He pulled her down for a devastating kiss, his tongue tangling with hers as they chased the edge together. The friction was agonizingly perfect. Audrey felt the blinding, suffocating tension in her chest finally shatter, replaced by an overwhelming, electric rush of pleasure.
They exploded together, the intense, breathless climax tearing a muffled shout from Nate’s throat. Audrey collapsed against his chest, their lungs heaving as a quiet, breathless laughter bubbled up between them—the sheer, absurd catharsis of finding this desperate sanctuary in the back of his car.
But the laughter died in an instant.
A sudden, violent mechanical click echoed through the dark.
Before Audrey could even process the sound, the heavy rear door of the car was yanked open with terrifying force, letting the freezing night air rush into the humid cabin.
A large hand reached into the dark, clamping brutally onto the collar of Nate’s shirt.
"Get out!" a voice roared, vibrating with pure, unadulterated rage.
With a violent jerk, Nate was ripped backward, forcefully dragged out of the car and onto the asphalt. The suddenmomentum forced Audrey off him, sending her tumbling hard against the opposite leather seat.
Audrey scrambled upright, scrambling to pull her blouse up with shaking hands. Her heart stopped dead in her chest.
She stared wide-eyed through the open car door, the streetlights illuminating the terrifying, explosive chaos unfolding on her quiet suburban street.
Chapter 25
Simon
"Audrey!"
Simon’s voice echoed across the darkening pavement of the clinic’s parking lot, a desperate, scraping sound. He walked quickly after her, his chest heaving, but Audrey didn't even break her stride. She didn't look back. She unlocked her dark sedan, slipped inside, and shut the heavy door, sealing herself away from him just as she had done in Dr. Thorne’s office.
Simon stood frozen on the asphalt, watching her taillights disappear down the street.
He walked back to his own car and collapsed into the driver's seat, his hands gripping the steering wheel until his knuckles ached. He didn't turn the key. He couldn't. His mind was trapped in a suffocating loop, replaying the absolute, devastating agony he had just seen in his wife’s eyes. He had known his confession would hurt her, but hearing her state with such cold, clinical finality that she was only there to perform the autopsy on their marriage had nearly broken him in half.
I can't let it end, Simon thought, panic rising like bile in his throat. I can't just let her verify the death of our life and walk away.
Needing to bleed off the suffocating adrenaline, Simon started the engine and drove. He drove aimlessly for nearly an hour, letting the cool night air rush through the cracked window, desperately trying to construct a plan, a lifeline, something he could say to make her see that he wasn't the monster she believed him to be.
Eventually, entirely by instinct, he turned his car toward the suburbs. He drove to their house.
As he turned onto their quiet, manicured street, a strange, prickling sensation of unease settled at the base of his neck. The neighborhood was dead silent, but something felt fundamentally wrong.
He pulled up to the curb, parking a few yards away from the driveway. He saw Audrey’s sedan safely parked. He turned off his engine, unbuckling his seatbelt, mentally preparing himself to walk up to the heavy oak door and beg her to just talk to him for five minutes without the therapist present.
But as he stepped out onto the damp street, his eyes snagged on a vehicle parked just ahead of his.
It was a sleek, dark car. The engine was completely off, the headlights dark, but the chassis was moving. It was a subtle, rhythmic rocking, the heavy suspension creaking faintly in the silent night.
Simon froze. The unease in his gut suddenly crystallized into a cold, terrifying dread.
Slowly, his feet moving as if wading through wet cement, he approached the vehicle. The streetlights cast just enough ambient glow to pierce the tinted windows of the backseat.Simon stepped up to the glass, holding his breath, and looked inside.
The world completely stopped spinning.
Audrey was in the backseat. His brilliant, composed, fiercely guarded wife had her silk blouse pushed down to her waist. She was straddling a man Simon didn't recognize, riding him in the cramped, shadowed space.
Simon couldn't breathe. He was entirely paralyzed, completely locked in a nightmare he couldn't wake up from.
He watched, horrified and suffocating, as the stranger’s mouth clamped down on Audrey’s bare breast. He saw the sheer, unadulterated expression of pleasure wash over Audrey’s face—a look Simon hadn't seen in months, a look he had believed belonged entirely to him. He watched the man seamlessly guide his mouth to her other breast without breaking the heavy, desperate rhythm of his upward thrusts.
Then, Audrey’s hands tangled fiercely into the stranger’s dark hair. She dragged his head up, capturing his mouth in a bruised, desperate kiss, while the man’s large hands gripped Audrey’s ass, guiding her hips non-stop, taking her exactly where she wanted to go.
