Chapter 3

The next morning when Starlet woke up, she was hungry as she had gone to bed without eating. She sent a quick text to her cousin asking for her to get all the information she could on her husband's mistress. She needed to close that door on both sides of the affair. She padded downstairs in her nightdress and over that, a morning robe.

"Good morning." Lucien surprised her by being in the breakfast room.

Starlet looked at him quizzically.

"I live here too," Lucien said catching on to her look. He was almost never here for breakfast.

Starlet ignored him and sat down opposite where he was seated and poured herself a cup of coffee from the glass pot on the table.

"Please, Star." Lucien suddenly said and she ignored him she could love him and be angry with him at the same time. The anger was just stronger now.

"No, Lucien," Star said in a controlled voice. In her mind, he needed to hear that word from her lips more often. "You cannot just start talking to me when you want something from me. You gave me two years of silent treatment and snide remarks in public. Two freaking years of people giving me pitting looks when I approached you in public and you ignored me and walked away only to be seen getting cosy with some random woman. So here is your prize. Read my lips! No!"

"Starlet, this is business."

"It is not mine," Starlet said looking him square in the eye.

"You have shares in the company," he countered.

"I will not miss the money," Starlet said stubbornly.

"You can't be serious," Lucien said in disbelief.

"Oh yes, I am! Your business is none of mine. I am the wife you leave at home while you go off to work and collect mistresses along the way." Star's voice threatened to falter but she was proud it remained steady.

"I thought PR cleared that up," Lucien muttered and ran his hands through his hair as he got up and went to stand by the window.

"Clearly not," Starlet said in the silence when she was sure her voice would be clear, calm and steady.

"My parents stand to lose, too. Octavia is your friend she will be affected by this, too. I thought you at least cared for them." Lucien tried.

Starlet said nothing. She calmly put jam and butter on her toast and took a bite. She slowly chewed hoping the lump forming in her throat wouldn't make her choke on it. She was grateful when it didn't.

Lucien let out a laugh. Starlet watched him. She thought he was breaking into hysterics.

"You and your family are doing this, right?" He asked.

"You're hysterical," Starlet stated as she took a sip of coffee. Maybe this was where she wanted him. She was oddly enjoying this him pleading instead of the other way round.

"What do you want from me?!" Lucien slammed his hands on the coffee table and things rattled.

"Oh, I want a lot from you Lucien." His wife looked calm and collected as she sipped a cup of coffee while his control crumbled. All this time he had been waiting for her to break and here he was cracking. People had called her the steel princess in school. Cold and unyielding where others break. He had wanted to break her and here he was finding out he had punched metal and broken himself instead.

"You mess with Bob Marks' daughter; you mess with his army. You should know that, Lucien. How I wish I did this." Star said the food she was enjoying suddenly tasted stale. The enjoyment of his suffering fading. She had married him for his strength and he was looking hopeless. This was not what she wanted for him. She didn't want to break him. She wanted him to be as strong as he could be.

Loving this man makes you weak, she thought to herself. You need to put yourself together. You can love him and be strong.

"We can make a deal," Starlet said, almost to herself. An idea playing in her head.

"What deal?" her husband looked at her suspicion painting his tone and facial expression.

"I will have a contract drawn." Her gaze was on him and she put her cutlery down. "A post-nuptial agreement. You will not see that woman again. She walks into a room; you don't acknowledge in any way that is anything other than business. You will not be alone with her under any circumstances."

"That's it?" Lucien asked looking relieved. His wife took it as a challenge.

"You will not keep a mistress. A girlfriend or cheat on me in any way." Starlet said her voice hardening Lucien opened his mouth to interrupt but Starlet rushed on. "The nonsense treatment you have been giving me stops. You will not shun me in public. You will be a loving husband."

"I will be, huh?" Lucien asked. Star wondered if there was a hint of sarcasm in his tone. She ignored him.

"You will have lunch with me every day at your office. You set the time I will be there. If I cannot make it, It's not on you. If you cannot make it, you better give a good reason because failure to meet any of these clauses will result in you paying a price that hurts. That is at least, anything I want and at most, ten per cent of your shares in Blade Inc. transferred to me."

"Are you kidding me? You got six per cent shares you got from my mother on our wedding day." Lucien said incredulously.

"You need me." His wife stated, "I would not be my father's daughter if I didn't capitalize on that. I will have it typed up and ready for you to look at. Either you sign or you lose money and face the wrath of the board members." She stood up. She could not eat a morsel. "Are you having lunch at home today?"

"No, I will be at the office by then," Lucien said puzzled.

"Okay. You can look at it through dinner. Stay away from that woman or this contract will be the least of your worries." Starlet left the room riding high on what she felt was a victory. Her very first victory over her husband. This was the first time in a long time she had felt this hopeful about her marriage. When she got married, she had signed a prenup that covered divorce but never addressed consequences during the marriage itself. This contract tied her husband down more securely into the marriage. She made a mental note to send flowers and a gift to Richard.

Dinner time came quickly. Star had told the staff to wait for her call to serve. She had two copies of her contract and a good pen in hand when she sat down. They both had her signature on them. She put the twin stapled paper piles down, the pen on top of them, and settled into her chair. Looking him straight in the eye she slid the lot across the table to him with a finger.

