Chapter 3— The shocking reveal.

Kimberly's POV

I got home that day feeling lighter than I had in months, like something in me had finally been given permission to hope. It was as if I counted seconds, waiting for evening so I could at least do the needful while waiting for my husband to be back, even if it meant forcing myself on him…while I really hoped for the best.

I spent almost an hour deciding what to wear, which felt ridiculous for a marriage that had gone a full year without so much as a lingering touch. But tonight felt different… Because tonight, I had a doctor's words rattling around in my head like a promise I intended to keep.

Evening came, and I was already dressed in the sexiest lingerie I'd bought recently … the kind I'd told myself I was saving for a special occasion, though if I was honest, I hadn't been sure there'd ever be one. It's black and delicate, in a way that made me feel like a stranger in my own skin when I looked in the mirror. I turned sideways once, twice, trying to convince myself I looked like a woman worth coming home to.

I crossed my legs sexily and sat on the same relaxing seat that he loves to sit on whenever he gets in here, arranging myself like I was setting a stage, because in a way, I was.

I really wanted to be the first thing his eyes got caught up with when he walked in. I already had a jar filled with wine and poured it into two cups, expecting him to be back soon. Meanwhile, I was gradually sipping mine, though somehow my thoughts couldn't stay away from those looks from that doctor and the thoughts that had followed in suit right there. ‘God, why is my heart pounding?’

I told myself it meant nothing. A doctor was a doctor. I'd probably never even see him again, and there was no reason his face should still be sitting so comfortably in my head, uninvited, while I waited for my own husband.

And the way he had smiled at me before replying, ‘’You've gone too long without it, if you're still a virgin like you said. That's what's causing the hysteria.’

And just then, his advice got stuck in my head. ‘Regular intimacy with your husband. That should balance you out.’

I clung to that sentence like it was medicine, and as if following it was the one thing standing between me and whatever this restlessness inside me had turned into.

To a fault, my heart was gladdened, and then I said to myself, "Tonight, I'm giving myself to Roy."

I even rehearsed it a little, the way I'd greet him, the way I'd let the silence stretch just long enough for him to notice me before I said a word. I wanted this night to undo a year's worth of cold shoulders and empty excuses.

And just as the words left my lips, the door to the master's bedroom opened, and here he came in. It was a perfect scenario of ‘talk about the devil, and the devil shows up.’

And so, I walked up to him excitedly, all smiling, but seeing the straight face he put on right from the moment he walked in … even till the moment I approached him … scared the life out of me.

"You're home early," I said, trying to keep the brightness in my voice from wobbling.

He barely looked at me. "Meeting ran short."

That was it. No question about why I was standing there dressed the way I was, no flicker of interest, absolutely nothing! I told myself he was just tired, that a man could walk through his own front door without noticing his wife had gone out of her way for him, and it wouldn't have to mean anything.

Regardless, I went on to kiss his lips softly and lightly, knowing I had to push further if I must get what I wanted. "Darling, I want you," I said seductively.

He held my shoulders right away and said to my face, straight up, like I was some last trash he wished to deal with. "I'm exhausted. And I'm going to sleep, don't disturb me with this again."

"Roy, please." I hated how quickly my voice cracked, and how fast the confidence I'd built up all evening crumbled the second he looked at me like that. "It's been a year. A whole year."

"And whose fault is that?" he snapped, the words landing like a slap before I even understood them.

I blinked at him, stunned. "What is that supposed to mean?"

He didn't answer. He just shook his head like I wasn't worth the explanation…like I'd already used up whatever patience he had left for me before I'd even opened my mouth.

This is what I get every single day for the past year we got married. But I had to make a change about that tonight, and I was willing to go that extra mile to get it this time.

"Please, don't shut me out!" I pleaded desperately.

Before I knew it, he pushed me off, and I lost my footing, and that was exactly how I ended up on the floor.

"Look at you, you're pathetic." He blurted it out loudly. "Absolutely pathetic!"

‘He called me that? For real?’ The thought swept through my mind while I was lying helplessly on the floor, and I couldn't even believe it. ‘His own wife?’

I sat there for a second, too stunned to move, waiting for him to take it back, to soften even slightly. But as hard as it was for me to admit it…he didn't.

Right away, uncontrollable tears ran down my cheeks, but he said to me regardless, "From now on, stay out of my room."

"Roy…" I tried to say anything at all but my voice barely above a whisper now.

He walked out instantly, even without sparing a glance at my face, while I stayed there and cried.

*****

I was all alone in my room now, still reminiscing over the pain of such a miserable marriage I'd gotten myself into. I sat there hugging my knees for a while, wondering what exactly I'd done in this life to deserve being made to feel this small in my own home.

And then, somehow, I was helplessly caught up thinking about that same doctor all over again, as his face flashed through my mind.

"Why would I think of him?" I said to myself, half annoyed, and then half unsettled by how easily he'd found his way back into my thoughts on a night like this.

And just then, I heard some unusual sound that seemed like moaning. I walked tiptoed straight to my husband's private room, where the sound was coming from, with my heart hammering with a dread I couldn't quite explain yet.

I managed to peep through a small fancy opening at the door, and I saw my husband purely masturbating and caressing himself.

"Tricia… I love you," he said, looking at a picture he held in his hand.

‘Hell no! Tricia?’ Was that not supposed to be his secretary? He had always denied having anything to do with her whenever I noticed something strange between them. And he was always claiming she was some distant relative. I was lost in complete awe. I couldn't put myself together, and I didn't even know when I started quietly whimpering as a fresh wave hit me with what I'd just learned.

And just like that, I walked back to my room, already wailing out kind of loud, as tears rolled down my cheeks endlessly. "So, Roy wants his secretary?"

I couldn't get that pain off my heart, but for my own sanity, I had to act as if I didn't know what was going on.

But what if I was overthinking things because I really needed evidence before I would know how to handle all of these.