He brought her to a park, a very beautiful one that she didn’t know what she would have done if she didn’t get to see such beautiful colors and smiles and heard all these families laughing with happiness dripping from their voices. They were just seated on a bench as they stared at children playing around, laughing, or fighting with each other which will later turn into a fist of laughter as another play will take their minds off of the fight they just had. She chuckled softly; her eyes pinned on the different types of the children.
“That’s how I want us to be, Jack.” She said with a warm smile and he draped his hand over her should while she rested her head on his shoulder.
“How do you want us to be?” He was clueless, and she understood that he might’ve not been staring at the kids. She had noticed that since when they drove into the park, he was so busy with his phone. From phone calls that he would excuse himself from, to texts she didn’t have to see unless she was going to spy on him, which she was never going to.
“Like kids, they fight every now and them. Sometimes all their fights turn into tears because it was either too painful or the anger was so hard for their soft hearts to contain. But it only takes them a few minutes before they get back to being the friends they were, and the love will bloom even more beautifully with laughter and smiles. Can we do that?” He had his eyes fixed on her face as she spoke, and she continued. “I know that there would be days we fight, days even the strong love we have for each other won’t be able to save us from the anger we feel, or the condition destiny has put us in. But Jack, can we always bounce back? Can we hug ourselves and cry into each other’s arms? Can we hold our hands through thick and thin?”
He sat upright and she did too, while he took both her hands in his. “We have to be forgiven if we both want that to happen, Anna...” She was already nodding her head before he was done and that made him smile warmly, “Yes, I know, Jack. We have to be forgiving each other, be so understanding...”
“And you won’t curse me when I do something bad, will you? You won’t have my license withheld, will you?” She was laughing as she shook her head and when she looked at him, he was serious about it.
“I’d never do that to my husband, Jack. But you also, you won’t have someone to fake-marry me this time, will you?” That was when the seriousness crack and she saw a smile slowly gracing his lips.
“I'd never let another man touch even a single hair on you, Anna. You’re my prized possession, don’t you know?” She smiled and just when she was about to give him an answer, someone cleared their throat in front of them and Anna looked up to what made her heart lost a beat.
Jack immediately stood up and she stayed rooted to her spot. She sensed the way his expression had changed, how he hardened the look on his face as though he wasn’t the Jack that was so soft and understanding to her just a few minutes ago. She could feel the way her palms were getting cold for she knew what this mean, it was what she had been dreading for and the moment she saw Jack slipping his hands into Clara’s, she clenched her eyes shut and waited for her destruction.
“You should tell her this or I'll do you the honors?” She heard Clara’s voice and that was when she opened her eyes to one of the most wicked smiles she had ever seen on Jack’s face. She didn't want what she was feeling to be right, she was dreading everything, afraid that if she moved, if she breathed loudly, all this would become true, what she was dreading will happen right in front of her and she had no other thing but to believe the reality that was piercing through every nook and cranny of her entire soul.
She stared at the soft look he flashed Clara and felt as something that felt like fire ran through all the veils joint with her heart, it was already too painful to bear even before she knew what was going to happen to her. “I’d do that myself, Darling. Can you please excuse us for a few minutes?” His eyes were avoiding Anna’s, but she wanted him to look into her eyes, to tell her that what was going to happen was nothing but a dream and he should wake her up with a kiss on her lips.
“No,” Clara said stubbornly, “I want everything to happen while I watched, she's used to getting dumped, that’s what you said, right?” Jack sighed and turned his face to Anna that was gob smacked, and the way she looked pale one could tell that she had stopped herself from breathing a very long time ago. He wished someone can ask her to breath, someone can tell her that... “Jack, what are you thinking about?”
Then his expression changed, the softness she was seeing in his eyes wasn’t there anymore. He was back to the Jack the used to break her apart, the Jack that hurting her was nothing to him, in fact, he enjoyed doing it so bad. “Anna, I'm quite sure that you're surprised about what you’re seeing in front of you, right? I don’t want you to be, I bet you should’ve known that the Jack you used to know would be that Jack to you forever, Anna.” She was already shaking her head; she didn’t want to believe what was about to happen. She knew how it was like before one got dumped by the one she loved. She knew how painful it was, and she could already feel those feelings resurfacing through her heart. “I know that since when you got us out of the police station I've been nothing but the sweet husband you wanted me to be, but really, Anna? How do you expect to get me by power? Do you think locking me up in that goddamn station will have me running around you like a puppet?”
