CHEATING
1821 Words
CHAPTER FOUR.
RHIANNON’S POV.
It’s night and I’m still struggling to wrap my mind around the fact that Fabien let Layla poison our son’s mind. He even supported her barbaric notion.
I have been trying to reach him all day, to no avail. My calls keep getting forwarded to voicemail and he hasn’t replied to any of my text messages.
It’s past seven pm and he’s not home yet.
This has never happened before. Fabien hardly comes home late from work and even on days when he has to, he would call to let me know. His silence is getting me worried.
I dial his number for the umpteenth time that night and a heavy sigh of relief leaves my chest when the call connects.
“Fabien.” I call hastily, expecting his deep, baritone voice to come through, but it doesn’t. A few silent seconds fly by before a familiar feminine voice says;
“Hello Rhiannon.”
The realization that that voice belongs to Layla makes rage flow through me like lava.
“Layla. Why are you answering my husband’s call?”
“Because I am his secretary and it’s my job to take his calls when he’s unavailable?”
“What do you mean he’s unavailable? It’s ten pm. Where is he?”
“He went to use the bathroom.”
“What?”
“I said he went to use the bathroom. Are you deaf?” She asks rudely and my grip on the phone tightens so I don’t drop it.
She irritates me to my very core. What makes her think she can use that tone on me?
And why the hell is she answering my husband’s call simply because he went to use the bathroom?
“You seem speechless.” Layla says after a long pause on my end. “I don’t have all night to be on this phone call with you. I’ll tell Fabien you called. Bye.”
“What? No! Wait. You can’t…”
Three beeps and the call ends.
My scalp starts itching, my breathing goes erratic. With trembling fingers, I redial the number and to my greatest consternation, the call doesn’t go through at all.
Fabien’s phone has been switched off.
This has never happened before. Fabien never stays out late without informing me beforehand.
What is going on with him?
************************************
It is almost eleven pm and Fabien’s phone is still not going through. I haven’t gotten a single text message from him. Now, I’m worried, not only because I don’t know where he is or how he’s faring, but also because of the person he has as company.
Layla.
The fact that he and Layla are spending so much time together is not a good thing. It’s just a matter of time before something happens between them.
Something irreversible.
Something that will tear my family apart.
Just then, the door to my bedroom is pushed open and Fabien steps in. My heart starts doing backflips in my chest.
“Fabien.” I call, jumping down from the bed. I speed over to where he’s standing and throw my arms around him, engulfing him a tight hug, but something about him irks me so much that I quickly disengage from the hug and take a step back.
His scent.
It’s different.
I mean, it’s there… But there’s this whole other foreign pheromone oozing from every part of his body. He smells like a woman.
Is it because he’s been around Layla all day today?
“Hello love.” He greets in an exhausted tone, his eyes almost struggling to stay open. He’s tired.
“You’re home late.”
“Yeah. There was some urgent work I needed to finish up before leaving the office.”
“But why didn't you tell me? You got me worried sick.”
“Rhia please, let’s not do this right now. I’m exhausted from all the work I had to do today at the office. I need rest, not headaches from your whining. What’s important is that I’m back.” He snaps as he walks past me and starts heading towards the closet.
I stay planted on my spot, unblinking, with my mouth slightly ajar.
I am flabbergasted by his sudden rudeness. It was totally uncalled for. The person I just conversed with sounded nothing like the Fabien I know.
After showering, he refuses to eat and goes straight to bed. While in bed together, I contemplate telling him about Lucien’s attitude in school today, but fear of how he’s going to react stops me. He’s already cranky enough. I don’t want his mood to get any worse.
Soon, the unbearable silence in the room is interrupted by the sound of his blasting ringtone. He picks up the phone from the nightstand and I quickly shut my eyes and pretend to be asleep when he turns to look at me. After he confirms that I’m sleeping, he looks back at the ringing phone and to my greatest dismay, he steps down from the bed and goes into the closet to answer the call.
“Hello.” I hear him greet the moment he closes the door behind him.
