Unfaithful: Web Of Betrayal

There are parts of the city that people from high society never go to. Olivia knows that Declan knows that Olivia knows that. And for that exact reason, he chose those places to meet with people he didn’t want Olivia ever knowing that he met them.

Downtown Lancaster, where they have pubs and bars for after-office hour hangouts, is one of those places. It’s where he took his mistress for drinks and alone time without worrying he would meet anyone that might recognize him or know his wife. But that was a long time ago, and it didn’t help him either; he still got caught.

He goes to the same area in the central business district near his office building to meet up with a mysterious man every now and then. Roman learned about this from the private investigator he hired to look for Olivia. After a while, he decided to see it for himself.

It’s the same man every time. Light-colored hair, medium built, much shorter than Declan because Declan was quite tall. The man looked like someone who works with muscles rather than a white-collar employee. Judging by his outfit and mannerism, he didn’t look like someone from Declan’s social status. They usually talk at the bar, sometimes in one of the booths at the back of the pub. Sometimes the conversation looked tense, sometimes loose. They would have a few drinks, no more than a couple of hours at a time, and then go their separate ways.

The man was definitely not one of his colleagues nor his personal friend. Why would a diamond company owner invite his friend to a cheap bar downtown? Whoever he is, Olivia is oblivious to his existence in her husband’s life. And Declan felt it was necessary to hide him from his wife. Why?

Roman paid his PI to do more digging to find out the mysterious man’s identity. It was then he found out about Sienna. The man was her husband, and he’d been seeing Declan almost regularly since he and his wife moved out of Lancaster, since Declan fired Sienna and practically sent them back to their hometown.

He stopped paying his PI after he found out about Sienna. He didn’t want to get too deep into Olivia’s private life. If she knew he was doing it, it would made her feel violated. He did it out of curiosity and annoyance at why her husband still lied to her. But he never stopped following Declan to those bars; it was his insurance to prove that he was still a liar and not worth the dedication Olivia so freely gave him.© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

Whenever Olivia said she was going home to be with Declan, Roman questioned her because he knew her husband would be somewhere else. He didn’t have the heart to tell her. How could he? She would freak out to know he was following Declan even before they met again in Lancaster. But he felt relieved to be able to tell her that he knew about Sienna.

The gaping wound was finally uncovered. She didn’t have to hide it from him anymore, and maybe in time … when the time was right, he could finally tell her where her husband was after office hours and with whom.

It’s killing him, though, to keep what he knew about Declan from her. How could someone keep anything from the one they love? And to do it over and over again without the burden of guilt? Declan was so used to doing it when he was with his mistress the fact that he was seeing her husband in secret didn’t seem to bother him at all. Leaving Olivia with his empty promises waiting for him to come home.

It wasn’t an act of revenge. He believed it. It’s the only thing she let him hold on to. What happened two years ago was real. But she still wouldn’t say it. He understood the courage it takes to say she’d fallen in love with him when she had been married to someone else for 15 years.