Chapter 2: Please, let her come back.

Aria’s pov

The silence that hung over the room, after her confession, felt like a suffocating blanket.

It was as though the air had become solid, making each breath feel like an intrusion into the silence.

It was palpable, pressing in from all direction, making her feel trapped and alone.

But then Adrian did something she never expected. He laughed.

Not a chuckle, or a smirk, but a full blown laugh that echoed throughout the house.

His laughter, tinged with mockery, reverberated through the space.

His disdainful gaze traveled down her body and back up in slow deliberate manner.

“You really think you’re, don’t you? You couldn’t get pregnant for past five years, and now you suddenly are? And you expect me to fall for that?” he scoffed.

She recoiled, as if he had just slapped her, and her body grew tense to the point of shaking.

“It’s true. When I visited the hospital last week for my monthly checkup, the doctor told me I was pregnant. That was why I made all this preparations, to surprise you.” she choked out.

She stilled remembered the way he smiled at her on their wedding night, telling her that he’d protect her for the rest of their lives, now it was as if she was looking into the face of a stranger.

“You really are pathetic, you know that right?” He sneered.

it was the contempt and disgust in his eyes that really broke her.

“And why will I want a child from you, when I already have a son?” He chuckled.

“What?” she cried out.

Not sure what was going on, she blinked rapidly, and her eyes dropped low over her eyes as she tried to decipher what he was saying.

She opened her mouth to speak, but words eluded her, and a perplexed silence followed.

“What do you mean you have a son?” she choked out.

“Exactly what I said Aria. Did you really think I will sit around waiting for you to get pregnant, and not want a heir of my own that will take over when I’m old? What in the world really goes on in that head of yours?” he replied coldly

“How could you do this to me? I loved you Adrian, and you do this to me? I sacrificed a lot for you.” she cried out.

Her eyes were large and rimmed with tears, but she squeezed it, trying to force the tears from their edges, the corner of her lips pulled down, shaking as she tried to stop the overwhelming emotion she was feeling.

His lips twisted into a cruel smirk as he looked at her.

“Sacrificed? You really are dumb. Do you want to know something funny? It’s about your sickness.” He sneered.

Adrenaline bursts through her veins preparing her to fight or flee. “What about it?”

“Your heart disease. It isn’t cardiomyopathy. I have been micro dosing you with arsenic and thallium in small doses for the past three years.” he smirked.

The small hairs across her body stood on end. She stood frozen, rigid with terror, and too overwhelmed to move.

A prickling sensation shot up her spine.

“I don’t believe you. How come the doctors didn’t dictate it? They can’t be wrong.” she said carefully.

“Oh but they are wrong. It causes fatigue, fainting spells and all the symptoms of cardiomyopathy, which made it hard for the doctors to dictate it.” he replied.

Her knees trembled and quaked, threatening to give out from under her.

Her breath came in shallow gasps, chest rising and falling rapidly as weight of what he just said threatened to suffocate her.

Her eyes darted around the room, her pupils dilated, searching for an escape route, her entire being, on high alert as panic set her nerves ablaze.

“Why… why tel… tell me now?” her voice quivered, words stumbling out in disjointed fragments.

Fear had tied her tongue in knots, rendering coherent speech impossible.

His laughter, sharp and mocking, echoed in the air with disdain.

"Because I have changed my mind. I don’t need you to sign the divorce papers.” He sneered.

She immediately backed away from him, a primitive warning sounding in the back of her mind. “Why?”

“You, my dear wife will die today, your heart finally giving up. And I being the devoted husband will be pitied upon by everyone. So you see, there is no need of you signing the divorce papers.” He replied.

He went ahead and threw away the divorce papers into the fireplace.

She watched as the papers engulfed in the fire.

Her thoughts careened through a maze of worst case scenarios, each possibility more terrifying than the last as panic hijacked her rationality.

