The Husband's Awakening

Right there on my mattress, my notoriously ice-cold wife was leaning against another man.

I stood frozen outside the master bedroom, the ribbon of her birthday cake box cutting deep into my fingers. Their heads were pressed closely together as they watched a show on a tablet.

Her lips were parted in a bright, effortless smile. It turned out she wasn't naturally frigid after all. She just never bothered to thaw out for me.

Watching the two of them, the heavy cake box in my hand suddenly felt like a massive joke.

I raised my fist and rapped my knuckles sharply against the doorframe.

"Sorry to interrupt." I kept my tone flat, cutting right through their show. "But if you two want to play house, could you maybe not do it in my bedroom?"

Chapter 1

My voice cut through the room like a blade. The sickeningly sweet, intimate atmosphere suffocating the air evaporated instantly.

Celine snapped her head up. Her eyes flashed with impatience. In a split second, that impatience hardened into a venomous glare.

"Cassian, what's with the passive-aggressive tone?" she demanded. "Can't you just talk calmly?"

Staring at Celine's unapologetic face, a harsh scoff tore from my throat as I shook my head.

"My wife is hanging out with another man in my own bedroom, and you want me to be calm? Celine, do you even hear the garbage coming out of your mouth?"

The man stood up, stepping forward to shield Celine behind him.

"Sir, could you be a little more of a gentleman?" He spoke with such righteous indignation that anyone else would have thought he was her husband.

"Who the hell do you think you are, playing the man of the house in my bedroom?" I shot back, stepping into his space. "Are you proud of being the other man?"

The guy froze, at a loss for words.

Celine shot me a lethal glare before turning back to the man, her features instantly softening.

"Cody, step outside for a minute. Let me talk to him."

But Cody didn't move a muscle. He kept his eyes glued to Celine, oozing fake concern.

"Celine, are you sure he won't hurt you?" he asked, glancing back at me. "He seems unstable."

Unstable? Was I supposed to just swallow that? My jaw clenched so hard my teeth ground together.

I swung my fist, smashing it hard into his face.

I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and slammed him viciously against the door.

"Get out of my house, you disgusting trash."

Celine lunged forward, her fingers digging into my arm.

"Cassian, are you out of your mind? Why would you hit him?!"

I dug my nails into my palms until they almost broke the skin, fighting every instinct in my body to keep from laying a hand on her. My facial muscles twitched under the absolute fury boiling in my veins.

Reading the venom in my expression, Celine finally shoved Cody out the door and slammed it shut. She whirled around, glaring at me with lethal intent.

"Cassian, you have disappointed me."

The words hit me like a physical blow to the gut.

I actually thought she had kicked Cody out so she could explain herself in private, to do damage control. Instead, she tossed the blame right back in my face with staggering entitlement.

"Disappointed? Celine, you brought another man into my houseinto my bedand you're disappointed?" I took a step forward, closing the distance. "Or are you just disappointed I came home early before you two had the chance to screw?"

Seeing that I wasn't backing down and playing the doormat like I usually did, Celine's tone finally softened.

"Honey, you're misunderstanding the situation. He's an old high school classmate here on a business trip. We just planned to catch up."

"Catch up in my house? In my bedroom?" I barked a harsh laugh. "You really know how to pick a spot."

My sarcasm instantly reignited her temper.

"Can you stop being so toxic? Cody has severe OCD and sensitive skin. He absolutely can't stay in those dirty hotels out there, so I had to bring him back to our master bedroom to rest."

Chapter 2

Bile surged into the back of my throat. She made me physically sick.

"Let me get this straight," I said, my voice dangerously low. "If I hadn't come home, you were just going to let him move in? Where was he going to sleep? In my bed?"

Celine's jaw tightened, the color draining from her face. "Cassian, could you stop making it sound so filthy?"

"Am I the one making it sound filthy, or are you the one acting like trash?"

She opened her mouth to argue, but I threw my hand up. The urge to fight had completely drained out of me, replaced by a hollow, sickening fatigue. I turned my back on her and walked straight out of the bedroom.

Cody was slumped on the living room couch, clutching his jaw. When he saw me walk out, his eyes locked onto me, practically shooting daggers.

"What the hell gives you the right to hit me?" he spat. "I'll call the cops on you, I swear to God."

On any other day, I would have dragged him off that couch and beat him to a pulp. But right now, a heavy, suffocating exhaustion settled over my bones.

"Go ahead and call them, you pathetic loser."

Celine stepped out right behind me. Her eyebrows snapped together. "Cassian, that is enough. You crossed the line. Apologize to Cody right now."

