Page 25 of Jealous Wife

Chapter 10

So wrong yet it feels so right

Rollocouldfeeltheangercomingoffhiminhotwaves,dissipatingintotheairaroundhim,fillingthewholeroomwithit.Hepacedaroundbetweenthekitchenandlivingareas,chewingontheedgesofhisfingersandnails.Hefeltmotionsickanddizzyfromallthepacingbutthatdidn’tmeanhewasinthemoodtostop.Wheneverhedid,hismindwouldstartracing.Thiswastheonlywaytokeephimselfsomewhatcalm.

Zoey had left hours ago. She’d helped him relax, but the benefits of her oral therapy had been fleeting. Soon after she’d gone, the thoughts began to creep back into his mind.

Being at home alone, stewing in his own thoughts was never a good thing, not while he was angry. He’d been free-falling for hours as he waited for Ava to return home. All he could think about was their upcoming fight. What he would say, what he would do, how he would get through to her that her obsessive behavior had to end.

Christ, he thought.Does she want a divorce? Is this her way of trying to end our marriage?

To Rollo, it seemed like it. Why the hell would she practically beg him to fuck Zoey then go and break into her apartment? It just didn’t make any logical sense. Why would she be acting like this if she didn’t want out? It was like she’d gone crazy overnight and now he was left to deal with the fallout.

Stop it,he thought.Stop thinking about it. I’ll drive myself insane and then no one will be able to save this fucking marriage.

Rollo let his hand drop away from his mouth as he continued to pace. He held his hands out to look at them. The skin all around his fingers had been chewed to a pulp and his nails were looking ragged and uneven.

Sighing, he moved into the kitchen and opened up the drawer at the very end of the counter. It was his crap drawer—the one place that Ava let him put all of his miscellaneous items. In there were his nail clippers. He grabbed them from the drawer and leaned his elbows on the countertops, slowly trimming away all the destroyed skin.

I am going crazy,he thought solemnly.Look what I’ve let Ava do to me. She’s not only destroying this marriage, but she’s destroying me as well.

From that moment on, Rollo knew what he had to do. He needed to make Ava see what she was doing to their lives—how she was tearing everything they ever loved apart—and it needed to end. Today. Now.

Rollo tossed the clippers back into the drawer and slammed it shut. The anger was coming back, stronger than ever. Everything Ava had done kept pulsing behind his eyes. It was taking over his mind. There was nothing else he could think about, even if he wanted to.

When the front door opened, Rollo found his eyes shooting to it immediately. Ava was trying to remove her key from the lock, yanking at the door as she twisted and turned the key. Rollo stood there, bemused, watching her.

She hadn’t seen him yet, standing in the middle of the room, but Rollo was happy to wait. Just seeing her made his skin crawl—not a good sign for their marriage. All of the anger bubbled up inside of him, causing his abdomen to tense and release over and over.

As Ava came inside, chucking her purse onto the floor along with her high-heeled shoes, Rollo realized that she was still wearing that coat she’d been seen wearing at Zoey’s. Without a doubt, he knew that her shades and wig would be hidden away in her purse.

Unable to believe the audacity, Rollo silently walked over to her. She looked up at him when she saw him moving. A wide smile spread over her lips as she focused on him, her eyes following him as he approached.

“Hey,” she said gently.

Rollo didn’t reply. He kept on walking until he was standing over her purse. Then he reached down and grabbed it. Ava frowned at him but she didn’t look overly concerned.

“What are you doing?” She asked calmly. “Is everything okay?”

Rollo stared at her, his mouth a thin line and his eyes squinting. “Where were you today?” He asked.

He saw Ava gulp. He heard the sound of her swallowing saliva. “Why?”

“Where were you?” Rollo snapped.

Ava looked down at the floor as she shut the front door behind her. Rollo looked out to the front yard. The whole world outside was wrapped in a thick blanket of purple-black darkness. All of the little lamps along the path were illuminated, shining their bright yellow light on the stone path.

“Don’t make me ask again,” Rollo sighed.

Ava finally looked up to him. “I was out,” she said.

And then she walked away from him, smoothing down her hair as she made her way into the kitchen. Rollo followed her, still clutching her purse. He stood on the cusp of the kitchen, staring at her back as she opened the fridge.

“What do you mean by out?” Rollo asked.

Ava froze. “Why are you acting so weird?”

Clearly, she wasn’t going to admit what she’d done, and Rollo wasn’t going to play these games anymore. He slammed her purse down on the kitchen counter and began searching through it. Ava protested, shouting at him as he rummaged through her belongings.