ARIANA’S POVI couldn’t believe my eyes. My husband for years had been walking about with a picture of my dead sister. After everything! And now, he wanted me to believe he loved me?I knew he has been trying to impress me these days because of the pressure my parents gave him but when taking the pictures, I really thought he could love me back.I had no idea if to be hurt or angry but I angrily flung the wallet and it hit the wall.“Hey baby”, Rob called as he entered the changing room.He stopped when he saw me and saw the picture on the floor.“I can explain”, he began.“Of course you can”, I said sarcastically. “My husband can explain why he carries a picture of my dead sister in his wallet”.“Ariana, I do not know how to explain this to you and I know it doesn’t make sense but please don’t allow it ruin the future you and I could create”.“Oh please!” I shouted. “Spare me all of that. I’m not a child Robert. You loved Flora”. I broke down and began to cry.I had thought I would f
ARIANA’S POV I was prepared to bolt from the venue after slapping Emily but my mom pulled me back and held my hand tightly. “You will not ruin this party for me”, she whispered harshly into my ears. It was later I noticed that all eyes were on us and the paparazzis were clicking away, taking pictures and flashing their blinding lights.I tried to control the tears threatening to drip from my eyes.When the attention had dispelled a little, my dad came to my side and pulled me away roughly headed for privacy.“What was the meaning of that Ariana?” He demanded, when we were alone.I raised my chin in defiance, determined not to allow him to bully me. “Why did you have to give a complete stranger Flora's wristwatch?”“Oh young woman, I'm asking the questions tonight”, he said gruffly.“I begged for that wristwatch Father, but you and Mother vehemently refused to give it to me”, I responded curtly.“Your sister had died! And all you could think was asking for her stuff”, he yelled at m
ARIANA'S POV“I don't understand," I asked, confused, “For what reason?”“C'mon, we have to go now”, Babs said in an urgent tone.She began to run and I followed her trying to keep up with my shoes and the big wedding gown. Few minutes later, we arrived at Flora’s hideout. It was an abandoned warehouse in the grounds of my parents house and we used to play games there when we were children.When we got in, we found Flora sitting on the dusty floor putting on the bridesmaid's dress she was supposed to wear to my wedding.“Flo?” I called softly.I saw that she had been crying, her face was wet with tears and her eyes was red. The warehouse was dank and dark and smelled really bad. I felt uncomfortable standing there. The rays of the sun were shining in through a broken part of the roof casting a beam of light on Flora.“I hear you want to kill yourself?” I said again. “Don't do such a stupid thing like that, okay?”“Babs, can you leave us?” She said in a squeaky voice. Barbara sighed
*****Past memories haunting my mind made my brain messy. After quickly washing my face with cold water in one of the bathrooms, I headed to Barbara without hesitation.“I need to leave this place”, I said to Barbara as soon as I saw her.“Why? I'm having fun,” she said with a frown.That was the problem with drunken Barbara, she could never sense urgency.“We have to leave now”, I hissed at her and observed Rob talking with Emily. I frowned.As soon as he noticed me, Rob left her side and headed for Barbara and I. Noticing he was headed in my direction, I abandoned Barbara and headed for the door.Rob was unrelenting and followed me till we were both out of the building.“What do you want for me?” I asked angrily.“The same thing I've been asking for for days now”, he said.“I don't have forgiveness for you please, leave me be”, I said stretching out my hand to hail a cab.Rob raised his hand and pulled mine down.“What's the matter with you Ari? We got here together”, he said.“Wel
ARIANA’S POVI kissed him back but suddenly stopped and pulled away, reclining now in the passenger seat. I wished he would say something. We were going to be stuck here for a while and nobody had exited the ball as yet.There was something about the night. Perhaps it was the torrential rainfall beating the roof of the car and the lightning tearing the skies apart and the booming thunder but the atmosphere in the car was charged. He then said, “Do you think in another universe you and I could be in love?”I was quiet for a while. Wondering if to answer.“I do not know Rob but I know that in every universe, I love you, perhaps more in each one because I've loved you from the first day I saw you Rob”, I finally said.It took a lot of willpower for me to say those words to him.The rain began to trickle to a stop and I said, “Take me home Robert”.We drove home silently all the way. I stared at his serious profile for a while. I could tell that he was holding his desire back, and so wa
ROBERT'S POV Ariana bolted from my body as if stung by an ant and it was then I realised what I had done.All through last night when we were sitting in the car, and I wanted to fuck Ariana so bad but knew from the way she ended the kiss and retreated, that it was forbidden.Last night was so great, better than every unimpassioned night I spent with her. I used to be so engaged with thinking about Flora and I now realized how stupid it was, to give a vulnerable woman a bad sex experience. Now, after everything I had the front to go and end it by mentioning “Flora?”“Ariana please”, I said, getting up from the bed in an attempt to stop her.“Don't touch me”, she screamed. “You're despicable!”She left the room, slamming the door behind her.“Damn!” I could only pound the bed with my fists.Ariana began to distance herself from me the more. No matter how hard I tried for our schedules to clash, Ariana was always a step ahead of me. The staff in Ariana's office soon became used to my
ARIANA’S POVDays rolled into weeks and weeks into months and the gap between Robert and I grew wider. Joshua and I met on a regular basis now but even I could not force myself to fall in love with him. Our meetings were mostly formal and even though he wanted more, I couldn't give him that. I was thinking of our brand branching into the pharmaceutical industry and Joshua's friend's father is the owner of the biggest pharmaceutical company in Chicago so we were striking a deal to benefit us all. Besides, a part of me still loved Rob. He was heavily invested and I had grown accustomed to the flowers on my desk and the romantic cards that accompanied them. I sometimes even searched for his face in the middle of a meeting and almost every time, Rob would be standing out there looking at me through the glass walls with such intensity, I could almost feel his eyes on me.It was all complicated. That day I had exited the boardroom and was slightly disappointed when I got to my office an
ROBERT'S POVHearing Ariana say what I had been dreading for months now was a slap in the face. It was like an echo of the words Dr. Josh had said to me the other day in the hospital parking lot.How had this suddenly become my reality?Why this sudden obsession with Ariana? Was it just a need to protect my business? Or was I really falling in love with Ariana?I said nothing to Ariana and simply bounded up the stairs to the bedroom and went into the bathroom to take a cold shower. I needed to feel something. I was married to a wife I couldn't touch and it was killing me. I had tried everything in the book to try to get her to fall in love with me again but nothing was working. What had I not tried? And how do I get Dr. Josh out of the picture?The next day, I met up with one of my closest friends and confided in him about my troubles. George and I had been friends since my childhood and he was the only person I trusted.“I think it's time to throw in the towel my friend”, George