Affection or not?

Chapter Two

Eleanor's POV

I leaped around the house in pain, trying my best to ignore the sharp pain shooting through my ankle every time I placed my foot on the floor. I had been waiting for Adrian since morning after everything that happened yesterday, but he was yet to arrive.

I had just finished making breakfast for the both of us, and even though I had spent most of the time wondering if he would actually come home, I still tried to shrug off everything he had said to me. The whole divorce issue that has happened yesterday.

The scene of him walking away after I fell down kept replaying in my head, but I tried not to let it get to me. Everything that had happened yesterday was just a misunderstanding. At least, that was what I chose to believe.

I met Adrian Sterling a few years ago when I started working at Sterling Enterprises. I had joined the company as a junior employee with nothing but a determination to prove myself, and I never imagined that the cold, intimidating CEO everyone was afraid of would eventually become the man I fell hopelessly in love with.

The fact that I hated him at first made it more crazy. It as started as a coincidence and we got way closer. We'd spend nights at the office sharing ideas and we ended up getting way closer.

The doorbell suddenly rang, and I immediately rushed towards it, almost forgetting about the pain in my ankle because of the anticipation that filled me.

The smile on my face faded almost immediately when I opened the door and saw Stacy standing right next to him.

Her hands were covered in bandages, and her fingers were interlocked with Adrian's.

I stared at their hands for a moment before looking at Adrian's face, and the expression on it wasn't appealing at all. He looked more like he had expected me to have already left the house rather than someone who had just returned home to his wife.

"What is she doing here?" I stuttered, refusing to let go of the door handle.

"This is my house, Eleanor. I don't need your permission to bring a close friend here, and you really have a lot of audacity considering the fact that you're not even supposed to be here in the first place," Adrian said, sucking his teeth as his face twisted with so much disdain that I immediately felt like I had walked into a building I wasn't allowed to enter.

I felt a stinging sensation, and I tried to act like what he had just said was nothing. Stacy had the smallest smirk on her face as they both walked past me.

I didn't know what hurt more, the fact that he had brought her here or the way he looked at me as though my presence alone was an inconvenience.

I took in a deep breath and slowly walked back towards the dining table, forcing myself to act like everything was fine even though my heart felt like it was sinking deeper into my chest.

"I made breakfast for us. I figured you might not have eaten," I announced, trying to keep my voice steady.

"Don't worry about that. He slept over at my place, and I made sure to make him breakfast. We're both okay," Stacy replied almost immediately, and I bit my lips in regret as I looked down at the food I had prepared.

I glanced at Adrian, hoping he would at least say something, but he remained silent.

Adrian stepped outside for a while, leaving Stacy and me alone in the living room. At some point, it started to feel like I was the stranger in this place, or perhaps I was finally beginning to realize that I had been one for a very long time.

I picked up the cleaning cloth and started wiping the room, trying to keep myself occupied because sitting there and watching Stacy comfortably occupy the space I had once considered my home was becoming unbearable.

I walked past her while cleaning, but just as I was about to pick up a small piece of paper from the floor, she deliberately placed her foot over it.

I stopped and looked at her.

She smiled.

"Doing all of these isn't going to make him come back to you. I honestly believe you should just leave at this point because you're starting to look quite pitiful."

I took in a huge sigh and bent down anyway, picking up the paper without giving her the reaction she was clearly hoping for. I wasn't ready for her shenanigans, especially because this wasn't the first time she had acted this way around me.

"Stop looking so pitiful," she added.

I hated that word.

"If there's anyone who looks pitiful, it should be you. Being stuck on a guy who doesn't even feel the same way about you, especially when it has been more than fifteen years, is far more pitiful," I lashed out, and the smile on her face immediately faded.

"What?"

"You heard me."

I straightened myself and looked directly at her.

"You'd go as far as setting me up for sexual assault just to frame me, and you're still standing here acting like you're somehow better than me? Honestly, Stacy, you should be ashamed of yourself."

Her expression changed, but she quickly recovered.

"At least you two are going to get divorced anyway, and that's all that matters," she said with a smirk. "I'm glad I got to send those pictures. It pulled Adrian back to his senses and gave him the courage to finally give you those divorce papers."

My fingers tightened around the cloth in my hand.

"Guess who's still going to be considered a friend after all of this?"

She pointed at herself with a smile.

"Me."

I stared at her without saying anything.

"See this?" she continued, lifting her bandaged hand. "I saw you leaping around earlier, and he didn't even bat an eye at you. You should have seen the way he reacted after he figured out that I was injured. He couldn't even stop worrying about me."

Her voice carried so much pride that I could barely stand listening to her.

"He can never show you that kind of affection, Eleanor, even though you got married to him."

"Do you want to test that to see?" she asked, stepping closer. "Do you want to see who he cares about more?"

"No. You can shove it down your throat," I replied, rolling my eyes before walking away from her presence.

She walked closer to me, lowering her voice as she spoke her gibberish. She hit my shoulder with her hand pushing me, but I grabbed her alongside while my body stumbled and we both fellm

I scoffed and turned away from her, but my injured ankle suddenly gave way beneath me.

"Ah!"

Neither of us had enough time to react before we both fell. I landed on the glass table shattering it, before I eventually rolled onto the ground.

Immediately feeling another sharp pain shoot through my ankle.

"Ow!"

I winced, holding onto my leg as tears immediately gathered in my eyes. I couldn't dare move in the condition I was.

Then Stacy suddenly gasped.

"My hand!"

I looked at her in confusion.

She was clutching her bandaged hand, her face twisting in pain as though I had deliberately injured her.

"What?"

"You hurt my hand!" she cried, and before I could even respond, I heard the front door open.

Adrian had returned.

His footsteps became quicker the moment he heard Stacy's voice.

"What happened?"

He walked into the living room and immediately froze when he saw the broken glass scattered across the floor.

His eyes moved from me to Stacy, and the moment he saw her clutching her injured hand, his entire expression changed.

"Stacy!"

He rushed towards her without even looking at me.

He dropped down beside her, carefully taking her hand into his as though she had been seriously injured.

"Are you okay? Does it hurt badly?"

"I don't know," she whimpered, tears streaming down her face. "I think she pushed me."

My eyes widened.

"What?"

I stared at her in disbelief before looking at Adrian.

"Adrian, that's not what happened. I didn't push her. I lost my balance and—"

"She pushed me," Stacy repeated, her voice trembling.

"That's a lie!" I shouted, unable to believe what I was hearing. "She grabbed me when I fell, and we both lost our balance. I would never—"

"Enough, Eleanor."

Adrian's voice stopped me.

I stared at him, waiting for him to look at me properly, waiting for him to see the pain in my face and realize that I was telling the truth.

Instead, his attention went straight back to Stacy. She fainted in his arms, I watched she he kept on calling her name but she didn't budge. He hurriedly rushed out of the room eaving me on the floor for the second time again.

I slowly pushed myself up, biting down on my lips to stop them from trembling.

My eyes began to sting, and I looked away before he could see the tears threatening to fall.

Maybe Stacy was right, he doesn't care about me anymore and I was pitiful?

I was desperately trying to hold on to a man who no longer seemed to want me, he was already holding on to someone else.

A strange pain suddenly twisted through my stomach, or was a cramping sensation that made me instinctively place a hand over my stomach.

I noticed a thin trail of blood slowly slipped down my thigh. My breath caught in my throat.

I looked down again, watching in horror as another warm stream of blood flowed down my leg.

I only stood there, staring at the blood between my trembling legs. What the hell was happening to me?