He Wants An Open Marriage? Done!

Roxanne stared at the glowing screen, her mind racing at a frantic pace. Christian’s venomous warning echoed in her ears, clashing violently with the steady weight of Richard’s name pulsing in her hand.

She exhaled a sharp, ragged breath, pocketed the phone, and kept moving. She walked right past Christian, leaving him standing beneath the hotel canopy.

The lobby air was freezing, sending a sharp shiver right through her coat. Her eyes stung terribly, the brilliant chandeliers blurring into dizzying streaks of light, but she refused to let a single tear drop.

Keeping her chin high, she ignored the heavy stares and muffled whispers of the staff. She stepped into the vacant elevator, the metal doors sliding shut.

The moment she unlocked her room door, the fragile mask shattered. She threw her weight against the heavy wood, locking it before sliding down to the carpeted floor. The tears came fast and hot, burning her cheeks.

She pressed both hands over her mouth, desperately choking back the breathless sobs that threatened to tear from her chest.

In her trembling palm, the phone began to vibrate again. Richard’s name lit up the dark entryway. Roxanne closed her eyes, forcing the tight knot in her throat to loosen. She wiped her face with the back of her sleeve, took one deep, stabilizing breath, and swiped to answer.

"Thank God you answered." Richard’s voice came through the speaker, tight and strained. "I just received a video clip of you from one of our major stakeholders. What on earth is happening down there?"

Roxanne sniffled, her fingers gripping the phone until her knuckles ached. "I can’t talk right now, Richard," she whispered, her voice cracking despite her best efforts to sound composed.

A heavy pause hung over the line, filled only with the faint hum of a car engine on his end. "Are you crying?" Richard’s tone shifted instantly, sharp with sudden worry. "Roxanne, talk to me. Is Christian still harassing you?" She heard the metallic click of a seatbelt releasing. "I’m coming to get you right now."

"No!" Roxanne gasped, pulling herself up from the floor. "Don’t you come here."

"I’m already on my way," Richard insisted, his deep voice leaving absolutely no room for negotiation. "I’ll be at your door in five minutes."

"No, please, Richard, listen to me," Roxanne pleaded, pacing the small space of the hotel room. "Christian is still outside. If you show up here right now, you are walking directly into his trap."

"What exactly did he do? The video clip I saw was chaotic, but the sender said you looked like you were in trouble," Richard growled, his breathing heavy. "I swear to God, if he lays a single finger on you, I will ruin him."

Roxanne wiped a fresh tear from her eye, moving toward the dark window overlooking the city lights. "It’s not just about Christian’s public stunt," she said, her voice shaking. "Someone in your family filmed us earlier while we were talking in that corridor. And the worst part is, they handed the footage to Christian. I don’t know what he’s going to do with it."

"That’s impossible. We were alone out there," Richard said, his pitch dropping as if he were thinking. "He’s bluffing."

Roxanne shook her head, the memory of Christian’s desperate face burning in her mind. "I know how his mind works, Richard. He only handles cards he knows he can play. It’s real."

Silence fell over the line, heavy and suffocating.

"He’s threatening to leak the tape to the press because I finally handed him the divorce papers," she added quietly.

"So he’s resorting to blackmail," Richard murmured, his voice laced with sudden guilt. "I should have anticipated this. I should have never kissed you in that corridor."

"Don’t you blame yourself for this," Roxanne said softly, her tone sobering. "But you need to stay far away from me for now. I am pushing through with this divorce regardless of his threats. You need to focus on damage control and put some distance between us."

"That is not happening," Richard cut in, his voice sharp and definitive before she could even finish the sentence. "I am coming to you. Just stay put."

"Richard, stop being stubborn!" Roxanne cried, the frustration bubbling over. "Stay away from this hotel. Whoever gave Christian that footage could be watching us. After the scene Christian just made, your arrival is exactly what they’re waiting for."

Richard didn’t argue this time, and she could practically hear the gears turning in his head as he weighed the raw logic of her warning.

"The only person who truly despises me in your family is your mother," Roxanne said, a bitter taste in her mouth as Margaret’s cold face flashed behind her eyelids. "I think she’s the one pulling the strings."

"No," Richard said after a long beat. "My mother loathes public scandals above all else. She would never hand such an explosive weapon to a loose cannon like Christian just to prove a point, especially knowing the kind of damage it would do to the Vance reputation. No, it isn’t my mother."

Roxanne’s brows pulled into a tight, confused frown. She leaned against the glass pane of the window. "Then who else could have possibly taken that video?"

Richard remained completely silent.

"Do you know who did it, Richard?" she asked, her heart suddenly hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird.

Still, nothing but the static of the line answered her.

"Answer me, Richard," she demanded, her pulse roaring so loudly it filled her ears. "Do you know who did this?"

Richard let out a long exhale that sounded like a defeat. "Yes," he said, his voice dropping into a dangerous whisper. "There is only one person who stands to gain everything if we are ruined."

Roxanne’s eyes widened in the dark room, her breath catching in her throat.

"Who is it, Richard?" Roxanne demanded, her voice barely a whisper as her heart hammered violently against her ribs.

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