Despite all the conflicting emotions that had been rushing through my body not even an hour ago, I was dressed in my best and ready to head out the door.

"I know you don't usually work Monday's so thanks once again, Charlie." I smiled graciously at the maid who had all but finished cleaning up everything, just needing to put the furniture in the living room back into place after I had repeatedly punched the sofa that they had done the deed over, needing something to take my feelings out on. When that didn't work, I had then torn out the cushions until it was completely disfigured. To cover it up, I had moved down the armchair that was kept in the guest room so Sung wouldn't notice anything out of the ordinary. He never went in there anyway.

"It's perfectly fine." Charlie paused her sweeping to smile warmly at me, having been my maid since the day I had bought this house, her eyes lingering on my fancy attire for the evening. "You look nice, Mrs Dolce. Any special plans for the evening?"

"I've got a hot date with Mr Kim." I grinned at her, my lips only twitching higher at the corners when she didn't pick up on the sinister expression on my face.

"Well, I hope you and Mr Kim have a great evening."

"Thank you, Charlie. I'll see you tomorrow." I waved bye at her before turning around and heading out the door with only my phone and car keys in hand. If he was going to cheat on me in our home, then the least he could do was buy me dinner.

With that determination pumping through my body, I drove over to the Kim-Cooper Limited office building and hopped into the elevator, smiling politely at the familiar receptionist who had worked here since the very first day.

Unlike Roxy, I liked this assistant but perhaps that was because she wasn't sleeping with my husband.

"Mrs Dolce." Roxy stood up to greet me with a wide friendly grin on her face the moment she spotted me stepping out of the elevator on the top floor. "It's a pleasure seeing you again. I heard you were on holiday for two weeks."

Just the sight of her tempted me to leap across her desk separating us, wanting nothing more than to wrap my hand around her long blonde locks and rip out all her extensions. Instead, I fisted my hands by my side but didn't bother smiling back since she didn't deserve it, only further rubbing me up the wrong way as she continued to smile sickly sweetly at me.

"I wasn't on holiday." I clarified. "My father had a heart attack."

Roxy made a show of gasping, almost as if she was shocked and appalled by such news but whether it was genuine or not, I was too biased to decide.

"I'm so sorry to hear that Mrs Dolce. I hope your father is doing better now."

"He is," I stated simply, not looking to explain myself and most definitely wasn't looking to thank her despite the kind words and sentiments.

As much I hated Roxy right now, the woman didn't owe me anything. More than anyone else, it was my husband that betrayed me, not her. But that didn't mean that looking at her right now didn't get my blood boiling in a way that I had never felt such anger before.

"I'm glad your father is recovering well." She smiled politely but it didn't quite reach her eyes, clearly uncomfortable under my intense, unblinking gaze. "Mr Kim is not expecting you for another ten minutes."

"I'm sure he won't mind." I snorted without a care in the world and turned on my heels to continue down the hallway and to my husband's office on the left.

As there were four shareholders in Kim-Cooper Limited, there were four offices on the top floor where Roxy and Jack played assistants for all of us however, mostly for Sung and Frank as they were the faces of the company. Despite that, I owned 49%, Sung 21%, Frank 21%, and then Trevor 9%, having been brought into the company just a few years ago when we had gone through a rough period. While I could have very easily dipped back into either my savings or trust fund to keep us afloat, neither Sung nor Frank were too fond of me owning more than half the company and so we had all brought in a mutual friend who we knew had the type of money we were looking for.

As Frank and Sung were the faces of the company, Trevor and I were more silent partners who only really came into the office for essential decision-making meetings.

While Sung's office was on the left and Frank's on the right, mine was directly ahead and Trevor was yet to be assigned an office on this floor as we hadn't anticipated a fourth partner at the time of renovation.

Once I stood in front of Sung's office, I inhaled deeply before exhaling leisurely, needing to be in complete control if I didn't want him to suspect anything out of the ordinary. Not seeing the need to knock, I squeezed down the door handle and let myself in.

