My Perfect Marriage

Chapter19

Sophia has been noticing Leon's odd behavior lately, his lack of focus, and the cryptic messages whenever they converse. A gut feeling inside her didn't just start recently but has been lingering from just before he had that woman in his office. She's felt it for weeks, that something is off, and she couldn't put her finger on it.

Despite herself, she presses the call button and holds her cell to her ear with ice-cold hands and a pit growing so heavy inside of her she feels like her legs may give out.

"Hello, Prada designer clothing. How can I help you?" a voice on the other end of the line asks.

"Hello there, I'm calling to find out if you have a purchase record on a coat that was left in my company by mistake. It has your brand on the label and seems very expensive, but we have no way to source the owner," Sophia lies smoothly, bold in doing so. She has to lean her hand against the wall to steady herself as dizziness takes hold. Her heart is pounding painfully inside her chest.

"Oh, if you brought it to the store, we could see if we have the payment record for that transaction, but we only have that on a non-cash transaction. We don't keep records for every item," the voice replies. She has a bubbly, upbeat voice of a young person, and Sophia closes her eyes to simmer her tone.

"Can't I just describe it, and you could tell me who owns it? We're a massive and busy company, and I want to return it before the end of the day," Sophia suggests.

"I'm sorry we can't hand out customer's details, but we'd be happy to contact them and have them collect from here if you have someone drop it off," the voice responds.

Sophia chews her lip, cursing under her breath, knowing when she's defeated. She mentally wracks her brain on how to find out and knowing she would have to take it from Leon when he didn't notice to have them check.

"Right. I'll do that. Thank you for your time," Sophia says before ending the call.

Afterwards, she throws the bag down and kicks it across the floor in aggravation. Leaving it there as she walks out in anger and pushes through the outer door to go. Stamping her steps and growing heated with everyone.

She catches sight of Leon's receptionist in her peripheral, recoiling away from her and shrinking to go unseen, and she irritates Sophia. That meek personality doesn't seem to annoy Leon in the slightest among their female staff, and Sophia just doesn't get it. She swings past and then stops dead in her tracks as a thought hits her right in the forehead.

"Dee?" Sophia pauses, stilling every nerve in her body, and turns to her with a suddenly very smiling and probably terrifying demeanor. She usually never gives this girl the time of day.

"Yes, Vice President Hale?" the receptionist replies, shocked that Sophia would directly address her. She blinks rapidly, like a rabbit caught in the headlights, intimidated and afraid of Sophia.

"Do you know who he is meeting for lunch? He forgot to specify," Sophia asks outright, daring her to try and lie to her, and the receptionist seems to pale visibly.

"Ummmm, the liaison for a company we're investing in, I believe. He arranged it himself today," the receptionist answers.

Sophia's heart almost stops in her chest. She falters, blinks, and then catches herself before it's obvious and smiles even brighter.

"Biochem?" Sophia states it blankly, devoid of reaction, even if her heart turns to rock in her chest and ceases to beat. A fluttering yet also painful stab inside of her.

"I think so," the receptionist replies.

......

Sophia observes Leon from her seat at the board meeting. Sitting next to his chair at the head, he's up and walking around as he talks out what he has on the projector, yet she can't focus on what he's saying. She's distraught inside. All day it's been eating away at her, ripping her into pieces, and she can't think of anything else no matter how she tries.

She watches him closely for signs, changes, and anything to help clear this muddy mess out of her brain and finds herself hating him for making her feel this way. Despising the very ground he walks on.

He came back around two, and she happened to be in the parking garage when he pulled in. She wishes she hadn't been, but it was a coincidence as she was returning from an onsite inspection.

She saw them. Together. That woman from Biochem in all her perfect feminine glory. Like some scene from a tacky romance drama.

She got out of his car and went to hers, parked discreetly in a dark corner of their own building, and then left. The blatant audacity. Sophia doesn't even know how to process that at all or the way they looked. She was far enough away that he didn't see her, but it was like watching a Leon she hadn't seen in a long time.

Smiling, relaxed, walking companionably beside her as he escorted her to his car, shoulder to shoulder and touching. Warmth and friendliness in him that used to belong to Sophia when they were children. He looked carefree and happy for once, and it felt like a knife being twisted in her soul.

All the signals were there. Her flirty giggly behavior and his attentive and charming self Sophia never sees aimed her way. She was paralyzed to her spot. She was stuck in her car seat like a mute and incapable person who couldn't budge an inch or make a sound. She couldn't look away, and she felt like every single part of her was aching and throbbing in agony. Shocked by the utter blatancy of it.

She held it in, shaking all over, and the urge to throw up almost suffocated her, but she didn't break. No matter how much it hurt and how much it ripped the rug right out from under her feet, she tried to be logical about it and tell herself it might look like something it's not that she was jumping to conclusions. She wants so badly to convince herself it's not what she feels.

This isn't who Leon is. Even after everything. He's not the type to have an affair and betray her. Their marriage may be cold and empty, but it still symbolizes a union between their families and is the glue to keeping POLO afloat. POLO is everything to Leon, and he wouldn't hurt it. His mother would never accept that behavior, and Leon isn't the kind of person to disgrace his family. To tarnish the Hale name. He's always been obedient and respectful and does everything expected of him. It's why she can't get her head around it after seeing it with her own eyes.

"Vice President Hale?" A voice flickers through, and Sophia blinks back to reality, realizing Johnny sitting opposite her is strangely staring at her, and she clears her throat and sits upright. She is suddenly aware of the room of suited men patiently poised for her response. She curses herself for dropping the ball.

"Sorry, can you repeat it?" She catches herself faultlessly and looks around at the eyes all focused on her, finding Leon is the only one staring at his notes in his hand. He's not made eye contact with her since he returned.

"The Biotech funding, phase one, has been completed? Is that right?"