“A divorce… a divorce… a divorce…” I kept stuttering to myself.
The glass doors banged together, signifying that he was gone. “A divorce?” I whispered and a bitter teardrop fell off my rheumy eyes. I took in a sharp deep breath to cool my burning lungs and prevent myself from knocking out of a conscious state. Sharp movements from the kitchen startled me. I’m sure it was Mrs. Joyce, she heard every bit of the argument I had with Caleb. I staggered to my feet and slowly gripped the hem of my dress. I shut my eyes and avoided the pictures on the wall, I couldn’t bear to glance at my smiling face on the frame. It felt like poison, a poison I couldn’t elude. I staggered up to the bedroom and collapsed into the bed, tossing and turning in deep grief and pain. How many hours passed after that terrific moment? I couldn’t tell. I hardly glanced at the clock fixed on the cream-colored wall. All I knew was that I fell into a deep sleep that helped to keep me sane for a few hours until a warm hand shook me up. I gasped and sprang out of bed, heaving heavily. Mrs. Joyce backed away in fright. “Are you okay, ma’am ?” I looked around the room, my heart pounding heavily in my chest, almost bursting out. “Sherry, I saw my baby,” I cried and hugged Mrs. Joyce. Mrs. Joyce stiffened. She has been Caleb’s nanny since he was still little, she was quite familiar with me due to my frequent visits to the McArthur family when I was still a little girl. “Dear… dear, it’s okay,” she cooed. “I saw her, she was calling me mummy. She was calling out to me for help but I couldn’t reach her. I’m such a disappointment,” I whimpered. “It’s just a dream, you’ll feel better soon.” I shook my head and wouldn’t let Mrs. Joyce go. “Stay with me, please,” I begged. Mrs. Joyce smiled ruefully and nodded. “Of course.” She held my hand tightly till I fell into another sleep. I felt myself being taken to another world. I jerked up from sleep again but didn’t find myself in my room, I was in the woods. “Mrs. Joyce?” I muttered, wondering how I got to the woods. “Mrs. Joyce?” I called out again. I got to my feet and padded around the faintly illuminated forest in vain, unable to find my way out. “Mrs. Joyce? Who is here?” I screamed. “Mummy!” I stiffened as that shrill voice rang through my head. “Mummy!” It wasn’t a hallucination, I was sure of what I heard. I spun around and my eyes widened when I spotted my angel standing a few feet away from me. “Sherry,” I whispered and sprinted towards her. As I stretched my hands to touch her face, she disappeared into thin air. It felt like she had never been there. “Sherry!!” I screamed and ran madly around the woods. “Sherry!” I kept screaming and running. I tried to stop but my body wouldn’t yield to my command. My head swirled in circles and I slumped to the ground. I gasped for air as I felt my body contracting. “Mummy?” she is here again. I snapped my eyes open and struggled to my feet, I looked around and discovered that I was at the end of the woods. I ran madly to places I had never been before. Minutes later, I found myself on a sidewalk filled with people. Her voice came again, shooting into my brain and blowing up my mind, setting it on fire. I held my head and screamed. A hand touched my shoulder. “Are you okay?” a gentle sweet voice whispered into my ear. I shook off the hand and raced along the sidewalk, searching for sherry. She wasn’t dead! Sherry was alive and was calling out for me. “Mummy!” I stopped running and swerved my head in the direction of the voice. My jaws dropped, my eyeballs popped out and my blood froze up as I stared at Sherry. She was holding her favorite red teddy bear, standing in the middle of the road. I felt my arteries stop functioning as a car sped towards her. Sherry didn’t care about the speeding car, her pale blue eyes were fixed on mine. “Sherry!” I screamed and ran off into the road without a second thought. I made a mistake once, and I won’t make that mistake again. I reached Sherry and grabbed her, but I was rooted in shock when I opened my hands and couldn’t find her beside me. She was gone like she never came. “Sherry.” Screams echoed around me from people but I was more focused on finding my daughter. Tires screeched, screams pierced the air and my feet gave way to the ground as pain shot through my body. I shrieked and felt my body grow numb. “She has been hit!” “Move away!” “Give her some space!” Words swirled around me and jumbled up to gibberish sounds. Everything became unclear and stupid. I was lying in a pool of blood, I couldn’t discern whom the blood belonged to. My heart skipped a beat as I prayed weakly that it wouldn’t turn out to be Sherry’s blood. I was relieved when I peeked at a distance and saw Sherry, she was looking unhurt. Pain squeezed out of my heart when I saw a teardrop fall from her eyes. Sherry was alive, and me? I couldn’t tell as darkness whisked me away from the sunny afternoonMy eyes slowly snapped open and took in the blinding light rays radiating into the unfamiliar room. I wheezed as the smell of antiseptics swung past my broken nose. “Do you think that act you put on will make me change my mind concerning the divorce?” That was Caleb’s scornful voice. I cranked my head to the opposite side of the direction of his voice. “You better sign the papers, you have until tomorrow,” he grumbled annoyingly. I heard his feet grudgingly shuffle towards the door. I’m sure that the man beside me is not Caleb, he can never be this irritating. Why the hell is he doing this to me? Tears threatened to start a new course but I breathed it in as my mind swung over to Sherry. Perhaps, if he finds out that Sherry is still alive, he will drop the childish behavior. “I saw Sherry,” that was the only reply I gave him. The shuffle stopped and a dead silence fell over the room and lasted for killing minutes. “What did you say?” he finally breathed out, di
