Darker And Devastated

14.

IVA FAITH

"We shouldn't," he pulls himself away from me.

I look at him with pleading eyes. "Why?"  my fingers are not letting go of his shirt. He grabs my wrists and frees himself.

"There is no future for us together," he says, smoothing his wrinkled shirt with his hand while looking into my eyes.

"Why?" my voice breaks as more tears threaten to come out of my eyes. There are a lot of things to say, but the heaviness of my heart and fear of breaking down in front of people suppress my voice, and I end up accumulating my thoughts for the rest of my life.

"Let's not waste our time on something that's not going to work out," he says, grabbing my hand and heading out. "Years have gone by doing that already,"

I don't know where he is taking me now, but one thing is for sure, we are not going home. He asks the driver to take care of the mess inside and gets in the driver's seat. So it's the two of us now.

"After everything you did to me, I'm still going to do you a favor so you can have a happy life ahead," he says after about five minutes of silence break.

His words perplexed me. Is he thinking about forgiving me? Is that the favor he is referring to? But what's with him wanting to give me a happy life? As far as I have been observing him, he is hell-bent on making my life miserable. What changed his mind?

"You are forgiving me," I say with a touch of glee and hope in my voice.

"That," he says, looking in my direction. "I can never do,"

It sinks my heart, wiping the little smile off my lips.

"But I can't punish you either as it would hurt my children indirectly so I'm looking for a way to make everyone happy," he says, fixing his gaze on the road.

"How?" I ask, curiously.

"What would make you happy?" he questions back.

I know this is a different situation and he is not asking this question in the way a lover would his beloved but I let myself assume it that way to give myself a moment of bliss.

What would make you happy? How pleasant this sounds. He is not mad at me or something. We are on an empty road where only the cloudy gray sky and beautiful greenery by the side of the road are witnessing us. The silence is sweet and the heart has found the normal rhythm. Everything is beautiful but unfortunately, imaginary.

"Being with you and my kids," I reply in a whisper. He chuckles, making fun of my answer.

"I'm not going to kill you. You can be honest with me," he says.

"I'm being honest. I want to live a happy life with you and our kids," I repeated my answer.

He remains quiet. A frown appears on his forehead.

"Didn't I say I'm looking for a way to make everyone happy?" he asks, tightening his grip on the steering. "And I won't be happy with you in my life,"

This hurts more than anything.

"And I won't be happy without you,"

He chuckles, again. "Don't worry. You will be getting enough wealth from this divorce to keep you happy for the rest of your life,"

I look at him with teary eyes. I'm not a gold digger if that's what he thinks of me.

"Anyways, this conversation is futile. I have made up my mind. We are parting our ways. Children will stay with me and you can visit them whenever you want." He announces the most important verdict of my life nonchalantly.

"How could you decide this all by yourself?" I almost yelled at him.

"Haven't we been doing this since the start of our marriage?" he spat back.

"And it was wrong! We need to be sensible now because we have two kids whose life depends on our decisions!"

He stops the car in the middle of an empty road. The car makes a screeching sound, making me jerk forward. He clenches his jaw a few more times, keeping his gaze fixed on the road before turning his head in my direction.

"Speaking of MY children, I would like to add something here," he says, and it sounds scary the way his eyes zeroed.

"They are my responsibility now. I have planned everything for them. Till now, my only goal was to teach the backstabber a lesson," He pauses, leaning toward me. He puts his finger under my chin and makes me look into his scary eyes.

"Dylan met his fate–And you were supposed to be the next one, but be thankful for Emma, I'm sparing you for her sake only otherwise that deserted place would have witnessed two murders today,"

This didn't scare me because I'm not afraid of death, but the hatred in his eyes is surely doing some serious damage to me.

"You can kill me if that's going to help you lessen the hatred for me," I retort, looking into his eyes.

"Nothing can lessen this hatred, not even your death. The only thing I would get by killing you is my daughter's tears. That's a very dangerous trade and I'm not willing to invest in it."

He says.

"You are lying," I say, making a frown appear on his face. "Emma is not the only reason. There is something else in your heart that is stopping you from killing me,"

His eyes darken in anger and his grip starts shaking around my chin.

"That earlier kiss meant something. I felt it,"

I'm not sure of it. Yes, I felt the intensity of it burning my heart in a sweet fire, but I'm not sure whether it was out of love or just a temptation that he couldn't resist. I'm holding out my self-respect while saying this to him because his replies are mean and humiliating whenever I try to make him confess that he still loves me.

"I wish you had felt my emotions before shaking hands with Dylan against me then everything would have been different," he says, letting go of my chin with a jerk.

I close my eyes to feel the remorse that his words awakened in me.

"I have got Noah out of jail and his restaurant will be reopened soon with a publically apology from the food inspection department," he says, making me open my eyes.

Is he saying all this for real? What changed his mind?

"I realized that it was a mistake to involve him in all this. Emma wouldn't like it if she knew that his friend was upset and the reason behind it was her daddy,"

I'm glad he understood.

"So now as everything is sorted, I want you to move out of my house by tomorrow. I will send you the divorce papers. The children are going to stay with me and you can visit them whenever you want or whenever they would like to. It's over between you and me,"

He chants it like local news about some insignificant topic.

"And before you say anything about giving you a chance, let me break the news to you," he says, holding his hand up to me.

I looked at his hand and miraculously there was a ring in his ringfinger. How did it get there?

"I got engaged to one of my business associates last month, and I'm getting married in a few days,"

He says and strangely, his voice breaks when he says the word married.

This is not true and even if it is then I'm not going to let this happen. I have always been scared of taking my chances but here I'm going to use every bit of me to get my husband back.

__________

Sorry for the late update! Brace yourself as I have planned to update regularly to the end of this story as soon as possible but of course, not without some drama😉

P.S I missed you all <3