I'm Done

Bella's POV 

I guess it was about time I stopped building castles in the air and faced reality. Alex was certainly not going to give me a chance. Not now, not ever. And since Linda was back in his arms, Alex and his family were going to dump me like I never existed.

I sniffed, rubbing the tears off my eyes, my face etched with a bold resolve. I refuse to be dumped. I was going to be the one to dump the Hayes this time around. Going to give them a taste of their own medicine. 

A weak smile that didn't reach the corner of my eyes spread across my face and metamorphosed into a light giggle. They were stunned that I dared laugh, making a fool of them while they were yet speaking and they glared at me.

Having secured their rapt attention wrapped around my fingers, I patted my lips slightly with elegance allowing the savory taste of the meat engulf me while I let out a satisfactory "mmmh" nodding my head in agreement. 

Sophia scoffed, as I took a sip of my wine, "Look at you. Are you not ashamed of yourself?" She yelled, rising to her feet in fury. "You're not just disrespectful to us all, but you've also lost your manners for my mother?" She swung her hands in the air, perhaps to dash a slap across my face. 

A strange energy and morale engulfed me and I made for her hands, catching it along the way before it got to my face. "Don't you dare lay your filthy hands on me". I warned, rising to my feet as well. She gasped in shock and so did everyone. I expelled her hands, but not after torturing them under my firm grip until she winced in pain, as a reminder that I was the senior one.

Her husband, Mr Claud, my fellow riffraff to the Hayes family, Who was always at their beck and call, serving them and cleaning the dust under their feet like a nonentity, stood up and wrapped Sophia in a warm embrace in an attempt to comfort her. But she rebuffed in disgust, slumping the innocent man forcefully to his seat. 

"You weakling. Didn't you see she almost damaged my skin and called me filthy? Is that all you can do? Can't you act her like a man!?" She sneered, towering her frame over Mr Claud.

He shakily stood to his feet to speak like the moron he was, but a sharp voice cut through the air. "Sit your poor ass down!" Mrs Caroline ordered. "This is not your part to handle". She said but Mr Claud hesitated. Within a fleeting second, my eyes caught sight of Linda and Mr Claud sharing an understanding gaze, Linda's eyes pleading with him to remain calm and obey. He eventually did and sat down.

Mrs. Caroline made a face at Sophia that she, too, was included. Sophia grudgingly sat down, after shaking her lean frame like a worm in a salty environment and rolling her eyes at me like a roller coaster, giving out a false promise to tear me into shreds if given the chance. But the truth is, Sophia was the weakling, whose strength lay only in her tongue.

Mrs Caroline focused every ounce of her being as she addressed me, "I can see you've grown wings. Who gave you the right to talk to my daughter in such a manner? Because we gave you the privilege to sit at table with us?" She queried, using her hands to access my frame with disdain.

It felt like a chord struck my heart, and my face gloomed from its painful impact. Three years. Three solid years and I'm not even regarded as a Hayes. So my being here, regardless of my marriage to her son, was just a privilege?

This marriage was as good as over by the way. It was time to tell her what she needed to hear. With my head raised high, "I am not-" 

"Enough!" 

My gaze fell on Alex as I recognized the caution was from him. He finally got to look at me and say something for the first time all through the night. 

For a split second, his voice calmed my nerves, and my expression softened because he was the asshole whose intervention I'd craved so much. 

He is the asshole I love. But not anymore. To hell with you too, Alex!

My face lit up with a sarcastic smile, "Finally decided to say something, huh?" 

"Bella-" 

I held my hands up, a sign to shush him and he obeyed indeliberately. The shock was what silenced him and caged his words. He arched a brow at my audacity. 

I grabbed my bag and strapped it to my arms, "Thanks for dinner, Hayes. Let's never catch up some other time." And with that, I walked out on them under their scrutinizing gazes.

My mind was made up. I was going to complete what I'd started. I got home, and amidst the greeting from our housekeepers, I strode up the stairs straight to the room. 

Within a few minutes, my fingers fumbled over my clothes as I packed them haphazardly into my box. I was done. Three years gone and wasted, invested in someone that never appreciated me. A tear dropped on my hands and that was when I knew I had been sobbing all along.

I deserved better. People who would treat my heart with care, not like some piece of shit. The old Bella died right there at dinner tonight. It was time to pursue a new version of me where all that mattered was my happiness. 

My mind plunged into a thought, and I paused for a second. Talking about my happiness, it was time to take back what I'd sold out to the Hayes all these years for their good, blinded by my desire to be loved and accepted.

It is mine after all, my sweat, my sleepless nights. And I don't care the damage it's going to cause them; I'm taking it back. Everything is leaving this damn marriage with me.

I couldn't help the smirk that rose to my face as I rested my butt on the dressing table, folding my hands neatly underneath my bust. My voice was filled with contempt while I reveried their future suffering, "Oh Alex just wait. You are so going to pay for every dine you've caused me in this hell of a marriage. You and your proud Peacocks!"