Chapter 70 Why Don't You Dare Look at Me?
Arthur's eyes flickered with surprise, but more than that, disbelief.
He gripped her wrist tightly and pulled her entire body into his arms, holding her close.
"Let go of me!" Aria struggled.
"Aria," Arthur's voice was low, as if suppressing some emotion. "Why do you hate her?"
His arm wrapped around her waist while his other hand lifted her chin, forcing her to look into his eyes.
"Look at me, Aria. Why?"
Aria looked at the face so close to hers—young, handsome, with thick long eyebrows, a straight nose, and thin lips that gave the face a somewhat cold appearance. Yet he had a pair of strikingly beautiful eyes that softened his sharp features.
When he looked at someone seriously with those eyes, few women could keep their hearts from racing.
Aria's heart was pounding wildly in her chest right now.
This wildly beating heart filled her with fear.
"Arthur, what exactly do you want?!" She tried hard to push him away, her voice trembling slightly. "What do you want to hear? That I still care about you? That I'm jealous and don't want a divorce at all?"
"Or do you want me to watch you marry Sophie and then shamelessly be your mistress?"
She forced herself to turn her head away. "Dream on. I'm not that cheap!"
Arthur's pupils contracted.
"Maybe I loved you once, but now..." Aria bit her lip and forced herself to continue. "Now I just want to leave you, to get far away from you."
"As for whether your mother can accept it, that's none of my business. But judging from how she took the initiative to have Sophie stay tonight, her agreeing to let you marry her is just a matter of time."
Aria said word by word, "Now, please let go of me."
He didn't release her. His hand caught her chin, forcing her to meet his eyes. "What a confession. I think if you said all this while looking at me, it would be much more convincing."
"Why won't you look at me? Why don't you dare look into my eyes?"
Aria was speechless.
Just then, in the darkness, there was a click as the living room's main light was switched on. Sophie's voice came from the stairway.
"What are you two doing?!"
Both of them squinted as the sudden bright light hit their eyes. Arthur finally loosened his embrace, though he couldn't bring himself to let go of her hand completely.
Sophie, witnessing this scene, had turned deathly pale. Her eyes were wide open, staring fixedly at them.
She was still wearing that sexy silk nightgown, but somehow looked disheveled now.
"Arthur, have you forgotten what you promised me? Have you forgotten our promise?"
Arthur looked at her. "Sophie, calm down first."
"Calm down? How can I calm down?" Tears streamed down Sophie's face. "You said you would marry me. You said you only felt responsibility toward her, but what about now? You're holding her, you can't bear to let her go!"
"Arthur, what do you take me for?"
Standing close to Arthur, Aria could clearly feel the muscles in his arm tensing up.
She thought he would immediately let go and go comfort Sophie.
After all, she was his savior, the woman he had promised to marry.
But he didn't.
Arthur still held onto her, and when she tried to break free, his fingers gripped even tighter.
"Sophie," he finally spoke, his voice very calm. "Go back to your room first. Whatever it is, we'll talk tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" Sophie laughed—a desolate laugh. "Tomorrow are you going to tell me you've changed your mind? Tomorrow are you going to say you won't marry me anymore?"
She looked at Arthur, then at Aria, the resentment in her eyes almost spilling over.
"Fine, fine." She nodded and took a step back, smiling bitterly. "I understand now, Arthur. Don't regret this."
With that, she turned and ran upstairs.
The living room fell quiet again.
Aria heard Arthur's breathing suddenly become heavy.
"You can let go of me now," she said.
Arthur looked down at her. "Aria, what if—"
"There are no 'what ifs.'" Aria cut him off and forcefully broke free from his embrace. "Arthur, we don't have any 'what ifs' anymore."
She took a step back, putting distance between them. "You should go comfort her. Remember, she's your savior, the woman you promised to marry. Don't make her sad."
Arthur looked at her, his eyes darkening. "What about you?"
"I'm nothing."
-
Sophie returned to her room and collapsed on the bed, trembling with anger.
She pulled out her phone, her fingers shaking as she texted Vincent: [We can't wait any longer! This weekend, we have to make our move!]
A few seconds later, the reply came: [Don't worry, everything's arranged. Saturday afternoon, the art exhibition—she'll definitely come.]
Sophie stared at the screen, her eyes growing colder and colder.
Aria, don't blame me for being ruthless. If you want to blame someone, blame Arthur for being such a wishy-washy man!
The next morning, Aria felt well enough to go check on her studio.
Coming downstairs, she saw Arthur still sleeping on the sofa. She stood by the sofa for a moment but ultimately decided not to disturb him and tiptoed out the door.
At the studio, Lucy was already there, organizing orders.
"Aria, you're here." Lucy greeted her. "Did you see the email I just sent? We have a few clients scheduled to review designs today. I've arranged all the times."
"Not yet, I'll check now." Aria responded and went into her office, opened her computer, and found the email Lucy mentioned.
But her mind was a mess, involuntarily replaying last night's scene.
She shook her head, forcing herself to stop thinking about it.
Just then, her phone rang. It was Summer calling.
"Aria, how are you feeling? Is the baby okay?" Summer's voice was full of concern. "I heard you took a fall a while ago. Are you alright?"
Aria instinctively touched her belly. "I'm fine. Just hurt my knee a little, but it's healed now. The baby's fine."
"That's good." Summer let out a long breath. "I'm so relieved. Why didn't you tell me you fell? Really! If I hadn't heard Lucy mention it by chance, I still wouldn't know!"
Aria laughed. "I didn't want to worry you! Besides, everything's fine now."
"Sure, sure." Summer huffed, then her tone brightened as if she'd just remembered something. "Oh right, there's an art exhibition this weekend—really famous in the industry. I finally managed to get two tickets. Do you want to come with me? Relax a bit."
An art exhibition?
Aria thought for a moment. "Sure, I'm free this weekend anyway."
"It's settled then." Summer said. "I'll come pick you up."