“It’s a security net on my end,” James says and then closes the folder, pulling it off the desk and into his lap.

“So if I quit,” I start to say, but instead I stop and stare ahead out of the window. I want to kill him. There’s never been a time in my life when I’ve desired someone dead. But right now, it’s all I want.

“Then I assume it’s for less than moral reasons,” James says, spelling it out for me. “I need to protect myself.”

“That’s bullshit,” I tell him and my words are hard. My hands turn to fists as they tremble with the need to get this anger out.

“I know, trust me I know,” James says. “And I don’t like this any more than you do.”

A sarcastic huff of a laugh leaves me. “Fuck off,” I sneer at him.

I stand up from the office chair so quickly it nearly falls over. I grip it so tight I think I’ll break it. Fuck, I want to break it. I can picture beating the piss out of him with the broken wood.

My body is hot, my mind in a daze of regret and sickness.

“I’m leaving,” I barely speak as I turn my back to him and start to walk off.

“The fuck you are,” he says.

My body whips around, tense and ready to let it all out. Every day it’s been building and building, the tension winding tighter and the need to destroy something climbing higher and higher. I only took a few steps away, and with his words I’m right back across the desk, ready to do something stupid.

My body heats as my fist moves from the chair to the desk and I lean closer. He may not want to show it, but I see the fear in his eyes.

He should be scared. He’s fucking with me. Threatening me. No one is going to take my wife from me. I won’t allow it.

“I need to get away from this. From you.”

I never should have listened to him and try to cover it up. He set me up. He used that night to his advantage and I played right into his hand.

It takes everything in me not to reach across the desk and haul him up by his collar. To fist the fine cloth in my grip and spit in his face.

Pure rage and adrenaline pump through my blood.

“Careful now, Evan.” James smiles as he says it, but I notice how he leans back. Both of us know he’s scared. If I throw this punch, if I push, he could bring it all to light.

And then I’ll lose her forever.