Was it all a lie?

Sophia’s POV 

I stared at the cold plate in front of me, the food I’d prepared hours ago now congealed and lifeless. Just like whatever we used to have.

Six months to stay by his side when the world turned back on him. When Aiden couldn’t walk couldn’t do anything and I was there. 

I held his hands, nursed him, made him feel like a man, brought light to his life when the darkness surrounding him felt too heavy to bear alone. His so-called friends, his own family they found reasons to stay away from him, but not me, I stayed with him when the whole world turned their back. And now that he was walking again, that he had returned to being the powerful man he was, where did that leave me? 

I checked my phone at 3:17 AM the dinner had been ready since 6 PM. 

He used me. 

The thought cut deep because it was true, wasn’t it? When he was helpless, when he had no voice I mattered. Now that he could stand on his own 2 feet……

 I pushed the plate and dragged myself upstairs. Sleep was the only escape left. 

The sound of the front door slamming jerked me awake at 7 AM. I’d managed to sleep through at least for a few hours. 

Footsteps echoed from downstairs. He was home finally. 

Despite the cold shoulder, the long night, the way he looked through me as though I were invisible, my stupid heart still jumped. I still love him, even though I was starting to hate myself for it. 

I found him in the kitchen, already, showered, dressed in fresh clothes, coffee cup in hand. 

“You’re just getting back?” The words stumbled out before I could stop them but he didn’t look up. 

“I had to catch up on work.” 

“Work?” I laugh but there’s no humor in it. “Aiden you left since yesterday morning and you’re just coming back and now you have to leave because you have work to catch up? Is almost twenty-four hours since you left this house.” 

“I know how long I’ve been gone.” His voice was sharp and dismissive. 

“I made dinner for you, I was expecting you, but you didn’t bother to text or call….”

“I was busy.”

 Busy? I guess that was his favourite word to say. I have heard that from him more than again. 

“Busy doing what exactly?” 

Finally, he raised his gaze to me, his eyes were as cold as ice. 

“Working Sophia. Some of us have responsibilities.”

“Responsibilities?” I felt something crack inside me. “And I’m not anymore?” 

He set his coffee down with deliberate decision. “Don’t be dramatic.”

“Dramatic?” My voice broke. “I waited for you……”

“I never asked you to.” 

The word hit me like a slap. 

“No,” I whispered. “You never asked for anything anymore, do you? You just take and take….”

“Take what?” He turned to face me and I almost wished he hadn’t. “What exactly am I taking from you?”

“Everything. My heart, my hope, my reason for existing. Did you ever love me?” The question ripped out before I could stop it. “Or…. was I….just convenient…..”

For a moment, a flicker of guilt flashed on his face but it was gone before I could be sure. 

“You can believe whatever you want to believe.” He said simply. 

“That’s not an answer.”

“Is the only one you’re getting.” He yelled  

I stared at him, this man I’d married when he had nothing. The man I chose over everything else in my life. “When you were in that wheelchair…. when you couldn’t work…. when you had nothing…. Was I just the only woman desperate enough to stay?”

His jaw tightened. “Maybe.” 

The honesty of his answer broke something inside me. 

“Maybe?” I repeated, the word tasted like poison. 

“Six months of my life, six months of caring for you, believing in you, choosing you….and maybe I was just convenient.”

“You came from nothing,” he said, his voice was as cold as ice. “Maybe because you came from a poor background, you don’t understand how exhausting it is to work 24/7, some of us have real responsibilities.”

Poor background family?

If only he knew what I walked away from, what I sacrificed because I thought what we had was real. I had kept my background history a secret from him, because I thought it doesn’t matter, that our relationship does. Maybe if he knew I’m the hair of the Hale Dynasty, he’d look at me the way he used too? 

But can I? Because it seemed this man hate me now. 

“Real responsibility.” I finally echoed. “And taking care of your wife when she’s falling apart isn’t one of them?”

“You’re not falling apart.”

“Look at me!” I screamed, my voice echoed throughout the empty room, his gaze met mine and for a second, I saw a flicker of sympathy but it flashed away as soon as it appeared. “When was the last time you really looked at me?” 

I saw myself reflected in his gaze, a woman who’d given everything and received nothing in return.

“I see you,” he said quietly. 

“Do you?” I asked, tears streaming down my face now but I don’t care. “Because the man….the man who promised me forever when he couldn’t even stand, that man saw me… that man needed me.” 

“That man was desperate.” His voice ring a bell. 

The words sting like a death sentence and I staggered back for a second, more tears falling freely from my eyes. 

“So everything you said, everything we planned….”

“I wasn’t thinking clearly.”

“You were not thinking clearly?” I wiped my face with shaking hands. “Six months of marriage and you weren’t thinking clearly?”

He straightened his tie, a sign that this conversation is over. 

“I have meetings all day. Don’t wait up.”

 “Aiden,” my voice was barely a voice a whisper. “Look me in the eyes and tell me you never loved me.” 

He paused at the doorway, his back to me. 

“Look at me and tell me I never mattered.”

The silence stretched between us like a chasm. When he finally turned, his expression was unreadable.

“Does it matter what I say? You’ve already decided what you want to believe.”

“That’s still not an answer.”

He opened the door. “Maybe that’s enough. That’s all you deserve.”