She tries bondage for the first time and realizes being restrained is liberating.
He punishes her for the first time…
Feelings start to get involved.
Things start to change…
46
GRACE
From the moment Asher returns from the gala, everything is different. We sleep in bed together, but he tosses and turns, something clearly weighing on him. And the next morning, when he tells me he’s interim CEO, my stomach drops.
It should be exciting. This is what he’s been working for, the entire reason we started this whole charade in the first place... But it doesn’t feel that way.
It feels like the beginning of the end.
Now that he’s gotten what he wanted, what does he need me for?
He goes into the office that day, and the following. And for the next week, I only see him at night, once he’s crawled into bed, exhausted. The first few nights, I tried to wait up for him, but it became clear he wasn’t rushing to get home. There’s been no intimacy, no rewards for my writing days, none of the sweet or sexy moments that we previously shared.
"Do you think he'll be okay?" I ask Wallace a week later as he drives me home from dinner with Asher’s family. An awkward and tense dinner in which Leonard pestered Asher with questions and demands about the business, and I tried notto ask the question that sat on the tip of my tongue…Are the accusations true?For Asher’s sake, I didn’t want to stir up more issues. My husband already looks like a ghost of himself, dark circles under his eyes from the lack of sleep. He sent me home after the dinner, so he and his father could continue talking business. I didn’t argue because I didn’t want to be there, even if I do want to support him.
Wallace meets my eyes in the rearview mirror, and I catch the flicker of uncertainty that crosses his weathered features before he schools his expression back to professional calm.
"I'm sure he will, Mrs. Caine," he says, but the words feel hollow.
The doubt in his eyes tells a different story, and we both know it. Asher’s working himself to the bone. Ever since the scholarship recipient at the gala, Sabrina, spoke of how Leonard used her mother and discarded her when it no longer served him, the company’s been in crisis. The family has been all over the news, and the stock price has dropped.
I replay the woman's story in my head daily. She seemed filled with grief and anger as she recounted what they suffered because of him. I wish I could hug her and help her through this time in her life.
Wallace navigates through the evening traffic with ease while my fingers twist at the pearls around my neck.
Filled with anxiety, we arrive back at the Sanctum hotel, its art deco elegance rising into the darkening sky like a monument. Somewhere above us, Asher's penthouse sits empty, and the thought of being up there alone and waiting for him has my stomach twisting into knots.
I wish he would have just left with me.
That thought lingers in my head. When did I go from doing this for the money to actually caring about him? Somewherealong the way, things changed, and this arrangement went from being fake to… somethingdeeper.
"Mrs. Caine." Wallace takes a deep breath before saying my name, and I redirect my attention to him. "I've worked for your husband for a long time, so I've seen how his family can be… but he always gets through it. I wouldn't worry yourself too much." He gives me a comforting smile through the reflection of the rearview mirror, and I want to believe him. That we’ll get through this and everything will be okay.
In the next moment, three things happen so quickly it feels like I barely have a chance to open my mouth and scream before the damage is done.
First, the door to my left swings open, and a person clad in all black slides into the seat next to me.
