Chapter 2

 Chapter 2

The folder slipped from my fingers.

I didn't even notice until I heard the papers scatter across the floor. I stood there, frozen in the doorway, watching Adrian's hand pull away from Vivian's waist like it had never been there.

"Elena." His voice was steady, composed, like he had not been caught doing anything wrong and i was wrong for entering his office without prior notice.

Vivian turned to face me, and she smiled. It was a practiced smile, one that makes you think she was doing you a favor by merely looking at you.

"Elena," she said softly. "I've heard so much about you."

She let the words sit there between us as the implication was there, glaring for all to see. Like she had known all along who i was to him, and what she thought about it.

"You take such good care of him." She tilted her head, her eyes gentle. "He's lucky to have someone so devoted to him, he deserves that, don't you think?"

The way she said devoted made my stomach turn. Like I was a housekeeper rather than his wife who had been loyal to him all these years.

Something in me snapped.

"I'm his wife," I said. "Not his caretaker."

The smile on Vivian's face didn't falter, but her eyes shifted, just slightly, to Adrian.

"Elena." His voice carried a warning now. The kind that said, 'stop right now, do not make a scene in public'

I didn't stop. Rather i pressed on, feeling disheartened by what i had seen.

"She was laughing against your shoulder, Adrian. Your hand was—"

"She is a childhood friend." He cut me off cleanly. "She came back to help the company build a new business line. That is all this is." He said it bluntly, flat, like he was managing a story, and was sticking to it, no matter what.

Vivian gave a soft, pained sigh like she was pitying me as she shook her head slwoly before adding. "I'm sorry, Elena. I didn't realize my being here would cause you distress. I truly mean no harm." She pressed her lips together like she was swallowing her own hurt. "Adrian is right. Please don't misunderstand."

She was so graceful about it that I almost felt like I was the one who had done something wrong.

Adrian looked at her with something close to gratitude and relief. Then he looked at me, and it was different, his face hardened with disappointment.

"We will talk later....privately," he said to Vivian, quietly.

She left with one last glance in my direction. A smirk playing on her lips, triumphant with how this played out in her favour.

---

After she was gone, Adrian crossed to his desk and picked up a slim black bag I hadn't noticed before. He held it out to me.

"Happy anniversary," he said.

I stared at the bag for a moment before I took it. Inside was a bracelet, white gold, delicate, the kind of jewelry that cost more than what people made in a year.

He remembered. I hadn't been sure he would

.

It wasn't what I wanted. I knew that. What I wanted wasn't something that could be wrapped in silk clothes or packaged but it was something at least.  It was from him. From the man I had loved quietly for three years without ever being asked to.

My chest squeezed tightly as i felt hope building in me, maybe this was a sign that he could choose me, and our baby.

I set the bracelet down carefully.

"Adrian." I kept my eyes on the desk. It was easier. "Do you still not want children?"

The silence that followed was instant  and tense which made me look up.

The color had left his face. It was not anger or irritation, but something worse. His jaw was tight. His eyes were filled with an emotion that i could not describe.

I felt the familiar shame creep up my throat before he even said a word.

'Too much', the voice in my head said. 'You always ask for too much.'

"Never mind," I said quickly speaking before he could, shaking my head as i willed the tears to not fall.. "Forget I asked."

I picked up my scattered papers from the floor and walked out.

---

My desk felt very far away from his office. i did not know how i got there, without bumping into anyone but it seemed the others noticed and cleared out of my path. i managed to sit down and keep my eyes on the screen, rereading a sheet of report, over and over without even understanding  it.

Around me, the office hummed with its usual noise. Keyboards. Muffled phone calls. The distant sound of the elevator doors opening and closing as it brought in people and took some out of the floor.

Then I heard her voice.

Vivian was standing beside my colleague's desk, leaning over slightly, pointing at something on the screen. Her voice was softer than it had been with me, like a teacher speaking to her favourite student.

My colleague was nodding, hanging on every word.

When Vivian straightened and turned, our eyes met.

"Elena." She smiled. "You work so hard. I can see why Adrian relies on you." A small pause. "Would you mind making me some coffee? I'm not quite sure where everything is yet."

She was new. I told myself that. She was new and it was a reasonable request and I was being paranoid by thinking otherwise.

I got up and went to make the coffee for her without a word, i carried it back to her and set it on the edge of the desk beside her.

i had no idea how it happened, one moment, the cup was on the dsk, the next second the cup was in the air after being hit by vivian's hands and there was a crash.

I could feel the heat as it splashed on me, burning hot, but i was too startled to even say a word. i thought the cry of pain had escaped from my mouth until i saw Vivian, clutching onto hers, her eyes watering as she looked like she had been bullied. Then she opened her mouth and spoke.

"I don't understand what I did to upset you."

---

His office door opened before I could speak.

Adrian was across the floor in seconds. There was fear apparent on his face as he looked at VIvian's hands, taking it carefully into his as he inspected it.

"Let me see," he said, low and urgent.

"It's nothing," Vivian whispered. "I'm sure it's—"

"Your hands are everything to you." He was already steering her toward the door. "You need a doctor. Right now."

"Adrian." My voice came out, barely audible as i wanted to explain to him.

He didn't look at me.

"Adrian, it wasn't—she knocked the cup herself, her hand struck the—"

"Ethan." He called out without turning around. "Call an ambulance."

A gasp rippled through the open floor at what happened next. He carried her, like it was the most natural thing in the world and he had been doing it for a long time, it was more of a subconscious thing at this point.

I watched the elevator doors close behind them.

The office settled back into noise around me, voices low and curious, careful not to let me hear, but i knew what they were saying, talking about how he had been careful with her and barely spared me a look. i closed my ears to it all, refusing to listen when the pain was more prominent, on my hand making me, look. My skin had blistered already, bleeding from the spill earlier. i made my way to the restroom, and took off my ring, and then washed the wound, feeling the sting even more as i realized that my husband had been putting on a performance all these years with me and Vivian hands mattered more to him than my feelings.