“Her visit is strange in so many ways?” Mariam said minutes after Hannah left as she paced in front of Ariella.“What do you think is so strange about it? I knew she would find a way to locate me,”“Hee appearance is not that surprising. For one, Hannah is someone who is manipulative and would do shit to your face without thinking twice. When I told you not to say who got you pregnant with your mouth, mg kind told me she might be recording it to use it against you,”“Oh, hell. Why didn’t I think about it like that?” She’s been so focused on hearing what Hannah had to say she did not think twice. Thank God for Mariam.“Yeah. It was strange that she wanted you to say it when it was plain already who the father of your child is,” Mariam paused right in front of Ariella, biting her finger in agitation. “From the little I know and have heard about her, Hannah prefers to partake in cat fights, she’s never been the calm type but she’s calm right now. She is planning something, I just know it
“You are here,” Ariella said as she stood up and watched Kelvin walk towards them with his hands shoved inside the pockets of his suit pants.“Hannah was here,” Kelvin said when he got to them.It wasn’t a question but a statement. Mariam and Ariella shared a look before Ariella replied.“Yes, Hannah was here.”“And what did she say she wanted?” “She found out you were the one who got me pregnant. She came to warn me to stay away from you because you belonged to her,”“I don’t belong to anybody. She asked you to stay away, how?”Ariella shrugged, “I don’t know. Maybe you should ask her since the both of you are—” “Ariella,” Mariam called, stopping her from completing her sentence.“What?” Kelvin asked Mariam with raised brows, “Let her finish it. I want her to,”Ariella sighed, “Don’t worry about what I was going to say. She just asked me to stay away from you,”Kelvin looked like he was going to push and insist that she complete her sentence that she left hanging but thought better
They were up and arranging their luggage to leave the next morning and the ones they couldn’t take with them at that time so as not to miss their flights were left behind. According to Kelvin, someone would pack it up and send it over for them.The flight back home was very quiet except for when Ariella had to throw up because of the smell of the plane and then the food that was served. And also when Mariam was having a little conversation with Ariella.“My manager who was even calling to ask that I extend my vacation is suddenly all over me and telling me she has a lot of things planned out and that I won’t be free until a very long time. What’s wrong with her? Why do I suddenly have my plate full when it was not like this two days ago?” Mariam complained as she glared at her phone. “She told me this last night and I’m in a piss poor mood,”“Uhmm, maybe she accepted all the jobs that came in last night after she heard that you were coming back. You like the job, why are you suddenly
“Ariella, you know that you can talk to me, right? You can tell me if there is anything wrong with you,” “What?” Ariella spun around, surprised to see Gladys standing behind her. They were done with dinner, Kelvin left halfway for his conference call and Mariam was on a phone call in the living room. Ariella decided to go to her room first. She did not even notice that Gladys was following her.“The reason you suddenly decided to come back home. There is one, right?”Ariella shook her head, “No need to worry too much. I just missed home, so I decided to come back. It’s not just a decision I made on a whim, I’ve had the thought for weeks.”Gladys eyes roved over Ariella’s face, and she tried not to show any emotion that was not happiness. Gladys was satisfied after a while so she nodded, “That is great. I’m so happy that you are back home now. No need to worry if you are doing alright or eating well over there because you are here now, I will know about everything. If you are not ok
Kelvin flinched as if he had been hit. He was taken aback, “What do you mean by I’m still meeting Hannah behind your back?”“Why was Hannah in that restaurant? What was she even doing in that country when she had no jobs there?” She has already gone too far to stop. Might as well just confront him about it.“Are you asking me? How am I supposed to know,” he was surprised by her question.“How are you supposed to know?” Ariella asked with a sneer, “Do you want to tell me that if we check it, we won’t find out that the both of you left this country together and in the same plane or maybe a different one so that nobody will see you guys together and post the picture online,”“Ariella, before you hurl accusations at me, you should think carefully about it,”“What is there to think carefully about? Are you or are you not still meeting with Hannah behind my back then coming to tell me to not worry about her even when she came to your house to threaten me to stay away from you and claiming t
Kelvin calmly walked inside her room, dressed in a black long sleeved shirt tucked in dark pants. His hair was gelled and slicked back, exposing his handsome face. Ariella could not help it, she lost focus as she continued to stare at him.“You are not done?” Kelvin asked as he watched her hair come down on her face.“Uhm, sorry but I’m not dressed yet. I thought you were Maria,” Ariella gave an awkward laugh as she caught herself. She glanced at the door hoping that Maria would come in and save the moment but Maria was nowhere to be found.Kelvin gave her a slow smile, “I can wait. We are not in a hurry. We can leave anytime you are done, so take your time.”“Alright,” Ariella continued to look at him, expecting him to walk out so she could continue to arrange her hair, but he just stood there and continued to watch her with dark eyes.“What?” Kelvin asked with raised brows when she continued to look at him without making any moves to arrange her hair that was all over her face.He r
Seeing Ariella again was euphoric he decided to ask that they go on a walk. He was glad when for the first time she opened up to him and they talked. He was supposed to always be around after that time but his friends and business partners found out he was around, they all wanted to catch up and also talk business with him so he became so busy.He did not know which was worse, conducting business he did not plan for or hearing that Arialla was still sleeping when he was leaving in the morning or that she had gone to bed by the time he woke up.The day he was finally free, he had to take her to the hospital because of her swollen feet and the fact that he mistakenly made her slip and fall in the bathing tub. He did not have much to complain about because he got to see her naked for the first time. Well, it was not supposed to be the first time but their first time together, though it was wonderful, he did not see her naked body and thought she was someone else. That one does not count
Realizing just how close they were to each other, Arialla jerked back but that was a mistake on her part because she stepped on her dress with her high heels and stumbled backward. Her eyes widened in horror and her hands shot out to look for something to grab and she ended up grabbing the lapels of his jacket at the same time his hand wrapped around her waist and he drew her to her former position. Only this time she was closer. The only space between them was the one created by her baby bump.Kelvin brought his head down until his lips were closed to her ear, “What are you trying to do? You were going to hurt yourself. Why are you running away?” Her hot breath fanned her ear and she could not help but shiver.“I’m not running away,” her voice was low and less audible“Could have fooled me,” his mouth brushed her against her ear as he spoke and Kelvin could not resist the urge to close his teeth around the soft flesh.Ariella’s hold on his jacket tightened as his sharp teeth sank i
“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