Secretly Married for 4 Years, He Regrets to Tears After the Divorce-Chapter 7: He Doesn’t Love Her, but He’s Addicted to Her Body
The towering skyscraper of The Lancaster Group, situated in a prime downtown location, was majestic and incredibly imposing.
Wren parked her car in the parking garage and took the elevator straight to the top floor. Her arrival caused a stir in the secretarial department.
"Look who’s here."
"Wren Sutton?! She has the nerve to come back to the company." 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦
"She’s carrying a lunch container. I bet it’s for President Lancaster."
"So shameless."
Wren let their words go in one ear and out the other. Her expression remained neutral as she walked, neither servile nor defiant, straight to her desk.
Having been away from the office for a few days, she found her desk covered in dust. The flowers in the vase had wilted, but the potted cactus was still a vibrant green.
She tidied up a bit, wiping the desk clean.
The chief secretary, Chloe Foster, clicked over in her high heels, her chin held high. She slammed a stack of documents onto Wren’s desk.
"Wren Sutton! After being absent without leave for so long, what are you even doing back here? You don’t answer your phone, you don’t reply to messages. Do you have any respect for me as your superior?
"What do you think this is? A place you can just come and go as you please? Who gave you that kind of audacity?"
Wren concealed the cold glint in her eyes and pointed to the stack of files. "These need President Lancaster’s signature, correct?"
Chloe Foster shot her a nasty look. "That’s right."
Wren stood up, her face expressionless. "I’ll take them to President Lancaster for his signature."
As they watched her march off toward the CEO’s office alone, the secretaries started whispering again.
"She’s got some nerve. After messing up like that, she still dares to go see President Lancaster. If I were him, I’d kick her to the curb."
"Chloe, do you think Wren will actually manage to get them signed?"
"Whether she gets them signed or not, I’m not done with her. There’s plenty of time. We’ll just wait and see how long she can keep this up."
Wren stopped at the door to the CEO’s office. When she was sure no one was looking, she slipped the folder she’d prepared in advance into the middle of the stack of company files.
Please, let everything go smoothly.
She raised her hand and knocked.
"Enter." The icy voice seemed to pierce through the door, carrying an unspoken intimidation.
Wren took a deep breath, pushed the door open, and walked inside.
The office was spacious and bright, its decor elegant and refined, exuding an air of luxury and extraordinary taste.
Adrian Lancaster was working, not even bothering to look up.
An enormous floor-to-ceiling window dominated the view, offering a wide, sweeping vista of the blue sky, white clouds, and the entire city below.
More than once, Adrian had pinned her against that very window, sometimes to tease, other times to punish. No matter how she begged for mercy, he would never let her go.
He loved watching her, panicked and helpless, as she tried to escape yet was unable to.
Nibbling her ear, Adrian would call it ’part of the fun’.
It was an undeniable fact. He didn’t love her, but he was addicted to her body. He kept love and sex clearly separated.
That’s men for you.
Wren reined in her wild thoughts, walked over to Adrian, and placed the files and the lunch container on his desk together.
"President Lancaster."
Adrian’s head snapped up at the sound of her voice. He hadn’t expected the person walking in to be Wren Sutton.
"What are you doing here? Who said you could come to the office?"
His brows knitted together, a look of concern on his face.
Wren didn’t take it seriously. I have to admire his acting skills, she thought. It’s almost convincing. A shame to waste such talent; he should be in movies.
Sticking to her plan, she said, "The housekeeper told me you didn’t eat breakfast, so I brought you something."
Adrian’s frown relaxed, and he felt a sense of satisfaction.
Now, this was more like it, he thought. This is how a woman should be.
He liked this version of Wren: sensible, considerate, and able to see the bigger picture.
"The doctor told you to stay in bed to rest, but you’re completely ignoring his advice."
Wren opened the lunch container and expertly arranged the utensils, moving like a robot devoid of emotion. It was a motion she had repeated thousands of times over the past four years.
