Great Despair

"Hello. Is Forrest Riverdale here?"

Christen's eyes widened at the question that came out of this visitor's mouth. Who was this person? Why was she here at her doorway? She certainly didn't look like an advertiser with the fancy clothes she was wearing. More importantly, why was she asking about Forrest? No, even more so... Who was she to just call him by his given name?

"Um... Did I ask a bit too low or something?" she asked, snapping Christen out of her thoughts.

"S-Sorry, uh... Who are you?" she asked.

"Kiara," came a response. Not from the visitor, but from Forrest, who followed Christen to see who was at the door.

Christen was quite shocked to see her husband out in the halls, but not as much as she was to hear him call this visitor's name... and see a smile on his face. Forrest was never one to show any sort of emotion before. Not on the day of their wedding, nor on any of their 'outings'. Why, she's never even seen him have a neutral smile on his face when speaking to his employees or business partners. How come he was smiling to this lady at their house?

"Kiara. What brings you here?" Forrest asked the guest, walking up to her while brushing Christen aside, much to the latter's increasing bafflement.

"I forgot to return your handkerchief to you before I left the car. I wanted to bring it back as soon as I could," Kiara answered, as she pulled out a familiar handkerchief from her person. One Christen recognized, as it was the one she made for him for their first anniversary.

"What, you came all the way here for that? You really didn't need to. I have more than enough of those," Forrest told her.

Christen looked at him with a hurt expression in her eyes. The way he said that... It sounded as though he had bought a cheap handkerchief. He knew she made that one, right? That she didn't make any other but that one... Right?

"I know. But I still wanted to come here, anyway," Kiara told him, getting a bit too close and friendly with Forrest, causing the smile on his face to grow.

"Even though we already had dinner out?" he asked.

Christen was already feeling her stomach drop with everything she was seeing and hearing so far, but to hear that her husband ate with this suspicious woman?! How was she supposed to feel from that?

"F-Forrest," she spoke with a stutter, causing him to lose his smile, as he looked at her coldly, which in turn made

her jump.

“Why are you still lingering around here? Don’t you have a form to sign?” he questioned her.

“But… Who is she, exactly?” Christen struggled to ask, her mind still unable to process what was happening.

“Is this the girl you said you hired as your wife?” Kiara asked Forrest.

Christen’s eyes widened at the question that came out of her mouth. The girl hired as his wife? What did she mean by that? Christen was Forrest’s wife.

“The very same one,” Forrest answered, increasing her shock.

“Wow. She truly is as plain as you said she was.”

‘Plain’? Forrest had been talking about her? Called her ‘plain’? While she would admit that she is not like other girls of her status or position, for him to call her that? To call her what others had? And not even correct this woman’s statement about her being ‘hired as his wife’?

“Isn’t she? Not that she will matter anymore. Not as soon as she gets the papers signed.”

“Why…?” Christen asked. “Forrest… The reason why you want me to sign that paper… Who… is Kiara?”

She didn’t want to hear it. Even if she was the one asking that, if the answer was what she thought it was, she didn’t want to hear it. She hoped this was nothing more than some big prank, if anything else.

Forrest let out an annoyed sigh at the question. “Are you really that slow? Even if you were different from other girls fawning over me, I didn’t think it’d be to this extent,” he said. “All right, if you really want to know. This is Kiara. My longtime lover.”

Christen’s eyes dilated in shock at the response. ‘Lover’? When? For how long? Why now was she even being told of this?

“You look like you want to know more. All right, I’ll go into details about my situation with her. It’s going to be all over the news, anyway,” Forrest continued. “I knew Kiara longer before I even founded my company. However, because of her father, we couldn’t see each other much- much less express our love for one another. It wasn’t until recently when her father and I met again that he finally gave me permission to be with the love of my life.”

Christen was finding it that much harder to breathe as she listened to his story. Especially at the last four words. They that had the most impact, as Christen felt a little lightheaded, and her vision starting to blur out of focus. “Then… Our marriage…” she breathed out.

“All but a front, of course. It wasn’t like I really wanted to marry you,” Forrest admitted. His words crushing her heart even more. “However, it was your parents who went along with the deal and gave us that extravagant wedding. All with the very money I gave them.”

