The Wealthy Husband's Lonely Wife

Chapter 1

MELODY

There he goes.

Daniel's sleek red sports car pulls out of the very long, snowy driveway, heading to a private airport for his next huge international infrastructure trip.

The house automatically clicks into home mode.

The temperature drops slightly. And once again, I'm left in absolute silence, standing here by these very big glass living room windows, super alone, as I always am.

I don't know why he decided to get this very large house.

I mean, I guess I know why people in high society always want to show off.

I guess what makes me feel awful is we don't really have sex that much.

He's my husband. We've been together for a while.

Seven years and seven months to be exact.

That's a long time, right? We've been married for five. Almost.

I love Daniel, but tell me why sex now feels as though we're strangers. He had just come home. I don't know where he was, but he immediately looked over at me as if I were just paint on the wall.

"Hey, darling," he said.

"Hey, babe," I replied.

I made sure his food was ready. We usually have a cook that comes by and prepares all our meals for the week, of course.

I'm a stay-at-home wife, so I'm happy to do these things, but lately, I've felt overwhelmed.

It's crazy how you can feel overwhelmed when you have absolutely nothing to do.

When your mind is so heavy, it feels like, well, everything is weighing it down.

Like minuscule things are much larger than they should be.

Daniel had taken a shower right away and then came to get me, pulling me into our bedroom.

It's a very large bedroom. As a matter of fact, everything in this godforsaken house is large, way too large for only two people with no kids to be living in.

He put me on the bed, peeled down his boxers, and laid me back missionary style.

Then he sunk himself inside me and started pumping furiously.

He didn't look at me. It was hot, don't get me wrong.

I love making love to my husband, but lately, it just feels like he fucks me and leaves.

It felt really good, but my heart was hurting the whole time.

His grunts and his heavy breathing in my ear made me wetter, but his face was buried in the pillow next to me, right next to my face, right near my neck so we wouldn't have to make eye contact.

We hardly ever make eye contact. That's whenever we do have sex, and we barely do because he's always away.

When he comes home, he might have sex with me once, and then maybe, if I'm lucky, once before he leaves again. He's always traveling. I feel like everyone sees my husband more than I do.

Daniel Akari.

He's handsome. Only two years older than me at 32.

He's the COO at Akari Global Infrastructure.

Quite the commodity he is. I mean, who wouldn't thirst after a six-foot Asian guy who has a wealthy background and an amazing face card?

Danny operates at the absolute apex of the corporate world.

His job, I don't really understand all of it, but judging from the smart house that we have...

This 5,804-square-foot house with four bedrooms and six baths and almost everything automated.

He's deeply into tech and automated things.

All of the cars we have have self-driving.

He manages the physical implementation of the next-gen smart cities, which includes automated transit systems and vertical real estate acquisitions.

He works with his dad, a very rigid Japanese man, and he takes the high-level vision of his father and turns it into concrete reality.

My husband is the kind of person who's always on-site, managing these multi-billion dollar deals and negotiating with global tech giants, which is all the rage now. That's his life.

And Little Miss Muffet over here? I don't even know how I got here.

We were introduced through a mutual friend.

If you had told me at a young age that I would marry a multi-millionaire, that I'd be living in a gigantic smart home, that I would be married to the hottest guy that every woman wanted and every guy wanted to be, I would laugh in your face.

I'd probably spit in my drink and throw that in your face for good measure.

That was never, ever something I thought would happen, especially when I've always thought that there were so many other women out there so much prettier than me.

Don't get me wrong, I think I'm pretty enough. I'm 5'5" with near-perfect brown skin.

My parents had my eye color changed when I was little.

It was a very risky surgery, but a lot of people are doing it now.

And I had my follicles customized when I was old enough, too, so my hair is always a permanent, sleek blue.

It fits my eyes. I like it. Nobody wears contacts anymore.

I mean, they do, but more and more people are getting the surgeries.

It's fun being able to customize your body, customize your life. I wish the heart was easily customizable like that. Just an off-switch or an on-switch.

Something hurts too much?

Whoops, turn it off.

You don't want to feel something?

Whoops, turn it off.

You don't want to obsess and be paranoid that your husband is sleeping with women that he sees every day?

Turn it off.

Doesn't matter. Not care.

Yah… they haven't perfected that yet.

What am I gonna do now?

Walking around the house, I can't help but feel a little bit of relief that I'm home alone, even though it does feel lonely. I'm a total introvert, so I don't feel lonely often unless my heart is breaking.

I walk away from the front door and start heading down the foyer.

The light wood floors are warm, and the whole ceiling of the house is painted white.

The walls are all white with the exception of the kitchen, which has this deep blue.

Of course, if it were up to Danny, this house would probably be a deep gray.

He doesn't really see the need to decorate.

He said this house was for me, so I could do whatever I wanted to do with it. And I've tried to make it my home.

To be fair, the house already came fully stocked, fully furnished. There was no room for me to do anything. It already had its own identity. I mean, this house has a pew sitting right in the family room. As a matter of fact, we have two family rooms. Or two… living rooms?

Fuck if I know what they are. This house confuses me, to be honest. There are pictures of art pieces that literally look like string with little tiny bits of weed attached to it.

No, not weed as in marijuana, I wish. Just the regular weed that you'd find out on lawns for people who can't afford to have it landscaped.

People will stop by occasionally to clean out the pool, or our chef will stop by. Or if I need help, I have services on standby. But I need help. This house is too big for one person to clean all by themselves, especially when I'm feeling like this.

I can probably go down to the entertainment room, play some video games or something, get lost in worlds where I don't have to think about how pathetic I am.

Or maybe play on the piano. There's a million things I can do.

I have my little side business for selling earrings, but I haven't done that in a while because, honestly, I've just been so sad.

It's not like I have anyone to talk to. I have a half-brother from my dad's side, but, well, we're not really close.

Louis is off doing his own thing. He's older than me, of course, and he has a wife and three kids.

I'm an aunt, or rather, a half-aunt, to three children I've never met.

I know his oldest is his only boy, I should say, and he's about fifteen.

I tell Louis "Merry Christmas," and that's about it.

I understand, though. I get it. I didn't even know this guy existed until after my father was dead.

The secret son that he had, that I only discovered through an old phone number while sorting through my father's late belongings.

Apparently, Louis didn't even know that I existed either.

I get the vibe that he doesn't dislike me, but it's hard to not feel that way when he basically firmly stated that he had no interest in building a relationship with me.

It's not like I was looking to necessarily have a relationship with him either, but maybe he knew a side of my father that I had missed.

I loved my father, and I loved my mom. Now that both of them are no longer in the land of the living, I just merely wanted a piece of them that I hadn't gotten before. It's not like I was asking for him to come kiss my feet or for us to sing Kumbaya or anything.

But you know what? It's all good. He has his family. I get it.

I met him only once. Really handsome guy.

So glad I know he's my brother now. He's half-Hispanic, light-skinned, very handsome.

The kind of guy that I probably, if I were single, would have given a chance.

It would have been horrific to know or find out later that we were related.

Makes me wonder how many people are out there screwing around, having one-night stands, not even realizing that they're doing it with their long-lost siblings.

Gross. Sometimes ignorance really is bliss.

Heading to the garage area, I find the only friends that I have: my five female gerbils.

"Hey, guys," I say, making little tsk noises by sucking my bottom lip between my top teeth. "My babies! Ha, hi,” I tell them in my little baby voice.