ARIANA
I sighed when clumsy me, went and bumped into the very person I wanted to avoid. “It is you!” He declared loudly. Now, there wasn't much I could do in a situation like that. I was practically bound to greet him back. I plastered a fake smile on my face and greeted him back. I thought that would be the end of it.
We sat down and ordered coffee. I had taken my mask off. A million questions I had in my mind. I wanted to ask him every single one of those questions. But there was this unknown and unsettling fear in my chest that wouldn't let me be at ease. I was quietly sipping into my coffee and was hoping that it would end soon so I could go back home.
“So! You are back with Enzo, I see.” The sarcasm in his words made me shiver. I turned to glare at him.
“Maybe I am. Why does it bother you? You left me alone in this world when I needed you the most in my life, remember.” He glared back at me when I shot him with the answer he was definitely not expecting from me.
“Oh, I never left you. Your uncle kidnapped us and didn't set us free until he married you.” And then, it was my turn to be shocked by the reality.
“You're joking! Enzo would never do that. He …” I paused, trying to think of what I could actually say next. Then I sighed. There wasn't really anything else. “He loved me, cared about me. He could never be this cruel. He knew I was in love with you.” I tried to defend the man who had practically destroyed me. But at that moment, I just wanted to defend him. After all, he was still my husband.
“Yeah! He loved you. But in the exact same way that I loved you. He made sure that I could never reach you back. And you! How could you have fallen in love with a man you respected as your father. It's so fucking disgusting.” Charlie growled at me angrily, shooting daggers at me with his eyes.
“What else could I have done in the situation I was in. The only way to save me was through the wedding. And I couldn't just hate the man I married.” I growled back at him. He wasn't there when I was literally fighting for my life. I still remember that day so vividly.
“Well! You could have waited for me. You could have asked him to divorce you when I came back. He threatened us to never contact you or he would make sure that my family wouldn't have a next generation. And when I tried to reach out to you at the University, he abducted all the children of my family and sent them all to Rome, as a punishment. And he told us that he was gonna traffic those Children out of the country next time.” My heart was pounding against my rib cage when I heard the whole truth.
It felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. And I was now struggling to breathe. I grabbed the bottle of water in front of me and gulped down the whole thing.
When I finally looked back up, I found him staring at me. “I hated you. I hated you so much for betraying me. For not waiting for me. And because you forgot about all your promises.” The way his words were laced with the hatred he felt for me, made me shiver. I didn't know what to say.
I turned my head toward the road, watching a bird nest afar when mama bird was feeding her children. The scene in front of me triggered my emotions again. “Now what? You want me to leave him and marry you? Or what else is left that you want to do to me?” I wanted to know what he really wanted. His intentions weren't as clear as they used to be.
He sighed and shook his head. “No! I have also moved on. That same year when I saw you happy with Enzo. I just decided to move forward in my life. Now I have two children. I have a five-year- old daughter and a son, two years old.” I saw happiness in his eyes when he talked about his family. But to me, it didn't make sense.