At the word ‘money’, Christen thought back to when they first met. Nay, to the day they met. When her parents tried to sell her off for the betterment of their company.

“You… bought me?” It couldn’t be… Not he, who looked at her differently from everyone else.

“That is why you were there, wasn’t it? So your parents said when they offered your hand.” However indirect it was, just the confirmation of it hurt her more. “Unlike other girls- they who kept clamoring over me and gave me no personal space at all- you weren’t needy at all with anything. Even if I were to tell them to leave me be, it won’t last for long. And if I told them I already have a lover, they wouldn’t believe me without solid proof. If I was going to hire someone to be my lover, I’d rather that person respect my personal space, and act as a lover would when the situation calls for it. All until I get Kiara’s father’s approval to be with her. And as it just so happens, I actually met the very candidate. The only annoying part was that marriage your parents held for us. That made it difficult for me to explain things to him.”

The revelation was too much for Christen to follow. All this time, she tried to get his attention and win his heart like he did her’s. But that turned out to be a lost cause from the very start? All this time, she was just a fill-in?

Upon turning her blurred eyes to Kiara once more, they dilated as she finally realized why she looked so familiar. For this woman was the very same one she had been seeing Forrest with in public. As soon as she came to realize that, his words about his relationship with Kiara hit back harder than before, and she soon found herself now gazing at the floor.

‘All this time… What have I been doing?’

She wanted to say more… To try and change Forrest’s mind about their relationship somehow. But was there any point? When she never had a chance to start with? If anything, she felt as though fate was mocking her for ever thinking she could have a happy life.

The next few minutes flew by like a blur. Christen could barely recognize herself signing the divorce papers, packing up the little belongings she had soon after, and just walk away. By the time her mind had returned to reality, she found herself standing by a bridge, phone in hand. As she stared at the bridge- at the sea water below- a thought she never thought she would ever have ran through her head. Christen became frightened by it, and took a step away from the bridge. She looked back down at the phone in her hand, and dialed a number. Praying desperately that the person on the other line would-

“Christen McGuire, what the hell did you do?!” Christen was taken aback by the sudden shout on the other side.

“M-Mom… What happened?” she found herself asking.

“What happened?! We suddenly got a call from your husband- or should I say ‘ex-husband’- that he’s no longer supporting our company! That you two are now divorced! What is the meaning of this?!”

If Christen’s stomach didn’t drop before, it certainly has fallen into a deep pit now. Forrest has already called her parents about their divorce? No, not only that… Other than paying for her to be his wife, he also agreed to temporarily support her family’s company? Granted, it was not unusual for such a thing to happen, flat-out suddenly ending the contract was. Unless if it stated that the partnership was only as long as they were together.

Before Christen could explain what happened between her and Forrest, and about the woman he truly fell in love with, her mother shouted, “I don’t know what you did wrong, and I don’t care. But you better fix this, right now! Without Riverdale’s support, our company will fall into ruin! And we don’t have time to find someone else who can partner with us! Assuming if there is anyone who is willing to partner with the family of a useless daughter! Who so foolishly angered Mr. Riverdale enough to get a divorce! Go back to him, apologize for whatever mistake you’ve done, and see to it that we get our life back!”

Hearing how little her mother thought about her, reminded of what her place was in that ‘family’ she was born into, Christen hastily hung up her phone and tossed it into the waters.

‘I… What was I thinking?’ she questioned herself, falling to her knees in tears, and furiously wiping them away from her eyes. ‘What made me think my own family would ever understand me? When they don’t even see me as their own daughter.’

No one was going to help her… She should’ve long since realized that. As if there was anyone who would give a damn about her. Not her family, not any of her former classmates, not even an acquaintance she could rely on.

No one…

Tears still trailing down her cheeks, Christen looked back at the bridge. The one thought she had before resurfaced in her mind. This time, she didn’t pull away, as she got up on her feet, and walked.

‘No one is going to care about me. No one would bat an eye for someone so useless. No one… If I am to live a miserable life, why live at all?’ Such was her thoughts, as she placed her hands on the rails.

"Goodbye, world."