I don’t know why he bothered to leave the bedroom. As werewolves, we have a heightened sense of hearing and if I can hear the sounds of cars honking on the highway miles away from here, then eavesdropping on a phone call one wall away is easy cake. It’s too effortless to term it eavesdropping in the first place. I’m just listening.
“Right now?” He asks over the phone and goes silent for a few seconds before chuckling and saying. “You do know that I just got home, right?” … “You know that’s not true.” … “Fine. I’ll be there in ten.”
I’ll be there in ten.
Does that mean he’s going out?
I wait impatiently for him to come out of the closet and once he does, I notice that he no longer has on his pajamas. He’s dressed in a pair of black joggers and a black hoodie and on his feet are a pair of black sneakers.
“Where are you going dressed like a ninja?” My question halts him in his tracks. He turns to face me and I sit it upright on the bed and lean against the bedpost, my gaze zeroed on him. He looks busted.
“You’re awake.”
“Wide awake. Where are you going?”
“I can’t bring myself to sleep, so I’m going out for a late-night run.”
“A late-night run?’
“Yeah.”
“With whom?”
“With Caleb.”
Caleb is his Beta and I know they always go for late-night runs together, but I know right now, he’s lying.
I know he’s lying because there’s no way he would be chuckling and using a sweet voice while he’s on the phone with Caleb. It’s always straight to the point instructions and many, many “Yes, Alphas” from Caleb. A few mumbles and grunts here and there, but never soft chuckles.
Never!
“Go back to sleep. I’ll be back soon.” He says and leaves the room before I can protest.
I can bet both my kidneys that he’s going to meet Layla.
To my greatest dismay, things get worse over the following weeks. It has become habitual for Layla to show up at our house every morning to ride with Fabien to work and even when I tried to tell Fabien that I was comfortable with that, he shut me up. He keeps late nights on a daily basis and sometimes, he doesn’t even sleep at home and he offers me no explanation afterwards. It’s impossible to reach him during the day when we are at our different workplaces. It’s either Layla answers his phone call or it gets directed to voicemail. He's grown very impatient with me and everything I do or say upsets him. He’s always snapping at me.
I don’t even know the person I’m married to anymore.
“Luna, do you need help with organizing the closet?” Melissa, one of my personal servants asks and I calmly shake my head in denial.
“No, thank you, Melissa. You can leave now.”
“Okay, Luna.” She gives me a curt bow and exits the closet, closing the door behind her. I go back to sorting Fabien’s dirty laundry so I can send it to the laundry room for them to be washed. As I go through his laundry basket, trying to separate his white shirts from the colored ones, I notice something on the collar of one of his white shirts.
A red stain.
“What is this red stain?” I mumble as I open up the collar to have a better view of the stain. My heartbeat changes from steady to rapid when I notice it’s not just a red stain. It’s a lip-shaped stain and it’s not the only one. There are a few others on the collar and on other parts below. Apart from the suspicious stain, the shirt has the peculiar foreign pheromone — which I had learned over the weeks, belonged to Layla — oozing from it.
Red lipstick stains. Layla’s pheromone reeked all over his clothes. That can only mean one thing.
I tried to turn a blind eye to it all these weeks because I trusted my husband too much to believe he would have anything to do with his ex-girlfriend again. I have been silent because all I had were hunches… speculations and no evidence, but now I do and I’m not going to stay quiet!
I bundle up the shirt, rise to my feet and march out of the closet and the bedroom.
My personal driver takes me to Fabien’s office and when I arrive there, I take the private elevator to his floor in the building. The moment I step out of the elevator, I see him approaching in the hallway and the moment he sees, he freezes on his tracks and so does Layla, who’s by his side.
“Rhiannon!” He calls in complete shock. “Rhiannon what are you doing here? You should have called before…”
“So that you can have your lovely secretary answer the call or just direct it to voicemail?” I sternly cut him off as I marched over to where he’s standing. His eyes widened in shock.
“What?” He looks very confused. Layla, who has sensed trouble, slips into her office next door without saying a word.
“That’s not what I’m here for.” I say and stretch the t-shirt towards him, making sure the lip-stained parts are very visible. “Why are there stains of a woman’s lip-stick on your shirt? Are you cheating on me?”
- Writer
