Chapter 10 – Who Were You With?

“Who were you with?”

He asked in a very calm tone. That made it worse.

He stood in the middle of the guest room and looked at me like he already knew and only wanted to watch me lie.

I closed the door. My bag was still in my hand. My legs still felt like they were outside, in that car, with Adrian Vale telling me last night was not over.

“I needed air,” I said.

He scoffed. “That’s the same sentence you used last night. Then you came home with no panties and another man’s smell on your skin.”

“Don’t start.”

“I already started.” He walked toward me. “You left after dinner. You used the back door. You were gone long enough to meet him.”

“I walked.”

“In those shoes? After I told you to stay in this room?”

I didn’t answer.

He stopped close enough that I could see the muscle jump in his jaw.

“Was it the same man?”

“There is no man.”

“Sophia.” He said my name like a warning. “I heard you on that call. I heard you break. Don’t stand here and tell me you went outside to look at the garden.”

My phone buzzed in my bag.

Both of us heard it.

His eyes dropped.

“Give it to me.”

“No.”

“I’m not asking.”

I stepped back. My legs hit the bed.

He grabbed the bag. I held on. We pulled at the same time and the phone slid out onto the sheets.

He picked it up.

“Password.”

“No.”

He tried our anniversary. The screen shook and stayed locked.

That little fail made his face change.

“You changed it??” He asked in shock.

“It’s my phone.”

“You’re my wife.”

“And she’s in my room,” I said. “So don’t talk to me about being a wife.”

He stared at me. Then he threw the phone on the bed and grabbed my chin.

“Who is he?”

“No one you know.”

The words came out before I could stop them.

His fingers tightened.

“Ohhhh. Very good, So there is someone.”

I pulled my face free. “You have Bella. You don’t get to hunt me around this house like I stole something from you.”

“You did.” His voice dropped. “You let another man touch you. You let him make you come while I was on the phone. Then you walked back in here and let me find you with nothing under your dress.”

“You fucked melike I had no worth against a wall for that.”

“And it wasn’t enough.” He looked at my mouth. “Because you still went back to him.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t have to.”

He pushed me down on the bed. Not enough to throw me. Enough to remind me he still thought he could.

“Was he better?” he asked.

I looked at the ceiling. “Don’t.”

“Did you ride him? Did you moan his name? Did you do for him what you never did for me?”

“You told me I was the problem,” I said. “You told me I just lay there. Don’t ask me questions you can’t take.”

His hand went to my thigh. I shoved it off.

“Don’t touch me.”

“You’re still my wife.”

“Then act like it and get her out of this house.”

He stood up like I had burned him.

A knock hit the door.

Bella opened it without waiting. She was still in the white dress. Her cheek had a faint mark from my slap. She looked happy about it.

“I heard you two,” she said. “She’s lying again, isn’t she?”

“Get out,” I said.

She looked at Damien, not me. “I saw her leave after dinner. Side door. She thought nobody was watching.”

Damien didn’t look surprised. He looked like he just confirmed something.

“Thank you.”

Bella smiled at me. “If he was worth it, he would have come through the front.”

“I said get out.”

Damien pointed at the hall. “Downstairs.”

She left slowly, like she wanted me to feel her winning.

The door shut.

Damien locked it.

That small sound did more to my chest than his shouting.

“Last chance,” he said. “Name.”

“I don’t have to give you a name.”

He came back to me, close, crowding me until I had to sit again.

“You have no money,” he said. “No job. No family in this city who can stand against me. You eat here. You sleep here. You wear my name. You will tell me.”

I looked up at him.

“I’m leaving.”

“No.”

“Not tonight.” My voice came out rougher than I wanted. “But I am leaving. I won’t sit in this little room while she hangs her clothes in my closet.”

He leaned down.

“You walk out of this house with another man and I will ruin you. I will tell every person we know that my wife ran around like a desperate slut the same night she caught me.”

“They’ll also hear you were already in Bella.”

“Do you think that scares me?” he asked. “Men like me survive that. Women like you don’t.”

My phone lit up on the bed.

We both saw the screen.

Unknown number.

He reached for it.

I grabbed it first and held it behind me.

“Don’t.”

“Then tell me who it is.”

“No.”

He stayed there, breathing hard, looking at me like he was deciding if he wanted to kiss me or hit the wall.

He chose the wall.

His palm slammed next to my head.

“Stay in this room,” he said. “If I find you gone again tonight, I won’t ask who. I’ll come find him myself.”

He unlocked the door and left it open on purpose.

I sat there until I could feel my fingers again.

Then I looked at the phone.

“Did he ask for my name?”

I typed with a shaking thumb.

“He asked. I didn’t say anything.”

The reply came fast.

Good.

I stared at the screen for a long time.

I could stay here and let Damien lock this room around me.

Or I could walk out and let the whole house see I was done.

I typed:

I’m done. Tomorrow morning. Front of the house.

The reply came in seconds.

I’ll be there.

I put the phone under the pillow and pulled a small bag from the closet.

Tonight I would stay.

Tomorrow I would walk out the front door.

And this time I would not use the side gate.