*****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
ROBERT’S POVI was confused. What did he mean? Was he the son of one of the workers in the house or what?“Your grandma and grandpa?” I asked him, feeling stupid.“Uh huh”, he said. “Who are they?” I asked, my heart beating erratically against my chest as I began to notice things that had failed to grab my attention instantly.His eyes, there was just something about it that was very familiar, the structure of his face, the shape of his nose. Everything about the boy reminded me of either Flora or myself. It made me uncomfortable. “Who are they?” I asked him now, my voice tight with emotions.“Oh there you are!” I heard Mrs Vanderbilt exclaim behind me and I turned to face her.She seemed out of breath and had a frightened look on her face.“I see you've met my nephew's child, Nate”, she said breezily.I was perplexed and could only nod my head.Nate ran into her arms as if he just sensed her presence.“I want some chocolate, Nana”, he said.She rubbed his head affectionately. “Su
ARIANA’S POVI feared Barbara was up to something and she was not putting me in the know.Barbara was dangerous and from our conversation the other day, she was determined not to let Emily off the hook just like that. It scared me and at the same time, elated me that Barbara cared for me.I however did not want to do anything about Emily. A part of me feared that history would repeat itself. I actually felt guilty because of slapping her in the face that day but I did have a gut feeling that Emily isn’t what she looked like. I did not want to get locked in a struggle for my parents attention and most definitely had no intentions of listening to any of Barbara's ideas.Tired of fighting Rob, and thinking that after our last conversation he had probably let things go, I decided to return home and get some of my clothes.Ever since I announced to Rob that I was moving out, I had been living in one of my father's apartments in the city.I entered the house and met Rob's absence.We did
ROBERT'S POV Yes! Now I knew what Emily was calling so desperately about. She wanted to tell me something about Flora but why couldn't she pick up the damn phone?!I had only succeeded in aggravating my feelings of unease because Emily was not picking up the phone.Angry and frustrated, I began to kick the chairs in the office and angrily swept off the many files and documents off the table. What was it about Flora I needed to know?What angered me the more was I didn't even know anything about Emily or where she lived.I sat alone in the dark office for what seemed like eternity lost in thoughts and stewing in anger when it suddenly dawned on me that the Vanderbilts had a close relationship with Emily. Had Margaret not mentioned that Emily worked for a friend of hers?Filled with sudden vigor, I leaped from the chair and headed for the parking lot. It was raining lightly as I entered my car and zoomed off. On my way, I decided to head home and put off the journey till tomorrow. Ho