Roses || durm

.fünf.

.fünf.

"Never," Arabella started firmly. Her children were already in bed for the night, eager to hear another bit of the story. "Never let Uncle Mats introduce you to anyone. He means well, but he's an accidental homewrecker." She explained, looking at her husband who was sitting at the edge of his daughter's bed. 

They both knew well what she meant when she said that.

-

Months had passed, Arabella and Erik went to his BVB practices together. As newly weds, who had already celebrated their church wedding, they were blissful in each other's company. But when her father saw them together, he was always put in a bad mood. He didn't believe that their marriage would last long. In the recent months since their marriage to the church, it seemed they were doing well.

As he accompanied his wife to the bench where she would watch him practice, Mats stopped them. With him was a beautiful, well dressed woman, in office attire. Her blouse was too revealing and her skirt too short, but that was Arabella's opinion.

She looked to be around the same age as Mats, if not a bit older.

"This is Ursula," Mats gestured to her with a smile. "She's going to be working with the coaching staff, and they wanted me to show her around."

"Nice to meet you." Erik shook her hand and smiled politely.

"Same." She smiled back. Looking to Arabella, she added, "Is this your little sister?"

Arabella's eyes narrowed into thin slits.

"She's my wife." Erik corrected her, slipping his hand into Arabella's and bringing it to his lips.

She eyed them for a moment, saying to them, "Aren't you too young to be married? You're practically children."

"We're old enough to know what we want." Erik challenged.

-

"She's named like the sea witch!" Anneliese exclaimed with a gasp, causing Arabella to laugh.

The girl's mother nodded and continued telling the story, "And slowly, the sea witch in mini skirts went on seducing the Prince, which is your papa. Until she had him in her clutches, that he stupidly fell into."

Each time Arabella remembered that day, she would find herself getting emotional.

But as she continued, Erik slipped her hand into hers and gave it a reassuring squeeze. He felt terrible about hurting her the way he did.

-

Arabella held the pregnancy test in her hand with excitement, ready to give her husband the news. It had now been a good nine months since they had their wedding ceremony at the church, with all their friends and family. 

Lately, she had noticed he wasn't as sweet with her as he used to be.

He was always staying late for practice, leaving her alone. Arabella also noticed the way he kept getting strange phone calls.

But she shook it off.

She thought that the news of their baby would lift his mood. 

He came past the door that night, clearly tired. She stood up from her seat on the couch when she heard him. It was well past midnight, but that didn't matter to her because she was delighted to give him the news. "Hello, liebe." She called nervously.

Erik sighed, "You're awake, Bella."

He expected her to be asleep so that he didn't have to give any explanations. "I was just...out with the guys." He lied.

"That's fine." She nodded her head, too sleepy to notice how nervous he was looking at that moment. "I have something to tell you."

"Can I just...say something first?" He asked.

When she nodded her head once more, he cut the distance between them. Grabbing her hands in his, he led her to sit back on the couch and he sat next to her. 

Arabella could already tell by the look on his face that it was something serious. 

"Bella," He began, his voice pained because no matter what, he cared about her. The last thing he wanted was to hurt her. "I think we should take a few months to ourselves. These last few months married to you have been great, and it was a real pleasure spending part of my life with you, but..."

"But what?" Her eyes pooled up with tears.

"No one takes us seriously." He told her in frustration. "They treat us like children."

"When did that ever matter to you before?" Though she tried to contain her sobs, they were threatening to escape.

"I want to be with a woman who doesn't make me feel like I'm baby sitting her." He continued.

His words gave her the real reason for which he was leaving her. "You have someone else, don't you?" She concluded. It was when the realization hit her that she spotted a love bite on his neck, as well as the scent of women's perfume that lingered on him. A scent that wasn't hers, but it was one she had smelled before.

Erik said nothing, only looked down in shame.

From the very first moment that he met the other woman, he was already letting himself become seduced by her. 

When he had nothing more to say, he got up from his seat, and left his sobbing wife in the living room. He was headed for their bedroom, where he would pick up his things. "Keep the apartment, Bells." He told her, heartbroken to see her crying that way. "I'll keep paying it as long as you want to stay here."

But Arabella got up, wiping the tears away with the back of her hand. The pregnancy test was in her jeans pocket, waiting to be revealed. But she thought Erik didn't deserve to know. "No, you stay. I'm going back to my parents' house." She told him. The last thing she wanted was to stay in an apartment that brought her so many bad memories. "Share it with her, sell it, tear it down, keep it for yourself. I honestly don't care what you do with it. But I won't stay here, Erik."

He only nodded, stopping halfway up the stairs. "We'll do whatever you want, Bella."

"Stop calling me Bella." She told him bitterly. "I'm not your Bella anymore."

With that, she went to the stair case and pushed him aside. Arabella quickly gathered her belongings and called her mother to pick her up. She didn't have the energy to deal with her father, who had warned her this would happen.

He was right.

All footballers were the same.

-

oh nooooo, what the hell erik?

he's such a asdfghjkl;

but i hope you all like the update. it makes me sad that this happened because i really liked bella and erik together. thank you all so much for reading. it means a lot to me. i love you all.

-clary xx