Everything in her was telling her to run, but she couldn’t, not because she didn’t want to, but because her legs wouldn’t move on there on.

“Wha… what… do yo… you plan on do… doing to m… me.?” she asked her voice shaking.

His eyes burned with a fierce, unyielding hatred that made her shiver and cower away from him.

“The obvious. Do I have to explain every single detail to you? What I’m trying to say Aria, is that you are going to die tonight and I will be the one to kill you.” He said cruelly.

Her mouth opened but no words came out.

A knot of uncertainty tightened in her chest, constricting her breath and making it hard for her to think clearly and her thoughts crashed against each other.

A sickening wave of terror welled up in her belly, and her heart hammered against her ribcage, a thunderous beat that reverberated through her body and her pulse throbbed in her ears, a relentless drumbeat that drowned out all the sounds around her.

“No.” she choked out.

She clamped her hands over her mouth, stifling her scream, her eyes wide with terror as Adrian approached her with deliberate step and a small bottle that he just brought out of his pocket.

The cake knife, that was on the table, clattered to the floor, icing smeared like blood across the tiles.

Just like her father’s company… stolen, by the man she love and thought loved her as well.

But no matter how hard she fought him, he still overpowered her and poured all the contents of the bottle down her throat.

She tried to claw at her neck to cough out the substance, but it seemed impossible at that point.

“wh… what did yo… you just give m… me.” she screamed.

“Just something to finish you off early. a triple dose of arsenic and thallium of the one I usually pour into your food.” Adrian said laughing.

His laugh was a harsh, bitter bark, devoid of any humor.

But right in the middle of it all, the ringing of a phone echoed through the room with a sharp shrill that made her flinched.

Adrian smiled at the name of the caller showing on the screen, before picking up the call.

She couldn’t hear what the caller was saying because she was on the ground and in pain, but she could have sworn it was a lady’s voice.

But what really shocked her was the way his face changed to one of a besotted fool upon seeing the name of the caller.

“You will have to wait a little my love.” She had him say into the phone. “No, she hasn’t signed the divorce papers yet but I will make sure she does before the end of today.”

He went silent for a minute, probably listening to whatever it is his mistress was telling him. “if she refuses? Then we would go ahead with your plan, of finally finishing her off.”

His eyes squinted in repulsion, as if he didn’t even want to see her face. “I will be there soon, give my kisses to Noah. Bye.”

He hung up the call, the haughty arch of his brows framing the disdain radiating from his eyes.

But what he didn’t know was that she saw the name on the phone screen before he ended the call.

The TV in the background was playing, showing Adrian’s public face.

A news reporter was calling him a “devoted husband to his terminally ill wife.” The sick irony.

If only they knew that the same husband was the one who had been killing her slowing over the years and was standing on top of her at that very moment, waiting for her to take her last breath.

She placed a gentle hand on her belly, the light behind her eyes dimmed, leaving behind only shadows and echoes of the person she was, her lips was as pale as winter frost, drained of color, reflecting the numbness that had settled over her.

She felt sorry for the baby, who was innocent in all this, all this was her fault because she had been so stupid to notice all the signs that had been there to show her that Adrian never really loved her.

If there’s anyone listening, any god, any devil, she would give anything for one more chance.

Just one more chance for her to rectify all the horrible mistakes she had made in life. Let her come back… and she swore, she will never beg for love again and she would make Adrian pay a hundred fold for what he did to her.

Her lips quivered, she didn’t want to die. At least not yet.

She had so much she wanted to do, number one being, experiencing motherhood.

Her vision blurred, but she was still clinging on to life.

She tried crawling towards the door but her vision was fading slowly, making it hard for her to see, but with effort her hands finally reached the door handle.

Her heart raced and her breathe came out faster, maybe she could get out of here and get help, she might really survive.

But she never got to get out of the door.

Her hand fell limp on the floor and the last thing she saw was Adrian’s smirking down at her and her world went completely black.