"But… you're my husband's father."
The words hung in the air heavy, poisonous, impossible to avoid. The words escaped Elise's lips before she could stop them, her voice was raw and filled with disbelief because she had never thought that she would one day utter those words. She stepped back, heart pounding like war drums in her chest, as if distance could erase what had just happened—what they had just done.
Her chest heaved.
Her hands trembled.
Alexander stood still across from her, eyes unreadable and unblinking, jaw clenched, every inch of him calm—too calm. His gaze pinned her in place, like he was waiting for her to take it back. To pretend it hadn't happened. That she hadn't just kissed him. That he hadn't kissed her back.
She could see an emotion in his eyes but couldn't tell what it was— regret? Guilt? No. Something deeper. Something that made her skin burn with shame and want all at once.
"Elise," he said her name like a prayer he wasn't supposed to say aloud. Like a word too precious to be spoken out loud. "You kissed me—"
"No," she said too quickly. "We kissed each other."
Silence.
Rain poured hard outside, hitting hard on the windows behind them. A low thunder rumbled and struck across the sky, it was loud but not as loud as the emotions raging in her. Her confusion, her guilt, her desire. The room was dimly lit, soft shadows dancing across the living room, making it feel more intimate than she wanted.
Right now, lines have been crossed and blurred into nothing.
Elise's fingers twitched at her sides. She hadn't meant for this to happen. God, she hadn't even thought it possible. For months, she had tiptoed around the growing cracks in her marriage to Carter threatening to break them apart. For weeks, she'd kept herself busy, packing boxes, cooking meals, folding laundry, pretending that everything was normal even in their borrowed home.
Everything was going as planned until… tonight.
Elise could still taste the mint and regret on her lips, still feel the way his fingers had dug into her waist, hesitant at first, then possessive like he had been waiting years to touch her.
"I know," he said, his voice low and raw. "Believe me, I know."
Alexander had been nothing more than a polite stranger when she arrived—her father-in-law, yes, but unfamiliar. Detached. Too clean and sharply dressed to seem real. His house had been the only place they could go after their finances crumbled, when the roof over their heads was taken away due to her husband's terrible financial decisions.
She hadn't known what to expect from him. Maybe coldness. Maybe distance. She hadn't expected conversations over midnight tea, the slow exposure of secrets between sips and laughs. She hadn't expected him to see her the way she wanted to be seen when her own husband had long stopped trying.
He knew her hobbies. Her likes and dislikes in ways no one has ever been able to.
She hadn't expected to want him.
He took a step closer. She didn't move.
"I've tried to stay away from you," Alexander said, his voice low, hoarse. "But every day, it gets harder. Every time you smile, every time you look at me like I'm not invisible…"
Elise shook her head. "You can't say these things. We can't do this."
"I know. But we already did."
It was as if the rain could sense their emotions as it poured harder. Carter was still at work, probably barking orders over the phone, oblivious to the storm inside his own home.
Home. The word barely meant anything anymore.
She took a step back.
Then another.
Elise backed into the wall, trying to put space between her and the man who shouldn't have touched her… but did. The man who shouldn't have looked at her like that. Like she was the answer to a question he didn't know he'd been asking.
"I shouldn't have—" she began, her voice cracking.
"But you did," he interrupted, stepping forward. "And so did I."
He looked down at her hand—still trembling—and reached out, gently wrapping his warm fingers around hers. Elise didn't pull away. She couldn't. Somewhere between loneliness and longing, she'd crossed a line she could never uncross.
He reached out with his other hand, hesitated then brushed a lock of damp hair from her cheek. The touch was soft,like it was filled with love, like he was memorizing her face before the world burned them both alive.
"I'm married to your son," she whispered, voice cracking. "You're his father."
He looked at her with something that shouldn't have belonged on a father-in-law's face. Something far too tender. "And if you were happy, I would never have dared to do what I just did."
Her breath hitched.
In another life, in another world, she might have let herself lean into him. Might have told herself that this love—real, true, low burning love—was worth the cost. But this wasn't another world. This was his father. Her husband's blood.
The front door rattled.
A key twisted in the lock.
Elise's heart stopped beating. Alexander's hand dropped from her hand like it burned him. They stared at each other in panicked silence as the doorknob turned.
They sprung apart just as the door creaked open.
Carter's voice echoed loudly as he walked in, casual and unsuspecting. "Babe? I forgot my—"
He stopped.
The silence that followed was suffocating.
Elise turned, eyes wide, breath fast, as Carter's gaze moved from her to his father—then back again.
A storm was still raging outside.
But inside the house, it had just begun.
Carter was home.
And everything was about to change.