Page 109 of Marrying Hope

“Hope, avoidance does not change the truth.”

God, she knows my name!

My hands shake as I continue to drag Kristy, but she is in no mood to acquiesce.

“What the hell is your problem, Vanessa? Are you pissed that Zander and Zach didn’t succumb to your charms?” Kristy jerks my hand away and jabs her finger at the woman’s chest.

Vanessa smiles a cunning smile and her razor-sharp gaze slides from Kristy to me. “He hasn’t changed one bit, has he? The temptation is too strong for him to resist.”

She drags her hands over her body like some showgirl. She wants me to believe that she has slept with Zach. Maybe she has, before our marriage, but I know in my heart, even when he didn’t promise fidelity, Zach hasn’t spent any night with any other woman.

“I have no idea what you are trying to say, but my husband has not cheated on me if that’s what you are insinuating.”

Vanessa bursts into laughter, throwing her head back, her slender neck on display. “Cheating? Oh, poor girl. Your husband has no conscience to understand the word cheating.”

She stares at me for a moment, and I feel it in my bones that I’m going to regret leaving the house today after hearing her next words. And I do.

“You have no idea that your husband is a sex addict, do you? You have no idea that your husband likes to fuck women senseless just to feel the rush of fucking? It doesn’t matter to him where his dick is as long as he is fucking someone,” Vanessa says too calmly, crashing my world with her every word.

Everything comes to a halt when I hear Rose gasp, “Zach.” With an ashen face, she grabs the doorframe of the changing area while my husband stands beside her.

He stares at me with an expression I have never seen on his face before.

Is it fear or shame?

As if on reflex, I turn to Vanessa, and clutching her forearm, I slap her.

“I don’t know who the fuck you are, and I don’t care. But if I ever see or hear you speaking such nonsense about my husband again, I swear I’ll kill you.” My hands fly to her throat as my emotions make me crazy. “Don’t take this lightly. I’ll choke you with my bare hands if you so much as come near my husband. Stay away from him. Stay away from my son. And stay away from my family.”

After a moment’s shock, Vanessa scratches my hands and pulls on my hair. Kristy and a few other women try to pull us apart.

With a heaving chest, my gaze darts from that bitch Vanessa to Zach who is still glued on the door and his eyes never leave mine.

“Zach?” I whisper. My words seem to break his trance and he turns around and darts out.

Before I can follow him, a woman dressed in a security uniform grabs my arm. “Ma’am, you need to leave the store right now.”

I nod, completely in agreement. I have no wish to spend another second here. In the background, I hear Vanessa screaming, “Don’t touch me!”

“Hope, you go home.” Kristy places her car keys in my hand.

Before I can step out with the security lady now behind me, Rose throws her arms around me. “Please, take care of him,” she whispers in my ear.

My throat chokes as she hugs me tight. This is the most emotion she has ever shown to me, but at this moment I’m more worried about Zach. I squeeze her back and almost run toward the exit.

I get inside Kristy’s car and drive in a frenzy toward The Ritz. I am sure I’ve run several red lights, but I don’t care about anything else but Zach.

Vanessa’s words keep ringing in my ears, and I fail horribly to not mull over them.

She is a stranger, Hope.

Zach has never lied to me. I will find him and askhim.I will only believe what he says.

I continue repeating those lines like a mantra when my trembling fingers enter the key to the presidential suite of The Ritz. For a fleeting moment I remember how nervous I was on the first day. My heart clenches. Why does it feel like today is another day that will change my life?

I storm into the living room and go straight to the bedroom. But Zach is nowhere. I run to his office but that’s also empty. My heart pounds when I dash into the kitchen and find William.

“Where is Zach?” I ask him breathless.

“He is not here.” The ground beneath my feet shakes before William adds, “But Mr. Teager’s car arrived in the parking lot a few minutes ago.” His sharp gaze doesn’t waver from my face.

And I know! He is on the fifth floor!

I turn around and forget the promise I made to myself that I will never visit that horrible room again.

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