The executive directors, including Izaak, stared at his phone when it blared relentlessly. He snorted in annoyance and was about to discard the call when he saw it was from Gabriella.
He looked at the executives and excused himself. “Hold on for a while. I have to take this call.”
He answered the call and coldly asked, “What’s the matter?”
When she told him she couldn’t attend the party, Izaak couldn’t say anything. He wanted her to be there with him, but she wasn’t interested, and she probably made up an excuse not to go.
Irritation was boiling in the pit of his stomach. “Fine. Guess I’ll have to bring another woman with me,” he purposely told her and cruelly ended the call right after.
“Fuck! Fuck!” he cursed loudly.
The executives in the meeting with him were all surprised by his behavior. Izaak immediately apologized and tried to resume the meeting, but his mood was too sour he could

Izaak picked up his clothes on the floor before he charged to the door and slammed it loudly. He walked toward the living room, put on his pants and his ruined suit shirt, and settled on the couch. He winced in pain when his tongue hurt from Gabriella’s bite.
He cupped the metal lighter from his coat and lit a cigarette between his fingertips. As the cigarette flickered in and out in the darkness, a shade of melancholy colored his deep star-like eyes. A color that blended well in the dark.
Meanwhile, as Gabriella fell into a deep slumber, she whimpered like a wet dog as she found herself in what could have looked like a dream but turned out to be as nightmarish as it could be in reality. She was watching her past as it happened in her dream.
Gabriella gasped in delight when Izaak knelt on the ground in the midst of an ocean of flowers he arranged for her. He pulled out a box, opened it, 

