Ch-1

Elara’s POV

The harsh vibration of Adrian's phone pierced through the deafening silence of the night, jolting me awake.

A yawn escaped my lips as I glanced at the clock on the wall. It was 4:43 a.m.

It was already time to wake him up to prepare for work while I went downstairs to make breakfast for him. He has a meeting to attend this morning, and I didn’t want him to be late or leave without eating.

As I was preparing my mind to get out of bed, the phone buzzed again.

I groaned, blinking groggily at the ceiling as I thought whether to get it or wake him up to get it by himself.

But before I could decide, the phone stopped vibrating.

“Thank God,” I mumbled, unwrapping the blanket that had tangled around me.

Just then, as if the universe was testing my temper, the phone began buzzing again. This time it didn’t stop, it incessantly rang.

“Who the hell could it be and what the hell does he want? Why would anyone decent be texting a married man at this time of the day….” I thought to myself as I sat up on the bed.

My curiosity piqued, so I decided to check who it was and what the messages were about.

Swinging my feet off the bed, I stood up and headed to his side of the bed.

Hesitantly, I picked up the phone and turned it on. I was aware that my husband, Adrian didn’t like it when I touched his stuff, especially his phone but I couldn’t shake off the strong urge for me to check what this was about.

The stack of notifications from the sender was what greeted me when I unlocked the phone….

The first message that caught my attention read; “Have you told Elara?”

My mind instantly swirled into confusion, my brows knitting together as I wondered, “Told me what?”

I quickly tapped on it to read the full thread. When it opened, the second message came into view and it read, “Just tell her man… She deserves to know….”

At this point, my heart started pounding heavily in my chest. I could only contemplate what Luke, Adrian’s best friend meant by that.

With trembling fingers, I scrolled up to read their previous messages, hoping to comprehend where all this had stemmed from.

When I skimmed through the chat, I instantly regretted my decision.

“You’ll never understand, Luke. It’s not as easy as you think it is. Yes, Elara is beautiful but I’ve tried all I could but I can’t seem to love her.”

This was my husband, Adrian’s response to Luke’s question.

“You should find a way, bro. Let her know already. She’s a nice person and doesn't deserve this. You could have avoided all this if you had listened when I told you not to marry her…..”

My knees instantly started wobbling, a sharp burn piercing through my belly as I stared at the text. I felt a sting in my eyes and before I could blink, they welled up in tears.

“You know why I married her Luke. She only reminded me of Celine so I thought she could take over her place and fill the void Celine left. But…it’s not even working. She can't be equal to my Celine.”

My breath caught in my throat as the pieces started coming together. I couldn't breathe.

I felt as if my nostrils were blocked so I had to open my quivering lips and gasp for air.

I wanted to put the phone down and get out of the mess but my intuition made me scroll down. Yes. I wanted to get to the end of this.

“She tries so hard to please me. And I… I hate myself every day for bringing this on myself. She's not Celine and can never be her.”

My hand flew to my mouth, muffling the gasp that wanted to escape. My heart thudded painfully, and the tears I've been holding in streamed effortlessly down my cheeks.

I didn't know whether to shout at him to wake up and explain or to just put the phone back and act oblivious as if I hadn’t seen the evidence that shows my six years of marriage have been nothing but a facade!

My chest ached so badly, I had to run my palm on it in an attempt to ease the pain. I felt something break inside me.

Was it my heart that was so full of love for him? My trust? Or was it the tiny hope I had held onto all these years that things were going to change for the better that was finally breaking?

Beads of sweat began to form on my forehead, my hands shooting up to fan myself as the room felt suffocating.

“No…no, no. I need to get out of here.…” I mumbled to myself as I stumbled out of the room.

I didn’t know where in particular I was going but I knew I just had to get out of this room.

At the hallway, I leaned weakly against a nearby door to steady myself but the moment my shoulder pressed into it, the doorknob slipped open beneath me.

My heart leaped as I fell backwards into a room I had never entered before. I quickly got up and stepped out as I remembered that the room was out of bounds. Adrian has warned me never to enter this room without his permission so I was ready to leave.

But just as I was about to close the door behind me, something stopped me.

I wanted to find out why he didn't want me in this room. The room he called his safe space.

Slowly, I opened the door and stepped in, my eyes scanning the different paintings that were hanging on the wall.

I felt dizzy looking at them all at once. There were many.

Some were displayed canvases, pinned to the wall, framed with gold, and some were left unfinished.

As I neared them I realised they were all paintings of a woman. The same woman.

Her name was stylishly written under each of the artworks.

Celine…..

She had long wavy hair, Almond eyes, and well-sharpened cheekbones.

“Oh My God!”

At second glance, it felt like I was staring into a distorted mirror. We looked so much alike. The resemblance between me and the woman on the wall was haunting.

If not for the dark mole above her brow, I would’ve believed I was looking at myself.

She was literally a doppleganger of me!

No. Maybe I was rather the doppleganger. She was clearly the real one while I was fake.

No wonder Adrian never wanted me in this room. To even think that this room was regarded as his safe place broke me into pieces.

While I was out there, doing everything to please him, loving him, and trying my best to make him happy, he had been in here drawing and imagining being with his ex.

How wicked and selfish could he be?

At second glance, everything started making sense. When we moved into this house, Adrian had insisted we paint our home smooth ivory, exactly like the color of the walls in these paintings.

Even the kind of dresses Celine wore in these paintings were similar to the style he had insisted I adopt.

Oh God! I can’t believe how stupid I’ve been all these years. I thought he wanted to change my dressing style because he cared about me….

“This can't be true. I must be dreaming….. There’s no way Adrian would turn me into this. There’s no way the man I would go to war for; made me live in the shadow of another woman for six good years…..”I cried.

I sobbed until I found myself on the floor holding my chest with my hands as if I wanted to tear the pain out. “How could you do this to me, Adrian? This is too much for me to bear…”.

Suddenly, the door behind me flung open. My head snapped up in the direction only to lock gaze with a deadly glare from someone at the door. The grimace on his face was so dark you might think he was staring at some bloody thief.

My breath hitched as he took a step forward, causing me to shiver in fear.