She stirred but quickly composed herself and nodded. “Of course.” She walked out of the room in search of a pen. I reached into the drawer and fetched out the papers that Mrs. Joyce had earlier hidden in the drawer from my sight. I flipped through the pages, sniffing. His signature has already been placed, mine was the only one required to officially make us ‘exes’ Gruesomely, my watery eyes scanned the terms of the divorce. I chuckled when I noticed the alimony offered if I accepted the divorce. I had to re-read the papers more than three times before every bit of it sunk in. I was getting a divorce. I was getting a divorce with Caleb. After all my sacrifices and selfishness, I ended up losing him. I sighed and chuckled sadly, the chuckle rose into a horrific laugh that left me choking on my breath. “We are finally getting a divorce, Caleb!” I yelled and laughed, swinging my hair into disarray. The door swung open and Mrs. Joyce scampered into the room, looking mort
Obsessed? Yes, that was what I was. I was obsessed, madly in love with a man who never cared an ounce about me. Should I be happy that the death of Sherry liberated Caleb? If I were to choose between losing Sherry to grant Caleb’s freedom or having both of them subdued in my obsessive claws forever, which would I choose? A tear dropped from my eyes as I stared at the street I drive through every day. A street I don’t think I will ever visit again. “Wait,” I called out to the chauffeur and he decelerated the car, craning his head to glance at me. “Take me to Caleb’s family Villa.” I need to visit his parents. Leaving like that without a word from me will seem disrespectful Though, I never shared a good relationship with his family, especially his mom, they are still people that I cherish and respect. I can’t just walk away like nothing happened. They need to know about the divorce too. I rested my head on the headrest as the chauffeur swerved to the right, heading to
Caleb looked shocked to find me in his parent’s house. His well-pointed nose flared and his grey eyes darkened as he balled his fist. He must have thought I came to cry about the divorce from his parents. I sighed, and put on my sunglasses. “I have signed the divorce papers, your parents will tell you the rest,” I said. “Huh?” Caleb muttered, his eyes widening in shock. “Goodbye,” I mumbled and walked out of the house. I felt Caleb’s eyes on my back as I disappeared into the garage. The chauffeur opened the car door and I got in, sighing repeatedly. I faced Caleb without fear or intimidation. We are no longer couples, we are exes. Caleb is no longer the boy I fell in love with, he is no longer the guy I shared my first passionate kiss with. Caleb is my ex. “Where do we go?” the chauffeur asked, interrupting my thoughts. “Take me to the cemetery.” He nodded and ignited the car. My eyes lingered on their building as the car rolled away. I remembe
CALEB The music from the speaker drowned my friends’ squabbling. I sighed for the umpteenth, ruffling my hair in confusion. I made her leave, though, I know I made the right decision, I was finally free from her. But, why don’t I feel relaxed and happy? I should be drinking and chatting with my friends, but, here I am, sitting obscurely away from them. “Hey, Caleb, what’s wrong with you?” Kim asked, waving his hands across my face. I sighed and forced myself to draw closer to them. Julius and Casper ended their childish squabble, their eyes bored into me, expecting an answer that I didn’t know how to give. Julius is engaged, though it’s a marriage allegiance between his family and Sophie, but he never seems to have a problem with it, as far as his numerous affairs don’t affect their relationship. Casper is still single, but not searching or ready to settle down. He’s a dangerous flirt. I can’t count how many times I have caught him flirting with Rosy while we w
5 years later ROSY The customized shrill ringtone of my phone blared out, making me snap my eyes open. I groaned, wondering who was distorting my blissful sleep. I propped up on an elbow and scrambled for my phone which repeatedly kept ringing in the drawer. I dug it out of the pile of books filled up in the drawer, and glanced at the screen, half awake. “Evan?” I muttered. A smile crept into my face as the name flashed back and forth on the screen. Taking a deep breath, I accepted the call and placed the phone on my ear, waiting to hear the enchanting voice of my fiancé. “Honey, still sleeping?” his assiduous voice boomed into my ear. “Ugh huh,” I muttered in reply. He chuckled lightly and my cheeks heated up. “I’m thinking of coming over for breakfast, what do you say?” Evan asked. The heat on my face intensified at the mention of ‘breakfast’. I knew what Evan’s breakfast was like, it always comes with a lot of hot make-outs and kissing.
ROSY The receiver dropped from my shaky hands. My heartbeat increased, it felt like my heart would explode from my chest soon. I gasped, staggered back and almost fell to the ground. Evan caught me by my waist and led me to a couch. My body shivered in fright, I felt like I would die the next minute. Even though my father and I never had a daughter-and-father relationship. I still love him so much. Is everything going to be alright? Is my dad safe? Different negative thoughts ran through my head. “I need to head back to Sicily. I can’t spend a minute here any longer.” I sprang up before Evan could try to stop me. In a mad dash, I headed into my room and ran to my wardrobe, dragging out some of the clothes in it. I flung out a suitcase and started piling the clothes into the suitcase. “You should take it easy, don’t rush too much. You might end up hurting yourself,” Evan spoke up behind me. “I’m fine,” I snapped huskily, dumping the last batch of clot
I stood, dazed, as I glared at Karen. “What do you mean? Emma is coming back?” I snapped. “Are you deaf or something?” Karen snapped back, rolling her eyes in disgust. I sighed and slumped into a chair. Why does she have to come back Emma is my younger sister, my stepsister to be precise. Emma is just like her mother, pretentious and vicious. She is the most terrifying being I have ever come across in my entire life. It was never a tag-along for Emma and me, her mom did a fantastic job of poisoning her mind against me. “Soon, Emma will be the chief director of the Connor Foundation and also the CEO of the Connor group of companies.” Karen chuckled, narrowing her eyes at me. A surge of anger washed through me as I glared at her. How dare she wish for that in this delicate situation? Have she no remorse for my dad? A feeling of raw hatred sprang up inside of me. I didn’t care about causing a scene any longer. I felt like ripping off her hair from her scalp. “You’