Page 26 of Jealous Wife

When he felt the keycard in his hand, he snatched it out of the purse and held it up in front of her face. Rollo didn’t have any words to say to her. He was just too furious. Ava was clearly so caught up in this fantasy of hers that she had no idea the amount of damage she was doing to their marriage.

“How do you explain this?” Rollo snapped. “Huh?”

Ava pretended to not know what the keycard was, or what it represented.

“This is Zoey’s keycard,” Rollo raised his voice, feeling the veins in his neck start to pop out of his skin. “Why do you have the keycard to Zoey’s apartment in your bag?”

Ava clenched her jaw. “I could ask you the same thing.”

“I have it for emergencies,” Rollo shouted with such force, his stomach clenched, causing his body to curl up a little. “She has no one else in the city! What if something happens to her? Are her parents supposed to drop everything and come to her aid? They can’t do that. She needs a friend in the city.”

“A friend,” Ava repeated bitterly. “Sure, you’re herfriend.”

“Ava,” Rollo said, his voice curt. “You need to stop obsessing over this. Not only are you ruining our marriage, but you’re ruining someone else’s life as well.”

“I’m not ruining anything,” Ava spat back.

Rollo couldn’t stand talking to her. She was so defensive, even though she was clearly in the wrong.

“You’re the one who’s obsessed,” she said.

Feeling like he needed to punch something, Rollo turned around and walked away from her, desperate not to lose his temper. He knew that Ava was going through some stuff. They just needed to talk about it openly and honestly. He needed to know why she was so dead-set on him having an affair with his teenage intern.

None of it sat right with him. All his life he’d been brought up to value marriage and stay true and faithful to his one, chosen person. But now his person was asking him to fuck around. It didn’t make any sense. Why the hell would she want that? Was this really her way of trying to get out of their marriage?

Rollo felt his shoulders slump at the thought. “Listen, Ava,” he said, his voice dull. “If you want a divorce, just say so.”

Her eyes snapped to his face then, her mouth popped open in shock.

“You broke into her apartment,” Rollo said quietly. “I don’t know why you’re acting like this but it needs to stop. The only reason I can think of is that you want us to get divorced, and this is how you’ve chosen to push me away.”

Ava’s defenses broke down then. Her eyes and mouth softened as she stared at Rollo. Then she moved closer to him and took both of his hands in hers. She squeezed them gently and let her fingers caress his skin.

“Is that what you want?” Rollo asked.

“No,” Ava said. “I don’t want us to get divorced, not ever.”

“Then why are you doing this?”

Ava dropped his hands and moved away from him, her head turned down to the ground. She looked troubled, as if she were holding back words she needed to speak.

“Tell me,” Rollo said. “Why are you doing this?”

“I’m not doing anything!” Ava cried out.

Rollo let his head fall back as he sighed. Of course, she wasn’t ever going to admit to it. What else could he do to get her to confess?

“Zoey saw you,” Rollo said. “She came home to find her apartment door wide open.”

Ava scowled at him. “I didn’t do anything.”

“You took off your fucking wig and shades in the hallway,” Rollo’s voice raised. “There are security cameras there. She literally saw you breaking into her building and going into her apartment.”

Ava’s face instantly fell and turned paper white. There was no way she was going to get out of this, and she knew it. Rollo folded his arms across his chest as he waited for an explanation.

She refused to reply. She only stared at him, her face pale and confused as she tried to figure everything out. Rollo could see the cogs behind her eyes, moving and working as she tried to think clearly.

“I’m sorry,” she said finally. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”