The room was utterly silent.
After what felt like an eternity, Felicia spoke, her voice as calm and still as a frozen lake. “Max, do you know why I came back?”
Max stood motionless, his gaze locked on her slender back. His lips were pressed into a tight line, but he said nothing.
“For five years, you dragged your feet on the divorce. I knew perfectly well that even if I took it to court, I might not win against you,” Felicia continued, her tone flat but laced with an almost imperceptible sorrow. “I thought, maybe this was my chance to get my revenge. To make you suffer the way I did. But you’re too smart for that. How could you not guess what I was thinking? So you played along, putting on a show of a loving, doting husband. You thought you could make me drown in that illusion, in the seemingly happy family life with Anne, and make me stay with you willingly.”
She paused, then let out a self-deprecating laugh. “But now I know, I really overestimated myself. I never had it in me. All I’ve been doing is struggling in this clear-eyed agony. In your eyes, I’m probably just as pathetic as I was five years ago.”
At some point, Max had silently moved behind her. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into a tight embrace. He rested his chin gently on the crown of her head, his deep, magnetic voice raspy. “You don’t have to think of me as so infallible. I’m a normal man. Who wouldn’t be tempted by your beauty and talent? I’m no different. So it wasn’t all an act. We have such a smart, wonderful daughter. The part about wanting to raise her with you… that was all real.”
As he spoke, his hand gently covered hers, prying her clenched fingers open. He rubbed his thumb over her cool fingertips, then slowly buried his face in the crook of her neck. His warm breath ghosted across her skin, his voice a seductive whisper. “We still have a long future ahead of us. I’ll make it up to you. All the pain from the past will fade.”
His voice was husky, carrying a hypnotic power meant to soothe her.
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