2.

LYSSANDRA  

I scrub my fingers over my eyes, blinking, hoping I'll open my eyes and the sight has disappeared, maybe like a mirage.

My heart is pounding, I think it'll explode from my chest. I can hear Cade, and the man, but I keep my eyes closed.

“Lys?” I hear Cade, and my jaw clenches. He chooses to call me Lys now? Really? When a man is fucking him in our living room where he wasn't even good enough to be the top?

I open my eyes and Cade is naked. He's like an Adonis, but I can't look at him right now.

“What on earth are you doing here? I assumed you'd be at Riley's?” His voice is shaking, maybe with the exertion of his rough sex on my favourite couch.

I take a look at his partner, and my lips fall open. “Arch? Cade, I can't believe you're boning Cade on my couch!” I yell at him, my throat rough with the tears I'm holding back.

“Don't act hysterical. We can talk this out calmly. Give me a moment to dress up, and I'll be with you.” Cade turns to Arch and sighs sadly. “I'm sorry, Arch. You'll need to leave now.”

His voice is apologetic, almost pleading as he speaks to Arch. Arch is a board member on my company’s board of trustees. Actually, he owns the largest shares in my company. He was the first person who invested in me.  

But he's also fifty years old. Almost twenty years older than Cade.

Arch towers over Cade. He presses a kiss to Cade’s forehead as though I'm not even standing at the door. Arch walks around him and stops beside me.

“Lyssandra?” He murmurs. “It's rather unfortunate you had to see that, but I am…” he trails off, shakes his head and walks away.

I bend to remove my heels, but feeling dizzy, I fling my gold clutch at Cade. He catches it effortlessly and I feel even more useless.

The air is distorted, a ringing sound fills my head, buzzing in my skull. A cold smile curls my lips. “I guess it's obvious what you were doing during those meetings that ran late, huh?”

And to think I had given him accolades in my speech just this evening, calling him the best husband ever.

“Don't be dramatic, Lyssandra. You're so sickly you'll faint if you strain your heart.” He turns and stalks out of the room. “Come into the bedroom when you're less hysterical, and we'll talk.”

I hear our bedroom door slam shut, and that buzzing sound in my skull finally ceases. A laugh burst out of me. It's dark, almost burning my throat on its way out.

I want to be strong, really I do, but instead, I walk to the couch, and slump into it, and I cry. The tears are salty, and again, the breeze blows the smell of citrus into my nose.

That smell had filled the house the night my father died too. Or more accurately, the night my father murdered my mother and my sister.

Or at least, that's what my uncle will have me believe. Cade was supposed to help me dig into the truth, that was of course until I got sick, and all of it was swept away.

And now, he's what, fucking a man?

Cade is gay?

My head pounds as I try standing, but I stop my knees from buckling, the taste of blood filling my mouth as I bite down on my lips to stop myself from screaming.

I head to our room, slam the door open, and turn the lights on.

Cade looks up from his laptop, his glasses perched on his aristocratic nose.

He slides the glasses up his nose like a professor looking over a student he doesn't approve of.  “Lyssandra? I told you…”

“Get out. I want you to pack your bags, your stupid books, your fucking life and get out of mine.” I snap at him, my self-control slipping away.

Cade’s lips flatten into a thin line. “That's a very degrading language for a woman, Lyssandra.”

What right does he have to chastise me? I'm not the cheating scum bag, am I?

“You don't say? Cade I caught you cheating on me! With Arch. A man!” I'm shouting.

I know my voice is pitched high, but I can't stop.

I can't believe I have considered killing myself, stepping off a balcony because of this man, and all along, he's been making love to Arch.

His eyes are icy. “I knew you were small minded, Lyssandra. Don't tell me you're homophobic too?”

He closes the laptop and climbs out of the bed.

I'm dizzy as I watch him stalk closer to me.

His body stops a few steps from mine and I can smell his cologne, feel the heat of his body, and the anger emanating off him.

The headache starts in the center of my forehead, and spreads to the nape of my neck.

“I want you to leave, Cade. I wouldn't care if you fucked a dog, but you're my husband. I expect to be respected. And you obviously don't respect me.”

I turn and walk around him to my closet.

I can feel my skin burning, and it becomes worse when his fingers close around my arm, digging into my skin.

“I'll go tonight. But we'll have to talk soon,” he says. Then he pushes me away. “Go take a shower, Lys. You reek of sweat.”

Then he's gone.

I listen for the sound of his car leaving my driveway, and I know this is the last time.

This is the last straw.

The pain feels worse than all the times I thought I would die.

All the times I had to sleep in the bathroom because my stomach wouldn't hold down the food I ate. This pain is worse.

I head to the bathroom and shower because I do reek of sweat, then I climb into bed, and close my eyes.

Sleep doesn't come easy, but when it does, I'm swept away completely.

A cool breeze flows across my face, and wakes me up the next morning.

I shower, resolving to not think of Cade until I have to. I head to the gym, eatbreakfast, then I head to work with a bottle of coconut water.

The water helps regulate my system.

But when I step into my office, standing beside Cade, is my uncle, Nathan, and sitting behind my desk, in my chair is Arch.

I stop at the door and chuckle.

“Hello, Uncle. I didn't expect the entire calvary had been called up for my sake.”