Beneath His Cold Gaze

Sophia's POV The sight in front of me causes tears to stream from the corner of my eyes. My entire body shivers in horror as I gaze at a lady dressed in a skimpy red skirt sitting on the lap of my husband, Lucas, while making googly faces at him. My heart shatters into pieces the same way the food box in my hand falls to the floor and shatters, spilling the content on the tiled floor and attracting the attention of the both of them to me. Just a few seconds ago, Lucas was smiling excitedly at the lady, but the moment he noticed my presence, his smile disappeared. "Sophia," Lucas calls out my name and jerks off the chair. He rushes towards me with a confused look plastered on his face, and the lady stands by the corner of the office, adjusting the hems of her skirt. "What are you doing here?" Lucas raises a brow at me. "Lu-Lu..." I stutter. I try to construct my sentence perfectly, but I am too shocked to even call out my husband's name perfectly. I gulp a lump down my throat as a frown grows on Lucas's face. "I asked you a question! I said what are you doing here?" He growls angrily. My entire body shivers in fear at the harshness of his tone. I should be the one to be angry, I just caught him cheating on me on our fifth marriage anniversary! "How can you ask me that?" I feel anger fuel in me. I scoff and wipe the tears off my eyes. "How can you ask me that, Lucas? Do you not remember our anniversary at all?" I yell at him. "So what?" Lucas yells back. "I warned you never to visit me at the office." Lucas did warn me never to visit him at the office, was this the reason why? Because he did not want me to find out that he is cheating on me? "I came to give you lunch like a normal wife would do to her husband..." I trail off, shaking my head in disdain. "But what do I get in return?" I raise a brow at him. "A cheating and lying husband!" I yell angrily, and my voice echoes loudly, loud enough to attract the attention of other people at the company. "Sophia, you are causing a scene here, I need you to leave my office this very moment," Lucas says through gritted teeth. I ignore him and walk towards the lady, She looks so fearless and confident, nonchalant too. "You home wrecker. Do you enjoy wrecking people's homes?" I yell at her, pausing to run a hand through my hair in frustration. I feel my whole world slowly collapsing; my entire heart breaks knowing that all the memories I shared with Lucas in the past mean nothing to him. "I do not understand what you are talking about Ma'am, but this is clearly a misunderstanding," the lady says in a defensive tone. I roll my eyes at her and fight back the urge to pull her by the ear and spit in her face. "You must think I am stupid. Did I not see you sitting on my husband's lap?" I snap at her. Lucas on the other hand, paces the room and tells me in a low yet cold tone. "Leave this office now while I am asking nicely, Sophia." I ignore him and avert my attention back to the lady, even though I know the consequences of my actions will come back to bite me in the ass. "For the last time, Ma'am, this is clearly some sort of misunderstanding. I am only Mr Lucas' secretary." She says, eyeing me with what looks like disgust. "A secretary that sits on his lap? Wow, what a discovery." I choke out a bitter laugh. Surprisingly, this lady does not hold back. She pours out what she has been holding back all this time, revealing her true colors. "I do not appreciate the manner you use to address me. I have told you I am nothing more than a mere secretary. If you and your husband have issues then fix it! Do not involve me in your paranoid marriage!" I gasp at her sudden outburst. Without realizing it, I raise my hand to slap her in the face, but surprisingly, Lucas grabs me by the wrist, causing my hands to hang in the air. "WE ARE GOING HOME THIS MOMENT!" Lucas pulls me by the wrist, dragging me out of his office like I am some sort of intruder. The people around his office whisper harsh words about me to themselves, which is all Lucas's fault because he has just stylishly taken his secretary's side by dragging me out of the office, making me appear as a paranoid wife. Lucas and I arrive home, and I begin to regret my actions when he throws me on the floor. Lucas yells at me and accuses me of embarrassing him. He promises to make me suffer for the consequences. Lucas locks me in our store room for two days and feeds me only bread and water. This is not the first time such a thing has happened, and unfortunately, it will not be the last. He eventually releases me in the morning, and that same day, he arrives home from work as late as 11 pm, drunk and wasted. He messed up the entire living room, and I am left to tend to it with tears in my eyes. I help him lay in bed, and just as I slowly begin to doubt myself, maybe I misunderstood things between him and his secretary, a text pops on the screen of Lucas's phone. "Thanks for making it up to me tonight. I had fun with you, baby, and I hope you divorce your wife soon; she's a paranoid loser." At that moment, I suddenly realized that my marriage with Lucas is absolutely nothing but a mere prison, one that I don't think I can ever escape.