Cody shot me a smug, triumphant smirk, raising an eyebrow.

The sheer absurdity of it all made a dark, raspy chuckle rip from my chest.

"They say garbage always comes in pairs. Celine, I guess you were just the missing piece of the set."

Red blotches of fury crept up Celine's neck. Cody just let out a mocking snort.

"Celine, your taste really went downhill, didn't it? You dumped me for a guy with zero class?"

The words hit me like a bucket of ice water. I thought he was just some orbiter friend.

Turns out, he was the ex-boyfriend.

"Celine, I never blamed you for our breakup," Cody continued, laying the manipulation on thick. "I just hoped the man you left me for was actually worth it. But seeing this"

He shook his head, playing the perfect victim. "Forget it. I shouldn't have said that. I'll just go. I can rough it in some cheap motel."

He pushed himself off the couch and dragged his feet toward the front door.

Celine practically sprinted across the room, grabbing his arm before he could take another step.

"You're not leaving," she insisted, her voice dripping with panic. "Your skin can't handle a motel."

Once she had him settled, she snapped her gaze back to me. The look in her eyes was absolute ice.

A wave of disbelief crashed over me. "What is this? You're kicking me out of my own home?"

She didn't say a single word. A tidal wave of humiliation slammed into me, ringing in my ears. I dug my teeth into my cheek, tasting copper, fighting back the violent, primal urge to tear the room apart.

Hold it together, Cassian, I told myself, my chest heaving. Do not lose your mind over these two pieces of trash.

I pulled in a ragged breath. I grabbed my overnight bag from by the couch, turned on my heel, and marched toward the front door.

As I passed the dining table, Celine's eyes darted to the birthday cake box resting on the wood. The color vanished from her face.

"Honey, wait!" Panic finally cracked her voice. "Where are you going?"

She lunged forward, her manicured fingers wrapping around my wrist, pulling at me.

I stopped and stared at her, genuinely baffled by the sheer audacity.

"Celine, was that ice-queen routine of yours just an act this whole time?"

Her brow furrowed. She stared at me, failing to process what I was saying.

I ripped my arm out of her grip.

"You've got the wrong guy. I don't do the whole shared-husband thing. If you want an open marriage, go find some other sucker."

Her face contorted into something ugly and dark, but I couldn't care less.

The second I made it out of our gated community, my knees buckled. I dropped to the concrete sidewalk, clutching my stomach.

It wasn't a broken heart. It was a vicious, agonizing knot in my gut, twisting from rage.

If I was being honest, I never in a million years thought Celine would cheat on me. She ran cold toward other men, and indifferent toward me. She built massive, impenetrable walls between herself and the rest of the world. No one would ever associate a woman like that with sneaking around.

I flagged down a cab and checked into a nearby hotel.

Lying flat on my back on the stiff mattress, the adrenaline finally crashed. A suffocating wave of dark, toxic energy swallowed me whole.

A frantic voice screamed inside my head. You absolute coward. Why did you run?

Go back there and beat them into the floor. Since when do you just roll over and take it?

I dragged in massive, ragged breaths, staring at the ceiling until the violent tremors in my hands finally stopped. I had already walked out that door. Going back now would just make me look pathetic.

My phone buzzed on the nightstand. A text from Celine illuminated the dark room.

[Cassian, take some time to cool off by yourself. Your behavior tonight was incredibly disappointing.]

Disappointing.

I gripped the phone, the metal casing biting into my palm.

Then, I hurled it straight at the drywall, shattering it into a dozen jagged pieces.

Chapter 3

I swallowed down some painkillers and forced my eyes shut.

First thing the next morning, I drove straight to the office.

Right out of college, running on nothing but pure adrenaline and a few laptops, my roommates and I started a gaming studio. We honestly thought our code made us invincible. Reality hit us like a freight train. We slammed into brick walls everywhere, pitching to empty rooms and getting ghosted by investors.

It was a brutal lesson in how impossible it is to build a company from the ground up without a heavy-hitter backing you.

Just as we were packing up our desks to go beg for corporate desk jobs, Celine's father dropped out of the sky like a guardian angel. He threw startup capital at us, gave us the strategic playbook, and seamlessly slid into the seat of our largest shareholder.

He was also the one who engineered my introduction to Celine. His approval of me was blunt and aggressive. But I knew exactly where that approval stemmed from.

I was an orphan with zero family backing. Nobody in my corner. That made me the perfect, disposable bottom-tier son-in-law for their family empiresomeone they could toss in the trash the second I outlived my usefulness.

