It was a mistake

I had just walked out of the ward thinking about Blaine and I’s agreement when I felt someone walking fast behind me, and I knew it could only be one person.

“Are you not grateful to be alive? Don’t you care about your life at all?” She said, the veins on her neck looking strained from the agitation she must have been feeling.

I stared at her from head to toe in the clean-cut severe red dress she had on. 

“Your time is running out, Ophelia.” I said as calmly as if I was talking about the day being a warm day.

She walked towards me, moving her face close, and she grimaced viciously, “Stop barking if you cannot bite.”

I scoffed. “When I bite you would not even know it, because your head would have come clean off.”

“You don’t scare me.” She stared me down. “I spared your life this time. I won’t next time if you don’t stop chasing after my husband.”

I laughed at this. “Chase? Are you blind? Can’t you see I have him already.” 

She groaned angrily at this, and my eyes fell to her fingers that were curved like fangs now. “I swear to God, this is the last time I’ll warn you. The next time would be to come tell you I told you so at your funeral.”

“Don’t you think I would be foolish to let there be a next time?” I smiled brightly, and walked round and past her. “Expect my call soon.”

I left her behind and walked into the ward to find it empty. 

Kan did not show up even when the twenty-four hours was up for my discharge and I thought it was all well and good for what I had in mind.

As soon as I returned to the mansion, I resisted the urge to run to Oliver. Instead, I went into Kan’s study and began to look around for what Blaine had assured me I would find if I looked well enough, because Kan was cold but not very meticulous.

I looked through the books and the shelves, and found nothing but his password written on a slip of paper. 

I stared at the monitor sitting on his desk, suddenly questioning my motives. What the hell was I doing?

Why was Kan suddenly the enemy that I was investigating?

But then I thought of Oliver and the possibility of him paying for my foolishness to trust people so easily, just like his brother had done, and I went to the monitor.

I typed in the password, which was a combination of letters and numbers.

I went straight to his emails and typed in his assistant's name “Ren.” and I saw a list of all the emails they had exchanged. 

This was clearly the person my husband communicated the most with. They exchanged several emails in a day.

I went back to the date I fell on the floor at Minister Inoue’s house, and as I paged forward in all the emails, I noticed something. 

Kan’s assistant sent him a breakdown of all the activities he had done for the day.

I frowned at this, that did not make sense. 

Usually your P. A sends you an itinerary of the day in the mornings, not a list of the things you did in the day, at the end of each day.

I looked down at the piece of paper on the desk, not unless you were forgetful or downright had memory problems. 

I was tempted to go through all the messages from our healthcare, but I did not have much time. 

What I was searching for was something different, more incriminating than a health status lie.

I finally found it, and it was on one of those days I was unconscious. 

As I read that end of the day’s report from his P. A, my jaw dropped lower and lower, my eyes widening. 

I hastily paged back through all the messages Kan had sent out that day, but I found nothing, and I realized that he must have given the instructions via call.

The door swung in then, and Kan walked in. 

I flew off the seat, half in fright and half in rage.

“You lied to me again,” I said, my voice angry. 

I saw the frown he had walked in the door with, disappear, surprise replacing it, and then anxiety.

“Why were you on my computer?” He asked, bounding around me to get to the computer and see what I had been looking at.

“You said this is no longer a contract marriage. If I am really your wife, I have every right to look through your mails.”

He looked up at me, and his eyes flashed, forcing me to take one step back.

“You ordered a hit on Blaine and his daughter?” I asked, shaking my head at him. “How could you?”

“What did you expect me to do after Tucker's wife almost killed you?”

“So you will hurt a child. She is younger than our son.”

“I did not know she would be in that car.”

“I don’t believe you,” I said, shaking my head at him. 

In fact, it would be impossible to believe anything he said ever again since he would not stop lying. 

I asked him. I bloody asked him, and he lied to my face. 

“Blaine says you were unapologetic about it.”

“Tucker again.” He brought his hand down on the table, the sound of the sudden slam of fist on wood echoed around the room. “You’re buddies now? You would trust the man who knocked you up and denied it, over your loyal husband.”

“My husband, who is only loyal to his desires.” I screamed back at him. “How could you hurt a child to prove a point?”

“And I said it was a mistake.” he yelled back, his voice deep and tough.

“I don’t trust you.” I was shaking my head as I backed away. “I had no idea you could do this sort of thing.” 

He crossed the room before I could get far and grabbed both my arms. “Get a grip.” He shook me, his eyes flashing. “Can you count the number of times we have fought over that barbarian in the last few days?”

I shrugged his hands off me, nearly slipping. 

“We are not fighting over Blaine. We are fighting over you. He was not there with you in that office with your mystery woman.”

“We are not going over this again.” He stepped back, beginning to hit the heel of his palm against his temple again and again.

“He was not the one who offered to buy me off a man like some livestock. Just because he happened to be unreasonably jealous.”

“You call this unreasonable?” He gestured with his fingers, his eyes wide at me in disbelief. “He is out to steal my impressionable wife and child, and you think I am being unreasonable here?”

“What did you just call me?”

“I did not insult you, I just stated your nature. You are impressionable, Ariel. In all the two years of our marriage you have never gone through my computer, but you just did after a misleading whisper from your old flame.”

“It’s such a pity we cannot guess why I would do that,” I said sarcastically.

“Stop it.”

“Of course,” I responded quickly. “I told you the next time you lie to me would be the last time you do.” 

“Ariel.”

“I cannot do this anymore.”