Hidden Flames [The Ludovicas: Second Generation Book Three]

Twenty-Three | Broken

KIAN

There was something off about the way she spoke to me. It was unlike Irene. She always sounds so cheerful.

I couldn't concentrate on the work after that call, my mind wandering to her every second.

I had told her that it would take me two hours to come back but fuck it. I wrapped up everything and instead of two hours, I was back home in forty minutes.

I stepped inside our bedroom, closing the door, my eyes instantly landing on Irene who sat on the bed, her back against the headboard, her knees drawn up, chin resting over them.

For a single second, she glanced at me before looking back at her phone distractedly.

I moved across the room and slowly shrugged out of my suit jacket and draped it over the back of the chair.

Usually, when I come home, she always has something or the other to tell me. She was unusually quiet today.

She didn't even smile at me like she does every time I come back from work. I have become so fucking accustomed to her smiles and questions that without it, my day felt incomplete.

Her cheeks looked flushed, her nose red, her eyes glistening and she was fucking shivering.

Someone hurt her. Someone fucking hurt her. My fists clenched by my side. I am going to skin them alive.

I strode over her, coming to stand next to her at the edge of the bed. She didn't even look at me and I noticed that she wasn't even doing anything on her phone, just tracing random patterns on the black screen.

Even when I push her away, or be mean to her, it doesn't effect her, she always tries to see the good in people so if she is in this state then that fucker must have done something cruel. My fingers trembled with the urge to kill.

I lifted my hand, gently grasping her chin between my fingers and tilting her head up. I asked in a low voice, "Who the fuck made my wife cry?"

More tears gathered in her eyes and she quickly blinked them away before lowering her eyes.

"Irene," I warned. "I asked you a question."

"No one", she spoke in a small, broken voice and I swear it made my heart physically hurt.

I squeezed her chin making her lift her eyes to me. "Why did you ask me to come home early?"

She shrugged, her lower lip trembling before a tear rolled down her eyes.

Fuck.

"Tell me their name," I demanded.

She removed my hand from her chin and wiped away her tears. Clearing her throat loudly, she tried forcing a smile on her face. "N-no one. I am okay."

"Are you?"

Her smile faded away and she nodded curtly.

"Let's assume everything's fine. Then where's my hug?"

On another day, her eyes would have lit up with joy on me asking for a hug but today they remained filled with tears and so much sadness and hurt.

Her movements were slow as she forced herself up and kneeled on the bed, her arms coming to wrap around my waist, her face burying in my chest.

Just like I expected, a sob escaped her mouth followed by another, wetness seeped into my shirt and her body shook.

She needed me. That's why she wanted me home early. Fuck.