Chapter 3 NO RETURN

Michelle's pov

"I hope you don't get offended by this, but I thought he was your father... Not your husband... At least he looks old enough to be..."

I chuckled, "He's actually older than my father,"

This was a conversation I've had more times than I've cared to count, the experience was always more or less the same. There would always be a noticeable shift in the air, their faces contorted with more questions that were looking for the most appropriate ways to leave their lips, and a thickening awkwardness that usually folded up the interaction.

But when I talked with Natasha, she didn't judge me. Instead, she approached it with the understanding that I had salt from my friends before cutting them off.

Now as I'm crying out my heart, all the pieces are falling into place.

She had come to understand me.

But not in the way I hoped.

She went after Elliot.

And he actually took her as his lover.

My mind was scrambled with different questions. How long have they been having an affair? Why would he do this to me? After 5 years of love and dedication was this water deserved?

I recalled the look on his face, the absence of any semblance of guilt or remorse.

This was the catalyst to my rage.

I decided that I wasn't going to cry myself to sleep tonight.

At least not in the way Elliot would be expecting.

With my phone in hand, I dial the number that I hadn't contacted directly in years.

"Michelle.." his deep voice caressed my name in such a way that it left me breathless for a moment or two. I gathered myself, 30 in my voice to give a response; '"I need you tonight"

"I'll be there," that was it, no questions no begging, all he needed was to hear the urgency in my voice and he was coming. I blinked and recognized his red sports car in Golden Cove's parking lot. I had only been waiting for about 5 minutes or so, when he stepped out of the car I saw him, standing taller than his father. His hair an aesthetic mess, his suit ruffled, instead of his measured strides he walked so quickly his feet hardly had time to touch the ground before leaving it once again.

He reached me, and a flush of subconsciousness ran across my entire being. Here he was standing before me as effortlessly perfect as always without even trying while I looked like I had been run over. My hair was in its easy-to-go-messy bun, worn-out clothes sticky with sweat and tears and I'd lost weight recently too.

I thought he'd be disgusted, couldn't even blame him if he was.

Instead, he pulled aside a fallen strand of hair from the side of my face, his eyes burning with pure fury.

"Did that b*stard do this to you?"

I chuckled derisively even though there was nothing funny to be chuckling about, or maybe I was wrong about that just like how I was wrong about many other things.

There was a big joke that deserved to be laughed at.

ME

I pushed everyone away to be with a man who was twice my age, thinking he was mature and would love me in a way a new guy around my own age could, I assumed that he was loving and mature.

But once he knew that he had captured me, that my whole world now revolved around him and nobody else he probably got bored.

That's why he's been creating this gap between us, a line that couldn't be crossed.

That was why he didn't mind his mother humiliating me.

Why would he? I was mainly a remnant of a past he was probably dying to forget all about.

And now with nobody to call, the only person I could lean on was my Stepson.

Hayden Winter.

I kept laughing until it turned into heated he has again, he embraced me, his huge arms enveloping me into his warmth and musky cologne. He let me cry until I was tired and red-eyed. Then it took me to his car and drove to his Villa on the outskirts of the city.

He pressured me into taking a bath, saying I'd feel better afterwards. I resisted for a bit, then stepped under the shower of his spare bedroom, letting the rushing water take care of the grime, sweat, and tears.

I stepped out, admittingly feeling physically lighter with a towel wrapped up to my chest. My relief quickly came to an abrupt pause when I remembered that I had no clothes to wear, I was thinking about that when a knock came on the door, followed by Hayden's voice.

"Hey, Michelle, are you out of the shower yet, I have something for you,"

My heart was beating so fast I was sure it was ready to explode inside my chest, it was one thing to call him in the heat of the moment and now that I had cooled down I was beginning to have second thoughts. Maybe this was a bad idea?

Hayden and Elliot never saw eye to eye, he was also one of the biggest opponents against our marriage.

I don't even know what possessed me to call him, perhaps it was the desperation rather than despair that made me dial his number but now that I had come to down I was beginning to rethink my decision.

"Come in..."

No matter what he helped me out when there was no one else to turn to so I should at least give him the benefit of the doubt for now.

He came in, his eyes finding me in an instant and a smile warming up his face. He had a large black shirt draped across his arm.

"Here, this is one of my smaller shirts,"