur the lines between what was real and what was fabricated.
"Okay, don't turn off your phone, alright? I'll be calling you at night," Ted replied, a smile on his face, though it didn't reach his eyes.
Grace nodded quickly, brushing aside the nagging guilt that bubbled up inside her as she grabbed her things and left the house.
Once the door clicked shut behind her, Ted stood there for a moment, staring at the spot where she had been. He knew something was off, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
The routine had bee too predictable. He shook his head, trying to push the nagging thoughts from his mind, but they wouldn't go away.
He pulled out his phone and opened the app he had secretly installed weeks ago. The screen flickered for a moment, then a map appeared, showing Grace's location.
A small dot moved across the map, indicating her precise whereabouts. Ted's jaw clenched. The small flicker of doubt that had been nagging him for weeks had now turned into something more concrete.
He didn't waste a second. With a deep breath, he quickly dressed and left the house, heading toward the destination the app pointed to.
It didn't take him long to arrive at the location. But when he saw her, standing there in the pany of someone else, his heart dropped into his stomach. His pulse quickened, and his mind raced.
"Ross fucking Oakley!" Ted growled under his breath. He could hardly believe his eyes. There, standing in front of Grace, was none other than his former boss.
Ross Oakley, the man whose pany he had left some time ago, the man who had been the subject of so much fear and terror in Ted's life.
A surge of emotion—anger, betrayal, frustration—flooded Ted's chest. The urge to march right over and confront them both, to demand answers, was overwhelming.
His fists clenched at his sides, his body itching with the need to act. But something held him back.
"Does he know that I stole money from him?" Ted's mind raced, the terrifying possibility hanging over him like a dark cloud. His chest tightened as the weight of the question seemed to swallow him whole.
The fear of being discovered, the thought of everything ing crashing down, was almost too much to bear. He stood still for a moment, eyes wide, his heart hammering in his chest as panic surged within him.
But then, with a deep breath, Ted forced himself to calm down. He could not afford to let fear consume him. He had worked so hard to cover his tracks, to hide every trace of what he had done.
"No, no," he muttered to himself, shaking his head. "If he knew, I'd already be behind cold bars." The thought of being caught sent a shudder through him, but the reality was that he hadn't been caught. Not yet.
He ran his hands through his hair, trying to clear his mind, but the doubt lingered.
"I'm careful. I covered everything up. He has no idea. I haven't made any mistakes." Still, the nagging question wouldn't go away.
What if something had slipped through? What if he had been too careless, too confident in his own ability to cover it up? The thought of being exposed was too much to bear.
Ted took another deep breath, forcing his racing thoughts into submission.
"Focus. Stay calm," he told himself. He couldn't afford to let paranoia take control of him. Not now, not when everything seemed to be working in his favor.
With a last, uncertain glance over his shoulder, Ted shook off the unease, trying to ignore the uneasiness crawling up his spine. He was still in control, he told himself. He was in control.
He took a deep breath, steadying himself. Ted then looked at his wife Grace once again and thought of why of all people she was meeting Ross Oakley.
Ted had to remind himself that Grace wasn't the kind of woman to lie without a reason. She had always been honest with him, or so he thought. There had to be an explanation, something he wasn't seeing.
"Is she having an affair with Ross?!" Ted feared for the worst and he could feel the pain in his heart.
Instead of charging in, he made a decision. He would watch. He would wait and observe, trying to make sense of the situation.
He watched them for a while, keeping his distance, hidden in the shadows. His heart pounded in his chest as he tried to make sense of everything.
The sight of them together, so fortable, so close—it twisted something inside him. But he didn't move.
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