2025-11-27 16:26:00Chapter 4
"And you just happened to be alone with him when the fire started." Alex's voice was sharp as a blade. "How convenient indeed."
Lisa's hands clenched into fists at her sides. "You're being completely unreasonable. Nothing happened between Ben and me. We were working on the merger with Harrison Industries. That's all."
"Fine. Let's say I believe you." Alex sat up slightly, wincing as pain shot through his leg. "Let's say you were just working. Does that excuse everything else?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Did your business deal require you to let your husband wait for death in a burning building?" Alex's voice rose, years of suppressed frustration finally breaking free. "Did it require you to redirect every medical professional away from me so your 'business partner' could get VIP treatment for a scratch? Did it require you to spend the entire night by his side while your husband—the man you married, the man who saved your life—lay unconscious and alone?"
Each word struck Lisa like a physical blow. Her mouth opened, then closed. For a moment, something flickered in her eyes—guilt, maybe, or uncertainty.
But then her expression hardened again, that familiar mask of cold indifference sliding back into place.
"You're being petty," she said finally, her voice sharp. "You can't handle even the slightest inconvenience. I'm here now, aren't I? What more do you want from me?"
Alex stared at her in disbelief. "What do I want? I want my wife to care whether I live or die! I want—"
Lisa's phone rang, cutting him off. She pulled it from her purse and glanced at the screen. Her entire demeanor changed instantly—her face softened, her posture relaxed.
"Hello?" Her voice was gentle, warm. Nothing like the ice she'd been speaking to Alex with.
"Lisa? Where are you?" A man's voice came through the speaker, loud enough for Alex to hear. "I woke up and you were gone. I'm... I'm scared. The room is so dark, and I keep thinking about the fire. I can't sleep without you here."
Alex watched his wife's face transform. Her eyes filled with concern, her lips curved into a sympathetic frown.
"Oh, Ben, I'm so sorry," she cooed, her voice dripping with tenderness. "I just had to take care of something quickly. I'll be back in five minutes, I promise. Try to relax, okay? Everything's going to be fine."
"Please hurry. I need you."
"I will, sweetheart. Just hold on."
Sweetheart. She called him sweetheart.
Lisa ended the call and slipped the phone back into her purse. When she looked at Alex again, all the warmth had vanished. Her expression was cold and distant once more.
"I need to go," she said flatly.
"Of course you do." Alex's voice was hollow.
Lisa straightened her shoulders, her CEO mask firmly in place. "I don't appreciate your accusations, Alex. I haven't done anything wrong. If anyone should be reflecting on their behavior, it's you. This jealousy, this inability to understand priorities—it's childish."
"Priorities," Alex repeated numbly. "Right."
"Ben has been through a traumatic experience. He's a civilian with no training for situations like this. He needs support right now. You, on the other hand, are a trained professional who chose this career knowing the risks."
Lisa picked up her designer handbag, adjusting the strap on her shoulder. "You should know how to handle difficult situations without falling apart emotionally."
She walked toward the door, her heels clicking with each step.
"Think about what I said, Alex. When you're ready to apologize for this attitude, you can call me. Until then, I have responsibilities to attend to."
The door closed behind her with a soft click.
Alex sat in the empty room, staring at the space where his wife had just been standing. The faint scent of her expensive perfume lingered in the air.
Apologize. She actually expected him to apologize.
He looked down at his bandaged leg, at the IV still pumping fluids into his arm, at the monitors tracking his heartbeat and oxygen levels. He'd nearly died saving her. He'd dragged himself through fire and smoke, carrying another person to safety, all while his own wife had abandoned him.
And she wanted an apology.
Alex closed his eyes, and for the first time since the fire, he let himself truly feel the full weight of his reality. His marriage wasn't broken. It had never really existed in the first place.
He'd been in love with an illusion while Lisa had been... what? Using him? Tolerating him? He didn't even know anymore.