I really wasn't sure what I was expecting but couldn't deny the fact that I was surprised to see Sung alone behind his desk, hard at work. Blinking around the room, I couldn't deny the fact that I almost suspected that he wouldn't be alone here, that there would be another woman he was cheating on me within here but perhaps he was a one mistress kind of man.

Too bad he wasn't a no-mistress kind of man.

"Baby, am I glad to see you!" Sung chimed happy from behind the desk, turning his attention away from where he had previously been working on his laptop.

He rose to his feet to meet me halfway across the room but was quick to stop as he paused to take me in or rather, my attire for the evening.

"Well, don't you look pretty tonight?" Sung whistled lowly, an appreciative glint in his dark obsidian eyes.

"That's a disappointment." I pouted as I made a show of stepping further into his office, closing the door behind me and pressing my back against it, my lips tilted up at the corners. "I was going for sexy."

"I don't believe that would have been appropriate in the office." Sung leaned back in his chair and grinned, a sleazy expression on his face as his eyes travelled up and down.

Every other time before this, my body would have tingled and I would have felt so sexy under the appreciative gaze of my husband but right now, I just felt dirty and was reminded of the fact that I no longer was the only one he looked at like that.

The other woman literally being on the other side of the door.

Ignoring my inner turmoil, I strutted into the room dressed in his favourite little red strappy dress which I knew he loved, claiming the colour made the green of my eyes pop. On any other day, this would have been a win-win situation, but not today.

"Well, it's a good thing we're both in charge then, isn't it?" I chuckled lowly before closing the distance between us and walking into his awaiting arms, placing a gentle kiss on the side of his neck just as I would have usually done.

Any other time, I would have revelled at the feeling of being in my husband's arms and have him hug me like this, but not right now. Not when we had both cheated on each other.

"I've missed you so much, baby." Sung exhaled and buried his face into the crook of my neck, hugging me tightly to his chest.

"Me too." I had to force the words out of my mouth even though until yesterday, that had been the absolute truth.

"I'm so glad you're back."

"Yeah, me too." I nodded slightly and pulled away, looking to put some distance between us as it felt so strange and foreign to be back in his arms. Almost as if everything between us was the same when in reality; so many things had now changed and I feared I would never be able to look at him the same again.

After tearing apart the living room earlier today, I had sat down and done some serious thinking. While I still wasn't completely sure how I felt about Sung and whether I wanted to stay with him or not, I was convinced that I would be able to notice something amiss within him. I had thought he would be tearing himself up for the betrayal – something that would be evident as I knew my husband to not be a liar, but he had now proved me wrong.

Well, I had thought he wasn't a cheater, either.

I had hoped that he would be distraught over his actions the way I was, that he would end up spilling the truth the moment he saw me.

It appeared I was wrong, and I couldn't help but wonder what else I was wrong about.

What I hadn't anticipated was that Sung would continue acting like absolutely nothing was wrong – and to him, it wasn't because as far as he knew, I had absolutely no idea about him cheating on me with Roxy – so when he leaned down to kiss me, I had to force myself not to flinch or pull away even though that's exactly what my instincts were telling me to do.

With the pressure of his lips against mine, there were no tingles like every other time before I had kissed him, and I all but had to force myself to kiss him back even though it made me want to crawl up inside myself. Deep down, I knew I still loved him yet couldn't help but feel repulsed at what the both of us had done to each other.

At least I had the good sense to feel ashamed and guilty over what I had done.

However, it appeared that now, I was learning the difference between feeling guilty and regretting one's actions. The fact that I couldn't help but think of the way Randy had kissed me last night didn't help the situation and as we pulled away, I had to force myself to hide the disappointment so as to not raise any unwanted questions which right now, I would struggle to answer.

Quick to banish such thoughts of another man while in the arms of my husband, I smiled and placed a kiss to the corner of his lips. Even though I was so angry right now and all but repulsed by him, I couldn't deny the fact that he was my husband and I still loved him, unable to fall out of love with a person instantaneously.

"Come on, let's get going." I tugged gently on his hand, eager to get to Nobu as smashing things around the house had proved to work up to more of an appetite more than I had anticipated.

