Chapter 1
Lena's POV
Easter has never been my favorite holiday. It always somehow, ended up being the worst day of the year no matter what I tried to do and that was why this year, I had taken extra care.
Double the decorations, multiple cheer music casettes in my living room and even trying to recreate the Easter cheer everyone always seemed to have except me.
But like every Easter, this would turn out to be the same, and worse.
The grocery bag weighed heavily on my shoulders as I slung it over one arm, my eyes trying to find my keys in my bag as I pushed past the egg decoration I had started setting up for Easter.
My eyes settled on the tattered porcelain bunny that sat haplessly a few feet away from the driveway.
I frowned.
It was missing it's head and a paw that stood a few feet away from where it was supposed to be.
Derek had run over my fucking decorations again and he could not even be bothered to fix it.
Fucking Derek.
I tried to fish for my keys in my bag, one hand still steadying my grocery bag and the other trying to jingle the doors open.
The minute my hands pressed against the door knob, I realized I did not need the key because the door was already slightly ajar.
Something tight settled in my chest as I paused.
Derek would never leave the door open.
“Derek?” I called, stepping inside.
No answer.
Just… silence.
That should have been my first sign that something was deathly wrong.
I took in the state of the room first. Television was still there and the prized jar of savings I always kept at the end of the hall still stood there.
So it was not a robbery.
But just as I was about to relax, I heard it.
Soft at first. Faint enough that I almost missed it.
A breath, followed by hollow laughter. My husband's and another female voice that I did not recognize.
My fingers tightened around my bag.
Another sound followed, heavier this time. Incorrigible sounds that I could not quite place.
I stopped in my tracks as my stomach dropped.
I willed my legs to move, refusing to let my trembling legs stop me.
The voice came again, soft and clearer this time around.
" Oh baby.... please"
My heart began to pound heavy in my chest and even though the voices seemed to drown out my fear, I could somehow still hear my thumping heart in my ears.
The grocery bag slipped from my hand, hitting the floor with a dull thud. Something cracked inside it, but I didn’t look down.
Each step toward the stairs felt heavier than the last, like my body knew what I was about to see and was begging me to stop.
But I didn’t.
The sounds grew clearer the closed I got, and this time, I could not blame it on my faint hearing.
By the time I reached our bedroom door, my hands were trembling.
Don’t open it. For fuck's sake Lena don't open the goddamn door.
I swallowed hard, pushing the door open anyways and ignoring every red light that went off like an alarm in my head.
And everything inside me shattered.
They were tangled in our bed sheets, her moans now louder as I stood in front of the watching the scene like it was a movie and not the reality of my life.
Her back arched, fingers gripping the sheets I had washed just days ago. His body bent over hers,familiar in a way that now made my stomach twist.
For a moment, the world went quiet except for that nagging alarm in my head.
" Derek!" I yelled above the alarm, my eyes already filled with the sense of betrayal and hate.
Derek stilled, jumping away from her as his eyes widened in shock.
" Derek..." I called again, this time watching him, that guilty expression flickering in his eyes and then it was gone.
“Lena?” he said, like I had just walked in on him watching television. “What the hell?”
My lips parted, but no sound came out.
My hands went numb and a certain feeling of cold ran down my being even though the room was visibly hot.
The woman beside him shifted, glancing at me over her shoulder. There was no shame in her eyes. No embarrassment.
Just that smug expression that revolted my being.
My throat tightened.
“Derek…” My voice came out thin. “What is this?”
He exhaled sharply, running a hand through his hair like I was the inconvenience.
“Seriously? You couldn’t knock?”
The words hit harder than anything I had seen.
I blinked at him. What?!
“I…” My chest rose and fell unevenly. “This is our room.”
“And?” he shot back. “What difference does that make?”
Something inside me cracked open.
All of a sudden I could hear myself screaming, words flying out of my mouth quicker than I could comprehend as I pointed at her naked body, arms flaying wildly.
" How could you do this to us?! To me?! In our fucking bed?!"
My eyes drifted to the blanket beneath where she laid, the Easter blanket I had gotten as a present now laying there helplessly, covered with their cum and sweat.
I felt sick.
