The room was quiet as Kelvin stepped to the side to make a call and Arialla knew that he was going to call Mariam. How did he get her friend’s number? She wondered if Mariam met this man when she was brought to the hospital after her accident. After talking on the phone for a few minutes, the man turned to look at her, “Mariam is on her way.” “Okay,” “Before Mariam arrives I will like to introduce myself and my mother to you,” “Okay,” Ariella’s eyes were glinting with curiosity. She was going to finally find out who the handsome man was. “I am Kelvin Patrick and this is my mother Gladys Patrick,” Kelvin pushed and stared at her inquisitively. It was as if he was waiting for a reaction from her. The curiosity in Ariella’s eyes died and she frowned. Why did the two names sound familiar? Thinking about it now, she felt like she knew this man and the woman but she could not understand why she felt this way when she knew that she had never met them before. “Why does it feel like we h
Ariella peered at Kelvin under her lashes. He was here, sleeping on a chair when she woke up in the middle of the night and he was still here in the morning. He had changed out of the clothes he had been wearing in the middle of the night and was working on his laptop while sipping coffee in between. Ariella wished she could ask for a cup too, she could use a strong cup of coffee right now, but she knew that she wouldn’t be getting one if she asked. Sick people do not drink coffee. She knew that because of her mother. Ariella could not understand why he was here and even working from here. What was their relationship with each other? He wasn't her boyfriend, was he? It was not a bad idea, but he has not said anything about his relationship with her. Yesterday, when she first woke up, she thought either him or his mother was driving the car that knocked her down but then when she realized that she must have known but had forgotten about them, she did not know what to think again.
“What are you? A baby?” Kelvin scoffed at her and Ariella rolled her eyes at him before looking away. Mariam just stood there smiling creepily. “What?” Arielle huffed when her eyes landed on Mariam and she saw the smile on her friend's face. Mariam shrugged, now smiling wildly “Nothing,” “Then stop smiling like a creep,” Ariella said as she was brought down from the bed to be helped into the bathroom by two nurses and Mariam. Ariella was about to make use of the toilet when she felt something round and heavy on her stomach. She tried her best to ignore it, but it was solid, and she knew that it was not supposed to be there. She used her hand that was free of IV to poke it as soon as she was done. She did not know what she was expecting, but it remained there. “I want to look at myself in the mirror,” she told the nurses and Mariam, and they led her to it. “Please help me to raise my gown,” she requested as her head felt too heavy. She thought it would fall if she so much as bend
“I think her brain is trying to process the information. It is yet to sink in,” Mariam told him before she went to climb onto the bed with Ariella. The nurses hooked everything back before they left the room, leaving just the three of them behind. “Hey,” she called her friend who was still staring at Kelvin who was now very uncomfortable. She pushed Ariella’s hair that was in her face to the back of her ear. “Stop looking at him like that, it is creepy, and he is becoming uncomfortable,” She poked Ariella where she knew that there was no injury, and Ariella turned to face her. She put her face close to Mariam’s to whisper. “So he is not only my boyfriend but also my baby’s daddy?” Mariam nodded, “You can say that,” “How did we meet?” “Well…” they have not discussed what to tell Ariella if she asked. In fact, they have not thought of anything reasonable to tell her. “Why don’t you ask him?” She shoved everything to Kelvin. “Tell me,” Ariella whined. “No, I think it would be bett
She couldn’t visit her mother for now until she has recovered fully, that was what Evans told her when she said she wanted to see her mother. Arielle could not ask for someone to bring her mother over too because like her, her mother was sick and should not be moved. She also did not want her mother to see her in the condition she was in right now she got scared. She was grateful that Mariam had not told her mother that she was involved in an accident and was just helping her look after her mother and even lied to her mother that she landed a big shoot that made her too busy to visit.Suddenly remembering her friend, Ariella asked, “What about Hannah? She has not come to visit me,”Arielle did not notice the way Kelvin, Mariam and Gladys stiffened when she asked about Hannah. She was oblivious to their reaction and when none of them answered her fast enough, she asked again.“You know that Hannah is a top model, she is so busy with her job,” Mariam was the one who responded but after
“Did it really happen?” Kelvin asked Mariam some hours later when Ariella was fast asleep and Mariam had returned to the room, “The thing you said about Hannah pretending to take care of Ariella after an accident but what she was really doing was using Ariella to chase clout,”Mariam sighed as she moved to sit beside him, “It really happened but Ariella did not see it as such a bad thing. In her own words “it was not such a bad thing. They were friends and if Hannah needed the publicity, she did not mind Hannah using her to get it” It was a period where someone accused Hannah of being a bully and a bad friend. Ariella and I had a little fight about it and did not speak for over a month. Everyone was praising Hannah for having a poor friend and standing by her when she was ill.” Mariam snickered.Kelvin shook his head as he wondered the type of spell Hannah must have used on both him and Ariella that they never saw her true color until the very last minute when too much damage had been