Thankfully, all evidence of all the chaos I had caused around the house would be gone, courtesy of our loyal maid, Charlie, by the time we got home after dinner.

On the way out of his office and down the hallway, I knew it was petty but couldn't help myself as all but wound myself around his arm, making sure Roxy took note of the way he didn't push me off him but rather, turning his head to press his lips to my forehead. My skin crawled at the intimate touch, but I forced myself to maintain a smile to keep up appearances, needing her to know not everything was black and white.

As soon as we got into the elevator and the doors closed, I unwound myself from around Sung under the pretense that I had just received a text.

"I trust Tomaso and Theresa are doing well," Sung murmured, turning his head to face me.

"They are, thank you." I nodded, dragging my attention away from my phone. "Papa is doing great but as soon as he starts feeling better, I don't think mama will be able to hold him back from going back to Italy."

"That sounds about right." He threw his head back and laughed, very fond of my parents despite not getting along with them so well into the first few years of our marriage.

The drive over to the restaurant was somewhat quiet and once we were seated at our reserved table, I placed both my phone and keys down, having not brought anything else on purpose. Once the waiter walked away with our order noted down, Sung reached across the table and grabbed both of my hands in his, his touch gentle.

"There's something I need to talk to you about." He stated with a serious look on his face.

His words sent flutters all through my stomach – and not the good kind – as I could only assume what he had to say to me in such seriousness. Even though I already knew of his extramarital affair which he had been daring enough to bring into our home simply because I was out of the state visiting my parents, I wasn't prepared to talk about it now in fear of all the things that would follow. Yet the other part of me wanted so badly for him to confess, as a confession would mean that he was just as distraught as me; that there was something left worth saving.

"What did you need to talk to me about?" I gulped and dared to ask in a quiet, somewhat shaky voice, afraid of what his answer would be.

"A lady from the adoption agency gave me a call last week." His lips turned up into a large grin, clearly overjoyed with the news that he was now sharing with me. "I wanted to wait until I could tell you in person."

As his words washed over me, my body sagged against my seat as I sighed in relief from all the fear that had been rushing through my body, genuinely afraid of what would come of us if he were to spill the truth now.

After a few moments, his words finally settled in and I realised the true magnitude of his words.

"The adoption agency?" I couldn't help but squeal in excitement at the prospect that we were one step closer to finally becoming parents; a true family. "What did they say? What did they want? Have we been approved?" The questions rushed out of my mouth, momentarily forgetting what I had been thinking only moments ago.

"I had a feeling you would be excited." Sung chuckled and gave my hand a gentle squeeze, a soft expression now on his face. "The lady I spoke to has scheduled a house check on November 1st."

"November 1st?" I couldn't help but question in excitement but as his words finally settled in, the gravity of his words made itself known.

How could we be thinking about becoming parents when I wasn't even sure that I wanted to stay with him? Why did he still want to adopt a child with me if he didn't love me anymore?

"Yes." Sung grinned and nodded his head. "If the house is all good, they'll approve us and we'll finally be able to move on to adopting a child of our own."

"I can't wait," I murmured and forced a smile.

If Sung noticed something, he didn't comment or rather, didn't have the chance to do so as our waiter approached our table with our starters.

Smiling politely up at him and thanking him for his service, I was quick to turn my attention to my food under the pretence that I was starved when in reality, I had lost my appetite.

Both Sung and I knew that we wanted children and for the past three years, we had been avidly trying to start a family of our own. When things just weren't happening for us, we had decided to play it safe and visit the doctor only to find out that Sung was infertile. After getting over the initial shock, we had decided that adoption would be the best option for us.

However, that was before I found out that he was cheating on me and right now, I wasn't so sure about adopting a child with a man that couldn't be trusted.

Lifting my head to catch his eye, I blinked back in momentary confusion, unable to recognise him even though everything from our marriage certificate to the company we co-owned, stated that we were husband and wife.

-

The story is COMPLETE on my PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/LaylaKnight

Layla Knight

26.12.2020