CH.3

I swiped the key card and heard the soft click of the lock before swinging the door open.

At first glance, everything seemed normal in the lavish suite. Marble floors, crystal chandeliers, huge windows with a view of the city skyline. But then my eyes landed on the glass table and my heart dropped into my stomach.

A bottle of champagne and two glasses sat there. 

Jason was not alone.

I blinked slowly, trying to process what I was seeing. Maybe this was for...a business meeting or something? Because I really didn't want to overreact if it was. But my gut told me no, this was something else entirely.

I took a deep breath and moved further into the room. That's when I heard it - the unmistakable sound of a woman's moan.

"Unghh...Jason..."

I froze, my hand hovering over the bedroom door. No. No, this couldn't be happening. I was hearing things, I had to be.

But some perverse curiosity pushed me forward until I was pushing the door open. And the sight before me was like a punch straight to the gut, knocking the wind out of me.

There was my husband, pounding away furiously, his hips slamming over and over into some blonde woman who was thrashing beneath him in ecstasy. In pleasure I had never experienced from him as his wife.

Jason was too lost in his own gratification to notice me at first. But his mistress's eyes suddenly locked onto mine and she grinned wickedly while digging her nails into his back as she cried out again in bliss.

The furious, lewd sound of skin slapping against skin was like a symphony straight from hell.

I couldn't breathe. My chest felt tight... like all the air had been sucked out of the room.

My vision started to blur and I was sure I might actually pass out right then and there.

I must have made some small noise because Jason finally tilted his neck sideways and met my gaze. However, there was no surprise or shame in his eyes as they bored into me.

He simply looked at me with cold indifference, like I was nothing more than a nuisance interrupting his day.

The tears welled up in my eyes but I refused to let them fall in front of him.

I just turned and ran as fast as I could, my heels clicking frantically against the floor as I bolted out of the suite and out of the hotel, not stopping until I was outside on the street.

By then the light drizzle had turned into a full-blown downpour, the rain instantly drenching me, soaking through my clothes and weighing me down. But I didn't care, I couldn't feel anything except the numbness spreading through my chest as my heart crumbled into pieces.

I kept running though, blinded by the rain and my tears, not even sure where I was going. All I knew was that I had to get as far away as possible - from him, from that room, from this unimaginable pain and heartbreak. From everything.

How could he do this to me? How could my husband, the only man I had ever loved, cheat on me like this on our anniversary of all days? The man I had devoted my entire life and heart to, discarding me so carelessly for another woman?

The rain came down in heavy, relentless sheets, instantly soaking through my clothes and chilling me to the bone. Yet I couldn't bring myself to care about the cold or discomfort.

I kept walking aimlessly, letting the downpour soak me as I tried to outrun the storm raging inside my chest.

I had completely forgotten about the chauffeur waiting back at the hotel, forgotten about the luxury and comfort I was accustomed to as the wife of a billionaire.

All I could focus on was the hollow, twisting ache in my heart. It felt like the rain was mirroring the overwhelming heartbreak and turmoil I didn't know how to handle.

'So that was the woman he rushed out on me for?' I thought bitterly as the image of Jason furiously pounding his blonde mistress burned itself into my mind again.

The visual was seared into my brain - his muscular back glistening with sweat, powerful hips pistoning forward again and again as he took pleasure from a woman who wasn't his wife.

He had been so eager, so desperate to be with her that he chose to spend our anniversary buried deep inside another woman instead of making love to me, his own wife.

The thought made my stomach lurch violently and I wrapped my arms tightly around myself, shivering as the cold rain sank deeper into my skin and clothes.

"How could I have been so stupid?" I scolded myself over the sound of the downpour. Deep down, I should have expected this all along from the man I so foolishly gave my heart and soul to.

I should have known Jason would eventually do this to me and discard me like a used rag.

Because the harsh truth was, that he was clear about his feelings toward me. He never loved me.

From the moment we took our vows and officially became husband and wife, he had treated me like I was little more than an inconvenience in his life, a nuisance he was forced to put up with.

Why was I so shocked he chose to be with someone else when he barely even spoke a kind word to me over this past year?

I was angry at myself for being so naive, for being so stunned by his betrayal when the signs were there all along, painted in harsh neon lights.

Our marriage was nothing more than a business arrangement, a contract our powerful families forced us into a year ago for their own gain and social benefit.

That's all it had ever been to Jason - I was just another asset to be acquired, like a new sports car or beach house.