CHAPTER ONE.

ELOISE'S POV

“I will be back home at nine.”

Seven, simple words that made my entire day. My husband, Klein, has been on a business trip for a week now. He’s always like that. I didn’t think he would make it back for our anniversary. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised even if he had forgotten about it altogether.

He was...not exactly the romantic type.

We have known each other since we were kids. When all the girls around were dreaming about their prince charming, mine already had a face.

It was Klein’s face. When the boys in school were writing letters to girls, he was taking me horseback riding. He knew everything there was to know, and he has traveled to every place there was on earth. He was my one true hero, the boy I looked up to and secretly had a crush on. And for a while, I thought he felt the same way.

He didn’t. He told me that on the night of our wedding.

“You disgust me,” my new husband whispered in my ear when he was inside me, “You wanted the title of Mrs. Wesley. You got it, and you’ll get nothing more from me.”

Our marriage was a family alliance and it was more for the benefit of our families than for ourselves. His father made the decision, and Klein hated me for it.

In the eyes of the general public, Klein is the perfect husband who loves and cares for his wife, namely me, and respects her family. When in fact, we only see each other a few times in a month, and even for those short times, I have to beg for it.

That’s why today is so special.

After three years, he is finally warming up to my effort. I kept my work in my father's company, but I managed to cook for him everyday even if it meant I had to get up around five o’clock. I had to work overtime often just so I could be home early for his dinner on the rare days that he could be there. I kept all our special days in heart, our anniversary, his birthday, his family's important days, and I have always been the one organizing everything for them on every of those days, I have always been the one taking the photos when everyone else is smiling in them, and I have been the one keeping albums for these precious memories.

I didn’t think he would care about our anniversary this year, but he messaged me in the last moments! I couldn’t get a hold of myself, and I rushed home from work to put together the candlelight dinner.

Balloons and ribbons have been hung and confetti party poppers are ready to be popped. A cake from the shop because I didn’t have time to make one myself, but I do have a homemade gift.

I’m a perfumer at my father’s company, the best one. And I made one for Klein, to carry my feelings towards him and our best memories together.

I named it, Reminiscence.

What would be a better day to give him this present, other than the day that his love for me rekindled?

My heart is pumping hard.

Just twenty minutes away. I didn’t want to bother him, so I texted his PA. Logan said his flight had already landed long ago, and he should be twenty minutes away from home.

I didn’t want to be silly, but I started checking my phone like some highschool teenage girl experiencing her first crush.

Nine came. Nine passed.

My anticipation turned to anxiety.

I pull up Klein’s number, but hesitate to launch the call. Klein hates it when I call him unnecessarily.

Maybe just wait a few more minutes.

But what if he got into an accident? It has been several twenty minutes by now. What else could have dragged him for so long?

I should call, just to check if he was safe.

Persuading myself, I hit the dial button. Just when I thought he would ignore my call just like usual, it connects.

“Klein?” I call timidly.

No response.

After waiting a few seconds, I retrieve the phone from my ears and look at the screen to make sure the call is connected and it is. I place the phone back on my ear.

“Hello? Klein? Are you there?” I ask, worried. A sudden soft sound of a woman's laughter fills my ears, making me freeze in shock.

“Klein...who is it?” The woman complains coquettishly, “Come back to bed--”

The phone call is cut off. And my head explodes.

I know that voice.

Jasmine.

The three of us grew up together. Her parents died saving Klein, and Klein’s parents took her in. I knew Klein was close to her, and that was why I never confessed my feelings to him. But then she left the city, and Klein married me. He thought I had something to do with her leaving, and he has hated me ever since. I didn’t know, but he never cared about my side of the story.

When did she come back?

Is that why Klein rushed home? To her?

To her bed...

The thought of that forms knots in my stomach, making it hard to even breathe. I grab the phone and launch another call, but it goes straight to voicemail. 

He knew he wasn’t going to come home, so why did he ask me to wait for him? Did he do that to taunt me? To let me know that his place is not with me.

Klein doesn’t come back home the whole night.