Chapter 22 Broken Bonds
When he was gone, Arabella stumbled on her steps and was about to fall from dread and pain of his accusation but was helped by William.
Facing her to him, his thumb moved gently, noticing how her breaths hastened and struggled to diminish her dismal.
“Are.. are you okay?” He asked worriedly.
Nodding weakly, she removed his hands and averted her gaze, gulping the sob suffocating her with Luke’s words repeating in her mind painfully.
“Yeah… I anticipated this much.. Can-can I go to the room?”
“If you are not comfortable, I can take a day off and stay with you too,” He offered sweetly.
She truly needed that, praying he wouldn't leave her alone in this mansion along with Luke.
“Will you?”
“Yes,”
“I am frightened, William. W-Why is he reacting like this? Says himself too that I have become a headache and is now placing all the blame on me,” She whispered weakly, sniffing to suppress her pain.
Her fingers unknowingly clutched his coat that increased his heart rate.
Drying his throat as he stared at the small woman, gripping onto him.
“Why would he react happily after talking about marriage with you? Wouldn’t that make him a hypocrite?”
He trailed off, eyes solely connected to her hands, pulling his coat with tears coating her eyelids.
“Yeah…”
“That bastard, how dare he accuse me? How professionally he placed the blame on me,”
She whimpered, lips shaking when he easily discarded their years of love by doubting her.
“Everyone knows that I have given my everything to our relationship, that I did all he told me without hesitation, that I was all his…”
Failing to carry the heaviness, she ended up sobbing, lowering her head, ashamed of her choices at this point.
“And just to get rid of me, he… he.. and to think I ended up loving a man like him…”
“Hey, hey, don’t cry. It’s going to be alright. Time will heal all scars, every pain, he will be fine,” William reassured, wiping her tears with his handkerchief.
Lifting her chin with his index finger softly, easing her ache to not pay heed to the words he spoke in spur of wrath, that he might not mean it.
“Why did he accuse me? When did I even look at you?” She whispered, “After our relationship?”
Suppressing her sobbing by covering her mouth and pulling away from him.
“If he knows then I want him to tell me too, I would love to know,”
William whispered back, tugging her hair behind her ear affectionately, “Let’s go to our room, it’s going to be alright, I am here for you,”
She nodded, not wanting to spend a second in his shadow too and hear further allegations he might use to agonize her.
William almost brought his hand to pat her back but stopped and opened the door of their room instead, forcing a feeble smile.
“I will try to talk to him. You stay in the room for now if Luke sees you… He will be mad,”
“Okay…”
He had never done anything that could break his heart but since he lost his ability to perceive anything beyond ‘Arabella’, he completed his longing.
But- at what cost?
Losing his own brother? By becoming a self-centered one before everyone?
They barely passed the time where tension lingered.
One could feel the thick tension dispersed in the once gleeful home, desolation reaching its core.
And in William’s room, Arabella was sitting on his bed while he was on the couch, rubbing his temples to think about what to do next.
She was staring blankly at the ground, questioning the path she had chosen and to amplify her worry, her phone rang and it was Helena.
“W-William,”
Fretfully calling him, her throat dried in apprehension.
“Hmm?”
He immediately reacted, turning all his attention towards her.
“Helena is calling.. What should I do?”
“You have to pick it up.” He whispered, coming near her, gesturing to her to put it on speaker.
Arabella shook her head in denial, fearing Helena’s reaction but knowing she must, William attended the call.
“H-Hello?”
Helena asked seriously, “Is it true that you have married William?”
“Helena, listen, Luke said he w-” She tried to justify.
“Just answer, Arabella. Did you marry William?” She growled, pain visible through her tone.
Closing her eyes in defeat with a tear, she breathed out.
“...Yes,”
And her confirmation made Helena lose her mind, with wrath at its extreme, she yelled through the speaker.
“HOW COULD YOU!?”
“If you wanted to break up with my brother, why not with someone else!? Why William!?”
“Luke said he won’t… marry me,” She murmured in a composed tone.
Hoping Helena would understand or at least listen to her side of the story too but to no avail.
“So you married William instead? Were that desperate to be in our household huh? Or are you just another gold-digger?” She hissed, refusing to believe in anything.
“Don’t say this, Helena, please,” Arabella’s voice broke.
“Do you have any idea what a wall you've built between them now!? How can you be so selfish, Bella!? What have you done!?”
With shame collecting in her heart, Helena’s words threw reality on her account which she almost discarded due to William’s confession.
And what position of hers can be created before the world makes her quiver.
Her chest constricted when the result of her actions were thrown towards her.
“Luke aside, you didn’t think about me!? What the hell was wrong with you!?”
Helena continued, breaking into a sob as well, completely disheartened with her actions that ruined her happy family.
Controlling slipped as well and Arabella growled.
“Yes, I didn’t think about anything, Helena, I lost my mind and did what I considered right!”
“What right? Separating two brothers seemed right to you!?”
Helena cried when everything was stumbling.
Her brothers, her friendship, everything was fragmenting and unable to save the pieces of the shattered bond, Helena yelled.
“Breaking a family seemed right to you!? How could you forget our years of friendship over a petty matter!?”
Soon all of it dropped to her core like a deadly poison, leaving her stunned, lost, dismayed limitlessly as tears spilled when Helena sobbed, she ended up wailing as well.
“Helena, listen to me, please-”
“There is nothing left to listen about, Arabella, you have seriously disappointed me again,”
“No, no, no, please don’t say this-”
“…I never thought you would do this, I thought you promised,” She whispered wretchedly.
Lowering her head in shame, she listened, those words causing a disruption in her mind but there was nothing to be done about it.
“I have always thought of you as a sister and you…” Helena sniffed, hoping to stop her cries but couldn’t.
“You proved you are just as everyone said about you, selfish, fame and money seeking woman,”
“I am sorry, I am so sorry, Hele-”
She yelled furiously, “Your sorry can’t fix anything, dammit!”
Before she could justify or plead with her friend to not resent her, without listening to anything, Helena furiously cut the call, pushing Arabella towards depression.