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
CHAPTER 219
Tony had resources, connections within the business community, and most importantly, he had motivation.A man spurned tends toward desperate measures, and desperate measures often accomplished things that careful planning could not.If Tony moved against Alex, if he used his connections to expose whatever fragile structure Alex had built, if he positioned himself as an alternative to Alex in Mia's life, then everything would unravel the way it should have unraveled from the beginning.And Lisa would have accomplished it without dirtying her own hands.She looked at Ben with something that might have been respect. "You thought this through quickly.""I have been thinking about it since the restaurant," Ben replied. "Every moment I see you focused on something other than understanding why Alex is being treated like he matters. And the answer is that he does not. Not really. He is just filling a space that someone else should be filling."He stood, and the movement was smooth, calculated
CHAPTER 218
Venessa walked back into the office before Lisa had even finished the sentence.She had heard enough from the hallway, had positioned herself just outside the door frame where she could listen without being present, and had reached the limit of what she was willing to allow before her opinion needed stating.She moved to the window and looked out at the city below, her reflection ghostly in the glass, and her voice came with the particular brightness of someone about to say something cutting wrapped in the tone of someone who is trying to be helpful."You are giving him too much credit," Venessa announced, still facing the window."Alex is not sophisticated enough to be playing some elaborate long game. He is faking it. That is all. He saw an opportunity and he took it, and now he is pretending to be someone important because it is working on people stupid enough to believe him."Lisa said nothing.Venessa turned from the window, and the expression on her face was the one she wore whe
CHAPTER 217
Ben shrugged, the gesture loose and unbothered, though the set of his jaw told a different story."It means what it means. Since I walked in here, you have not looked at me once. You have not asked why I came. You have been entirely focused on a document about a man you divorced." He held her gaze steadily. "I am simply asking if there is something I should understand about that."Venessa looked between the two of them with the expression of someone who very much wants to leave the room but is too invested in the outcome to actually do it.Lisa looked at Ben for a long moment.The irritation on her face was real, but beneath it something else moved briefly, something she had no intention of naming in this room or possibly anywhere. She pulled in a slow breath and straightened in her chair."Emma," she said, without breaking eye contact with Ben.Emma gathered her notepad quietly. "I will follow up on the additional investigation points." She was out of the room before anyone could res
CHAPTER 216
Ben had been quiet long enough.He sat in the chair he had pulled out for himself, one leg crossed over the other, watching Lisa and Venessa go back and forth over a document about a man he found fundamentally unimpressive.He had listened to the Jenkins observation, watched Lisa's eyes do that particular thing they did when she was building a theory, and had said nothing, because saying nothing was sometimes the most useful thing a person could do in a room full of people talking themselves into a conclusion.But now he looked at Lisa across the desk and said, with the measured tone of someone offering a reasonable counterpoint, "You are overthinking this."Lisa glanced at him without much expression. "Am I.""Yes," Ben replied. "You are taking coincidences and arranging them into a pattern that confirms what you already suspect. Jenkins becoming director could mean a dozen things. The anonymous ownership could be a corporate structure, a holding company, an investor group. It does n
CHAPTER 215
"I am not being emotional about this," Lisa cut in, her voice carrying that precise, measured quality that closed conversations. "I lived with Alex for three years. I know how he thinks. I know how he carries himself. I know what he looks like when he is at the bottom and I know what he looks like when he is not."She looked at Venessa directly."He is different. The way he stood at that restaurant. The way he spoke to us at the auction. The way those bodyguards moved around him." She shook her head slightly. "That was not the Alex I was married to. Something changed, and whatever changed is not in this document."The room went quiet for a moment.Ben, who had been standing slightly apart and listening with the careful attention of someone taking inventory, spoke with a calm, considered tone."She is right. I noticed it too. At the auction, when he was bidding against Simone Greene, he did not even look tense. A man with no money does not bid against the Greene heir without sweating."
CHAPTER 214
Ben walked into Lisa's company like he owned the floor.He moved through the lobby with the particular ease of a man who has spent enough time in a place to stop asking permission, nodding at the receptionist without slowing down, heading straight for the elevator. He had not called ahead. He rarely did anymore.Calling ahead implied uncertainty about his welcome, and Ben Marshall had decided some time ago that uncertainty was not a good look.The elevator opened on Lisa's floor and he stepped out, straightening his jacket.When he pushed open the office door, the first thing he saw was Venessa perched on the edge of Lisa's desk, and the first thing he heard was the tail end of a sentence that stopped the moment his presence registered.Lisa was behind the desk, a document spread open in front of her, and Emma Park stood to the side with her hands clasped, her expression the carefully neutral one she wore whenever she was waiting to be told what to do next.Lisa looked up at Ben, and
You may also like
JAMES WANE THE SECRET BILLIONAIRE
SHSA70.6K viewsThe Ultimate Commander Cassian
AFM31159.8K viewsWISH TO BE RICH
South Ashan79.0K viewsZILLIONAIRE’S COMEBACK.
Becca72.4K viewsFrom Rejected Son in Law to Empire Heir
Wright Clone98 viewsReturn Of The Campus King
Walker382 viewsTHE REN UPGRADE: MONSTERS WITHIN
BRIE462 viewsAIN: The Eyes of Deception
Zaint16 views
Reader Comments
Evil woman. I am Alex has learnt something here.