My Husband's Affair My Anniversary Gift (Lily and David) novel Chapter 147

Lily didn’t turn. Her hands kept moving. “I don’t want to scare you,” she said plainly. “I want you to understand, if anyone humiliates me, I will fight back. I won’t be silenced anymore "

He let out a soft, humorless sound. “Is that what you think? That you’re some kind of warrior now?”

She stopped chopping for a second, then kept going. “I think I’m surviving.”

There was a pause. The kettle hissed, the spoon clinked against the pot. Ordinary sounds. For a moment the apartment felt like it could snap back to normal, two people sharing space without the old knots of their past. But the quiet was shallow.

He stepped closer until she could feel heat from his body, but he kept just far enough to avoid touching her.

“I promise Marina won’t bother you again,” David said, voice smooth. “But you have to stay away from Jabco and Carson.”

Lily scoffed, a short, sharp laugh. “That’s none of your business. Who I meet is my life. I can be with whoever I choose. I never stopped you from being with another woman, so don’t try to control me.”

She raised an eyebrow. Was he really ordering her now? Whether she met Jabco or not wasn’t a rule he could enforce, she worked with him. Avoiding him wasn’t always possible.

David made a soft, almost amused sound. He breathed in deep, like he was counting to calm himself.

Lily was washing vegetables and didn’t notice him until his shadow fell over her. Before she could step away, he was right behind her, trapping her between the cabinets and his body. The kitchen suddenly felt too small.

“What are you doing?” she asked, stunned.

He leaned in until his face was near hers. “Are you testing me?” he asked, low.

“I don’t need to test you,” Lily said, edging her face away so she could breathe. “It’s my life. You’re not in control, not anymore.”

She kept her tone flat, careful not to show how much the closeness tightened her chest. “I’m hungry and tired. I want to eat and sleep. If there’s nothing else, leave.”

He was tall and lean, a presence pressing in on her. For the first time since he’d entered, a small, ugly thought crossed her mind, what if he tried to kiss her?

It was the kind of thing he had done before, a humiliation she wished she could forget. But she pushed the image away, refusing to let it wobble her.

David’s eyes flickered with something sharp, annoyance, maybe, then hardened.

He straightened, the distance between them widening by inches. He didn’t reach for her. He didn’t apologize. Instead his face tightened into a look Lily knew well: disappointed, like she’d failed him somehow.

He stepped back and watched her with a cold, assessing look as if memorizing the way she moved in this tiny kitchen.

Lily quietly finished cooking and quietly set the dishes on the small dining table, a simple dinner she’d thrown together out of habit rather than appetite.

The smell of warm spices filled the apartment, blending with the faint hum of the refrigerator.

There was a plate of fried eggs with tomatoes, a bowl of stir-fried vegetables with garlic, some steamed rice, and a small dish of chicken curry.

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