She wanted to stop the flow of her tears, but she knew that would be the hardest thing she’d ever get to do. But if she can’t stop those, can she stop her ears from hearing what Jack was saying? How he looked as he said them because she knew that thing would forever be stuck into her heart forever. “Please, Jack. I don't want to Hera anything you have to say...”
He cut her off, “But I want you to hear everything, oh dearest, Anna, I want you to know everything.” She was still begging him with her eyes as she was already paralyzed by her pains. “You might think that since then I've stopped talking about Clara, I've stopped having a phone call with her and she was no more visiting us or even wearing your gown, but Anna, how foolish you must’ve been. She’s the woman I've always loved and will forever love until my last breath...” She cut him off, because she didn't want to hear what next he was going to say.
This time when she spoke, anger and pain were the things that were palpable in her tone. “If you love her, why didn’t you get married to her, Jack?!” She thundered, not taking her eyes off his even if it was for a second. “If you love her, why was it that you got married to me instead? Stayed with me for all this time? Why the love? Why the soft words? Why the caress? Jack, don't tell me you’ve been lying to me all along...” She choked on her words, shaking her head to get rid of the tears that were trying to make a pool of her face. “Don’t tell me that you’ve never loved me all this while?”
He chuckled and flashed her a mocking expression, “Oh god, what’s wrong with you, Anna? How could I love a woman like you, huh? I thought that you’ve always known that I hate you and will never love you. Have you forgotten what you’ve done to me? You got me fired and my license withheld for five years, Anna! The job I love more than my now life, how do you expect me to forgive you so easily? Are you really that dumb?”
“All those words you’ve uttered? All those actions?” She asked, she wanted to be so sure that even when she decided to hate him again, which she knew would be the hardest thing she would ever have to do in her entire life, “All those stolen kisses, those pecks, those stares, I freaking love you, Jack! And I know that you love me too, don’t you?”
He shook his head but instead of him to answer her, Clara moved across them, “I think he just told you that he doesn’t? You're nothing but a bossy bitch that thinks you can buy someone because of your money, right? Anna, it’s better you get your obsession off the men that will never love you, okay? Jack is mine and will forever be. Get your shit back and move on before I do something crazier than I did the last time.”
Anna wasn't even looking at her, she was just piercing her bloodshot eyes into Jack’s eyes that looked equally painful that she didn't even know what he was feeling now. She took a few steps until she stood in front of him, “Are you sure she’s the one you love?” He nodded his head at her before he even thought about it, wasn't that palpable to her already. “She’s the one you want to spend the remaining years of your life with?” He nodded his head again and she smiled, which happened to be the saddest smile Jack had ever seen in his life. “Then I see no reason why it’s me that will be wearing this, Jack.” She felt as her heart was thumping and threatening to get out of her chest as she pulled the ring out of her finger. And she stared at it on her palm with a certain longing she knew for sure was seen by both of them. She took his hand that was on his side and placed the key on his palm.
She looked into his eyes, still trying to smile but she failed blatantly. “Go, Jack. Get married to the woman you love; have some peace I couldn’t give you. Have beautiful children that will be the coolness of your eyes. Have fun in your life, Jack and be happy. Because I, Anna Brayden, is done with you forever and there's not another chance between us, this was the last we have, remember?” He was about to speak, she knew he was talking about the contract, the five years they already signed off of their lives, but at this point she would rather lose the ownership of the company than stay in this toxicity. “There’s no point in doing that, I could pay you for your withheld license because I can’t have it released now even if I want to. And in five years, you’d live your dream life with the woman you love. Congratulations on you both.” She briskly looked at Clara that had a pleased smile on her lips before she closed his palms and walked away.
She knew she didn’t come with her car; it was his, but she would rather trek back dome than wait for another minute in that place because she didn’t know what more he was going to say to her. She wiped at her tears but more gushed down and the only thing she could hear echoing in her ears was when Nate said, ‘He's going to break you, Anna.’ If only she had believed him, if only she had seen that coming her way.