Chapter 266: You Must Be my Mistress

Avery's tears fall slowly onto the page. The red ink blurs and runs, and she snaps the book shut before she ruins anything else. Her phone buzzes and she tries to read the text through her tears. She sees it's from Andrew, and her heart sinks. She wipes her eyes and reads the message: "When shall I pick you up?"

She starts to type a response but then stops. She deletes the message from Andrew and locks her phone. She reaches for a tissue on the nightstand and wipes her eyes. She's about to walk to the bathroom to splash cold water on her face when the doors fly open.

"Mrs. Howel, Mr. Howel is in the study, and he's gone into a rage," a servant says. "He hit Robert really hard. Please go see if you can calm him—everyone else is too scared to even walk past the room."

Avery slides her feet into her slippers, her heart hammering wildly in her chest. I guess he saw the video, she thinks. But why is he so mad about the car? For all he knows, Andrew was just stalking me. Do the videos show me getting out of the car, too?

She walks down the stairs and finds that the door of his study is to open a crack. She pushes it wider and steps into the room. Books have been thrown all over the room, and the floor is covered in shards of glass and cigarette ash from Evan's crystal ashtray. Robert stands in a corner. His suit is rumpled, and a dark bruise is already appearing around his left eye.

A projector screen in the corner glows brightly in the dim room. The image on the screen makes Avery's scalp prickle with sweat. The picture looks like a screenshot from one of the surveillance tapes. It's a closeup of a dark, tinted car window. Inside the car, a man and woman seem to be locked in a passionate embrace. Avery recognizes herself and Andrew in the picture.

"What are you doing down here?" Evan asks, his voice creepily flat. "You're tired, and you should be in bed."

Avery continues to stare at the screen in horror. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Evan grab the remote, and then the screen goes dark. She looks at Evan and feels her heart sink. His hair is messy, and his eyes are bloodshot, but his face is weirdly emotionless.

"Evan, we can talk about this," Avery says.

"No, you should go upstairs and rest," Evan says. "I know you're tired, and I'm tired too. We can talk tomorrow."

Avery wants to run across the room and stroke Evan's arm. She wants to tell him about that night and the way Andrew forced her to kiss him, but she's too scared to move. Evan has never been this calm before, she thinks. It's like he's lost his mind—it would almost be better if he yelled or accused me of cheating.

"Listen to me," Avery says. "That image is—"

Evan interrupts her, "Yes, Avery, I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for this picture. Maybe he tricked you. Or forced you?"

Avery bites her lip and digs her nails into her palm. She wants to tell him everything, but she's not sure what good it would do. I'm going to leave with Andrew soon, she thinks. Isn't it worse if I tell Evan I love him and give him false hope? Maybe it'll be easier for him to move on if he thinks I was cheating all along.

"Well, am I right?" Evan asks. "I told you I'd trust you no matter what—so just tell me what happened, and we can move on."

"You saw the picture," Avery whispers.

"What?" Evan asks.

Avery raises her voice, "I said you saw the picture."

"The picture doesn't mean anything," Evan says. "I know he forced you, right?

He sounds like he's trying to convince himself, she thinks. I hate myself for what I'm about to do, but I don't have a choice. It'll be better to hurt him now than to encourage his love and hurt him later.

"The picture doesn't lie, Evan," Avery says, trying to keep her voice from shaking. "I kissed him."

Evan shakes his head back and forth and says, "No, no, that's not true."

Avery shuts her eyes, and hot tears drip down her cheeks. She hears footsteps, and then she feels Evan's breath on the top of her head. He hooks his finger under her chin and gently tilts her head toward him, wiping her tears with a soft tissue.

"Why are you crying?" he asks. "You don't need to feel guilty—I know the kiss doesn't mean anything. You're mine, Avery. I'm the father of your child, and soon I'll be your husband again. You're mine and mine alone."

"No, Evan, I won't marry you," Avery says. "I'll give you the child, but I won't be your wife again."

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"Why not?" Evan asks, his voice getting dangerously low. "Is it because of Andrew? Is that why you keep refusing my proposals? Do you care for him, Avery?"

Avery tries to speak, but there's a painful lump in her throat. She swallows hard and tries again, but she can't make the words come out. She watches the different feelings flicker across Evan's face: confusion, betrayal, rage, and then a terrible sadness.

"Or is this about Charles?" Evan asks. "Do you love Charles? Is that why you kissed Andrew—because Charles' heart is in his body?"

"No, it has nothing to do with Charles or the heart," Avery says, hating herself for the pain she's about to cause. 

"What is it about?" Evan asks.

"It's about you, Evan," Avery says, trying to make her voice as cold as possible. "I want to leave you. I always have, and now I'm determined to do it. Our marriage was the worst mistake of my life."

Evan pulls his hands away from her face, and she notices that they're shaking. His face is ashen, and he slowly leans on the side of his desk. He looks like he might collapse at any moment. Avery forces herself to look at him. I can't hide from the consequences, she thinks. This is what I'm doing to him—I'm destroying him.

"I don't believe you," Evan says. "You've had many chances to escape from me, but you've always come back."

"I had no choice," Avery says. "I wanted to be with Andrew, but we had a lover's quarrel. I got angry and ran away, but I had nowhere to go." 

"Oh, what was this quarrel about?" Evan asks.

She says, "It was about your child. He was jealous that I was carrying your child."

Evan begins to laugh, and the sound is unhinged and terrifying. He laughs and laughs until tears run from his eyes. He wipes them away and laughs some more. Avery looks nervously for Robert, but the butler has run away from the room.

"I didn't realize our baby was such a burden to you," Evan says. "Why didn't you just get an abortion?"

"I tried," Avery lies. "But your grandfather found out, and he threatened to kill me."

Evan shakes his head wildly back and forth and says, "No, no, no. You left me that recording. You told me you loved me and begged me to come to find you. I don't know what's going on now, but I know that you're lying to me."

"I left that recording before I really spent time with Andrew," Avery says. "But after I lived with him, I fell in love with him."

Evan laughs again, and the sound makes Avery shiver. He grabs her by the neck and pushes her up against the wall. He stares deep into her eyes as if he wants to read her mind. She closes her eyes and turns her head away.

"Stop lying to me," he whispers.

"I'm not lying," she says. "You can believe whatever you want, but I'm not lying."

"I'll give you one last chance," he says. "I promise to believe whatever you say—no matter how crazy it sounds."

Why is he making this so difficult? She thinks. I'm trying to get away from him, but he won't let me. In the past he's always been so quick to assume I was cheating or lying, why is he suddenly so willing to listen?

"Everything I've just told you is the truth," Avery says. "I don't want to marry you. I want to live with you as soon as I can."

"Do you think you can just abandon me like that?" Evan asks with a crazy laugh. "No, if you won't be my wife, you must be my mistress." 

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