Ariella’s eyes were darting around as she struggled to get up from the wheelchair. Kelvin did not give her the opportunity, he clamped his hands on her shoulders and gently shoved her back into the wheelchair before circling to kneel in front of her. “Hey, Ariella, look at me,” he called her in a soft voice, but she ignored him and continued to look around, her body stiff with panic. “Ariella,” he called again, his voice higher this time as he placed his hands on her cheeks to guide her face so she was strong at him. “We were actually in an underground hospital or no, something that looks like a hospital. Where am I? Where is Mariam?” Ariella asked, her shaky voice betraying her fear. “Why did you not take me to a real hospital? Why do you have an underground hospital? What is it for?” “You have to calm down and hear me out. You do not have to be scared. We actually placed you there because you needed protection.” “Protection? Protection from whom?” Ariella snapped but when Kelvin
“Take out your phone and search who Hannah’s boyfriend is,” Kelvin told Ariella after a few minutes of silence between them. A frown appeared on Ariella’s face, “Why? What has Hannah’s boyfriend got to do with you telling me about the memory of two years that I lost?” “Just do it. You wanted an explanation for all of this? This is me giving you the explanation,” Even if Ariella did not know where he was going with what he was asking her to do, she opened her phone, turned on her data and quickly searched for who Hannah’s boyfriend was. Her eyes widened in shock when instead of another man, Kelvin’s picture came up on the search. She thought maybe she was seeing things so she clicked on a video there and watched it. The video was of Kelvin walking with Hannah on a red carpet. Her fans began to chant for them to kiss, and they stopped in the middle of the red carpet and gave themselves a deep kiss to the excitement of their shippers. The phone dropped from Ariella’s hand to the bed
“So how was it?” Mariam's excited voice came from the other end of the phone. “How did the dinner go?”“Uhm, everything went well,” There was a voice in Ariella’s head asking her to tell Mariam everything that happened during the dinner with Kelvin’s family but another voice was asking her to say nothing. Mariam would hate Kelvin and since Marin was someone who hated pretending, Kelvin would begin to suspect that something was wrong. She did not want him to know that she knew everything he was doing. Her first thought in the toilet after Jade spilled everything to her had been to run away but she has neither the energy nor the resources to run off and stay hidden. Kelvin will find her within a day. She could not disappear without telling Mariam too and Mariam will be the first person Kelvin will go to if she goes missing. She won’t be putting her friend in such a position. She will have to think of another plan.After much struggle, she went with the most dominant voice which was th
Ariella has been staring at Kelvin’s card that was lying in the middle of her bed since forever. She was contemplating if she should do what was on her mind or if she should try to find a new hobby so she won’t be bored out of her mind.Being home and alone have made her thoughts run wild. She realized that there was nothing she liked doing in her free time and that was mostly because she’s never had free time since her father died.When her father was alive, she hung out with her friends but the said friends now wanted nothing to do with her, not after they nearly got in trouble a couple of times because of her.She could not really blame them. It was not fun to be chased around by loan sharks because you were friends with a girl whose father could not borrow from the banks so he decided to go to loan sharks instead.Ariella has never liked reading but that was okay, she could start now that she was free. She knew how to draw a little, maybe she could buy a sketchbook and pencil cray
Kelvin shoved his hand inside the breast pocket of his suit and produced a black card which he stretched out to her. “What? What’s that?” Ariana croaked out, staring at the black card that was lying on his palm as if she did not know what it was. “It is my card. You can use it to get anything you want while I’m away,” “I can leave the house?” Arielle asked, still staring at the card. “Why?” Kelvin asked in surprise, “I’ve never stopped you before,” “But…” Yeah, right. He has never stopped her from going out before but she would like to think that he would stop her now after that accident. Was he not supposed to be scared that something bad could happen to both her and the baby? Seems like she was deluding herself when she thought that he cared about the baby. Maybe… no, she was not going to think about anything. “But what?” He asked with raised brows. “Uhn… nothing,” Arielle shook her head. Kelvin stared at her for a few minutes as if hoping she would change her mind and
