Chapter 7 – The Guest Wing

I stayed in the hallway longer than I should have,trying to process everything that just happened.

Damien’s footsteps faded upstairs. The house went quiet again, but it didn’t feel empty. It felt like it was waiting for the next hit.

I pulled my dress down properly and walked to the downstairs bathroom. I locked the door, turned on the tap, and cleaned myself with shaking hands. The water was cold. My thighs were sticky. My neck still burned where Damien had pulled my hair.

I looked at myself in the mirror.

Mascara under my eyes. Marks on my skin. A woman who left one man’s bed and walked straight into another man’s punishment.

I washed my face and went upstairs.

The master bedroom door was already open.

Bella was inside.

Two boxes sat on the bed. My clothes were in a pile on the floor, like someone had swept them out of the way. She was hanging a cream dress in my closet. Her perfume was already in the room.

She looked up when she saw me and smiled.

“Oh. You’re back.”

I didn’t answer. I walked past her and pulled a suitcase from the bottom of the closet.

“Damien told me,” she said. “I’m moving in,Officially.”

I opened the suitcase and started packing. Shirts. Jeans. The few things that still felt like mine. I left the jewelry. I left the bags he bought me. None of it felt like mine anymore.

Bella watched me the whole time.

“You look tired, Sophia.” She hung another dress. “Long night?”

“Get out of my way.”

“It’s not your room anymore.” She said it softly, like she was being kind. “He wants you in the guest wing. Safer that way. Easier to keep an eye on you.” She said with no emotion.

I zipped one side of the suitcase. “You have no shame.”

“Why should I?” She turned to me. “Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for this day? Do you know how long I had to hide? How long I had to smile in your face and wait for him downstairs after he left your bed?”

I looked at her. “You were my friend. My fucking best friend.”

“I was tired,” she said. “Tired of covering it up. Tired of pretending I was happy for you. Tired of watching you sit here thinking you had him. Tired of watching you enjoy all these wealth.”

“I brought you into this house.”

“And I stayed.” She smiled again. “That’s the difference. Whenever we’re done, he’s so satisfied, That’s why he doesn’t come to you afterwards. He already got what he wanted from me.”

The words sat in my chest like glass.

I packed faster.

Footsteps came down the hall. Damien appeared in the doorway. He had changed his shirt. His hair was fixed. He looked like the man the city respected, not the man who had just fucked me against a wall.

He looked at the suitcase, then at Bella, then at me.

“Are you done?”

“Almost.”

Bella walked over to him and touched his arm like it was normal. “She’s making it dramatic.”

“I’m packing,” I replied,sharply. “That’s what you told me to do.”

Damien’s eyes stayed on me. “Take only what you need. The rest can stay.”

“I don’t want the rest….i know what I need.”

Bella laughed under her breath. “See? Even her pride is tired.”

Something in me snapped.

I walked up to her and slapped her hard across the face.

The sound cracked through the room. Her head turned. For a second she just stared at me, shocked. Then she screamed.

“Damien!”

He moved fast. He grabbed my wrist before I could do it again.

“Have you lost your mind?”

“She is in my room,” I said. “And you’re siding with her even after your betrayal?”

He shoved my hand down. “Don’t you ever put your hands on her again.”

The words landed harder than the slap.

I stared at him. “That’s it? She sleeps with my husband in my bed, moves into my house, and I’m the problem?”

“But you hit her.”

“And you fucked her.”

Bella held her cheek. Her eyes were wet, but there was a smile under it. She knew she had won that moment.

Damien pointed at the suitcase. “Take your things and go to the guest wing. Now.”

I picked up the suitcase. My hands were shaking, but I didn’t let them see it. I walked past both of them and down the hall.

The guest wing was colder.

The bed was made. The curtains were drawn halfway. The window looked out at the garden I used to sit in when I still thought this marriage could be saved. I put the suitcase on the floor and sat on the edge of the bed.

The house felt bigger from here. And smaller at the same time.

I could hear them down the hall. Bella’s voice. Damien answering her. A door closing. The sound of a life that used to be mine continuing without me.

I opened the suitcase and started putting clothes in the drawer. I needed something to do with my hands. If I sat still, I would start thinking about last night. About Adrian’s mouth. About the call. About the way Damien had used me downstairs like he was trying to erase Adrian’s touch.

A knock sounded on my room door.

I stood up. “What?”

The door opened. Bella leaned against the frame, one hand on her cheek, smile still there.

“Dinner is at seven,” she said. “Damien wants you downstairs. Family table.” 

“I’m not hungry.”

“I don’t think he asked.” She looked around the guest room like it was a joke. “Cute little space. Almost like you’re a visitor now.” 

“Get out.”

She tapped the door twice. “Don’t be late, Sophia. It would be a shame if he had to come drag you down himself.”

Then she left.

I sat back down on the bed. My phone buzzed.

An unknown number.

I stared at it for a second before I opened it.

You made it home.

My stomach dropped.

Another message came in.

Did he smell me on you?

I haven’t even processed what was happening,who this was and what this was about then one more message appeared.

“I still have your panties, Sophia.”