Light from the Shadow

Chapter 49

"Hehehe." Ares giggled as she read the letter she received from Ayna and Kuan. She was sitting by a short wooden staircase in front of her new home.

"What are you laughing at?" A man appeared from behind her. He took the letter from her.

"That's rude, Helten. It's MY letter."

"And this is MY place. If you are unhappy, you can leave." Helten said while scanning the letter carefully, as if looking for any sentence that suggested infidelity.

She glared at him. "Fineeee~~! If you say so. I'll just go back and cry to Kuan. I'm sure our sweet Kuan will take me in. I may even beg him to make me his wife so I can be the empress." She got up and cleaned off the sand that stuck on her dress.

"What nonsense." Helten shoved the letter back to her and grabbed his wife' hand, pulling her back into the house. "I told you it's cold outside during this period of time. Don't sit out there for too long. You never listen to whatever I said." He went into a room for a moment and then came back out with blankets to warm her up. "Here. Cover yourself with these. I'll make something warm for you." He headed to where the kitchen was.

Ares watched his back and smiled. The Helten he knew would never do things like this. He used to have people who he could order around to make sure she had everything she needed. She looked around the house. The house she had been living in for the past few months. There was not anybody besides the two of them and a few guards outside. After searching for him for almost eight months, she finally found where he was hiding. She still remembered his expression when he saw her running to him. He cried like a baby and did not let go of her until the next day.

Helten came back with a tray of food for her. Bread and egg soup. It was a far cry from what they had back in the palace. He placed the tray in front of her. "Eat."

He took the seat across her and started reading a book while nibbling on a piece of toast.

"Why are you only eating that? Here, have this." Ares pushed the soup to him.

"I'm not hungry. You eat it. It will warm your body."

Ares got up and sat next to him. "Let's share then." Helten watched her munched on the plain bread and drank soup from a cheap-looking metal bowl.

Helten clenched his fist. "You should go back, Ares. This life doesn't suit you."

"What are you talking about? I'm doing fine." She continued eating.

He grabbed her arms. "You look thinner and thinner each day, Ares! I can't watch this anymore." He rested his head on her shoulder. "You don't have to be here! We are divorced! Just... go back to Solbaru and forget about me..."

"Why are you saying that...?" She pushed him away. "You dislike me being here? You don't love me anymore?"

"You don't understand how I feel! You don't know how badly I want you! But... right now... I don't have the confidence to make you happy. Even if I'm not the person you love, I had wanted you to see that I could still make you happy. Tehra's wealth, security, jewels, the title of an empress. But now... I have nothing..." He looked away. "I have nothing to give you..."

Ares cupped his face with both her hands. Her husband's face she had never truly paid any attention to. The handsome face, the cold dark brown eyes whenever he faced his enemies but turned anxious whenever he talked to her, the vulnerable expression he was showing her now. She moved her face closer to his and licked the tears from the corner of his eye.

"What... what are you doing?" Helten flustered. His wife had never done anything like that to him before.

Ares kissed his lips passionately before Helten could react further. Her hands were now grasping his now short hair fiercely. Helten was totally dumbfounded. He did not know what to do.

"Close your eyes, Helten." She ordered and pressed her lips on him again but Helten could not move his eyes away from the burning red eyes that were staring down at him.

"Wait... Ares... stop..." He pushed her away. "Why are you doing this..."

"I love you, Helten. I've always loved you..." She smiled with tears in her eyes and got up from her seat.

Helten grabbed her hand. "What do you mean...? Aren't you in love with Taya?"

She shook her head. "You are the one who never understand how I feel, Helten."

"But..."

"I fell in love with you every time you shielded me from your father, every time you voluntarily left me and my family alone because you didn't want to upset them, every time you told me you won't do anything to me because I don't want to have children... every time you said you love me..."

"Do you know how you made me feel when you left me alone last time? When I woke up, you were not there. They said you had left the empire. I begged my father, the court and cried my eyes out just to ask them to let me see you. But they refused. They insisted I should forget about you and get on with my life."

Ares was crying. "You only left a damn divorce paper! No letter. No words from you. How could you do that to me...?"

Helten could not hold his tears. His heart ached as if a sharp blade just pierced into his heart. He pulled her into him and embraced her small body. His tears wetted the blankets that were covering her shoulders.

"I am sorry, Ares. I didn't know how much I hurt you... I'm so sorry..."

Ares dropped her head on his shoulder and hugged him back. It was warm.

"The soup has gone cold. I'll go reheat it." Helten said after both of them calmed down.

"It's alright. Let's just eat it as it is."

"No. It will get colder as the night approaches. Better have it warm." Helten's hand already reached for the metal bowl before Ares stopped him. She opened her arms wide for him.

"What?" He asked.

"I want you to warm me up." Ares said. The dim lighting in the house successfully hid her rosy cheeks.

Helten flustered and quickly looked away. He shifted his eyes to the soup bowl again. "Look, Ares. Let's take everything slow..."

Ares pushed him down the sofa. "Why are you being a coward now?"

Helten became nervous. "We can't risk having children now! You said you don't want..."

Ares dropped her body on top of his and laughed her tears out.