ALIRA'S POV
I wouldn't have thought that the three words, capable enough to bring happiness to my life, were also capable of bringing destruction to my life. “Alira, are you there??" Betsy asked as I realized I was still on a call with her. "Oh yeah yeah…emm....con.. congratulations Betsy." I said, stuttering. "You don't sound like you are happy about this news Alira.” The truth was that deep down in my heart, I wasn't happy in the slightest about the news…I mean…I was happy that my sister was pregnant but the news just had to come at the very wrong time. Betsy, my younger sister got married a few months after mine and although I was shocked and am still shocked about it because I could have sworn she told me she was never going to marry Liam who happened to be my old schoolmate and close friend back In the day. Life with Betsy was a competition in which she was the only contestant because I had no time to compete with her. Everything I wanted right from childhood, she wanted it as well and I assumed she was trying to follow her big sister's footprints but I knew otherwise when she surprised me with a huge rock on her finger a few months after my wedding from a stranger we knew nothing about. “I am really happy for you Betsy…just a little bit tired because it's been a hectic day.” I said as tears welled up in my eyes. “Hectic day or not, it shouldn't affect your happiness for me sis…I am going to be a mother!!” She said as she squealed happily. "Trust me when I tell you Betsy that I am happy for you…congratulations to you and Liam.” “Thank you Alira!!! I want to call Mom now and give her the good news…talk to you soon.” Betsy said as she hung up the call without waiting for my response. I sighed deeply as I shut my eyes and got lost in my thoughts again. . . . “Alec, it's been two days, I've been worried sick about you!! Where have you been??” I asked my husband as he walked into the house. "Look Alira, I don't have the strength for your tantrums today…I am a grown man and so I can leave the house and come back any day or anytime I like.” "Alec, you are a grown married man!! You can leave and come back to the house any day or anytime as you like…” I said as I took a deep breath. I knew arguments weren't going to solve anything and I didn't have the strength for it and so I walked closer to him and placed my hand on his chest. “What happened to us Alec?? You have been treating me so differently since I announced my pregnancy to you…what's happening ??” I asked with a soft tone. "Nothing." Alec muttered. “Alright, what do you want??" I asked. “What I want Alira is for you to get rid of your pregnancy, can you do that for me??" Alec asked as my hands suddenly dropped down from his chest while I gazed at him with a shocked expression on my face. I couldn't say anything because my brain wasn't processing anything at that moment and so Alec shook his head and walked away. . . . My phone rang again as I snapped out of my thoughts. This time around, it was my mother calling…what a coincidence. “Hello mom." “Alira, where are you??" She asked. “I am out of the country mom…I came for an important business meeting.” "You should be heading back home by now!! Your sister Betsy is pregnant and needs all the care and assistance she can get from you!!” "What exactly are you trying to say mother?? That I should travel back home to be a maid to Betsy who literally just announced her pregnancy to me a few minutes ago?? Besides, isn't that the job of her husband??” I asked. “Why are you such a bitter soul Alira?? Was it your sister's fault that you couldn't keep your own pregnancy??” And that was the question that suddenly reopened my old scar. “How can you say such a thing to your own child?? You of all people know very well how I lost my pregnancy mom!! Did you have to rub it in my face??!!” I yelled as tears slipped down my face. "I only asked you a simple question Alira…anyway, if you aren't coming then stay exactly where you are…you have never been useful anyway.” My mother said as she hung up the call. That was the person who was supposed to be my support system…the one I was supposed to call to inform her of the bad news I heard today just so as to get her words of encouragement but if she could just say such a thing to me, I couldn't begin to imagine what she would have said after I told her about my inability to carry my own kids. The tears that welled up in my eyes didn't have enough holding capacity anymore to store them as they continued slipping out. I dialed my husband's number to talk to him and see if it would make me feel better but he didn't pick up his calls…the whole six times I called. I ended up crying myself to bed and very early the next day, I took the first available flight back to the US. As soon as I landed, I didn't even go home to drop my things… I headed straight to Betsy's house to be a supportive sister. I knew the kind of Mother I had so well as to know that she would literally tell everyone that needed to know that I was a terrible person for not coming to see Betsy. As soon as I got to her house, the door was weirdly opened and I assumed she must have had some visitors. I walked towards the living room and just before I got there, I overheard Betsy's conversation with my Mother. “Betsy, you still haven't told me who the Father of your child is…because I remember vividly that you told me Liam was unable to get you pregnant due to some health complications.” My mother said as I looked on in confusion. I didn't understand what was going on and so I decided to stay back and hear more of the conversation. “I don't think you need to know who the Father of my child is." Betsy said. “What are you saying Betsy?? You got pregnant by a random man??!!” "I didn't get pregnant by any random man!! I am not a whore Mother.” Betsy bit out. "Then who is the Father of your child??!!” "It's Alec.”ALIRA'S POV “You are awake." A voice said as I snapped my head towards the door.