Chapter 2

"Move aside!”

Freya staggered like a toddler taking his first steps as Desmond pushed her to the side aggressively.

“I just got back from a hectic trip and the welcome I get is you standing in my way and staring at me like I'm the reason for your misery. Get me something to eat. I'm so hungry”, Desmond ordered and marched majestically into the house, pulling his small travel box behind him and ignoring the poor Freya who had bumped her head into the wall due to his rough push.

Noah, whose eyes watched the little drama in horror, took a few steps backwards away from his monstrous looking father.

“Little boy, get me a glass of water!” Desmond snapped as he fell lazily on the couch and tugged on his tie aggressively. He roughly tossed his luggage aside.

Noah shook his head adamantly and fled to his room, ignoring Desmond's order.

“Noah!” He fumed, turning his head to see Noah run off.

“Desmond! How dare you!” Freya exclaimed suddenly, like she had just regained her consciousness.

Desmond stared hard at her, his furrowed brows depicting confusion and his eyes, boredom.

She darted towards him in a fit of rage and picked up her phone which was on the couch, showing him the viral video of him kissing a movie star on TV.

“Who's this woman?” She asked, shoving the phone in his face for him to take a look.

Her chest heaved with every aggressive breath she took. Her brown eyes flashed in anger at the man who took his eyes off the phone and reclined back into the couch.

“She's not a threat. Forget about her”, he said with a nonchalant shrug, without glancing at her face.

Freya googled at her husband in disbelief. She utterly despised herself for being at a loss for words that very moment due to anger and that was the habit she had cultivated in order to manage her emotions — keeping shut in the face of disrespect.

After letting a deep sigh escape her lungs, she made up her mind to stand up to him.

“She's not a threat? But you kissed her in the open. You made a mockery of me and your son in front of the whole world. How could you!”

“Why so many questions? I'm fucking tired and hungry. It was just a kiss and it wasn't even intended”, he spat out, flashing a glare at her.

Freya also loathed the fact that she was a softie. One tiny discomfort and she was a river of tears in no time. Tears crawled down her cheeks as she cluelessly watched Desmond look into his phone nonchalantly.

“It wasn't intended? What would you say about the other women you have cheated on me with. You take different women into this house and spend the night with them in your room and you thought I wouldn't find out? You think this is a joke?” She yelled amidst tears.

Desmond finally averted his gaze towards her from his phone, still not ready to say anything.

"You think making a joke out of me is the right thing to do?”

“You went through my room?” Desmond finally asked.

“That's not important! Answer my question now, who are those women?”

Desmond averted his gaze from her back into his phone, ignoring the angry question thrown at him. Freya swallowed hard and clenched her fists, pissed off.

“This is the last straw, Desmond. After all these years of our marriage, you still thought it was okay to cheat on me in the open. You don't value me or your son. It's a shame that I just realized that now. I can't believe you think nine years of marriage is a joke!”

Freya's whole body was visibly shaking in rage as the tears kept flooding her face. She didn't think she was going to forgive this one so easily.

“I endured being your punching bag for years trying to save a marriage that was on the verge of destruction all because of our son. He's too young to experience a broken home. I thought that despite the physical abuse and disgrace which I have suffered in your hands all because of some stupid love, that you still loved me enough not to look at another woman but I was wrong. You don't value me, Desmond”.

Freya trembled in fear as her eyes met his in an unsteady gaze. That was the first time in years she had summoned up courage to stand up to her tyrant of a husband. She might regret her actions later on but a subtle feeling of relief swept through her and made her feel like she had just done something praiseworthy.

Desmond frowned in irritation at her, clearly tired of her nagging. He stood up to his feet and advanced slowly towards her, maintaining a steady, direct gaze at her.

With every step he took forward towards her, she took two steps backwards in a panic. He slowly peeled his suit jacket off his torso and tossed it on the floor, his advances towards her unrelenting.

“You have some nerve, don't you? Talking to me about saving our marriage. I gave you everything you could possibly think of; wealth, a respectable status as the wife of the powerful Desmond July, a luxurious life and the right to go on any vacation you want. What more do you want?”

