My Husband's Affair My Anniversary Gift (Lily and David) novel Chapter 106

Marina barged into David’s office without knocking.

The assistant, startled, tried to stop her.

“Miss Laurent, Mr. Hardison is....”

“Shut up and move,” Marina snapped, pushing past him.

She stormed into the office where David sat on his table, laptop open.

He looked up, his face cold.

“What are you doing here, Marina?”

Marina walked straight toward him, slamming the divorce papers onto the table.

“You tell me. Why hasn’t she left yet? Why haven’t you signed? Why are you letting her still have a hold on you?”

David frowned, glancing at the papers.

“You went to see Lily?”

“Yes!” Marina shouted, her voice sharp. “And you should have seen her face. So proud, so arrogant, throwing these papers at me like she won some battle! She humiliated me, David!”

David closed his laptop slowly, his expression darkening.

“You shouldn’t have gone to her.”

“Why not?!” Marina’s voice cracked. “I’m your future wife, David. It’s my right to settle things with her.”

David’s jaw tightened.

“You’re not my wife yet. Don’t act like one.”

The words were like knives stabbing straight into her chest.

Her eyes widened in disbelief.

“What… did you just say?”

David sighed, rubbing his temple. “Marina, stop making scenes. I’ll handle it.”

But Marina snapped. Her rage exploded.

“You love her, don’t you?!” she screamed. “That’s why you’re protecting her, hiding her, covering for her! Don’t lie to me, David!”

David’s eyes shot up, cold as ice.

“Enough, Marina.”

“David!” she squealed, breathless and loud, hugging him like he was a trophy she’d finally won. Her voice trembled between ecstasy and relief. “You signed it. You signed it. I knew you would. You’re mine. You’re mine!”

David’s body stiffened under the sudden weight of her joy. For a second the old reflex, protective, possessive, stubborn, woke in him. He let her cling because it wasn’t worth the scene to break away. He was tired. He was raw. The day had already taken too much from him.

“get down,” he said at last, not unkind but flat.

Marina’s laughter bubbled around him like champagne and cloying sweetness. She cupped his face and smiled like a woman who had taken everything she’d wanted.

She kissed his cheek, lightly at first, then more sure. "I'll send this to your lawyer"

David stared at her for a long time. He felt the press of her body, the softness of her hands, the ecstatic shine in her eyes, and he felt, with an unfamiliar intensity, every cost this trivial agreement asked him to pay. He had signed. The paper bore his name and with it, for all practical purposes, the end of one chapter and the official beginning of another. Marina, still clinging, didn’t notice his distance. She smelled of perfume and silk and victory; everything a stage needed to look flawless.

“Let's announce our marriage tomorrow,” she whispered, as if he’d forgotten he’d promised a hundred other things. “Announce it in the press. I’ll post about it. We’ll put up the picture. I want everyone to know who you choose.”

David swallowed. He didn’t want it to be that simple, and yet he had just made it that simple.

“Alright,” he said, the word thin. It sounded like a promise and a curse all at once.

Marina pulled him closer and pressed her lips to his again, needy now. “Alright,” she repeated, softer.

When she finally left for the night, floating from the office like a small, satisfied storm, David didn’t move. He stayed seated in the office long after the door clicked closed. The office hummed with silence that felt intrusive, full of the ghost of his own decisions.

He had signed the papers. He had given Lily the victory she wanted. But the signature didn’t stitch up what had been torn. Instead, it opened a new seam, and for the first time in a long while, he felt the rawness of everything: the loneliness, the weight of choices made to appease others, the small betrayals piled high like unread messages.