Roses || durm

.sieben.

.sieben.

"We should have papa tell the rest of the story. He knows it just as well as I do." Arabella said in amusement, looking over at her husband who was sat on their daughter's bed.

The three of them paid close attention to Arabella as she told it. And the children thought it was the best story ever told to them.

Erik's face went red at his wife's words. With a shake of his head, he replied to her. "I could never be able to tell the story quite like you can, Bella. And I'm too shy to tell it myself. I prefer listening to the sound of your voice." he smiled warmly at her. Though they were both adults with children of their own, Arabella still found it adorable the way Erik still got red in the face with shyness. She thought their son Maximilian was the spitting image of his father.

With a sigh and a smile on her face, Arabella continued, "Your papa didn't find out that we were going to have a baby until I was five months along."

-

Arabella looked down at the letter from the court of Dortmund that sat on the coffee table, mocking her. They were the divorce papers Erik's lawyer had sent just waiting to be opened. They had sat there for a whole month, and she still couldn't bring herself to sign them.

She wouldn't, she refused.

The way she saw it, when she and Erik got married, they both made a vow before God that they were to be together until death separated them. Though Erik was with someone else, breaking his promise to love her and cherish her, Arabella would not do the same. She was only twenty-one, but she took her marriage to Erik seriously.

Maybe Erik had changed, but she was the same.

She was in the living room of her father's house when her cellphone rang. Getting her cellphone out of her pocket, she looked at the caller ID to see it was her father. Arabella sighed with relief. For the past couple of days, Erik had been calling, begging her to sign the divorce papers so that he could get on with his life. He told her he didn't want to feel like he was breaking the law, and much less sinning, because he was in a relationship with Ursula while still being married to Arabella.

For Arabella, he was doing wrong either way. They could get a divorce under the law, but he would still be her  husband in God's eyes. There was no way for him to change that.

Her thumb clicked the answer button and she brought the phone to her ear. "Hello, papa." She greeted him. Since her separation from Erik, Arabella didn't do much. She still went to the university and kept up with her obligations, but she had no motivation to do anything on her free time. So she spent most of it at her father's house. She had no one to see or talk to anyway. 

"Bella," Her father sighed in frustration. "I left my keys in the car and accidentally locked myself out of my office. Can you bring the spare keys? They're in my sock drawer."

She nodded, though he could not see her. "Sure, I'll be right over." But she was nervous. She didn't want to face Erik for several reasons. For one, he would surely pester her about the divorce papers. Also, Ursula would be there, with Erik. Arabella didn't know if she could handle seeing them together. And she knew that if Erik saw that she was pregnant, he would ask questions. He would feel bad for leaving her. And Arabella didn't want him by her side out of pity. He would probably offer her money for her to use for their child, and she didn't want his money.

But she would have to face him sooner or later.

Arabella got up from the couch and went to her father's room to get the spare keys. Then she headed for the training ground.

-

She got there within a couple of minutes, as the training ground was relatively close to Jürgen's house.

Arabella was reluctant to enter.

But she finally convinced herself and headed inside. She walked the semi-lit hallways slowly, hoping to prolong seeing Erik as long as she could. In the last several months since he had gone to talk to her about her father, she had not seen him in person. It seemed he was back on the first team, but rumors were going around that he was considering leaving Borussia Dortmund due to a lack of playing time. Arabella was lost in her thoughts when she bumped into someone.

Her blue eyes looked up to meet the dark brown eyes of Ursula. The thirty one year old woman looked Arabella up and down and smiled a victorious smirk. "I remember you." She said, clearly recognizing the younger woman. She was ten years older than Arabella, five years older than Erik, and she still dressed like she was in her early twenties. Granted she had the body for it, but Arabella thought Ursula needed more age appropriate clothes. "You're Mr. Klopp's daughter. How's it going?" She asked Arabella in a mock polite tone, as though she hadn't been the one to come between Arabella and her husband.

"Have you seen my dad?" Arabella asked, completely ignoring Ursula's question.

"He's out on the field with the other players." The dark haired older woman said. Placing her hand on Arabella's arm, she said, "Listen Arabella, I hope there's no hard feelings about Erik dating me now." Her voice sounded sickly sweet in an attempt to sound sincere, but her facial expression revealed the truth. She was trying to dangle her relationship with Erik in Arabella's face.

Arabella shook her head, but she couldn't speak due to the lump in her throat. She was afraid that if she opened her mouth, she would start crying.

How could there be 'no hard feelings' when Arabella was in love with Erik?

And she still loved him.

As though sensing her distress, someone came to her rescue. "Hey Ursula, the coaching staff is looking for you. They uh...they want you to go set up everything in conference room A for a meeting with all the board members of the team. But hurry, the meeting is scheduled to start in an hour!" He tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention. When he noticed Arabella there too, he grinned, "Hey Bella."

Arabella looked down to the ground as the tears spilled from her eyes.

Ursula nodded and walked away with a grin on her lips. The footballer placed a hand on Arabella's shoulder. "I know Ursula can be a bitch. Honestly, no one on the team can stand her. Only-"

He paused when he remembered Arabella was in the middle of getting a divorce from Erik.

"Erik." Arabella finished, her nose runny from the tears that were flowing down her cheeks.

"Don't cry." He told her with a small smile. And trying to cheer her up, he added with a wink, "There is no board meeting today. I made it up so she could stop bothering you. Now she's going to go through all this trouble for a board meeting that won't even happen." And he stifled a laugh. The way he seemed to be so amused by this made Arabella crack a tiny smile.

Her smile got bigger for an instant. "I figured. Thanks for coming to my rescue, Moritz."

She was all the more grateful to him because they didn't even know each other that well. Erik had introduced them when they were still together, and Arabella had only talked to Moritz a couple of times. He could have easily ignored what was happening, but instead he chose to help her.

After Arabella explained her reason for being out on the training field, and he accompanied her back outside. As they walked onto the field, her father was close by, and she was able to give him the spare keys. But she could feel the burn of Erik's eyes. He was watching her with Moritz and she tried to ignore him as best she could. 

And what added more to his surprise was the very visible baby bump beneath her blouse.

-

epaaaaa, another update because im feeling inspired. i want to thank you all bunches for reading my stories and all that jazz. there are about four more updates before this story ends, so stay tuned for the exciting ending of 'roses' lol. 

i love you all.

blessings, xo.

-clary