All Chapters of You Left Me At The Altar, Now You Beg Me: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

 ARIA I hear a knock on the hospital door around three in the morning. Damian doesn’t visit this late. Either he comes early and stays, or he doesn’t come at all. I peep through the door and see him standing there, his arm bandaged and slung, hair dishevelled, bruises all over his face and body like he just returned from war. He is shaken in a way I’ve never seen him before, not even during Luna’s worst moment. For a moment, I get scared of opening the door. I do anyway. Once I’ve opened the door, I shut it quickly behind me. I am now standing right before him with little or no distance between us. I notice the visible bloodstains on his shirt. “Oh, my God!” I whisper. “What happened, Damian?” “We were attacked.” “My goodness,”

 ARIA It’s morning, and I am in the kitchen, preparing breakfast. Yesterday evening never left my mind for once. I thought everything ended the moment Luna got discharged… little did I know it just got started. Luna is quiet at breakfast in a very unusual way, and I know exactly what it is all about. She is withdrawn just like that morning after Tommy, her classmate, called her a bastard. “Not hungry, baby?” She shrugs, pushing her cereal around without eating it, refusing to meet my eyes. “Bad dream?” Another shrug; she doesn’t answer. She wanders to the living room window a while later, and I watch her go still, peering at the man stationed at the gate. “Mummy, who’s that man over there?” she says, pointing at him.

ARIA8: 35 a. m. Sunlight cut harshly through unfamiliar curtains, reminding me exactly where I am. Not my room. Not the hospital. Not Sonia’s.A hotel room I'd booked with a man I'd met just yesterday.“Eli! Eli!”My stomach drops. Dread takes over the shame that already settled over me the moment I realized everything. I rush to the bathroom; he is not there.I struggle to remember exactly what he even looks like. For a moment, it is as if I lost my memory yesterday while I allowed the flesh to control me.“What have I just done?” I whisper to myself, full clarity and consciousness returning. I try to remember if he at least used protection; nothing.When did Aria become this loose?Yesterday. While having sex with the stranger, my phone kept buzzing and would not stop. I was too carried away to stop and check it.Seven missed calls. All Sonia.My jaw dropped in shame again. How do I explain to Sonia that I didn’t pick up her calls because I was busy making out with a man I met at t

ARIA When I get home that evening, I don’t walk into the sound of Luna struggling with her toys or watching her favourite show; I walk into the sound of laughter, and it stops me cold in the entryway. The voice is a male voice which doesn’t belong to Father, and automatically, I know who it is. Damian. His voice and Luna’s blend easily and effortlessly, high-pitched, enjoying whatever conversation they are having. I don’t know why, but guilt hits me immediately as I stand there listening to him talk to her. My stomach twists as though I’ve done something to him rather than simply lived my own life for another evening with a stranger. We are not married and will never date, will never come back together again. So why am I feeling this way? “Mummy!” Luna spots me first, bounding over in her pyjamas.

 DAMIAN Since the story of Aria with another man broke on the internet days ago, I have not been myself. I read the story again, alone in my study, letting myself feel the full weight of it. Aria may have totally moved forward. She has allowed herself the kind of happiness I’ve spent weeks carefully, patiently trying to earn my way toward. Apparently, she found hers easily with someone else entirely. I have no right to the jealousy tearing through my chest right now. I know that clearly even as I feel it anyway. She owes me no loyalty and faithfulness. In fact, I am nothing to her other than a finished man trying so hard to fight his way back into her life. Even when I stopped visiting, stopped calling or texting, hoping she would miss me, or even care enough to ask me what went wrong, I received nothing but absolute silence and ghosting until I went back to th