The betrayal

|Aria’s POV|

It was Gabriella, my step-sister!

There are moments when you feel your life turning over for the worse and all you can just do is watch it happen, your tongue becomes tied and you suddenly can’t do anything but remain frozen. For me, that time is now.

As I stood in Ace's office, Gabriella wore nothing but a towel, her eyes locked on Ace with unnerving familiarity. Every second felt like a spear piercing my heart. 

A strangled sob escaped my lips as I staggered backwards, my whole body stiffened, and the event continued to replay in my head.

Memories flooded my mind: Gabriella and her mother infiltrating our lives, manipulating my father's grief after my mother's tragic fall. The staircase accident still lingered, an open wound.

“Aria..” Ace’s voice pierced the silence, popping the bubble. My eyes washed over him and slid to my step-sister, unsure of who to blame.

“What? Why?” I croaked out, after recovering myself from the partial dumbness that enveloped me. She and her evil mother had already succeeded in poisoning my father’s mind against me. The old man doesn't even want to see me and now she wants to take my husband?

I didn’t wait for a second, I didn't think about the consequence of what would happen as I did what I know how to do best, RUN. My heels clacked against the marble floor as I shoved Ace out of my way, eager to get away from them before I did what I would regret.

My face grew red as I rushed out of the office and met with the secretary who gave me a sympathetic look.

 I frantically clicked the buttons of the elevator to get out of this place as the pain slowly consumed me. The elevator door clicked close as I bent down, wrapping my arms around myself as the tightness in my chest increased. I let the tears fall slowly, realising that the marriage was no longer redeemable.

I rushed out of the elevator hurriedly, my head down as I tried to leave the building undetected. 

Opening the car door, I whispered defeatedly “Jared, please take me home.” 

My head spun, tears threatening to resurface again as I thought about how I had been so stupid and delusional. I had always known Ace wouldn’t fall in love due to the situation surrounding our marriage.

The betrayal hit deep as I realized that I had wasted almost three and a half years of my life trying to do nothing but please Ace.

As Jared stepped on the accelerator, painful memories assaulted me;

Ace’s words during my pregnancy echoed in my mind. “Just take care of my heir. You do not need to work.” I had devoted myself to him, oblivious to the emptiness in our marriage.

How could I be so blind to all of these? Love is the best thing and the worst thing that can happen to someone. 

I sat absent-mindedly for the next God knows when. My whole mind was disoriented.

But from the change of scenery and how the buildings passed in blurs outside the window, I knew we had been driving for a while.

‘Ace, why…?’

‘And my sister???’

The betrayal cut so deep that I rubbed my chest to reduce the ache.

Muttering silently so as not to startle me, Jared whispered. “Ma’am we are here.” 

I stumbled out of the car as I felt sickness hit the back of my throat and the sandwich I had eaten earlier threatened to resurface, so I rushed inside the mansion, slamming the guest restroom door open. 

After throwing what was left in my stomach into the cold porcelain, with hazy eyes, I made my way to the closest living room and  I slumped on the sofa, thinking about what next to do with my life.

A lump formed in my throat as I realized what leaving the marriage was. It means separation. 

Going back to my father was not an option because I am sure no father would love to accept that his daughter slept with his business partner and got divorced. After all, I got pregnant and was about to tarnish his reputation.

My heartbeat accelerated when a ding reverberated in the room, my hopes high that he was going to reach out to me and tell me it was a prank and that he was willing to reconsider. I hurriedly tapped on his chat icon as his message popped up.

My chest grew heavy as each word I read felt like the words were being carved into my heart with a very blunt knife. Ace's message appeared.

“Get your things and leave my house.” 

My voice croaked as I sent him a voice message with a glimmer of hope. 

“Ace, I am willing to forgive you for cheating with my sister. Please let’s reconsider this. We can’t end this way. I know you might not admit it but we love each other.” 

I paced around the room staring at my screen and seeing the three grey bubbly dots appear, anticipation building in my chest.

“You love me. It’s not a mutual thing, It is one-sided. And there is no ‘we’ anymore. It has never been ‘we’.” I read out loud.

“You do not understand. You can’t be loved. You fail at everything. You had three years to make me fall in love with you and you failed. You even failed at keeping your baby alive.” He continued.

I flinched as the texts echoed in my head, like a bell on a Sunday morning. With shaky hands and a pounding heart, I reread the paper again.

 A scoff of disbelief escaped my lips when I saw the part where he allocated 40% of his fortune to me, I slashed out that part while writing an Uppercase “Go to hell with your fortune”. 

His signature was sitting proudly on the divorce letter like it was a billion-dollar deal.

Without wasting more of my time on the heartless monster, I shoved a few clothes into the suitcase. Eager to leave this place that was making my skin crawl, I looked at the interior and was proud of my choice. However, I despise that I made this a home for us and he couldn’t even find a room for me in his heart.

“Signora, you’re leaving. Make sure to keep in touch.” Elena sniffled. 

My eyes stung as I remembered how much I was really head over heels for Ace. I learned how to cook his favourite dishes just to please him but now that I realized, he had never complimented any of the dishes even though he knew I was always putting in effort and I craved his validation.

“I need to. I will miss you.” I croaked out as I untangled myself from her embrace.

I don’t know what the future holds for me and  I simply don’t know what I would do but there was one thing I was sure of, more than ever. Walking out of Ace Kings’s life.

With a heavy and shattered heart, I walked out of Ace King's house, out of his life with absolutely no idea of where to go.