My Perfect Marriage

Chapter24

Sophia breaks into a run, gets into the street in super-fast time like a woman possessed, and starts searching out the door numbers of every apartment and complex. Finally, she finds a sign pointing downwards into an alley to a lower floor villa with a shaded front door, and she stops in her tracks as she spies Leon's sports car parked in the street further ahead. It's the last push of momentum she needs.

Her soul is dying a horrible, gruesome death as she's blinded by tears that have been bound inside since her teens. She paces forward, skips down the few ground-level steps, and bangs on the door like a maniac. Hurting her fist and wrist with the effort she puts into it.

It's a solid wooden door with no window, no spy hole, and only a low slot letterbox for mail. Whoever is in there has to answer to see who it is, and her heart skips a beat as she hears footsteps coming behind it. She vibrates, cold with fear, breathless, yet she can't back down and run away from this.

There's a moment of a lock being flicked within, rattling noises, and then it's yanked open widely, and she's faced with a smiling and pleasant Celine White. Dressed in a bathrobe and bare feet, and it's not hard to guess why.

Celine freezes at seeing Sophia, and her expression completely drops. Her jaw opens in a gawping motion as she gasps loudly in horror. Sophia's eyes are pulled past her as Leon walks into the long corridor, wearing only his jeans and nothing else. An expanse of tanned, toned torso and muscle on show. He stops and looks up expectantly, smiling as though they were expecting someone else, maybe a takeout delivery. His eyes meet Sophia's, and he too loses that happy expression as shock registers and his skin loses all color.

The three of them stand for a second as they take one another in, then Sophia chokes on her saliva. Her body sagging, and she has to grab the door frame to stop herself from collapsing. A horrible gasping noise as she struggles to speak and breathe simultaneously, and a sob escapes her. Seeing them this way, knowing he's been sleeping with her all this time. It's unbearable.

"How could you?" Sophia's heart twists in her chest as the girl moves out of the way, and Leon walks toward her at speed. It's forced out as the tears start to fall, and she hates herself for breaking down and crying in front of this man after all these years.

He doesn't know what to say, and Sophia is grabbed by a sudden sense of urgency that springs out of nowhere. A fury finding feet as the inner her tries to jump up and protect her from this awful gruesome reality. She turns and hauls Celine towards her by grabbing a chunk of her towel robe before slapping her hard across the face so that it stings Sophia's palm and sends Celine flying sideways. Only Sophia is holding her by the collar, and she's yanked with her and falls on top of her as she bursts into tears, fuelled by pain, and starts to hit her in sheer reaction.

It turns into an immediate brawl. Wrestling, hair pulling, scratching, and slapping, Celine turns on Sophia too and gives as good as she gets. Sophia unleashes all her fury and years of repressed emotions. Her hatred for Leon is poured out onto the wrong person, but she was the closest, and Sophia aims to wound them both. She doesn't even know why or where this came from, as it's not who she has ever been.

"Sophia, stop it. Sophia!!! Please." Leon hauls her up from behind, his arms around her as he catches her by the wrists and tries to cage her fury. He holds her tight, battling for control, and pulls her back away from Celine as Sophia kicks out her legs to keep trying to m**m her.

Sophia turns in his arms when she can no longer cause Celine damage and starts aiming her fury at him instead. Her limbs are aching and heavy from the sheer force. She wants to hurt him for every pain and scar he has ever caused her. Using her fists on his chest and shoulders while every single brick and mortar piece of her emotional barrier wall breaks down, she's sobbing through her yells of 'How could you?'.

"I hate you. I hate you..... How could you? I hate you. I.... hate.... you...." It's a blubbering chaotic, and hopeless wail of a woman crumbling into despair. Leon tries to hold onto her, pull her close, and hug her in, but Sophia wriggles and squirms and fights until she breaks loose and shoves him with force away from her. Falling out the door, tripping backward, she splays across the ground on her back and butt. Her body scrapes along the concrete floor outside with her impact, and she cuts up her palms, leg, and elbow and yelps in fright.

"Sophia." Leon reaches for her; his expression is unreadable. It's like he's in a daze or shocked, yet there's sadness in his eyes, and Sophia crawls away to get out of his reach. Unable to bear him anymore. To have his touch, his face, his voice. He's destroyed everything. He's torn the last ounce of security from her world.

"Don't touch me. Don't ever touch me." She's shaking and manages to pull herself to her feet as blood cascades down her arm and lower leg. Grazed up, bruised, and she backs away, unable to think clearly.

"Sophia, you're hurt. Please just come with me. We'll go somewhere and talk. Let me fix you up. Please, let's go somewhere, the two of us." His voice is trembling too, as though he doesn't know how to navigate this, and he's not the usually confident cold, and calm Leon. A pale shadow of a boy she once loved, but no longer do his words, or his tone melt her heart.

"Fix me?" Sophia blurts out through fat tears and laughs maniacally. "How can you do that? How can you fix this?" She trips again, clumsy in her uncoordinated movements, and falls over a step. Leon lurches forward instinctively for her, and she slaps his hand away mid-air despite it hurting to come down on her already cut knee.

Sophia curls up and hugs her leg for a moment to wince at the pain and catches sight of Celine picking herself up in her hallway and tying her robe tighter. Leon seems oblivious to her presence. Or the fact she too is on the floor with apparent wounds.

"This isn't how I wanted you to find out." His tone is pleading, he even might sound regretful, but it's just another stab to her heart, another wound to the never-ending list. This toxic thing between them that's lasted decades.