Iris’s POV
I stepped into the living room, and my breath caught.
Damian was sitting on the couch, the bright bulb lights hitting his face.
It was an absolute, horrifying mess.
His cheeks, his jawline, and even the bridge of his nose were covered in a dense web of bloody scratches.
He looked like he had been locked in a cage with a feral cat.
Damian looked up at me, his eyes bloodshot, full of raw humiliation and misery.
I knew I needed to play the devoted, heartbroken wife, but my face was too full of adrenaline to look sad.
I quickly shoved my right hand into the pocket of my coat, grabbed a handful of skin on my thigh, and pinched down with everything I had.
Painful tears rushed to my eyes, spilling over my cheeks.
“Oh my god, Damian!” I sobbed, my voice cracking on cue as I rushed over to the couch.
I reached out, my hands shaking as I hovered them near his bloody face, pretending to be too devastated to touch him.
“It’s too much. Damian, I can’t take it. I’m going to march over there right now and drag Julian’s ass here to answer for this! How could he do this to you? How could he do this to you!”
Damian flinched back, wincing in pain.
“It’s nothing, Iris. Just—”
I stood up fast and was already spinning toward the front door, making a big show of searching for my purse.
“I’m going over to his place right now.
I am going to confront him myself and make him pay for what he did to your face!”
”Iris, no!
Stop!” Damian panicked, scrambling off the couch so fast he nearly tripped over the coffee table.
He threw his arms around my waist from behind, pulling me away from the front door.
“Don’t confront him, it’s nothing…really!”
”But look at your face!” I cried out, burying my face against his shoulder.
He was terrified that if I confronted Julian, the whole truth about their affair would blow up in his face.
He held onto me tightly as he begged me to stay calm..
“I swear it. It’s not that bad. I’m fine!”
I reached my hand forward to his cheeks, it looked like I was aiming for a gentle touch but I purposely pressed my finger hard on his cheeks that he winced in pain.
“Oh I’m sorry…” I thought he said it wasn’t bad?
He shot back, letting go of me.
“It’ll heal up before you know it.”
I kept my focus on him, my brows arching up.
“Why are you trying to protect him?”
”Protect him?” He scoffed with a chuckle.
“Iris, Julian is like my brother. We’ve known each other since college! Brothers fight all the time! Don’t you know? We’ve made up. So what’s the point of you trying to scold him when it was like that fight hadn’t even happened at all.”
His forehead creased as he narrowed his eyes to me.
“I think you’re getting too worked up over this.” Dark eyes gazed at me, his brows arching up as if trying to break me.
He’s watching to see if there was more to this.
More to me just caring about him?
It made me even more furious that he would try to guilt trip me like this!
His brother?
He was banging this man!
And he has the nerve to tell me I’m getting too worked up?
“Then tell me what happened,” I whispered.
Damian rubbed the back of his neck.
“It was stupid. We were arguing about a business deal.”
My brows shot upward.
“A business deal?”
”Yeah.
You know?
It was work stuff—”
I cut him off.
“What business deal?”
The hesitation lasted less than a second, but I caught it.
“Just… an investment opportunity. He wanted us to risk it, but I couldn’t bear the loss. That’s all.”
I lowered my eyes to hide my smile.
An investment opportunity.
That was the best lie he could come up with?
“And that led to this?” My fingers hovered over another scratch on his cheek.
Damian sighed heavily.
“Julian has a temper. I have a temper. Things got out of hand.” His jaw tightened.
“Iris, why are you interrogating me?”
I didn’t say anything.
His expression softened again.
“Look, I know you’re worried about me.” He stepped closer and rested a hand on my shoulder.
“But this has nothing to do with you. It’s between me and Julian. We’ve already handled it.”
He gave me a tired smile.
“Just let it go, okay?”
Just let it go?
My palm was a fist of rage at this point.
“You know what? I need some fresh air.” I turned, walking away from his sight.
Before I turned, his face squeezed into something strange.
Damian was guilty as fuck, trying to protect his dark secret.
That guilt in his eyes was almost laughable.
Whatever, I had to protect my sanity now.
If he knew half of what I knew, he would be the one losing sleep tonight.
I marched straight to the guest room, locking the door tight.
“How long does he think he can continue this!” One day, his secret with Julian will eventually be exposed.
I crashed to the bed, pulling the thick bedspread around me.
Just then, my phone rang out.
Frowning at who could be calling at this hour, I sat up to look at the caller.
It was a private number.
“Huh? Who could this be?” I swallowed hard, then clicked on the ‘answer’ button.
For a few seconds, all I heard was silence.
Then a man’s voice spoke.
“Are you just going to keep hiding like this, Iris?”
Every muscle in my body went stiff.
It wasn’t a strange number as I’d thought.
I knew exactly who was on the line.