Chapter 128

Liliana took a deep breath and nodded slightly. "Lying was my fault. But if I had told you the truth, would you have let me go?"

Cedric pressed his tongue against the inside of his cheek, a domineering, careless smile spreading across his face. "Don't flatter yourself. It was just dinner. I couldn't care less."

His contempt was a fresh wound. It was as if he didn't care if she had dinner with another man, even if it had been just her and Douglas. After all, he didn't love her.

"In that case, let's just go to bed," she said, her heart aching. She turned to pick up her suitcase and head upstairs.

"Stop." Cedric's voice turned icy. "I can let the dinner slide. But lying to me and cooking for another man... Do you have any respect for me at all?"

In the photos, Liliana's eyes had been soft, her smile so wide it made her eyes curve into crescents. She looked nothing like the stone-faced woman standing before him now. He couldn't understand it. Had he wronged her in some unforgivable way? Why did she always look at him with that grim expression, as if returning to his side was the greatest injustice she had ever suffered?

Liliana hadn't expected him to fixate on this. The photos had coincidentally captured the exact moment she was preparing the greens. It was just a few seconds, but what perfect timing.

"I was treating them to dinner," she said flatly, "and I needed to pick up some things. Besides, I only cooked one dish."

But no matter what she said, he saw it as nothing more than an excuse.

"If you love cooking so much, I'll send Erma home tomorrow. You can quit your job and go back to how things were, waiting on me hand and foot."

He knew exactly how to hurt her.

Liliana bit her lip. "Cedric, in your eyes, do I have no dignity? Am I only fit to be a housewife?"

"Dignity?" he scoffed, an eyebrow raised. "Is this dignity' of yours just stubborn pride?" When he wanted that lemon-herb tilapia, Erma's request wasn't enough; he had to ask for it himself. Outside of the bedroom, she had become a guest in her own home, doing nothing. She no longer washed and pressed his stuts hanging them in the closet where he could easily find them. Anyone who didn't know better would think he was serving a queen instead of a wife.

"You were the one who said you never asked me to do those things," she retorted, throwing his own words back at him. "Since they weren't necessary for me to do, isn't it better that I stopped?"

"You're so obedient," he said with a sneer. "But what if I'm asking you to do them now?"

He had no respect for her, no concept of a partnership. It was as if she was expected to be at his beck and call, to obey his every whim as if it were her sole purpose in life.

"Fine," she agreed, the word catching in her throat. "You're right. Mrs. Forrest shouldn't have a job. She should be dressed to the nines every day, a perfect accessory who never,

brings shame to the Foreve

family

She should revolve entirely around you. But that's only if everyone knows I *am* Mrs. Forrest. Can you do that?"

Make their marriage public. She was betting he wouldn't.

Cedric's eyes bored into her. After a long moment, he burst out laughing. "So that's what this is about. All this maneuvering all this drama just to make your title official? Liliana, you've really gone to great lengths, haven't you?"

He looked at the woman he had been married to for two years as if seeing her for the first time. The innocent, naive girl he thought he knew was nothing but a clumsy act. All along, her only goal had been to claw her way to the top.