003

~Evelyn

The morning light filtered through the bedroom blinds, burning my swollen eyes.

I hadn't slept for more than two hours.

I sat at my vanity, staring at my reflection while my hands trembled slightly. Today was the day I had a scheduled one-on-one appointment in the executive suite with Marcus Montgomery to go over the regional digital campaign strategy.

I carefully applied concealer under my eyes to hide the evidence of last night's tears, pulled on a tailored plum colored dress, and smoothed the dress over my curves.

Just as I grabbed my handbag and turned to leave the bedroom, the front door clicked open.

Julian walked in, looking slightly rumpled in yesterday's suit. He stopped when he saw me standing in the hallway.

"Evelyn," he said, his voice flat. "I need to talk to you before you head out."

My heart instantly took a violent leap in my chest. A strange, chaotic rush of emotions flooded through me, happiness, surprise, and a heavy, suffocating wave of nervousness all at once.

I was happy because he was actually acknowledging me, actually willing to speak to me for the first time in weeks. But beneath that, terror gripped my stomach.

I was terrified that whatever was about to come out of his mouth would shatter what little was left of me.

"Sure," I whispered, my voice tight. "What is it?"

"Come into the living room," he muttered, turning on his heel.

I followed behind him like a nervous ghost, my hands gripping the strap of my purse so tightly my knuckles turned white. He stood near the center of the room, jamming his hands into his trouser pockets, not even bothering to look me directly in the eye.

"I've been doing a lot of thinking about us," Julian started, his tone unnervingly calm, almost transactional. "This setup isn't working. So... how about we consider having an open marriage?"

The air in my lungs completely evaporated. My eyes clouded over immediately with hot, stinging tears.

An open marriage?

Where we were legal husband and wife, allowed to sleep with whoever we wanted, while still living under the same roof? The sheer disrespect of the proposal made my head spin.

"An... open marriage?" I choked out, my voice cracking softly.

Julian let out a bitter, harsh laugh, finally turning to glare at me. "What else do you expect, Evelyn? Look at you! I can't even have sex with you! I’ve been suffering in this fucking house! Just the sight of you alone tortures me, let alone the thought of touching you or having sex!"

The words felt like physical blows, slicing through my chest and ripping my heart to shreds.

"I'm not that bad, Julian!" I screamed, the raw, hysterical cry tearing out of my throat before I could stop it. "I'm not!"

"You're not that bad?" he sneered, stepping forward and roughly grabbing my wrist.

He dragged me across the floor toward the bathroom, practically throwing me inside where the glass weight scale sat against the tiles.

"Get on it," he barked, pointing a furious finger at the device. "Get on the fucking scale right now, Evelyn!"

Tears spilled over my cheeks, blurring my vision as I stepped onto the cold glass platform with shaking feet. The digital display blinked to life, counting up until the numbers locked in.

Julian leaned down, staring at the screen, and let out a cold, disgusted scoff.

"Can you see that?" he yelled, looking up at me with pure disdain. "You gained ten more pounds! Ten! More! You’re getting bigger by the day, and you expect me to desire you?"

My knees completely gave out beneath me. I collapsed onto the cold bathroom tiles right beside the scale, weeping softly as I looked up at the man who had once promised to love every inch of me.

"Julian, please..." I sobbed, lifting my hands, practically going on my knees to beg him. "Please, give me some time! Give me a little time, I swear I'll change! I'm already working on it, I'll shed the weight, I promise…"

I paused, looking up at his cruel, unbothered face, trying to find an anchor, any anchor to pull him back to reality.

"Your... your father is back in town," I whispered through my tears, wiping my wet cheeks with the back of my hand. "Marcus came back from Europe yesterday or probably the day before. Why couldn't you tell me he was returning?"

He scoffed, adjusting his cuffs with an arrogant, cold twist of his jaw.

"Why would I tell you?" he said coldly, looking down at me as if I were nothing more than dirt beneath his shoe. "I already told him we divorced months ago. He thinks I'm a single man."

Before I could even process the horror of his words, Julian turned his back on me, walked down the hallway, and slammed the front door shut behind him.

I lay on the cold floor for a long moment, my body trembling with deep, racking sobs. But as the clock on the wall ticked closer to my appointment time with Marcus, a numb, desperate instinct took over.

I forced myself up. I wiped my tears, washed my face with freezing water, and fixed my makeup one last time.

I stepped outside into the morning heat and hailed a taxi, sliding into the back seat. As the cab pulled into the chaotic city traffic toward the company, my fingers frantically flew across my phone screen.

My eyes burned as I typed into the search bar: How to lose weight fast... how to get a slim body in one month... strict fat burn routines.

I stared at the screen, desperately reading through extreme diet plans, clinging to the foolish, heart-wrenching hope that if I could just shrink myself down, I could finally be worthy of love again.

By the time the elevator reached the penthouse floor, my heart was hammering so hard against my ribs I could barely breathe.

