Regret?

Later that night, Harriet tossed and turned on her lonely bed. It was already 1am but, she couldn’t get herself to sleep no matter how hard she tried. Whenever she closed her eyes, all she could hear was Damien accusing her of cheating with none other than Adrian and also asking for a divorce.

Her eyes were red and swollen from crying throughout the whole day. She needed comfort from someone because her heart felt like it would explode but, her husband wasn’t home.

After leaving in the afternoon, he never returned home and Harriet knew that he was spending the night at Evelyn’s place.

She wasn’t surprised. This was a regular occurrence.

The next morning as Harriet sat at the breakfast table…alone as always, a strange thought came to her, one that gave her a tiny last hope.

She wanted to fight for her marriage for the last time. She thought that he must be too angry to process everything and she wanted to explain with a last-ditch effort to try and save their marriage. She needed to see him.

A few minutes later, she arrived in front of his twenty-story building company and a heavy sigh left her lips.

“You can do this, Harriet. He’ll understand.” She said and went into the company. Everyone immediately recognized her as Damien’s wife and greeted her accordingly.

“Good morning, Mrs Daniels.” Damien’s secretary greeted with a terrified look on his face.

“I want to see my husband. Please, tell him I am here.” She said with a brief smile and the man scratched the back of his head nervously, looking for a lie to tell her.

“M…mr Damien isn’t seated. He’s in a meeting and won’t be out in a few minutes.” He said and Harriet immediately sensed that he was lying. So, she walked past him and headed for Damien’s office.’

Harriet didn’t need to go in to see what was taking Damien’s time as the door to his office was left slightly open.

She peeped in and saw Evelyn James, seated on his lap while he hugged her….passionately.

The scene brought fresh tears so Harriet’s eyes and a fresh pain to her chest.

She always knew of Evelyn’s existence. They had a history. Evelyn was Damien’s girlfriend while studying. He had feelings for her but Harriet thought that it was just in the past. Damien surely kept a distance from her.

Harriet thought their marriage was the beginning of their happily ever after but that it seemed like wishful thinking only on her part.

She wanted to confront them, blaming his disloyalty, questioning if the picture was something they made up to make their love pure and innocent. But was it necessary?

Who was she kidding?

She was wrong from the very first beginning. She couldn’t just make someone love her and she shouldn’t expect he would love her and she shouldn’t expect that he would love her all of a sudden one day.

The unloved one was the loser in this drama. Maybe she was the one getting in the way of Damien and Evelyn’s happily ever after, and she was the villain in their fairytale.

Harriet felt as if she was awakened from a dream. She had never thought so clearly than ever. Deep inside, there was still a piece of her that couldn’t let go.

She loved Damien for years, how could she give up easily?

As much as she didn’t want to admit, she couldn’t lie that Damien looked happy and at peace. There was a genuine smile on his face and his eyes glowed as he stared at Evelyn. He had never been this gentle or soft with her. He never looked at her with love or even care. It was now as clear as day to Harriet.

The man was in love.

Not being able to stand the scene before her, Harriet took to her heels and ran out of the office, holding in her tears to avoid suspicions from the other workers.

“Why can’t he just love me? It’ll be so much easier.” Harriet said in pain as she sat in her car. Tears filled her eyes and slid down her cheeks, in spite of efforts to the contrary.

“I guess this it. He’ll never love me.” She calmed down, forcing herself but could only with a bitter smile.

Harriet stared unseeing at the divorce paper while the pregnancy results laid quietly in the trash can.