Chapter 2 : I don't want to divorce you

"What happened?" he said, voice hoarse from unuse.

He didn't actually sleep.

He pretended to sleep after he pulled her in his arms just so she'd relax with him.

He knew that from the moment they got married, his little star was getting further and further away from her, and he knew it's because of someone who was instigating his wife behind his back, but he couldn't find out who.

He had a vague notion, but her wife trusted that woman so much, so he tried to pass that thought as nothing.

However, he found himself sure about it after today.

He heard that snake woman tell his wife over the phone how he's all over the girls in the party when it was the women who threw themselves at him shamelessly at that woman's instigation. When he went home, he found his wife hysterical in pain from being betrayed, and there was nothing he could think to say, not with the drug fed to him at the party.

That Jasmine was planning to drug-rape him and then make his wife misunderstood them more, but fortunately, Jason, one of his friends saw Jasmine put something on his drink before she handed it to him. Unfortunately, he already drank half of the glass when Jason got to him, so he immediately excused himself from the party and went home.

He found his wife crying and accusing him of things he didn't do, he couldn't understand half of what she's saying but he knew that they were not true and they were only lies made up by Jasmine, banking on his wife's low self-esteem.

He tried to hug her but he was pushed away and for a moment, he couldn't pull himself up so he just laid there. He saw his wife look down at him worriedly and he knew, then and there, that she still must have loved him.

If not, she wouldn't have cried that badly for his supposed betrayal yet couldn't stop herself from worrying at the slightest idea that he could be hurt.

And he swore again to the heavens that he'd protect her.

He'd take out that poisonous woman out of their lives and then they could live happily as he knew she'd dreamed about since they were young.

They were introduced at a party held at their villa. Her parents were looking for business partners and potential suitor for their little girl. They were only fifteen back then, but he knew she was the one when he felt his heart thump wildly from his chest when she saw her figure glowing under the moonlight like an elf or a fairy from another universe.

He introduced himself to her and asked if he could call her 'Star' as, "The stars in the sky probably decided to hide when they saw you, as you would probably outshone them all" is what he said to her back then.

She agreed with a laugh back then, not believing him yet finding his humour flattering.

He went home that day and told his parents to cooperate with the Stuarts and offer a marriage arrangement for him and the Stuart's only daughter.

His father made him promise to a lot of things before he finally made them agree - only to find out later that they have already started a proposal to the Stuarts back at the party when they found out that him and Alice were the same age.

He loved Daisy Stuart before he even understood what love was, and it just grew as time passed by.

From wanting to protect her to wanting to give her everything.

When she was choosing majors for College, he told her that she could do whatever she wants and he would be her pillar in the future, even if the sky falls, he'd be behind all of her decisions.

He was surprised and his heart warmed with affection when a week after she told him that she took up Economics, it is so she could help him should he need her.

She told him that as his wife-to-be, she needed to be able to stand beside him to hold his hand as they get through life and not be a vase that he'd catch if it suddenly fell.

She didn't want to be a burden.

However, he just wanted her to live peacefully beside him. So, instead of asking her help, he took everything upon himself to make both companies rise to the top as soon as he took over. Even the company her father held out for her, he kneeled down in front of his in-laws just so they wouldn't bother her to take over and let him do all the 'dirty work' as she lived her life.

Her parents doted on her so much growing up that they didn't even blink when they gave him the company -- and maybe, that's where everything went south.

At that time, he already had an idea that his wife was having issues with him but he was just so busy, with the additional company, he couldn't find time to just sit down with her and ask her all about her worries one by one.

He swore he'd protect her, but then they've reached this point.

Six months turned to Three years and now he knew that the inevitable must happen.

He must let her go so she could cool down.

He was positive that they would find their way back to each other, even if he had to force the fate themselves.

But first, he had to make her feel that she's absolutely free to choose.

He needs to make her feel that not once in their life before or after marriage has he ever restrained her from living, nor did he ever want her to feel inferior to him.

He wanted her to look into herself and find the strong woman he knew she was and by the way, take out the poisonous woman beside her by keeping that woman occupied with lots of work until she resigns herself and move further away from them.

He wouldn't date to touch that woman right now, as he knew that his wife trust that woman so much and not a day passed by that he wished he knew her first, so he could make her wary of that woman spitting poison at her unknowingly.

He broke out from his thoughts when he heard another choked sob coming from her direction and slowly opened his eyes.

He saw the pain and regret in her eyes and he steeled himself, waiting for the inevitable.

In three years since they married, this is the first time that they shared a bed, and if everything went according to his plan, it could be the last in a long time, so he braced himself to the oncoming pain, but then he heard her soft voice and he melted candle under fire when he heard her say:

"I don't want to divorce you."