With any more interruptions from Mariam, Ariella explained the remaining things to her, down to Kelvin coming home. She told her in detail about Kelvin going to meet her mother and then signing the contract and getting married, and how he was always accompanying her to every checkup.“I don’t know, but he sounds like a nice guy who was raised by a good woman. How did he end up with a devil like Hannah?” Mariam asked with a shake of her head.“They met when he was younger and Hannah is gorgeous so it’s not a surprise.”“Well, you are very beautiful yourself, so I think the both of you can go to war over him.”“No way. I’m not doing that. I’m leaving after I give birth to my child.” Kelvin may be nice but he does not want her, and she does not want him either. They both have an agreement to go their separate ways. No way was she going to let his mother and Mariam take her into staying. She could never stay or survive in a loveless marriage, and it would affect the baby too. What if he
The two friends quickly moved on to talking about other things, carefully avoiding the topic of Ariella’s pregnancy. Mariam could see that her friends were getting distressed from talking about it and her many questions. Even if she was not happy with the situation her friend finds herself in, it already happened and Ariella did what she did for her mother.She’s also done some bad things in the past because she needed to cater for her siblings. Things he could not talk about and was not brave enough to tell Ariella because she did not want to be judged. To Mariam, Ariella was brave for wanting to keep her child and she was glad that her friend was wise enough to get the baby’s father who was rich involved, not minding that he was Hannah’s boyfriend. Hannah caused everything anyway so it was not Ariella’s fault.Mariam was glad that the baby’s father was someone they could reach easily. What if she’s been some random man? What would her friends have done? It was hard enough to care
“Oh good lord, why today of all days.” Mariam groaned in a low tone for only Ariella to hear. Ariella did not even have the opportunity to react or recover from her surprise at seeing Hannah here when she began to talk.“Where have you been all these days, Ariella? I’ve been looking for you everywhere and your manager told me you left the modeling industry for good.” Her words sounded mocking to Ariella, but to other people it sounded like she was concerned about Ariella.“I was shocked and asked him why you decided to leave suddenly, and he said he has no answer to that. You did not tell me about it, Ariella, and I thought we were friends.” Now, Hannah sounded aggrieved, like she’s been wrong, it made anger begin to rise in Ariella’s heart. Why was Hannah pretending? “We always talk about everything, but you took such a big step without telling me. I even thought you got in trouble or something. Seems like I was worrying for nothing because you look absolutely fine to me and even ha
Mariam could not take it. Her eyes turned red with hot anger, “Stop being a bitch, Hannah. You and I both know the true story of why Ariel’s has been avoiding you. Good friend?” Mariam scoffed, “What good friend would send her friend to…”“Mariam!” Arielle yelled her friend's name with wide eyes, stopping Mariam from angrily spewing out what should be kept a secret.Mariam slammed her mouth shut and could only glare at Hannah who was now smelling at her knowing fully well that they wouldn't be able to defend themselves. They could not possibly say the truth out in front of everyone. Not only would it paint Arielle in a bad light, everyone would know that she slept kelvin. Hannah could still turn the story in her favor anyway and deny it. Everyone would believe Hannah because they regarded her as their queen in the modeling industry.“What? Where did I send her to? Go one, tell us?” Hannah said as she stretched her hand wide, “I’ve always been good to Ariella. Helping her get jobs in
They ended up crashing at Mariam’s house because, according to Ariella, she’s been feeling suffocated in Kelvin’s big mansion and staying out for a long time would do her some good. What Ariella did not plan on was falling asleep on Mariam's couch while they were watching a movie at eight at night. Mariam could not carry her to bed and her couch was soft and comfortable enough, so she just covered Ariella with a thick blanket and went to her room. She joined Ariella in the dreamland as soon as her head hit her pillow. Ariella was feeling groggy and disoriented when she first opened her eyes at the first stroke of dawn. She’s gotten used to sleeping on the bed in her room at Kelvin’s house. It was softer and larger than this couch she was laying on, so she was quick to recognize that she was not at his house. She also wasn’t in the house she lived in with her mother before she got pregnant and had to move. What first came to her mind as she was still laying on the couch was that
Ariella’s eyes dropped to the mess she made in the sink with the tissue paper, but that was the least of her concern. Her breathing was coming out with difficulty, and she felt like she was soon going to have a heart attack. Why can’t her life go smoothly even if for once in her entire existence? Why must everything be fucked up? Hannah being angry at her and trying to take it out on her because of Kelvin’s abandonment only meant that she needed to go back to her former routine of staying indoors and only coming out to visit her mother at the hospital and when she needed to go for her checkups that Kelvin magically finds time to go for with her. Her hand moved to clutch her heart through her chest as she ironed her mouth, trying to take in gulps of air to open up her lungs since her nose was no longer working well. At first, it was still the same and her chest remained close up but as she kept repeating the process, things changed and at last she felt her lungs open up and fresh ai
Ariella brought her hand up to her forehead. Mariam noticed it and her distraught expression. She cocked her head to the side with a frown, “Are you alright?”Ariella shot her a look, “We left Kelvin’s driver outside last night. Do you think he waited until this morning?”“Eh?” Mariam looked confused for a minute before she finally caught up, “You asked him to leave last night, he refused. Him staying overnight has nothing to do with you.”“Stop acting heartless. He was only doing his job.” Ariella scolded.“Good thing you know that he was just doing his job. It’s a nice and big car, big enough to contain him. I’m sure he had a good sleep.”“You are impossible.” Ariella groaned before she turned to walk out of the kitchen while arranging her hair with her fingers. She moved to the door of the house, ignoring Mariam who was following behind her.“Where are you going?” Mariam asked Ariella when she began to move in the direction of the building’s elevator.“To check on him, stupid.” Ari
Arialla froze and her eyes widened a little as she looked down at Maria. “Kelvin was home last night?”Maria nodded, “Of course, he was home last night and was also worried.”Ariella did not know if Maria was trying to get her boss into her good books or not.“I did not know he would be coming home last night.”“Nothing to worry about. He was happy that you decided to spend some time with your friend.”“Hmm.” That was the only response she could give before she began to walk in the direction of tnt stairs that led to her too.“Eh, Ariella,” Mariam called behind, stopping arialla from placing her foot on the first stairs.She turned back to look at the older woman, “Yes, Maria?” Maria looked like she did not want to speak but needed to do so, “There’s a little video of you that’s been circulating the internet since last night.”Arialla already had an idea, in fact she knew what this video was already but she still went ahead to ask, “What video?”“A video of the little confrontation y
“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