Chapter 74 Suffering Of Her Love
Gradually, the love that bloomed ignorant at fifteen of age was only amplified by the growing years.
Profoundly rooting into her core so she won’t be able to obliterate it ever.
Even if he won’t feel the same- she did. It was HER love to begin with so expectation of mutual feelings was pointless.
At her eighteenth birthday, her mood was smeared despite Helena’s attempts to lift her spirits and arranging a party for her.
Arabella being insecure, thought she looked bad but it was the secondary reason nor that guy ignoring her was among the list.
The real reason was-
“What happened, Bella? I have been noticing your frown at the whole party. Are you okay?” William asked when they were alone in the corridor as everyone else was wallowing in the party.
With tears blurring her vision, her head was hanging low accompanied by sorrow stacking on her chest.
Her lips trembled, gripping her elbow with an unstable condition where her emotions burst painfully.
“You weren’t there when I cut the cake, William!” She whisper-yelled.
Pressing herself against the wall for support with tears scattering on her soft cheeks.
“What?” He only showed bewilderment.
“Of all people, I wanted ‘you’ to be there for me, William!”
And with heartache doubling, she expressed the real reason behind her being gloomy on her eighteenth birthday. Covering her mouth to not get attention.
“You came so late, after cutting the cake. It broke my heart, I didn’t want your present, I wanted you to be there at my big day,”
“I.. I. Bella,”
Panicking at her displeasure, William was well aware of her attention towards him, he knew he was above in her perspective but never anticipated ‘this’ much.
“Hey, hey, are you crying?”
“No, I am not, dammit!”
Reacting quickly, he took out his handkerchief and wiped her tears carefully to not ruin her makeup.
“I-I am sorry, Bella, I-I didn’t know my presence meant this much,” He apologized sincerely, gaze softened as his heart skipped a beat.
‘Just how much do I mean to her?’ He questioned.
Earning strange feelings. Those wet tears, the yearning for him, all of it struck him.
Thick lips parted, contemplating the elegant woman’s hopelessness for him. A profound one he never experienced nor received from anyone.
And it immobilized the man, ‘How beautiful…’
“It means a lot to me and you weren’t there,” She hissed.
Hitting his chest weakly with her head hanging low, bangs covering her eyes glistening with tears.
Titling his head to get a proper glimpse, he fingers instinctively shifted to her chin, lifting it gently with an intense eyes that caged her breaths.
“But, why…?”
“Because I-” love you.
Her eyes softened, tears formed a screen. Never comprehended why those scant words required life-threatening force to escape.
Curling her lips emptily due to powerlessness, she beautifully concealed her emotions and whispered sincerely.
“I admired you so much, I looked up to you, you are my ideal and I want to be like you,”
She gulped to maintain her frontage.
“If- if you wouldn’t be there. How was I supposed to tell everyone I want to follow his footsteps?”
Parting the handkerchief from her cheek, his brows sewed into pure perplexity, tittering anxiously at the heartfelt comment.
“I genuinely had no idea about it. Okay, I knew you look up to me but I didn’t know it was this much. I am sorry, Bella, I am so sorry,”
“Are you?”
“Mhm,” He flashed a charming smile.
“Please stop making this face. I don’t want to be guilty of being the destroyer of your day,” He spoke playfully, pinching her cheek that made her blush furiously.
His one action disappeared all reasonings for melancholy.
Sorrow? What was that? His touch had killed it from her core.
Wiping all her complaints, increasing her beats when they both realized the closeness and freeing the breaths she held back, she moved out of the way immediately.
Placing her hand over her heart to regain authority over.
William couldn’t help but to chuckle, leaning his shoulder against the wall.
“You sure admire me too much, don’t you? I wonder, what do you like about me, Bella?”
She stared, and stared.
“What I don’t?”
And that was the moment, feelings evoked in William. His heart hammered against his ribcage, jaw dropping with incredulity.
A mystic shiver went down his spine and his mind blurred with a blazing feeling that stole words from his lips.
….And the main reason for his enhancement for feelings- it was Arabella. Her actions did this to him…
Indirectly, she did this to him, she made him obsessed with her…
For how long he intended to ignore when all her attention, intensity, affection would be connected to him and so endlessly?
For how long could he have resisted?
For how long could he have stopped himself?
Realizing he ended up staring at her in mesmerization, William cleared his throat awkwardly.
“Uh.. you should go back,”
“William,”
“Hmm?”
“Do I look okay?”
He complimented honestly, “You look like the most graceful woman I have ever seen,”
“Thank you,”
“And uh, sorry, here is your gift,”
He handed her an envelope and a small box.
Arching an eyebrow, she found two first-class tickets to France along with hotel reservations and some money for shopping.
“A trip to Paris?!”
She almost screamed, jumping with excitement, not sure whether to accept such an expensive gift or not.
At that moment, the sound of her laugh evoked a hauntingly beautiful sensation in him, he found it the most symphonic sound he had ever heard.
He loved it.
“You loved that, right? It’s on me, you and Helena need a break. Enjoy yourselves,” He laughed a little, his face shining at her exhilaration.
“And,” He opened the small box with a small diamond earring, “These too, they suit you a lot,”
Back then he bought them, all on his mind was she meant a lot to Helena, she was sister-like to her, and what was precious to her, meant the world to him.
So he gave her his utmost care too.
But, from that moment things began to change for him. What happened? He had no idea to which he felt absolutely wrong.
“W-William, that’s too much, I can’t possibly take both of them. I can’t give anything nowhere near that-” She paused, rejecting the earring instantly.
“Who says I want anything in return? Just never leave Helena, my sister loves you too much, you are like a sister to her.”
‘Just fon’t say I am like your sister too because I am fucking not!’
“Hence, precious to me too. Plus, you’re eighteen, welcome to adulthood,” Grinning, he gave her head a small pat and walked away.
Hugging her gifts close to her heart as if her day couldn’t get any better, her eyes were locked on the man sheltering in the depth of her soul as she murmured to herself.
“I wish you could think of me beyond your sister’s friend…”
But, unfortunately, aware of her position, she kissed the earring and went back to the party.
“To hold a flood of emotions all alone felt so beautiful at that age until it began to hurt.
The question ‘Why am I invisible?’ began to kill me, the consumption became too much and before I could realize…
The foundation I once called ‘love’ became my devastation.
In the end, every love suffers.
And so did mine,”