Forbidden act

ARDEN POV 

I stepped inside the conference room, and I scanned the room, my eyes landing on her. The one person I hadn't set my eyes on for years.

Miriam Ford, my brother's wife. My sister-in-law.

Her lips parted, shock flashing before she forced her gaze away. I chuckled at her little action, facing the hospital chairman, Mr Gerald.

“You don't have to introduce me like this. I'm just a junior surgeon, and not a big surgeon” I asserted, talking to the chairman.

He laughed.

All eyes were on me except Miriam. Her thumbnail pressed hard against her teeth as she kept glancing toward the door. 

A nervous she do make. She hadn’t outgrown it.

“You deserve the recognition,” Gerald insisted calmly. “Your family name alone deserves it.”

I let him talk, but my eyes never left Miriam.

She had grown so much.

She now look different from the Miriam I had known.

“By the way,” I said, interrupting him, “I’ll need a supervisor.”

“Of course,” Gerald nodded. “We can assign—”

“Dr. Ford.” My voice interjected him again. “I want her.”

The room went silent, head turned towards her.

She stopped glancing at her back and returned the gaze.

“Why the stare?” She asked, loudly, confusedly.

She's distracted.

“Dr Ford, he wants you to be his supervisor,” Mr Gerald repeated what I had. She stood, peering at me.

“I declined politely but I can refer you to a good surgeon to be your supervisor. If you will excuse me, I have a surgery to do,” She said, her tone professional as she stride out of the conference.

She left without waiting for permission, the surgeon she had been side eyeing earlier rushed after her.

“I want to observe her procedure,” I told Gerald quietly.

“Sure, you can Mr Montclair. Let's go.”

I followed the Chairman to the watch room. Everyone was ready at the theatre, waiting for her.

I stood behind the glass of the theater. She entered in her scrubs, her posture professional. Our eyes met through the glass for a second before she looked away.

I watched her surgery and what I saw was different from what I had expected.

I saw what I had heard about her.

The great surgeon in America.

A epitome definition of perfection.

•

•

“Your father wants you home. He wants your presence,” My father's assistant, Harold delivered his message to me and left my sight.

I watched him leave the hospital building.

Old man sent his assistant all the way from wherever he's at the moment to the hospital to deliver a message to me.

This shows how much he wants my presence at home. He didn't send a text nor drop a call this time around.

I'll honour the meeting this time around.

Let's see what tonight will be all about.

At night, I went to my father's home. I arrived there, and hesitated before going inside. The house hasn't changed.. the same interior.

I stride over to the dining room. There was different delicacies on the big dining table. Old man was seated on the dining chair with his wife next to him.

“You're here,” He spoke first.

“I did and don’t mistake this for obedience,” I replied evenly.

Yakira, his second wife, leaned forward with that saccharine smile. “Is that how you greet your father?”

I turned my head slowly toward her. “Would you prefer I crawl to his feet? Or perhaps throw myself into his arms and say, ‘Father, I’ve fucking missed you so much’?” My voice was harden “And tell me, why exactly are you here? Wasn’t this supposed to be a father and son meeting, not a meeting with an alleycat?”

Her lips stiffened.

Before she could retort, Delano’s cheerful voice rang out. “Father!”

And then they entered. My brother, his daughter, and his wife.

Her.

Miriam looked composed, the perfect wife, the perfect mother. But when she sat across from me, the glass cup trembled in her hand as she gulp some water, I saw the crack in her perfect image. Her knuckles whitened as she set the cup down. Her smile to Delano was brittle, lips quivering at the corners.

I didn’t touch my food. I only watched her.

Suddenly, she stood, dropping the cutleries.

“Please excuse me, I'm having an indigestion,” She said politely, and left the dining room.

Delano didn't even look up.

I stood. “I would like to take my leave if the meeting is not going to hold.”

I didn't leave the house.

Instead I followed Miriam to the old garden at the cottage. She stood by the fountain, head tilted back, eyes closed as if praying for escape. 

When she opened them, she was surprised to see me. “What are you doing here?”

I replied simply. “Following you.”

“Well, you shouldn't, Arden,” She said, gazing at me.

And I could see every sad emotions on her face, her beautiful hazel eyes.

What's wrong with her?

Without thinking, I closed up the space between us, cupping her cheek, worriedly.

“What's wrong, Miriam? Who made you shed tears? Is it Delano, that bastard? Who? What's the person's name?” I asked, hurriedly, my voice etched with concern.

Immediately, she yanked my hands off her cheeks. “Arden, stop this.”

“But you're not fine!” I yelled at her, trying to hold her cheek again when she took a step backward.

“Says who? I'm perfectly fine. As you can see, I'm still breathing, and I'm healthy, so don't overstep my boundaries,” She responded calmly.

“Maybe. But you walked out of the dining room like you couldn't breathe at all. Forgive me if I'm overstepping my boundaries again,” I muttered, moving closer to her again.

Her lips pressed into a hard line. “You imagine things. I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not.” I stepped closer, lowering my voice. “Your hands were shaking. You couldn’t even hold a glass steady. What’s wrong, Miriam? Talk to me, is it him?”

Her eyes flickered, and for a second I thought she’d open up but then she snapped. “Don’t—Don’t touch me, don’t look at me like that. I’m married, Arden, please respect that.”

I studied her, refusing to move back again. “Respect what? A marriage where your husband doesn’t even notice when you leave the table?”

Her hand flicked her hair backward, biting her lower lips. “Stop it.”

“I can’t.”

“Arden, you don’t know me anymore.”

“Not anymore, “Not yet, but I know what I saw. And I know perfection doesn’t crack unless it’s under real pressure.” I agreed softly.

Her fist tightened as no words came. Her lips pressed hard.

“No, you don't! You are imagining things. I'm perfectly fine! My marriage is fine! And I don't want you to lurk around me. You're the last person I would ever want to see on earth. And don't you ever call Delano a bastard—”

I didn’t let her finish. I closed the last inch of space, cupping her face in my hands, and kissed her.

A desperate. Breaking the years of restraint in a single second.

She stiffened.

“I fucking missing this.”

The past wasn’t dead. It had only been buried.