I pressed the heels of my hands against my eyes, taking deep, shaky breaths to force the remaining tears back before stepping out into the executive lobby.

I knocked softly on the heavy oak door.

"Come in," Marcus's deep baritone called out.

I pushed the door open and stepped inside his massive, glass-walled office.

Marcus was standing behind his mahogany desk, looking immaculate in a tailored dark navy suit. But the moment his sharp, dark eyes landed on me, his brows furrowed.

He didn't look at the folders in my hand. He looked straight at my face.

"Evelyn," he said, stepping out from behind his desk and walking directly toward me. His tone was laced with immediate concern. "Did you sleep last night?"

My breath hitched. "I... I..." I stammered, clutching my folders like a shield against my chest. "Yes, Mr. Montgomery. I did."

He stopped right in front of me, taking in my pale skin and the faint redness around my eyes. "Your voice sounds hoarse. Are you ill?"

"No, sir," I blurted out quickly, desperately trying to keep my voice steady. "It's... it's just morning allergies. I'm completely fine, I promise."

He didn't buy it for a second. He kept asking about me, his dark eyes searching my face with a deep, gentle warmth that I hadn't felt in two whole years.

He stood there, genuinely caring, genuinely worried about my well being, while my husband was out somewhere treating me like dirt.

The stark, painful contrast completely shattered the last bit of my composure.

A single sob tore out of my throat before I could stop it. Hot tears instantly spilled over my lashes, cascading down my cheeks in a torrential rush.

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry, sir," I muttered through my tears, feeling utterly embarrassed.

I turned on my heel, scrambling to reach the door so I could escape. "Evelyn, wait."

Before I could reach the handle, his large, warm hand clamped gently but firmly around my forearm, bringing me to a complete stop.

He gently turned me back around to face him, his presence towering over me, solid and protective.

"Tell me what's happening," he commanded softly, his hands moving to rest reassuringly on my trembling shoulders. "Please. Talk to me."

The dam inside me completely broke.

"I... I was a slender beauty before I got married," I sobbed out, my hands shaking violently as I buried my face in my hands. "I really was. But after getting married, I don't even know where it came from... I just started becoming big. And now... now my husband refuses to do anything with me. He won't touch me, he won't look at me... and he bullies me on top of it all..."

Marcus froze, his posture going instantly rigid.

"You're married?" he asked, his dark brows drawing tight. "No wonder I saw a ring on your finger yesterday. But your official employee profile says you're single, and your colleagues told me the same thing."

"That's... that's because my husband doesn't want a public marriage," I choked out, wiping my wet face with the back of my hand. "He insists on keeping it secret."

"Who the fuck is this husband of yours?" Marcus growled out, a sudden, terrifying dark fury igniting in his eyes.

His jaw clenched tight, his chest heavy with rage. "An animal trapped in human form?"

The words “It's your son” sat right on the tip of my tongue. I desperately wanted to scream it out. I wanted to tell him that his own flesh and blood, Julian, was the monster breaking my heart every single day.

But terror held me back. If Marcus scolded him, Julian would know I ran my mouth, and he would take every bit of his anger out on me twice as hard.

So I kept my lips sealed.

Marcus looked down at me, his furious expression softening into something intensely tender as he took a step closer, closing the distance between us.

"If he doesn't know how to appreciate a beautiful, curvy, angelic woman like you," he said, his gravelly voice dropping into a low, hypnotic murmur that made my head swell twelve times bigger than it used to be, "then I certainly know how to appreciate your kind."

He moved until he was standing directly in front of me, towering over my soft frame.

"The very moment I walked through that office door yesterday, Evelyn... I felt something powerful for you," he confessed, his dark eyes locking onto mine with an undeniable, burning intensity. "I was skeptical about telling you when I noticed the ring on your hand, because I didn't want to trespass. But I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I stood by and watched you cry every night under a man who isn't worthy enough to have you."

He reached out, his long fingers carefully tucking a stray strand of hair behind my ear, his thumb lightly brushing against my damp cheekbone.

"You're supposed to be adored," he whispered, his voice dripping with raw sincerity. "Appreciated. Cherished. You are a gem, Evelyn."

Before I could process his words, Marcus reached down and placed both of his broad, warm hands firmly around my waist. He gently pulled my plush body flush against himself.

My breath caught in my throat, I could feel the heavy, solid bulge pressed firmly against my lower belly through his trousers.

A sudden, scorching electric wave shot straight down to my thighs, making my entire core pulse with an intense heat I hadn't felt in years.

His dark eyes dropped to my lips, his head lowering slightly.

No...

Something sharp snapped in my head. A sudden wave of panic washed over me. As horrible as Julian was to me, I had made vows. I couldn't cheat on my husband. I could never step outside my marriage.

"I'm sorry..." I whispered, my voice trembling as I pushed gently against his massive chest. "I'm so sorry... I can't do this."

I yanked myself out of his hold, covered my wet face with both hands, and turned around, running blindly out of his office as the doors slid open.