Lucien put the pen aside, picked up one and went through it. Starlet had had her lawyer draft the contract to make sure there were no loopholes. When he was done reading it, he gave her a defiant look, picked up the pen and signed both of them. He gave her one of the two copies and kept the other. Starlet put her copy on an empty chair and then picked up her cell phone and dialled her housekeeper.

"Go ahead and serve now, please." She said and hung up then turned to her husband. "You need me to bridge a connection for you." Her tone was completely business. "There's a party my mother is hosting in three days. I wasn't planning on attending but Mr Philips and his lovely wife will be there."

"How do you know Philips will be there?"

"He needs a favour from my father." She said simply. She had done a lot of digging to find the event where that man frequented and what he was working on.

Lucien nodded the relief washing over his face. He seemed to slightly relax.

Dinner was relaxed. There was no talking except for Lucien asking about the theme of the party being held by her father and Starlet telling him what she knew. When it ended, she felt she was doing the right thing. He was actually talking to her for a change she wasn't a ghost in her own home. Maybe she should have pushed him a long time ago and not waited for him to come to her because he never did. Not until now.

After dinner Star was in the living room scrolling through her tablet. She thought she needed a dress for her mother's party. She was looking through the latest designs wondering if she could pick up a dress from her wardrobe or if she needed to buy one. She looked at one dress, she had it already. Her mother had sent it to her when she found it on a catwalk in Paris a while back. Starlet's finger swiped across her tablet and she frowned as her device pinged. She looked at the notification and immediately opened it. It was from her cousin, Charlotte. A devilish smile slowly grew on her face. Trust that girl to be efficient. She got what Star wanted.

No one messed with a member of the Marks family and got away with it. She picked up her phone from the coffee table took a picture, blew kisses to the camera and sent a quick text to her cousin thanking her profusely.

She took to sending some emails. Ayanda Hill was going to pay for her part in making Starlet as miserable as she was when she woke up to the news that her husband had cheated. Starlet was going to make sure that the woman knew she was the one who had done it. With a satisfied smirk, Starlet went back to her dress decision-making.

The next morning when Starlet woke up, Lucien had already gone to work. She hummed as she went through her morning. While working on her sculpture she wondered if it was her better mood reflected on her work. This one was of a giant eagle balancing on the hand of a much smaller woman kneeling on a rock and looking in wonder at the creature. Her phone let out a chime and she wiped her hand on her apron before reaching for it. It was the reminder she had set telling her to send Richard the sculptures for his exhibition. She sent him a quick text to him and her driver. She rushed around boxing and securing the necessary paintings and then getting dressed. She looked herself over in her walk-in closet and was happy with what she saw. Neat, elegant and casual. Who knew a white silk figure-hugging low-cut blouse, jeans diamonds could do that to a girl? She had secured her hair in a high ponytail with pins and her feet were comfortable in a pair of high-heeled pumps. She was ready to go.

 Having dropped off her work and a present with her cousin's secretary as he was in a meeting Starlet was now at her husband's company with lunch that her housekeeper had carefully packed. Her chauffeur opened her door, and she passed him her lunch box before getting out. She got some curious glances and double-takes but she ignored them.

"Find a place to park. Get lunch and come back to pick me up in forty-five minutes." Starlet told the man and walked confidently into the building.

"Yes, ma'am." He tipped his hat at her retreating back.

Lucien's assistant wanted to see an appointment before letting her in. As if she could stop her. Starlet breezed right past her and entered her husband's office. Lucien looked up from a file he was going through to see his wife and closely behind her, his protesting assistant.

"You forgot we have a lunch date, dear," Starlet said cheerfully and Lucien missed the steel in her eyes.

"It's okay, Jillian." He told his assistant who nodded and withdrew from the room, closing the door as she left the couple alone.

"Seriously, you should train your staff better," Starlet said as she set the food on the coffee table and her husband moved to join her.

"She was just doing her job, Star," Lucien said calmly.

"She needs to know her place." Was the response he got from his as she surveyed her work. "Let's eat." She said satisfied that she had everything.

During the meal, she chatted about her work the dress she was going to wear at her mother's party and the one she would wear at the company party.

Lucien ate his food and just watched her. She looked so alive, so animated. She hadn't been like that for a long time. He had done that. He knew that but she and her father had brought him to his knees. You don't cage a wild lion and expect it to act like a house cat. Obviously, he was going to fight back in what little way he could. And he had. Childish, but that was what he had left at the time.

And she just took that way too. He thought bitterly.

His father would have not lost control as thoroughly as he had. Maybe he was undeserving of what he had. Bitterness at this thought rode him thoroughly. This is what the Marks had reduced him to.

"You're not eating," Starlet observed breaking him out of his thoughts. "Is there something wrong? Don't you like it?"

Lucien made a point of putting a spoonful of fried rice into his mouth.

"It's delicious," he told her, "I was just thinking about work."

Starlet rolled her eyes. "Lunch is a way for you to rest your mind, you know. People do better when they step away and come back with fresh eyes." And she continued on chippering like a bird that had just found it's voice and had a lot to say. Lucien never knew she could talk so much.

Later, with lunch finished and Lucien's attention switching back to his work, Starlet stepped out of his office and closed the door behind herself. She took a step stopped abruptly and turned to Lucien's assistant who was looking at her.

"I will be coming here for lunch every day from now on," she informed the woman. "Put that in your appointment book and don't stand in my way again." Then she walked off.