“Liam??" “Were you expecting to see someone else??" He asked.“What am I…I mean how did I get here??" “You don't remember??" He asked.Usually whenever a guy asks a girl if she doesn't remember what had happened between them the previous day, it only meant that something had happened.I quickly checked inside the sheets I was using to cover myself and found out I was half naked.“Did we??" I asked as I scratched the back of my head awkwardly.“If you are trying to ask if we had sex, then the answer is no.. we didn't." Liam said as he handed me a cup.“What's this??" I asked as I sniffed the content of the cup."Drink it, it will help with your hangover and when you are done, get dressed and leave.” Liam said as he was about to walk away.“Liam, wait!!" “Do you need something??" He asked as he halted his movement and turned around.“What happened?? How did I end up here??" I asked.Liam gazed intensely
ALIRA'S POV“Your nightmare…I am your nightmare." I didn’t expect her to look shocked.Not because I barged into the house uninvited.Not because I caught her in bed with my dead father’s right-hand man...No.She was shocked because I interrupted her perfect little world.Her twisted fantasy where she played the grieving widow by day and shared bedsheets with the help by night.I stood there with my arms folded, glaring at the scene before me.The woman who raised me scrambled to cover herself with the blanket with her mouth parted like she wanted to defend herself. Mr. Grayson looked equally horrified, reaching for his pants like some teenage boy caught red-handed.“Why the hell are you in my house unannounced?!!” she snapped and asked for the second time like a broken record.“You make it sound like I walked into a government meeting instead of a sleazy soap opera.” I said with my voice like ice. “Relax….I’m not here for you…or your obvious company.”“Then why are you here?” she
ALIRA'S POVAfter I got home from Trisha's house, I laid on my bed as I got deeper in thoughts.The more I dug into the past, the more it unraveled like a thread I was never meant to pull. Every piece of information I uncovered led to ten more questions, and somewhere deep down, I was starting to feel it…someone else knew. Someone had been watching, interfering, either to protect me… or manipulate me.I couldn’t keep wandering in the dark.I needed answers and I needed real ones.And if Liam wouldn’t tell me everything, maybe I could force the truth out by confronting him myself.I decided to go to his house.Just as I got from my bed and was dressing up, Iris came into my room.“Alira, You are back?? And you didn't even let me know." She said with a faint smile on her face.“I am deeply sorry Iris…I was just so tired…what's up??” "Nothing much…I went to visit that bastard in jail." “Wait what? you don't mean your ex do you??" “Yeahh….him...I went to tell him a piece of my mind.”
ALIRA'S POVThe pages of my diary were beginning to look like crime scene evidence...every line, every word leading me closer to the truth.I had read it a dozen times before, but today, something new caught my eye."Alec knows...but what scares me the most is his silence…I saw him today talking to my mother and the conversation looked serious but what could they be talking about???”I froze, my fingers tightening on the edge of the paper.Those lines from the page I read were confusing as hell because why would Alec go ahead to speak to my mother even when I rejected his advances.My heart thudded in my chest.I wasn’t sure what confused me more: Alec's lack of reaction or the eerie calm that followed alongside the scheme with my mother…People who explode are predictable… People who stay silent after heartbreak? They’re dangerous.If he had an outburst with me, it would have been a lot better but the fact that he just smiled and accepted it while scheming behind my back made the stor
ALIRA'S POV I sat cross-legged on my bed as my diary spread open in front of me like a portal to another life and like one I barely remembered.The pages smelled faintly of lavender and dust, and each word I read felt like pulling a thread from a sweater I had once worn but forgot.I had already combed through over half of the entries, most of them chaotic and emotional, some full of love and others brimming with fear. But I wasn't giving up..at least not now, not when everything was starting to make sense in the most horrifying way possible.My fingers trembled as I flipped another page. A paragraph was scrawled in hurried writing."I think Alec knows about Liam and me…He hasn't said anything yet, but the way he looked at me yesterday... it was different….Like I had betrayed him and like he wanted to hurt me…I can't stay here anymore…. I need to leave before it's too late."I felt the air suddenly leave my lungs."Oh my God..."My heart pounded as I kept reading."Today I finally
BETSY'S POVAfter the whole Liam announcing our wedding plans and Alira doing the same too, I started feeling extremely uneasy.I stared at my phone for a long minute, fingers clenched so tightly around it that my knuckles turned white.Something wasn't right. Something about the way Liam had looked at Alira during that meeting like she still owned a part of him.No…. I wasn’t imagining it and I’d be damned if I let my perfect plans crumble because of some lingering ghost of a romance.I hit Alec’s contact and pressed the phone to my ear. He picked up after two rings."Betsy? What is it?""We need to talk," I said sharply. "I think something is going on between Liam and Alira." I said.There was a pause and then Alec chuckled. "You're being paranoid.""Am I? I definitely saw the way Liam looked at her during the meeting…. He's not over her….I can feel it.""Well, let me ease your mind then," Alec said, his voice laced with arrogance. "Alira and I slept together…we had sex!!! And