Never Meant To Be

Aria's POV

The doctor finished examining me and put his stuff back in his briefcase, I could not tell if I was progressing well with the treatment or not because his facial expression was neutral. Lately I have been taking my treatment seriously, and it is all because of Axel. Before I met Axel was always questioning my existence on this earth, and always considered myself the unluckiest being on this planet but Axel proved me wrong. He always tells me to focus on the brighter side of life and forget about everything else. He is always so optimistic for a person whose world revolves around the dark, that is because Axel was born blind. When I got to know Axel and see the world from his point of view, I stopped feeling sorry for myself and started seeing the meaning of life and the importance of my existence.

"How is she doing doctor?" My mother asked as she entered the room, interrupting me from my thoughts.

The doctor looked at me then to my mother, his facial expression still not giving away anything. "May I talk to you outside, Mrs Watson?" He said to my mother who hesitantly agreed before walking outside my room with the doctor.

Just then Lisa, one of the house maids walked in my room, carrying a glass of water on a tray. "Here is your water for your medication." She said handing me the glass. "Thanks Lisa." I said taking my tablets.

"What did the doctor say?" Lisa asked as she sat down next to me on the bed.

"Nothing much, he just asked to talk to my mother." I said handing her the glass after I had taken my tablets.

"How are you feeling?" She asked.

"I'm okay." I said.

"Good to hear. Guess who is here to see you?" She asked teasingly and I immediately knew who she was talking about.

"Axel's here!" I said excitedly and she nodded.

"He is waiting downstairs for you, so you better get going, you do not want to keep him waiting." She said and I got up from my bed and headed downstairs.

I reached downstairs and I found Axel seated on one of the living room couches with his helper, Aiden.

"Axel!" I called out and he looked at the direction of which my voice was coming from as Aiden helped him stand up.

"Aria! How are you?" He asked. "I am great." I said as I went to give him a hug.

"I will take it from here Aiden." I said to Aiden as I took Axel's arm and started heading outside with him.

"How was your day?" He asked as we headed for the garden. "It was good."

"Really? What did you do the whole day?"

"Just reading some books and watching a little bit of TV." I said even though that was far from true, but I did not want to tell him that I spent almost the entire day being examined by my doctor.

"What about you, how did you spend your day?" I asked as I helped him sit on the garden swing and I sat next to him.

"I just did a bit of reading." He said.

"That's it?" I asked.

"I also spent my day thinking of you." He said and I couldn't help blushing.

Axel's family and my family are really close friends and they run their businesses together. I met Axel a year ago when my parents invited his family over for dinner, and I was so impressed by his optimism and funny ways. He and I instantly clicked and we became close. Our parents saw how close we had become and suggested we got married, which at first did not appear right with me as I saw things going a little too fast, but Axel saw that it was okay as we were already in love with each other and I also agreed and we got engaged. I really love Axel but something about this marriage does not appear right to me, I know that our families are doing this to expand their businesses but I can't help feeling that their is something else about it.

"Hey, why are you quiet?" Axel asked interrupting me from my thoughts.

"I was thinking about our wedding." I said.

"What about our wedding?" He asked taking my hand in his.

"You know it's in a few months."I said.

"I am aware of that, are you having second thoughts about marrying me?" He asked.

"No, not at all. It's just that....I don't know Axel."

"Just tell me Aria, what is it?" He asked giving my hand a light squeeze.

"You know I have treacher collins." I said and he sighed while passing his hand through his hair, obviously tired of me bringing up this conversation again.

"I know that Aria and we have had this discussion a dozen times, it doesn't matter how you look like Aria, I will never change my opinion about you."

"I know you have told me that so many times but....." I sighed cutting myself off.

"But what Aria?" He asked.

"What if you one day wake up and have the ability to see and look at my face?" I asked as I felt tears forming on my face.

"Aria I will still love you."

"No you won't, you will just run away from me like everyone else, because I look like a freak." I said standing up as tears started falling down my face.

Axel took hold of his walking stick and stood up. "Aria, I have never seen anything ever since I was born, I don't know how the world looks like, I don't even know what I look like, but if I were given a chance to see and I set my eyes on you, trust me if I say that you would be the most beautiful person on this earth that I had ever set my eyes on."

"Do you really mean that?" I asked as I wiped the tears of my face.

"Really." He said and I gave him a hug.

"Oh look, the sun is setting." I said as I broke the hug.

"Tell me, what does it look like?" Axel asked.

"Well, it is peaking from behind the mountains as it's slowly disappearing, the birds are flying in patterns as they head to their nests, and the sky appears to be reddish."

"I bet it looks amazing." He said.

"Yes, it does. Hey, let's take a picture to remember this moment." I said as I took my phone out of my back pocket.

"Now hold still." I said and took the picture with the sunset.

"How does it look?" Axel asked.

"It looks amazing." I said staring at the picture.

*******

I sat at the dinning table as I stared at the picture of me and Axel on my phone. He and Aiden had already left a while ago and I couldn't stop thinking of him. My mother came and joined me and I put my phone away.

"You can start serving the food." She said to the maids.

"Isn't dad joining us?" I asked

"No, your father is really busy so he will just eat in his study room, that reminds me, Maya, please take some food for my husband in his study."

"I am not surprised that he is busy." I murmured to myself but my mother heard me.

"Aria, don't say that, you know your father has a lot of work, it is not easy being the owner of one of the biggest companies in the country."

"Yeah right." I said rolling my eyes.

"How was your day with Axel? Did you two have fun?" My mother asked changing the topic.

"Yeah we did, he is really nice." I said, taking another bite of my food.

"You must really like him." My mother said.

"Of course I do, it's not like he ignores me like everyone else." I said and took a sip of my water.

"That's not true sweetheart, you know I never ignore you."

"Yeah, you don't ignore me, but what about dad?"

"Aria, your father is just busy."

"Stop it mum, just stop defending him, I am no longer a child, I can see what is going on. How come he is always busy on the days I am present on the dinning table, but when I don't feel like eating or choose to have my food in my room, he always shows up at the table."

"Aria please....."

"Save it mum, I'm done!" I snapped as I stood up and headed for my room.

My father and I have never had much of a relationship ever since I was a child, my mother is always the one holding us together. I have never really understood what was going on when I was a child but now that I am grown up, I clearly see what is happening. My own father is ashamed of me and it's all because of my face. I have tried everything I can to make my father proud of me and at least look at me twice in the face but everything I do is futile. One of the main reasons I agreed to get engaged to Axel was to make him happy but he never acknowledged that. To him I am always going to be a burden that he has no choice but to bear with.