During the period of her accident, Maria’s younger sister was sick so Kelvin let her leave to take care of her sister. Maria took just a few weeks off but her sister did not recover, Kelvin then asked her to stay with her sister until anytime she recovers. Maria was not back until now.With Mariam who had traveled to another state to walk the runway, Gladys and Kelvin who had gone back to bury themselves in work, Ariella was left to her own devices.Before Kelvin left for work this morning, he went to Ariella’s room in search of her. His lips widened in a smile when he met her still buried under the covers with only her face out but with her eyes wide open.“Not ready to get up yet?” He asked as he dropped on the bed and reached out a hand to push her hair back from her face.Ariella grumbled something unintelligible under her breath as she turned her face into his hand that was now cupping her cheek. Her action made the smile on Kelvin’s face increase.It did not use to be like this
“So how was it?” Mariam's excited voice came from the other end of the phone. “How did the dinner go?”“Uhm, everything went well,” There was a voice in Ariella’s head asking her to tell Mariam everything that happened during the dinner with Kelvin’s family but another voice was asking her to say nothing. Mariam would hate Kelvin and since Marin was someone who hated pretending, Kelvin would begin to suspect that something was wrong. She did not want him to know that she knew everything he was doing. Her first thought in the toilet after Jade spilled everything to her had been to run away but she has neither the energy nor the resources to run off and stay hidden. Kelvin will find her within a day. She could not disappear without telling Mariam too and Mariam will be the first person Kelvin will go to if she goes missing. She won’t be putting her friend in such a position. She will have to think of another plan.After much struggle, she went with the most dominant voice which was th
After Jade said her piece and walked out, Arielle felt so shaky she had to walk back into the toilet and sit on the toilet seat because she felt like if she remained standing for even a second more, she would drop to the floor in a heap.Arielle massaged her forehead with her hand, she could feel an oncoming headache. Who was it that anytime she thought the worse has passed, more will come?When Judy had said she shouldn’t be called if news about her pregnancy got out,Arielle did not take it to heart because she’d already told herself that she was ready for anything and everything that would happen. She was not going to hide anymore because it won’t help her in the long run. She could not live all her life in hiding because of something she never wanted to happen. Hannah was the one who is supposed to go into hiding and not her.Arielle thought that everything was moving well now but Jade telling her all these things made her know that she was living in a fantasy she created with he
After using the toilet which was a little hard for Ariella to find even after the whole directions Gladys gave to her, she sighed in relief and stepped out to wash her hand. She has been holding back her pee since she got here and the whole issue from Judy and Jade just made everything worse.As she was washing her hand, she heard the bathroom door opening and raised her head and stared into the mirror to see who was behind her. She cursed in her head when she saw who was walking inside and she immediately had a flashback of when she was in the bathroom of that hotel abroad and Hannah walked in. She just knew that Jade being here was bad.Ariella looked down and washed her hand properly before reaching out to wipe her hand with toilet paper.“You know, Kelvin would never fall in love with you,” Jade said as she came to stand beside Ariella. “I do not care about how you managed to climb onto his bed and get yourself pregnant but Kelvin will never settle for someone like you when he onc
The way everybody’s character was taking a three sixty degrees turn was giving Ariella a whiplash. First it was Judy who was acting nice then later turning into a vicious snake and now, it was Kelvin who had been acting like he was not there but was now defending her.“I asked you to get out, Jade,” Kelvin said again, his voice was calm but Ariella could hear the underlying anger.“You can’t send her away,” Judy snapped.“Oh yes, I can and I’m asking her to leave now,” Kelvin took his eyes from Judy and placed them on Jade who flinched and ducked her head in fear.She reached out with shaky hands and clutched her mother’s hand, “Mommy,” Judy turned to Alexander, her face red with anger, “Dad, better do something,”“Jade should leave. This meeting was supposed to be for the adults only but I let her stay because I thought she would be reasonable and would comport herself, I thought wrong.” “What is wrong in what she has said? She is just trying to make us know the type of person we
“So how far along are you, Ariella?” Alexander, Kelvin’s grandfather asked once they were all seated and ready to have dinner.“Ehh, six months,” Ariella answered with a small smile on her face.Alexander beamed at her, “That’s wonderful. In a few more months we will be getting a mini version of Kelvin. How I wish that my son, Kelvin’s father, Hunter was here to see his first grandchild but no, someone just had to kill him off at such a young age,”If Ariella noticed the way Gladys and Kelvin stiffened beside her, she said nothing and acted like she did not notice anything.Everything was moving well so far. Kelvin’s family was cool. His two uncles and his auntie were here and they have been nice to her so far. Kelvin’s aunty’s first daughter, Jade was here too but she has not said a word. No matter how her mother poked her to greet Ariella, she stubbornly refused and kept her mouth shut. She kept glaring at Ariella.Alexander showed his excitement about having a great grandchild but