Levi sighed. They did nothing but argue when they talked about her husband.
He noticed Gabriella’s fingers wrapped with band-aids. “What happened to your hands?”
“My perfume broke, and I picked up the broken pieces. I wasn’t in my right mind.”
“Did you clean the wounds well?” Levi asked, worried.
“Erin said she’ll do it.”
Levi wanted to stay with her because she wasn’t looking good. But he figured she needed to be alone, so he left the office.
Meanwhile, Gabriella spaced out as she took occasional sips from her coffee. She had no surgeries for a week because of her hands, and the hospital had been uneventful the whole afternoon. No one called her for an emergency.
Time went by in a flash. Before she even knew it, the evening came.
“The party!” she exclaimed when she suddenly remembered the party Izaak wanted her to attend.
She instantly got up, but nausea took over her. She stumbled and fell back to her seat. She hadn’t really eaten breakfast, skipped lunch, and she would probably have nausea at dinner.
Her head was groggy, and her stomach twitched in pain. She picked up her phone and dialed Izaak’s number.
It took plenty of rings before he picked up the call.
“What’s the matter?” he asked in the most uninterested tone.
“That party you told me this morning, I can’t go.”
There was a brief silence from Izaak’s line before he curtly asked, “Why?”
“I’m not feeling well,” she answered truthfully.
Another silence reigned.
Finally, Izaak muttered indifferently, “Fine. Guess I’ll have to bring another woman with me.”
Before Gabriella could say anything, Izaak had already hung up the phone. He didn’t care a bit, Gabriella thought. Maybe if she died, he would react a little differently.
When it was time for the night shift staff to take over, Gabriella took off her white coat, hung it on the office’s common closet, and wore a simple maroon low-back slip dress with leg splits. It hugged her waist perfectly and emphasized her sexy feminine figure.
However, she didn’t feel like going home to a lonely and quiet house. Very timely, the door opened, and Levi childishly peeked at the door.
“Figured you’d still be here,” he said. “Going home?”
“I don’t feel like going home, but I don’t have somewhere else to be,” Gabriella sighed.
Levi’s eyes lit up at the perfect opportunity for him to make her forget about her problems, even for a second. He slipped inside the office with a wicked smile.
“Leave it to me,” he said while grinning.
He rushed near Gabriella and made her stand. He looked at her from head to foot, spun her around, and smiled with pure adoration.
“Dang, woman," he teased while shaking his head, "I know you’re married, but you’re smoking hot."
“Oh, shut up,” Gabriella retorted in embarrassment.
Levi grabbed her hand and dragged her outside before she could protest.
“Where are we going?” Gabriella naively asked when she was dragged to Levi’s car.
Levi winked at her.“To somewhere we could chill and forget problems at the same time.”
The cheeky smile plastered on Levi’s face told Gabriella he was up to no good.
“And where is that?” Gabriella nervously asked.
Levi only answered with a devilish grin. He took her to a bar, which was close to her house.
“You!” Gabriella exclaimed in disbelief.
She wasn’t sure alcohol would be best to consume when she already had a bad headache.
“What do you say? I picked the right place, right?” playfully, Levi said.
Gabriella chuckled. “Not sure I’ll forget, but I guess I need a few drinks.”
“If you’re cool with it, let’s go!”
“Let’s go!” Gabriella screamed in excitement.
Her already-splitting head became heavier as she drank shots after shots of different cocktails. She sat on the bar's counter and insisted on ordering a glass of rum.
When she was already too drunk to even sit straight, Levi called a taxi to take her home.
“You sure you don’t need me to take you to your door?” Levi asked for the third time, worried.
“I can manage,” Gabriella insisted.
She did manage to walk up to her door, but she took off her high heels. Otherwise, she would’ve stumbled on the ground.
She entered the passcode to her door. She didn’t bother turning the lights on, as she had memorized every nook and cranny of her house.
Barefoot and with no sound, she walked in the direction of the bedroom.
“It’s already midnight, and you’re just coming home?”
Gabriella jumped up when a voice startled her. Through the faint moonlight cast by the window, she recognized a tall figure in a gray suit sitting on a linen-colored sofa in the living room, blending dangerously in the dark.
He flicked his metal lighter to light up his cigarette. The small flame gave his facial features a unique glow, which made him even more handsome.
At that quick second that the lighter was on, Gabriella noticed three of the upper buttons of his shirt were open, and his muscular chest loomed.
Gabriella leaned her body on the wall for support. She was tired, drunk, and didn’t have the energy to deal with her apathetic husband.
She had too many questions she wanted to ask. She wanted to ask about Aubrey, if he slept with her and impregnated her, or what he really thought of their marriage. Yet her tongue curbed.
There was a long dead silence. None of them spoke, and none of them wanted to break the ice.
Finally, Gabriella decided to shatter the silence. In a mocking tone, she said, “It’s not the eighth today, Mr. Martinez. Did you tell your secretary to schedule this midnight appointment too?”
“No,” thriftily, he responded.
Gabriella drunkenly laughed. “Oh, unplanned appointment.”
“This is my house," Izaak retorted.
“Sure,” Gabriella insolently replied. “So the doors should always be open even if it’s not the eighth day of the month. That’s what you’re saying, right?”
The corner of Izaak's lips raised. “Smart girl.”
“Yes, I’m smart enough to know this house is nothing more than a hotel where I could sleep, where you could come and go and use my body as you please.”
She didn’t get a reaction, so she headed to the bedroom. She twisted the doorknob.
The door had opened a little when a force from behind grabbed her. She was pressed against the hard wall by a heavy body.

The executive directors, including Izaak, stared at his phone when it blared relentlessly. He snorted in annoyance and was about to discard the call when he saw it was from Gabriella.
He looked at the executives and excused himself. “Hold on for a while. I have to take this call.”
He answered the call and coldly asked, “What’s the matter?”
When she told him she couldn’t attend the party, Izaak couldn’t say anything. He wanted her to be there with him, but she wasn’t interested, and she probably made up an excuse not to go.
Irritation was boiling in the pit of his stomach. “Fine. Guess I’ll have to bring another woman with me,” he purposely told her and cruelly ended the call right after.
“Fuck! Fuck!” he cursed loudly.
The executives in the meeting with him were all surprised by his behavior. Izaak immediately apologized and tried to resume the meeting, but his mood was too sour he couldn’t focus.
He adjourned the meeting halfway through and flew to their house, only to find an empty h

Chapter 8