He straightens. “You don’t know me at all to make that comment. Perhaps I’ve always been like this. Maybe all I wanted was to seduce you. You are gorgeous, indeed. But now that I’ve had you, I’m afraid I don’t want something serious with you.”

He rounds the table and stands in front of me, and raises my chin with a knuckle. “But if it’s an affair you want, then we can be together on the side, but never in public. I can accommodate you like that. After all, you are good in bed.”

His words pierce me like a spear to my chest and I slap his hand away from me, horrified by his cruelty. I’ve been naïve to think I could’ve made it work between us, that I only needed to spend time with him to make him remember me. This man standing in front of me is truly a stranger with ice in eyes and venom in his words. I don’t know him and, in another life, I never would’ve wanted to be with this vicious man. My heart splinters in pieces, but I force myself not to cry in front of him.

Without another word, I rush out the door grabbing my coat and purse from the small office assigned to me. I jab the button on the elevator console, praying it arrives before I completely break down. But I’m unable to stop the tears spilling down my cheeks. The elevator dings in front of me. I charge inside as soon as the doors open and bump into Gabe who was stepping out.

“Aaliya,” he says as I rush past him. “What is wrong? Are you okay?”

I don’t reply to him and just press the close button on the elevator shutting him out.

Aaliya

MY EYES BURN WHEN I step into the shower. I spent most of last night and this morning in a cry-induced blur. I have cried and raged and thrown things about the house thanks to Damien’s cruel behavior. The hollow pit in my stomach has only deepened since his rejection, so much so that I’m unable to eat or drink. My world is collapsing around me and I don’t know how to save it. How dare he proposition me to be his mistress, kept under wraps?

I. Am. His. Wife!

And now, after his vile suggestion, I don’t even want to tell him our truth. I rest my head against the cool tiles, the water running down me. I don’t even know what I should do next. Every angle I think from draws a big blank. How can he change so much and be so different from the man I know and love?

The mind may forget but his heart remembers.