A lost cause

As soon as Akira left, Ophelia dialed up a broker her father often used, explained the whole situation to him and asked him to find the person behind that listing.

She tapped her foot restlessly on the floor as she waited for his call back. 

If this was true, this would be the one way to save her marriage. Blaine would be too indebted to her for saving his family’s stake in the company to ever bring up the divorce topic again.

And Ariel would be gone for good. 

She looked at her phone, wanting to edit the message and save it for later, but she could not find it,

She blinked, swiping through the screen. 

She was sure she had written that message out, or had she not? Maybe she will write it again later.

Fate was just on her side then. Ariel could not die until she had handed everything over.

She was locked up in her room, restless till a couple of hours later when she got a call back from the broker. 

From what he told her, she realized that although he did not get the real identity of this lister: which would have been suspicious if Ariel put her name in full out there and made it easy to trace it back to her when she was trying to sell in secret and get away from her husband, 

that it was really Ariel’s shares that had been listed. Everything, down to her sketchiness, added up.

Ophelia changed into a different dress, put on the perfume she last wore on their honeymoon and went down to the living room.

“Where’s my husband?” Her eyes found a maid clearing the table. She frowned, “Did he eat here?”

Was he moving back then? 

Why would he come have lunch here when he had moved out of their unit and did not want to see her?

Did he miss her then? Could he not keep up?

As her mind continued to spin out these thousand thoughts, her heart got lighter and excitement started to stir within her.

“Yes.” The maid bowed deeply. “He was here to have breakfast with the young Miss.”

“Oh,” Ophelia said, her excitement flat-lining. “Where is he?” Her voice came out angry now.

Did the moron expect her to keep asking the same question? How many times did she have to ask where he was?

“Do you need something, Ophelia?” She heard Blaine’s deep voice behind her, and she felt a shiver run through her body. 

That voice. 

That was her man. That was her f*cking man.

She spun around on her heels as a sudden possessiveness seized her. 

Why the hell had he married her, softened her till she liked him and became dependent on him and got used to the idea of living out their lives together if he was not going to see it through?

She watched him with fury in her heart and tears stinging her eyes. 

He glanced at her once, and his eyes looked away, scanning the whole room.

He was not here for her. From the way his eyes roamed, he probably forgot something here.

“Is it about our daughter?” He walked towards the dining room, closed in on one of the chairs and picked up a file sitting on it.

“We cannot talk? It only has to be about Olivia?” She asked, watching him.

“Yes.” He nodded back at the maid who bowed towards him. “We are separated, remember? The only thing we have in common is our daughter.” He was already heading out the door even as he spoke.

“I have something to tell you. Till when will you go on treating me like this?” She stared at him in disbelief. 

Why could she not just hate him? Why did his laxity towards her hurt so much? Why could she not stop caring?

There was just something horribly painful about seeing a man who had worshiped you, even when you did not care about him now look at you plainly. 

Staring at Blaine, who had only halted to look back at her, she could as well have been another maid.

He grimaced now at the tears in her eyes, “I don’t have the time for this.” And he turned away. 

He had one foot at the door when she said.

“Ariel and Kan are getting a divorce.” She knew she should not have said it. In fact, that is one news she should have done everything possible, so he never found out.

But this was the only way to get his attention.

Blaine halted, as the reflective shine of his shoe caught his eyes under the golden lights of the hallway. 

He heard a ringing in his ear as his brain decoded the information that had just come out of Ophelia’s mouth.

“What?” He turned around. 

“So that got your attention? That is the only thing I can talk to you about? Olivia or Ariel?”

Blaine grunted and walked away. 

Ophelia was a lost cause. There was no seeing reason with her. 

He had harbored a little hope of them co-parenting peacefully, but that would not work. Especially not after what he saw in the nursery that morning.

He sat in the back of his car, worried. 

If Ariel was divorcing Kan, would that not affect their son? He still had not seen the boy, and although he was tempted to get rough with Ariel so he saw him, he did not see the sense in that.

What would he do with two children without their mothers?

He could be a single father of two, but he really did not want to. Especially not when Ariel was not a bad mother.

She was greedy with questionable character, but he had not heard anything to make him wonder if she was a bad mother to their son. 

But he would not really know till he saw the boy and saw how he was developing.

He squeezed his fist and hit his knee again and again. 

How long could he stand this torture, knowing a Sullivan was fathering his own son? 

Well, that is changing now anyway. 

But he had to make sure she did not take his son to marry the next rich man.