Adrian was a notoriously picky eater and couldn’t stand food from restaurants. So, she would cook for him at home and bring it to the office. When she didn’t have time to cook at home, she would buy fresh ingredients and use the company kitchen.
"I’ll go home and rest in a little while. I won’t be in the office this afternoon." And I’m never coming back, she added silently.
Adrian grunted in acknowledgment and gestured with his chin. "Sit down. I’ll get you a glass of water."
Wren wasn’t interested. She sat down across from him. "I’m not thirsty. You should eat first." With that, she handed him a wet wipe for his hands.
Adrian savored the feeling, accepting her service as if it were his due. "You’re not having any?"
"I’ve already eaten. This is all for you."
In high spirits, Adrian picked up his chopsticks, but his brow furrowed after a single bite.
It’s awful, he thought. It tastes nothing like Wren’s cooking. He tossed his chopsticks down and shoved the container aside in disgust.
"Not to your liking?" Wren asked, already knowing the answer.
"It’s not as good as when you make it."
At the compliment, Wren forced a smile, hiding the bitterness that welled in her eyes.
Before their marriage, she had been pampered, barely lifting a finger to do chores. Her parents couldn’t bear to see her do any housework. After marriage, influenced by the saying "the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach," she had painstakingly honed her cooking skills.
She couldn’t count the hours she’d spent trying to cook delicious meals for Adrian, the number of times she’d cut her hands with a kitchen knife or been splattered by sizzling oil...
He knew none of it.
Or perhaps, even if he had known, he wouldn’t have cared.
Looking back, Wren felt like an absolute fool. She had lived her life entirely for Adrian, betraying herself and, even more so, her parents.
"I don’t have the energy to cook right now."
"I’m not blaming you. For now, just focus on resting at home. You don’t need to do a thing." Having said that, Adrian looked at the files before him, changing the subject. "Why are there so many piled up?"
"Perhaps the secretarial department was too busy and forgot to bring them in."
Adrian’s expression turned grim, his tone stern. "Get Chloe Foster in here. Have her explain this to me herself."
There was no way Wren was going to get Chloe.
"President Lancaster, it was my responsibility to bring these files in. They were delayed because I was out of the office for a few days. Before I came in here, Chloe gave me a stern lecture. If I can’t complete this task..."
She trailed off, lowering her head slightly in a humble posture.
Wren was making a gamble—betting that Adrian wouldn’t make things difficult for her, given that she had just been hospitalized for surgery.
This was precisely why she had come to the office to see him today.
She had to strike while the iron was hot. If she waited too long, that little sliver of guilt lingering in his heart would vanish, and things would become much more difficult.
Just as she expected, Adrian said nothing more and picked up his pen. He didn’t examine the documents closely, simply signing his name on the signature line of each one.
Wren had won her gamble. Her eyes were glued to the expensive pen as she held her breath, not daring to let any hint of her true feelings show on her face.
It all came down to this.
Finally, Adrian signed the last document.
The moment he set the pen down, the tension coiled tightly inside Wren finally began to unwind. Suppressing her excitement, she stood and gathered all the files from the desk.
"Thank you, President Lancaster."
Adrian raised an eyebrow, leaning back with a relaxed expression as he stared into Wren’s eyes. "You’re getting smarter."
"It’s only because you’re so magnanimous, President Lancaster, and didn’t stoop to my level."
Looking at the beautiful, docile woman before him, Adrian felt his heart soften completely. "Come here."
Wren guessed what he wanted and tactfully refused. "Chloe is waiting for these files. I should get them to her."
With that, she turned to leave.
Just as she reached the door, she heard a man’s footsteps behind her.
With his long legs, Adrian caught up to Wren in a few strides and wrapped his arms tightly around her from behind.
"I was drunk that night. I lost control and ended up hurting you. I’m sorry. I’ll be more careful in the future."
