LOGINSELENE.I didn’t call Marcus immediately, even if I wanted to.I wanted to ask him why he’d held back that information, why Damien didn’t have it in his folder. Strangely enough, I almost wanted to thank for not revealing it.I’d thought that Damien must’ve known everything; or if he didn’t, he would soon know everything as soon as he sat down to read the folder from cover to cover. I had avoided talking about the incident because I hadn’t been ready, and I’d assumed that Damien had let me do that out of something like courtesy.But now that I realized that Damien didn’t have the information in the first place, I had no idea what to do.Should I still tell him? Or should I continue to keep it a secret?I didn’t want to keep it a secret. Keeping secrets had almost ruined my relationship with Damien.But the very thought of telling him made my throat constrict, seizing the words from my tongue and refusing to set them free.I wasn’t ready to talk about it, but neither could I keep the s
SELENE.Damien didn’t return for a long time. I waited in the living room for hours, but he never darkened the doorsteps. Eventually, as the evening grew darker, and night drew closer, I resorted to distracting myself. I prepared something for the both of us, making dinner especially delicious in hopes that it would…ameliorate his feelings towards me, maybe.When he still didn’t come home after dinner was done, I turned to TV. It didn’t help much; my thoughts kept on circling back to Damien, Marcus, and the file sitting innocuously on the table. I tried my hardest to ignore that last one in particular.I don’t know when I slept off. One moment, I’d been watching reruns of a badly acted show filled with cringe worthy scenes and poorly timed laugh tracks. The next, long fingers were trailing across my cheeks, drawing me from a deep unconsciousness.I shifted on the couch, which I’d lain on to get comfortable a while ago.I blinked blearily, trying to refocus my blurry vision. I saw an
SELENE.It had been going so well. That was the worst part of everything; it had been going so well.I should’ve known that it wouldn’t last.“Well?” Damien demanded; his voice tight with anger and something else, something I couldn’t place. I wanted to be angry at him as well; to hide behind rage and disappointment that he’d gone behind my back and done this even after he had promised that he wouldn’t. But I couldn’t be angry; I couldn’t find it in myself, because I know that he’d only been forced to go to this extreme because of my stubbornness.There was also the fact that I was too overwhelmed with terror to even think of being angry.“What-” I swallowed reflexively. “What is that, Damien?”“What do you think it is?” he asked simply.I didn’t reply; I couldn’t. I knew as much as he did what exactly it was.I reached out for the folder, fingers trembling slightly. I took it from the table, but I couldn’t bring myself to open it, not yet at least.“What happened, Selene?” he asked.
DAMIEN.Trying to have sex with Selene in the aftermath of what I’d just learned was inadvisable. Yet, I did it anyway, to prevent any suspicions.I failed.“Hey,” Selene called out as she walked into the bedroom after a quick shower in the aftermath of our sex. “What?” I grunted from where I was lying on the bed.She glided her way to the bed, her feet silent on the hardwood flooring. The only sign that she was still there was the depression she made as she took her seat on the bed.“I don’t know if this sounds weird or something,” she began, “but it felt like you weren’t really…all there when we were having sex.”I blinked, turning my head to stare at her. Her shadow loomed over me on the bed; I could still see her, even with the dim mood lighting. She wasn’t staring at me, instead fixing her gaze on a vague part of the bed.I tried to bluff. “Is that a way of saying that my performance was inadequate, Selene?” I asked with a strained smile.She laughed; there was a nervous, uncer
DAMIEN.The morning after was more than a little awkward for both of us, especially for Selene.“I made something, Damien. Will you stay for breakfast?”“I have to attend an early morning meeting, so I’ll have to pass.”“Okay.”I could feel the dejection radiating from her at that moment. I was pulling on my tie with the help of the mirror, while she stood in the doorway, fidgeting silently.“You can eat it, if you want.”“It’s…well, okay.”She was non-combative this morning. And I had an idea why.With my suit and tie properly put in order, I turned to face her. Our eyes met for a split second, before she glanced away reflexively, as if afraid that I would see the vulnerable guilt swimming in the depths of hers.“I might be late today as well. So don’t wait up for me.”I picked up my suitcase, which had been propped against my dresser, and made my way to the door. Selene was standing at the threshold, dressed in a translucent shift that barely covered anything. For a moment, I felt
SELENE.The entire ride home passed by in a blur.My memories of it were indistinct, when I thought back to it later. This wasn’t surprising; I was dreading the confrontation that was to come.I could barely stand to look at Damien for more than a few seconds; even from where I sat, it was obvious that he was livid. His face was red with barely contained anger and frustration, and his knuckles were white as he squeezed the wheel. He drove recklessly, aggressively, as if he wanted to eat the distance between Marcus’ establishment and our home. As if he couldn’t wait to escape something.Once again, I cursed myself for listening to Marcus.‘I shouldn’t have gone to meet him,’ I thought. ‘I’m so stupid.’And yet, if I hadn’t done what he’d asked, the thought of what he would do in retaliation chilled me to my bones. My secret was in his hands, and I was helpless before him unless I somehow managed to wrest it away from him.‘Not that it matters now,’ I snorted to myself.I had tried to







