Chapter 8 The Comfortable Night
Is that how I imagined my future? No.
But, when the one I latched my heart with had abandoned me then why complain to others?
My choices had been wrong already. I no longer trust myself with my decisions.
If Vince wanted to so-called help me, let him. If Auntie wanted to dress me up, let her. I won’t complain, I won’t disagree, I was just done with everything.
“Oh, aren’t you like a doll?”
Auntie adorned me exquisitely, being the most influential fashion figure. She fixed the dress and set the veil over my head.
Smiling emptily at my reflection, I suddenly remembered a long lost memory.
“Do you remember, Auntie, you made me a bride and I wore your veil when I was twelve?”
She hummed, kissing the top of my head, “Yeah, you were so happy back then, you ran around the house, showing everyone.”
“Hmm… I was so happy back then. That day, it felt like I am the prettiest woman in the world,”
“You are the prettiest, my Dear. Look at yourself, how exquisite.” Grinning, she held my chin, forcing me to stare at my reflection before parting.
“Now, wait here, I will call Vince,”
“...Okay,”
Lowering my hollow gaze, I could feel my beats pulsating madly to perceive him entering this room as my spouse.
Although, I DID NOT want to marry him.
Not in my wildest imaginations I saw him from a romantic perspective, but look at my destiny, the person I least expected had decided to come and save me.
My body trembled, numbness gave way to swirl around me when the door opened and Vince came in his formal attire.
In a white three-piece suit with a beige colored waistcoat, toned chest, and golden brooch to amplify his eye-catching features. Gelled hair, chin up with dominance surrounding him.
…It wasn’t for our marriage, right?
The second he entered, our gazes met through the reflection and he passed an apologetic look.
“Sorry about Auntie, she was too excited.”
“It’s alright, at least I helped her fulfill her wish,”
Stepping forward, with his one hand in his pocket, he held his phone with the other, requesting politely.
“Uh, if you don’t mind. Can we take a picture? Just to show Auntie? She is the only one who is happy after all,”
“Okay,”
He was standing behind me, both glanced at each through the mirror and he clicked it. To my uttermost surprise, awkwardness was absent. In his presence, I found the silence comfortable.
Maybe because he was there at my worst, he was there when I was about to give up on my life after all.
“She isn’t the biggest fashion influencer for nothing. Truly did amazing work,”
“Hmm,”
“You can change it if you want. I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable,” He offered sweetly.
Taking a seat on the couch and placing all his attention on the screen while shaking his knee anxiously. Some of our habits were similar, it was one of them.
He was doing nothing, just doing this to not unsettle me.
“Okay,” I agreed and changed it.
Roughly rubbing my face, wiping any sign of makeup.
Any attempt to enhance these features was unbearable for me. It felt horrible because I saw myself as Ken’s ex-wife more than Vince’s newlywed.
If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t even have put on lipstick.
After changing, I came and sat on the bed, glancing at Vince, wondering what he planned to do next. He noticed my empty stare and placed his phone down.
After a brief silence, with a deep breath, I finally spoke up, “What now?”
“What do you want? Do you want to regain your assets? Reconcile with your family? Teach Ken a lesson?” He explained the paths available for me.
“How? How will I do any of that?”
“Why do you think I have married you?”
To his composed tone, my bewilderment reached its peak as I asked what bothered me the most.
“Why do you want to help me in the first place? We are not even close.”
Only to receive a cold smirk in return, “Let’s say helping you will help me. In that sense, I am doing this for myself more than you,”
But, it was not enough to convince me.
“Is that all? Just to help yourself? You do know I might not be able to accept you as my husband, right?”
Frowning, I slammed my hands down on the bed, filled with disbelief as he rose from the couch, testing my patience by that mysterious gaze.
“I feel so miserable that I think I will never be able to love you. Heck, anyone in life again,”
Shrinking my eyes, frustration blending with melancholy as I growled, expressing my heartache that was about to sink him as well.
But, apparently, it didn’t bulge him as he approached me slowly, observing my breathless, disturbed form carefully.
Looking here and there sorrowfully, clutching my heart, I finally lifted my gaze to connect with his. His tall form hovering over me. Hands resting in his pockets, staring down questionably at me.
Decrypting his feelings was too hard. What was he thinking? I didn’t know and feeling nothing but pity for him, I whispered softly.
“Are you okay with all that, Vince? Don’t you have any expectations from your marriage? Will you ever be happy in this bond?”
Placing his hand beside me, he leaned forward, hitching my breaths. A sly, dangerous smirk played along his thick lips, whispering back in the same tone.
“Trust me, Alyssa, helping you will give me all the peace I need and this is the only thing I need in this empty life of mine.”
Tensing my shoulders, I leaned back, unable to part my gaze from this oceanic blue ones. Although he had explained his aim, yet his eyes concealed another truth.
Through the contact, I get one thing- ‘Your eyes say it’s much deeper than what you speak,’
“Really?” I questioned quietly.
“Yes,” Nodding, he sighed and pulled away before enunciating.
“Love is never a requirement in my life. In fact, I also think that I cannot love you or anyone too.”
“Why? What did you lose? What happened?”
My mouth gaped, not wanting anyone to feel the same helplessness, the same anguish I went through.
“I am incapable of answering. It requires too much force to even talk about it,” He shrugged.
I opened my mouth to question, to ask if time could heal this ache but this marriage- his attempt to find peace- proved that time won’t heal.
Else, he won’t be so desperate to save me for himself.
Taking a deep breath, I trailed off, “I see...”
“So, tell me? Which path do you want to lead first?”
“I don’t know… my mind is in a haze. I-I feel so lost, Vince, as if nothing is left in my life. I feel so horrible, I am still stuck on what happened that night,” I told him honestly, clutching the sheets firmly, gritting my teeth to control my posture but to no avail.
“I can understand. Maybe you just need time to process things for now and think about it thoroughly. How about that?”
“I guess,”
He hummed, “Okay then, you can relax and sleep. I am going,”
“Where?”
“... To my room. Where else?”
“I see.”
Nodding, he waved his hand in the air and walked away, leaving me all alone in the room to ponder where this life is going to lead now.