Chapter 11 Shed Of Blood
Mariko's POV
I tossed and turned the entire evening. When Bella would cry, that was the only time that I would get out of bed and made sure that she fell asleep again. She usually wakes up during the night, but not too often. We keep the bedside lamp on for her so that it wouldn't be completely dark. My mind was busy the entire evening. Amber is out partying and Rosie is with Bella. My mind drifted towards Amber and the continuous arguments that we have every night and the fact that she still goes out. This was a not on. I cannot go on living like this anymore. My mind also drifted towards Maddie and she is the only person that is keeping me on my toes for someone that I know I want but I can't have...not yet.
I sat in the lounge on the recliner, my one leg crossed over the other as I wait for Amber's mother to arrive. It is a Saturday morning and Amber is yet to come home. My suitcases are already packed. I left it in the guest bedroom. The door bell rang and I stood up. I was dressed in light blue jeans, black sneakers and a light blue t-shirt. I walked over to the front door and opened it.
"Mariko!" Amber's mother gushed. She was in her sixties and aging well. Her blonde hair doesn't even have a streak of gray in it because she dyes her hair all the time to cover it up. She was a beautiful woman and Amber got her looks from her.
"Margaret," I said as she came closer to me and took me into her embrace. I hugged her back, closing my eyes. She is the only mother figure that I have. I will always treat her as a mother, even after Amber and I are divorced.
I pulled away and she stared at me knowingly. "I know that look, she is too much and filled with drama, doing what she wants to do," she sighed.
"Yeah," I replied as I stepped aside so that she could enter. Once she was inside, I closed the door.
"Is she at home?" Margaret turned around to face me.
"No, she has been out all night, its just Bella and Rosie that are here," I said. "Would you like tea or coffee?" I asked.
"Tea will be nice," she replied.
As she placed her handbag on the sofa, I gestured for us to go to the kitchen. I followed after her and I switched on the kettle and I took a tea cup and a mug from the top cupboard. Margaret was sitting at the dinner table. "I'm sorry to call you here, but I don't think that I can live here anymore with everything that has been going on," I said as I turned around to look at her. She nodded as she clasped her hands on the table.
"I do understand, she was too much for me and her father too. Once she was done with high school, we got her to study and into Sternpoint. When she was an intern over there, we left the country. We are not sure from what planet we got her from," she chuckled as a joke. "But she is my daughter and I'm sorry for the way that she might be treating you." she looked at me sympathetically.
"You are good parents and I'm sure that she got everything that she needed and wanted. But she loves to party a lot. She stopped that when we got married and then five years ago things started to change." I said as I turned around to make tea for Margaret.
"You are a good man, Mariko, and don't you forget that," she said as I made myself some coffee too, and then I placed her tea cup and my mug on the dinner table and I took a seat across from her.
"I have been raised to treat a woman with respect and to give her everything of myself. Amber and I were in love once but that love disappeared in the last few years. I have wrecked my brain as to what I perhaps did wrong, but everything points to her and what she never did when she was young. She whines about falling pregnant young and that is the biggest reason that I can find as to why, at this time of her life and years into our marriage that she needs to have to party and have fun. She doesn't care about me and I worry about Bella." I let out a sigh as I wrapped my hands around my coffee mug, feeling the warmth.
"If you need to leave the marriage, then do it. It is no use staying and trying to work it out because it is one-sided. When you work on a marriage, both of you should be fighting for it, but that is only coming from you. You are doing it for Bella. Don't do that, you can still be around to see her and if you worry about her being around Amber, take her with you. In the meantime, Bella has me and Rosie, so do not worry about anything because she is in good hands. You need peace and healing and I support what you choose to do. You deserve happiness." she smiled at me.
"It was difficult to make this decision to move out and I plan on moving out today. I am only waiting for Amber to get back home so that I can inform her. She degrades me all the time and I am done being a doormat to her. I wish that things were different," I replied.
"I wish the same, but it is what it is. Take care of yourself and heal. Don't be stuck in a loveless marriage. I would like to see Bella," she smiled, and I returned it.
Once Margaret and I finished our tea and coffee, we went to Bella's bedroom. She was seated on the ground reading books. Rosie was also on the ground with her. She was an older woman who had experience of being a nanny but she needed the job. She is trustworthy. She smiled at us. "Bella!" Margaret gushed and Bella looked up at her with a smile. She tends to be shy at times, unlike her mother, and I guess she gets that trait from me.
"Say hi to grandma," I encouraged my daughter. She looked at me with her light blue eyes, which she got from her mom. She looked back at Margaret.
"I will be in the kitchen if anyone needs me," I said, and walked out of Bella's bedroom. I will surely miss my baby but I need to leave this place and once I am sorted, I will try to have her with me. As I approached the kitchen, Amber entered the house. She definitely looked like she partied all night.
"Hi," is all that she says, but I walk into the kitchen as I ignore her. It was like a knife twisting in my heart because this was not what I had signed up for with her. I still can't believe how things have changed between us and it was so heartbreaking.
I washed up my mug and Margaret's tea cup that I had left in the sink and I sighed as I heard the heels click towards the kitchen... waiting for a possible attack from Amber.
"You called my mother over here?" she hissed at me.
"Yes," i replied with annoyance.
"Why? We are fine on our own. I don't need her to be here because you are here with Rosie. You are both taking care of Bella," she said.
I turned around after drying my hands, she was now taking an apple and a knife. She stood beside me and started to slice the apple. She was furious. "I am leaving... I'm moving out today and that is why I called her over. You are not here all the time, Bella needs your mother too if you are going to continue to go out at night."
"You are moving out and leaving Bella with Rosie and my mother while during the week I have to work and at night I am with friends," she hissed at me as if I had made the biggest mistake. "You," she pointed the knife at me and I held up my one hand so that she could be aware that she had a knife pointing in my direction. "You are not man enough for our family, you never were," she swinged the knife in the air. "I have to sit with Bella while you f^cking leave. You are the one that made me fall pregnant, I f^cking hate you!" she screeched and I tried to block the knife away but I winced and grabbed her wrist. Spinning her around so that her back was pressed against me. I lowered her hand towards the counter.
"Drop the knife," I said as slowly as I could. She was silent but breathing heavily. She dropped the knife and pulled out of my hold.
I looked at my hand, my palm had blood and there was a little cut. I was afraid of this. "Mariko, I'm sorry! It was an accident!" she said as he took my hand in hers, but I yanked my hand away.
"I will always be around for Bella, but now I can't trust you around her, so I will take her on when I'm settled. So now your mother and Rosie will take care of her," I said as I continued to look at the bloody palm of my hand. "But you just shed my blood, and this is more for me to leave." I looked up at her. "I am leaving."