As the young lady rode her pink scooter down the street, the cool afternoon breeze brushed against her skin. The twenty-four-year-old, Selina, slowed at the pavement and pulled into a safe spot on the grounds of the renowned five-star hotel.
With her helmet off, Selina's curly brown hair fell loosely as she repositioned her dull glasses on her nose, making her already unattractive appearance even more obvious. With the lunchbox secured in her grasp from the basket up front, she headed toward the grand entrance—another routine delivery to the man whose love she had been silently longing for.
Stepping into the vast hallway, Selina walked past the receptionist and security without pause. No one questioned her routine since she always brought meals to a VVIP guest who refused the hotel's world-renowned cuisine. Neither dared ask why—not when the man was whispered to be ruthless, his appearances rare and fleeting.
Slipping into the elevator with a group of people, Selina quietly moved to the back and stood behind a couple as the elevator rose. She noticed their hands locked in an affectionate hold as they whispered and smiled to each other.
She could only wish that someday she would share a moment like this with him to bloom their distant and cold marriage of convenience. 'But will there still be hope?' she thought, dropping her gaze to her fingers, which had no sign of commitment and vows. One he had refused to give her.
A faint smile curved Selina's lips as she clutched the lunchbox which contained his favourite food, even though it might be just a normalcy despite he never cared about her—she still clung to that quiet role: playing the part of a wife, in whatever way she could.
Shortly, the elevator dinged on the presidential floor, and this time Selina stepped out, walking briskly down the hushed corridor.
She approached and inserted his passcode, which her husband, Zane, had shared for dropping off his meals since he came home only twice a month anytime it pleased him—his suite had been his true home.
Unlocking the door, Selina strolled inside and closed it behind her while her eyes instantly caught the glint of red high heels discarded carelessly across the room.
"What's the meaning of this?" She whispered, disoriented. Her heart skipped, but she forced herself not to jump to conclusions. Yet as she moved further, the familiar yet pleasure-laced sounds grew clearer with every hesitant step.
"You're so good, baby."
The lunchbox nearly slipped from her hands. Each step toward the bedroom felt heavier, as if her body warned her to stop. Not to see.
But a stubborn thread of hope held her back from fleeing. Even in their cold marriage, she told herself, he wouldn't go this far. Peeking through the slightly ajar door, her eyes widened in shock: a woman straddling Zane, moving shamelessly under the white duvet with breathless moans filling the room.
Selina's blood ran cold, as if plunged into ice.
"I want to cum!" the woman gasped.
"Come as much as you want. I fucking paid you for this," Zane's husky voice rumbled back, heavy and detached.
The words hit her harder than the sight itself—the raw desire in his tone, a kind of hunger he never showed her in two years of their marriage of convenience, twisted her chest painfully.
A broken gasp escaped when Zane's frosty eyes flicked to the door and their gazes locked—a deliberate, unflinching stare that tore through her. Selina recoiled, breath hitching as if caught trespassing on a sacred place.
"Am I the one imagining things?"
She had once dismissed the hickeys she sometimes spotted on his collar, convincing herself they were mistakes or attempts at seduction, given his status as the youngest, most handsome CEO of the powerful KS Conglomerate.
But this—this felt real.
He was losing himself in another woman's arms, while all she ever received was cold punishment—left unwanted, unseen, and undesired.
Clutching her dress tight against the ache in her chest, Selina stumbled back to the living room and sat on the leather couch, silent. Dazed.
She could bear his indifference, his coldness—but not this cruel mockery. She had prayed it would never come to this, yet here she was, stumbling into her nightmare.
She could bear his indifference, his coldness—but not this cruel mockery, which she had desperately prayed shouldn't ever come to this, yet here she was, stumbling into her nightmare.
Tears blurred her vision, burning behind closed lids but held fiercely at bay—only to sting mercilessly within. Once the moans faded, Selina caught sight of the woman slipping out in a seductive dress, staring directly at her. It was the sharp smile that flashed at Selina that made her stomach churn even more.
But Selina didn't miss sight of the bruise on the woman's arm as if Zane had lost himself in a frivolous heat with her.
Then Zane came out of the bedroom in his casual black pants and shirt as he strode closer. He reclined on the sleek gray sofa, its surface reflecting the soft glow of the room's ambient. He crossed one leg over the otheer while his slender fingers ran across his temples to ease the tension hammering there.
His glacial gaze didn't flinch from Selina across from him for a while, processing her hurtful expression.
A cold smirk tugged at his lips, his deep voice flat and unreadable. "You're not feeling betrayed, are you?"
Selina hesitated, then forced a calmness into her tone. "It's your personal life. I shouldn't feel that way. It was part of the rules, after all."
"Then I can get pretty. Hot. Sexy woman, even if you're kind of profitable given the alliance. You wouldn't mind if I found a mistress?" he asked, expecting a reply, but this time Selina didn't say a word.
The words felt like a slap to Selina. She finally raised her brimming eyes that concealed painful disbelief. 'Is he pushing my limits?'
Well, she was just a plain woman with no identity, someone momentarily valuable to him, which left her curious if he had seen her differently than that. They didn't have a proper wedding as a couple and were just an alliance marriage on paper, not a traditional wife.
A wife who couldn't voice out her jealousy, anger, and disapproval about his infidelity since her emotions were trapped and controlled by his rules.
"We're having conversations here, woman. It's rude of you to be mute. So, answer me. You won't cause problems for my mistress, will you?" he asked, his tone calm yet frosty and tinged with irritation enough to cut Selina from her thoughts.
That was it. Woman.
That was what he usually addressed her as whenever she unintentionally angered him. He hadn't even called her by name for once, as if the cold, indifferent, and aloof side of him, which she knew wouldn't dare have a flicker of change towards her.
His indifferent attitude at a moment like this landed heavily in her stomach.
Selina gulped and gripped the hem of her shirt, shakily trying not to show her sadness. But in reality, she had to repress the loneliness, pain, and ache that consumed her every day. It was suffocating.
"Who am I to say no if she gives you what I can't?" You shouldn't drag me into your personal life either. My consent doesn't matter," she whispered, her tone strained with a weight not to sound affected. Her eyes didn't dare to look at his mocking expression.
"Alright," he murmured nonchalantly.
He shifted his attention from her to the lunchbox and four drinks on the table. His empty stomach grumbled softly. He hadn't eaten anything since the previous day, and his head was still throbbing with a sharp ache from the alcohol he had needed to be drunk to have an intimate contact leisurely with that woman.
"Your meal is best served warm. Will you have it now?" she asked, forcing her tone to remain calm and steady.
Zane didn't utter a word as he reached across the table and picked up a plastic bottle of yogurt, which had a small paper note attached to its surface. He removed the note while reading its contents.
{I heard you haven't been sleeping much lately. You should have this more often than coffee. I hope it helps, even just a little. Have a restful night.}
He read the content inwardly, staring at the small warm smiley face and heart she had drawn at both ends of the yellow paper.
Reading this, Zane's expression remained unreadable but his fingers curled slightly more around the yogurt as something flickered in his gaze—vanishing before Selina could notice.
He looked up at her again, and their eyes met. Mortified, Selina quickly glanced away.
Right now, she felt far too exposed—humiliated, even—after everything she'd just witnessed from him. The timing couldn't have been worse.
She silently prayed for the ground to open up and swallow her whole.