“You couldn’t even…” My voice trembled despite my effort to steady it. “You couldn’t even do this somewhere else?”
He let out a short, humorless laugh.
“Oh, come on. Don’t start acting surprised now.”
Surprised. The word echoed in my head.
“I work all day,” he continued, his tone sharpening. “I come home, and what? Nothing. You just lie there like a fucking log of wood. You make me beg you to have cum for me”
He cut himself off with a frustrated gesture.
“I’m a man, Lena.”
The girl beside him smirked faintly, her fingers brushing against his arm like I was an outsider in my own marriage.
“Some of us actually know how to keep a man happy,” she added softly.
I felt my tears threaten to drop, my eyes blinking rapidly to hold it in.
No, I could not cry. Not now.
“You’re my mate…” I whispered, the words barely leaving my lips. “You’re doing this to me…”
Derek scoffed.
“The moon goddess made a mistake,” he said flatly. “I should’ve never been stuck with someone like you.”
That did it.
The tears came. Waves of anger and nausea hitting me as the first bawl broke out like a dam.
I watched my vision blur as my hands quivered, one shaky finger raising to them.
" Fuck you Derek! Fuck you!"
" You are being dramatic...let's talk about it okay?"
I hated that his voice did not hold a rumor of guilt. Just irritation that he had been caught.
“You know what?” I said quietly, my voice steadier than I felt. “You can both go to hell.”
" And where do you think you would go? Do you think any man would want a woman like you? You are boring in bed and you are the worst kind of person to keep around. Come back let's talk."
My heart stung with the kind of pain I had not experienced.
I barged out of the house, walking past my sack of groceries and picking up my keys.
I was done with this.
I wiped the tears away from my line of sight but they just kept forming like pesky little balls, preventing me from seeing clearly.
I kicked the stupid Easter bunny, watching what was left of it tumble on the ground and break as I got into my car.
I needed to get away from here.
My mind flashed to a particular cottage in the mountains where my mum always took us for our Easter celebration and the wave of nostalgia managed to drown the anger and pain just for a brief second.
It was settled. I would go to my cottage in the hill.
~~
The drive to the cottage was painfully slow. I could feel the tears dropping from my eyes as I weaved through mountains, body begging for relief.
The cottage stood like a giant in the night, giving me the welcome that I so needed, reminding me of why it was my favourite place in the world.
I took in the sniff of the house, homey and refreshing just the way I remembered it and for a moment, I was inclined to forget that my so called husband was still sucking the boobs of another woman.
Fuck I need a goddamn wine.
I had however just started to make my way I to the living room when my eyes caught a book, covers gleaming and faint, calling me.
I remember this book. My mum had a lore surrounding it.
A book that grants wishes to every soul that wishes on easter.
It sat there so helplessly on the table, I was inclined to pull closer to it, running my hands through the thick cover and feeling the wind of magic gust through the air.
I gulped, picking up the bottle of wine and spanking the liquid straight from the bottle, the taste hitting my throat before my tongue felt it, body shuddering with the gulp.
" Say his name and read your wish and it will be granted" the first page read.
I scoffed.
Oh how I wished this was true. A fucking easter miracle is all I needed right now.
"Nicholas"
The name was scribbled in gold, beckoning to me and I grimaced.
Urgh.
" Nicholas."
I paused.
What did I want?
My mind soared back to his Derek's words. No man would ever want me. I thought about how boring sex with him was, an orgasm the last thing I have had in years.
I hummed.
" I want feel pleasure in both my mind and my soul. I want my body to be worshipped in ways I have not experienced and desired with a fierce kind of longing" I said.
The air grew silent for a second, no crickets, no hooting. Just silence.
Then it all went back to normal and I scoffed.
Did I really think this was going to work?
Nothing happened.
I forced another gulp of wine down my throat, turning to grab my buzzing phone when I felt it.
That unmistakenly feeling of someone watching me.
I froze.
I took a leap of f
aith, staring at my left where the window was left open.
And there he was, a silhouette of a man, standing in the snow as his hooded figure glared at me, unmoving.
My heart dropped.
I turned to the book and then back at the figure...
No.a