I never fought the arrangement. Celine was drop-dead gorgeous and handled herself with absolute precision. Sure, she ran cold, but back then, I thought her ice wasn't specifically directed at me. She checked every single box I had.

By year three of the startup, we were married. I had never even been in a serious relationship before, so I poured every ounce of my blind loyalty into her. They say a guy's first real love is the only time he gives his entire soul without calculating the risks. I was a walking clich.

She kept me at arm's length, but I still spoiled her rotten. I figured she was the woman I was spending the rest of my life with. By our second anniversary, Celine took over the family's corporate conglomerate and her schedule exploded. I willingly took a step back.

I shifted my focus entirely to the house, clocking out early every day just to cook her dinners and make sure her life was utterly frictionless.

What an absolute waste of time. No wonder everyone says your first love never makes it to the finish line. Even the couples who are crazy about each other barely survive. Let alone my pathetic, one-sided martyrdom.

I pulled up every financial ledger on the company server. I meticulously audited the accounts, running a ruthless valuation on every single share of equity in my name.

Around noon, I was picking at my takeout while staring at a spreadsheet when my office door violently swung open.

Celine stood in the doorway, her face set in a hard, venomous line. I let my fork drop onto the desk.

"Cassian, why the hell aren't you answering my calls?" Right on cue. Straight to the interrogation.

I leaned back in my chair. "My phone shattered. Kind of hard to pick up."

Celine instantly seized the moral high ground. "You are a grown man in his thirties, Cassian. Are you seriously incapable of controlling your own emotions? Throwing tantrums and smashing things like a toddler?"

Celine had always paraded around like she was better than everyone else. She pushes someone to the absolute brink of insanity, then stands on her pedestal to deliver a lecture on etiquette. It was downright pathological.

I pointed a pen directly at the hallway. "Get out. Did you forget how to knock? You don't step foot in here until you're invited."

Celine froze, staring at me like I had grown a second head. It was the first time in our entire history I had ever raised my voice at her. When she finally realized I wasn't playing a game, the hostility in her posture dropped a fraction.

She completely shifted gears, launching right into damage control regarding Cody.

"Cassian, you're misreading the situation. Cody and I are history. We are strictly platonic."

I rested my elbows on the desk, lacing my fingers together. I watched her, waiting for the punchline.

"Yes, he stayed at the house last night, but I drove back to my parents' estate to sleep."

"I call bullshit."

The crease between her eyebrows deepened. "Excuse me? Why wouldn't you believe me?"

"Because you dragged your ex-boyfriend into my house and locked yourselves in my bedroom. You blew your credibility, Celine. Nothing coming out of your mouth means a damn thing to me anymore."

"You are acting unhinged!" she fired back. "I already explained this to you. He has a severe skin condition. He physically cannot stay in a hotel. That is the only reason I brought him to the house."

Chapter 4

I couldn't hold it back anymore.

I grabbed the heavy glass from the desk and smashed it violently against the wall next to her.

Glass shards exploded everywhere, raining down on the office carpet. Celine stared at me, disbelief plastered across her face.

"Cassian, you are you trying to kill me?"

I closed my eyes, dragging in a sharp, jagged breath as I forced the tidal wave of adrenaline back down.

"He's got sensitive skin and can't stay in a hotel? What, does he just happen to have an ex-girlfriend ready to take him home in every single city he visits?" I opened my eyes, locking my gaze onto hers. "Celine, save your breath.

You don't need to lower yourself to come find me. You are completely bankrupt in my eyes. I don't believe a single word coming out of your mouth."

Celine's face hardened, that icy, superior mask snapping right back into place. "Cassian, do you have any idea how pathetic you look right now, throwing this tantrum?"

I let out a dark, mocking laugh. "I'm throwing a tantrum? Tell me something. If I brought a woman home, locked her in my bedroom, and pressed my head against hers to watch a movie, would you be cool with it?"

"Don't you dare." The words ripped from Celine's throat before she could even process them.

I just stared at her, watching the blind fury in her eyes slowly curdle as my words sank in. Empathy is a joke. Nobody actually gets it until the knife is in their own back.

"Celine, it's not about whether I'd dare to. It's about having a baseline of respect. It's about knowing what a marriage actually means." I pointed at the door.

"Get out. Go keep your ex-boyfriend company. Don't bother looking for me again."

A furious red flush crept up Celine's neck. "Cassian, are you ever going to drop this? What exactly do you want?"

"I want a divorce."

Celine froze. The color instantly drained from her face