Chapter Four

Annika’s POV

"Oh, Yes!" I hear the familiar voice echo through the walls of the living room. My feet come to a halt, and suddenly, I find it difficult to breathe. It feels like someone has wrapped his hand around my throat and is squeezing so hard.

"Fuck!" A passionate whisper this time around. She is pressed on the couch, one leg thrown over my husband's shoulders. One hand is on her boobs on display, and the other is pressing into her thighs. 

Her eyes are rolled to the back of her head, like nothing else matters in the world right now but this. 

The box of food drops from my hand in a clatter just as a gasp falls from my lips. “Vivienne?”

Everything seems to happen so slowly, like my brain decided to reduce the pace so that every moment gets ingrained in my head. 

I watch with my mouth wide open as Ares lifts his tall frame off her body, with no sight of remorse in view. As my best friend, who I have known all my life, cleans her smeared lipstick off with her thumb, she is doing nothing to cover up her boobs on display.

"Vivienne," I whisper again, hoping that this is some sort of prank. That my husband and my best friend have really not been sleeping together behind my back.

She sighs, resting her back on the couch. Her eyes meet mine, and what stares back at me is so different from what I remember in the hospital room. She was angry with Ares and wanted me to stay away from him.

I can’t believe she was doing all that just to get on with him.

“Say something!” I cry, desperate to believe anything. My husband moves to the bar at the far end of the room, pouring himself a drink like I am a slight inconvenience he can’t wait to get rid of. 

“What do you want me to say?” Vivienne mutters, angling her head.

 "I had a broken ankle!" I cry, raising my hands in the air exasperatedly. "You watched my wail when the doctor tried resetting it. You never left my corner until I fell asleep. What…."

"Oh, please," she waves a hand in the air, as if swatting off something. "Before you recount your whole medical history, you should have listened to me when I asked you to stop thinking about Ares. You brought this upon yourself, Annika."

I shake my head in confusion, wishing I could go back to the hospital and restart the last hour.

"If you had just stayed back at the hospital and eaten the food I got you like I wanted you to, you would never have walked into it. Yet, you had to put yourself right into the situation like some goddamn wife who doesn't know her place."

Why do I find it hard to believe that my best friend is the one sitting in front of me, one leg crossed over the other like she owns this space? I begin to wonder how long she has been coming here for, how much this has been happening without my knowledge.

Vivienne has been the only good thing in my life since I married Ares. She supported me, made herself available when I needed someone to talk to, and hated Ares on the side for me when I couldn’t.

Was that all a lie?

"Vivienne, how could you do this to me?" My voice breaks as I edge closer to her, tears blinding my vision. I have always known Ares cheats on me, and I have come to accept that. But my best friend?

"Don't act like you're some goody two-shoes," Vivienne drawls, a light chuckle in her eyes. "And don't be a drama queen with all of those tears. Save it for someone who it actually affects."

“What?”

"Tell me you've never looked at another man lustfully, even though he is married. When Ares takes you out like arm candy to all of these fancy events, tell me that your gaze has never strayed to any of the men in the room."

"No!" I yell, letting go of all my restraints. My tears start pouring in torrents, but I can't hold them back anymore. I have been keeping my emotions locked up for so long that my body can't take it anymore, combusting all around me. 

“I am married, Vivienne. And it is all I have tried to tell you.”

“Leave.” 

I have no idea when Ares walked back into the room, but now, he has his eyes on Vivienne, cold and pissed, with a half-empty glass in one hand. There is something else in his gaze. Something I can’t put my hands on. 

“Ares, you can’t possibly…”

“Get out of my house, Vivienne, and don’t come back.”

She gets on her feet, her perky boobs bouncing as she covers the space between her and Ares. “Are you doing this because of her?” Vivienne scoffs, one manicured nail pointed at me. “She’s not worth it, Ares.”

“I know,” he murmurs, killing me in more ways that I didn’t know was possible. “But you aren’t worth it either. And if you had bothered to ask questions before coming in here, you would have found out that I don’t sleep with one lady twice.”

“We didn’t even…”

“Stephen!” Ares cuts her off, calling one of his men. “Take her out of here.”

He grabs her arms roughly, barely giving her enough time to grab her shirt and her heels before he practically shoved out of the door, leaving me and Ares in the living area. 

“Ares…”

“And don’t think I did this for you, Annika,” he mutters, bringing the rim of his glass to his lips. “Your friend is just a lousy sex.”

I press my lips together, trying to stop the heart-wrenching sound from ripping through me. I don't know where I am headed, but I race outside the house, my tears making it hard for me to see.

A part of me expects Ares to come after me, to try to get me to stay back in the mansion since he never lets me go out in the first place.

But nothing changes. Not even when the same car that brought me here stops in front of me again, the man in shades rolling down the window.

“Get in.”