Chapter 8

Folding her arms on her chest while crossing her legs, Audrey patiently waited for Shane to return after dragging Stephanie outside. “Gosh! What’s taking him so long?” she murmured when he still didn’t come back after several minutes. “Did he decide to drive her home or something?”

“I didn’t,” Shane said, walking towards her.

“Take a seat then. Stop wasting my time,” she retorted. She watched him settle on the couch in front of her. Between them was a small, round, glass table with envelopes on top. Audrey saw how Shane’s face turned pale after noticing the brown envelopes. “Check it out,” she started, ignoring the sudden tension in the atmosphere.

“What is this all about, Audrey?”

Shane’s question made her laugh, a sarcastic one. “Annulment papers, what else? I know, divorce sounds better but it's not legal in the country yet. Since annulment also means legal separation then we might as well sign the papers, so we could get over with this,” Audrey said, hitting the point instantly.

She raised a brow in amusement when he slapped his palms on the table. “Careful, Shane. That table is made of glass.”

“Why?” he asked, gritting his teeth.

“You might break the table and it would be troublesome to clean it,” she replied, nonchalantly.

“Why do you want to annul our marriage?! Shit!” Shane stood up and walked back and forth in front of her. “Tell me the fucking reason why Audrey!”

‘Wow! If you’re in Hollywood, you might have been long nominated for Oscar Awards. Your acting talent is so exceptional.’ Her thought made her giggle.

“You think it’s funny? Tell me why Audrey. You never came back in five years and now you’re going to ask me to sign the annulment papers. Bullshit!”

Audrey knew she was pissed because of Stephanie but hearing those hypocrisies from Shane made her feel worse. Even so, she tried to contain her emotions to end things between them smoothly. “I was expecting you to sign it peacefully. I don’t know why you’re so worked up about this but don’t you think this is the best for both of us?” She unfolded her arms and took a pen from her bag to sign the papers.

“I’m giving you three days to sign it. I know that you’re busy so the earlier the better. Let me know if you’re done, so I could let my lawyer follow up with the procedure,” she said while putting back the papers inside the envelope. “I won’t be having lunch so don’t worry about me and just make something for yourself. Since we’re still legally married, it would be rude of me to kick you out of the house. I hope you’d find a place to move when the annulment process is done,” Audrey explained. “It won’t be nice if paparazzi find out that you’re living in some random people’s house.”

“Are you happy?” Shane suddenly asked.

“Hmm?”

He took a step closer to her. “Are you happy doing this?”

Audrey furrowed her eyebrows with his question. “What made you think I’m happy when you haven't actually signed the papers yet?” she asked him back. ‘Why does he sound like he was the victim here?’

Shane smirked at her before pinning her down on her seat. What he did next surprised her. Audrey thought that her greatest humiliation was when she attended her wedding alone without her groom. She didn’t expect that having kissed his groom from five years ago was more humiliating.

Her first kiss was forcefully taken away from her at the age of twenty-seven. When she was twenty-two, she wished to offer it to the love of her life on their wedding day only to get abandoned in their wedding ceremony. Audrey couldn’t think of a single plausible reason for him to take her for granted whenever he wanted.

His lips moved like a fierce beast, shredding its prey into pieces. She expected her first experience to be soft and gentle with full of passion but what she got was the total opposite. She couldn’t move an inch as he crushed her rims until it bleeds. Audrey couldn’t withstand the stinging pain coming from her bleeding lips, she pushed him away from her with all the force she gathered.

(Slap!)

The loud slapping sound could be heard when Audrey’s palm collided on Shane’s cheek.

“How dare you?” she yelled at his face, tears brimming her eyes. “You were asking me why so let me tell you,” she sobbed. “First, the wedding ceremony. I know that you were busy back then, and so I was! You ditched me at our wedding. Yes, it wasn’t the love marriage we both dreamed about but I did my part. What about you?”

Tears flooded from her eyes as she continued. “Second, I got into an accident and you never even called me or at least sent me a message. Right, because you were busy again. How could I expect you to spare some of your time when you were too busy that you had to ditch your wedding and knowing your bride getting involved in a car accident on the day of her wedding without her groom beside her would just ruin your image. So why bother, right?”

Audrey took a deep breath. “Third, you have the nerve to tell me about not coming back within those five years, asking you for an annulment the moment I returned and made it sound like you were the one at loss to this arrangement when in fact, you could be finally free from any legal attachment with me that would possibly cause trouble to you and your career.” She laughed as tears kept flowing down her face.

He was just standing there, looking at her and bursting into tears. She wanted to give him another slap when he tried to open his mouth to say something but ended up zipping it. “Jerk,” she mumbled, grabbing her bag beside her before sprinting to the door.

“Audrey, wait!” he ran after her when he realized that she was leaving again.

“Don’t follow me! If you have a bit of conscience then sign the papers and give them back to me. With that, we can totally get rid of each other from our lives,” she said before running away.