Chapter 4

“What?” Mia snapped as she caught Lucas glancing at her for the fourth time. As he'd done the last few times, he turned away, but not before a small smile ghosted across his lips. He touched his cheek, and she finally realized what had him so amused. She was bright red. Her cheeks had been red since Michelle’s crass statement.

Mia cursed inwardly, regretting her decision to follow him—if she could actually call it agreeing, rather than her lack of a real choice. The man hadn’t asked, just basically summoned her, and she’d followed like a well-trained dog. Her husband, of all people. 

If she had to endure this, she’d make sure she was the worst version of herself to push him to end their agreement sooner.

The car jolted to a halt, flinging her forward as the seat belt bit into her ribs.

“Shit,” she exclaimed as the motion flung her back.

“Be careful,” Lucas snapped at the driver just as his hands ran over her body. She flinched away, and he frowned at her. “Let me see.”

She remained still and sucked in a breath when the tips of his fingers brushed over her ribs. His sharp gaze cut to hers. “Hurts?”

Speechless, she shook her head, and he exhaled sharply, his hands dropping.

“I’m sorry, Sir, Miss,” the driver apologized.

Lucas huffed out a breath of irritation but didn’t say anything, so Mia felt the need to say, “It’s okay.”

He muttered something under his breath as the car continued in the direction of her place. They were almost at her small one-bedroom apartment when she suddenly realized she didn’t want this man seeing her place.

“You can drop me here,” Mia told the driver, and the car slowed to a stop. Lucas didn’t say a word, not that she’d expected him to. His face was turned in the other direction, and there was a tic in his jaw that meant something she wasn’t ready to decipher yet.

She opened the knob beside her, but the door was locked.

She paused, waited.

Then tried again.

Still locked.

Now Mia was the one irritated. The man wouldn’t acknowledge her presence, but he wanted her to ask him to open the door.

“Lucas,” she said. It was the first time she was calling him anything other than his surname, but instead of the triumphant smile she was expecting, his eyes darkened further.

“Keep going,” he told the driver, who began driving again.

“Hey,” she said hesitantly. “You don’t have to drop me off. I have something to do here.”

He ignored her, and she seethed for the rest of the ride.

Who did he even think he was?

The car pulled up at the door, and she gave an aggrieved sigh before getting down from the car. She was putting her key in the knob when she realized that someone was behind her.

“What?” she asked him.

“I have a meeting today, so I don’t have all day.”

She arched her brows. Now what was he talking about?

“What are you talking about?” she asked him as the key opened the door. He opened her door and walked in, leaving her standing behind him.

Unbelievable.

“Hey. I am really not interested in what you are doing right now. I don't even care about who you are.  Now get the heck out of my house.”

He sighed in irritation and folded the arm of his shirt up. “I said I have a meeting soon.”

She was confused. Maybe she’d joined this conversation in the middle.

“So?” she asked point-blankly.

He looked at her as if she was the unreasonable one.

“So we need to be fast.”

“With what?” she asked, feeling more confused than ever.

“Going home.”

She froze. He didn’t mean…

“I’m home,” she said instantly, taking a defensive stance.

“No, you’re not,” he said as he walked past her into the room, his voice echoing behind him. “Please tell me you’ve already started packing.

She huffed in disbelief.

“Okay, buddy,” she said as she met him covering his nose while trying to get down the boxes from the wardrobe. “You’ve overstayed your welcome. Now get out.”

He smiled at her. The bastard had the gall to smile at her.

“We’re married, sweetheart. We can’t be living separately,” he said, eyeing the peeling paint with distaste, “especially somewhere like ‘here.’”

“There’s nothing wrong with my place,” she said, folding her arms. “And there’s no way I’m leaving this place.”

LESS THAN AN HOUR LATER, Mia was being deposited in a room in a luxury apartment, boxes and cartons placed haphazardly near her.

She winced as she looked around.

“Excuse me,” a voice said from behind her and one of the men Lucas had called waited for her to move. 

She wanted to remain there just to be a bitch, but he was holding a box she could swear was filled with breakables. She turned around. She was mad, obviously, but the help shouldn’t be the ones suffering the effects of her anger.

She stopped another man, this one with Ellen’s box. “Where is Lucas?”

He pointed in the direction of a room and she walked there swiftly, anger rising the closer she got there. 

She heard his voice even before she entered, then he laughed. It was loud, carefree and more annoying than everything he’d ever done for her. What an ass? After rearranging her life with the excuse of a meeting, he was there laughing so freely.

She peeked into the room, expecting to see someone seated on the opposite side of the table. What she saw filled her with disbelief. It wasn’t a physical meeting, he was on a video call, a large screen at his front. 

And on the screen was a woman. In the brief glance she’d seen, the woman was in a kitchen of sorts, walking around in tank tops and shorts, also laughing.

She peeked in again, and had to hide quickly when the woman’s face filled the screen, serious for the moment. “Got to go. I miss you, Lucas. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

The only evidence she needed was right there. She didn’t have to imagine the worst, the woman could be a business partner. As if. But rather than say something witty or funny, her husband’s gaze flitted away from the screen and landed on hers. 

He sucked in a breath, his face guilty as he looked at the fading screen and her face.

She huffed in a breath, exhaling it as laughter before walking away.