Freya kept moving backwards until there was no more “backwards” to take when she finally hit her back against the wall. Desmond, whose eyes burned in anger, looked into her eyes and grabbed her throat.

“Kissing other women isn't called cheating. So before you think of talking rudely to me again, watch your words so as not to get me pissed. You know what I'm capable of when I'm angry”, he growled in a threatening manner, tightening his grip on her neck.

Freya shook in fear under his touch, avoiding eye contact with him and using all her might to turn her head away from him. Without much thought, she used the last drop of strength in her arms to push him away from her and free herself from his threatening grip.

Desmond staggered backwards, staring hard at her, agape with shock at what she had just done.

“Why don't I just go out there and passionately kiss a random stranger. I bet you wouldn't call that cheating!” She retorted loudly, her voice cracked with fear.

Before her brain could process anything, a strong open palm hit her across the face, throwing her off balance and landing her on the cold tiled floor.

Freya's mind became as blank as the vacuum in outer space and her brain failed her in searching for the most suitable explanation to what she had just encountered. She averted her shell shocked facial expression to her husband who had just hit her for the umpteenth time.

“Dad!”

Noah's frightened scream pierced the atmosphere and he came running towards Freya who laid frozen on the floor. It was obvious that he had just witnessed the awful drama that ensued between his parents.

He knelt down beside his mother, grasping her arms tightly and fighting back the tears which welled up in his eyes.

Desmond gazed down at his wife and son as they were both shedding disappointed tears. He stared confusedly at his open palm which he had just used as an object to inflict pain on his wife. Then after a few seconds of being absorbed in his thoughts, he slowly approached Freya and squatted in front of her.

“Freya, I really don’t like hitting you. You keep pushing me to the wall and I get out of control. Stop getting me angry!” He snorted and dug his fingers into his hair pushing it backwards.

Freya stared hard at him, still frozen in shock. Her eyes flashed in a deadly glare, fixated at the unapologetic looking Desmond.

“Freya, I'm sorry, okay? I was just angry”, he said, stretching out his hand to touch her but she squirmed from his touch.

“Don't touch my mom!” Noah yelled out of the blue, disgust engraved in his expression.

Not believing the little lad's audacity, Desmond scrunched up his face and squeezed his brows in a frown which depicted an obvious displeasure by Noah's offensive order.

“Shut the hell up boy! Who do you think you're talking to like that?” Desmond thundered and raised his hand in an attempt to give Noah his share of a hard slap.

Freya clenched her fists in rage and sprang up to her feet immediately in response.

“Don't you dare touch my son!” She growled angrily, pushing Desmond backwards with all her might.

Desmond glared intensely at Freya in response to her sudden aggressive attitude.

Noah jumped up too and hid behind her. With rage engraved in her eyes, she blurted, “You know what? I can't take this anymore! I’m done with this marriage!” and dashed out of the living room, up the stairs to her room. Noah, who was frightened by Desmond, ran off to his hidden perch once again.

After a few minutes, Freya was back again with a few documents and a pen in her hands. She darted towards Desmond and thrust the pen and documents into his hands aggressively.

“Go ahead and sign those. I had prepared these documents since last month and now you leave me no choice but to use them. It's over between us!” She yelled angrily at him.

“Divorce papers? How dare you!” He exclaimed, intensely scanning the documents. He was shocked to see that she had already signed, waiting for his signature.

“I want a divorce! You don't deserve to be a father or a husband. You don't even deserve to have a home. I can't stand your torments anymore and that's why I want a divorce!”

"Over my dead body!” Desmond growled angrily and shredded the documents into pieces right in her face.

Freya gasped in shock as Desmond flung the pieces of paper at her. The shredded pieces of paper slid down her body like confetti and the edges grazed her skin like sharp knives.

“Never will it be recorded in the history of billionaires that a poor woman like you dumped her billionaire husband because of something this small.”

After glaring intensely at her, he grabbed his luggage and pulled it up the stairs behind him heading for his room.

Noah came out of his hiding place once again and Freya's eyes met his innocent eyes. They just stood still, staring at each other, trying to absorb what they had just witnessed.