Connection

Chapter 14

It’s like everything beautiful that Aga has treated piously in the past months was just a facade that had to pulverize to reveal this word of truth. Annulment. Written in uppercase with the biggest font. Of course Lea would bring it up, he just wished he had thought of it before today.

“Wow. I was caught off-guard.” just half the truth. He felt ambushed, like facing something he wasn’t ready to confront.

“I’m sorry I totally ruined the mood. But I had to bring it up at some point, right? We both need it.” also half the truth. The annulment was the least of her concerns until Victoria made her realize she has to make it happen. It’s her biggest boundary from him.

“Is it still necessary though?” Aga asked. “We needed that before but it’s seventeen years later now, Lea. Will it still matter?”

“It does and it will. On legal papers, we are still married to each other. But are we a couple? No. Do I still want to be married to you? No. Do you?” Aga’s stare bore the answer and she didn’t like how she interpreted it. “You’ll be free to date anybody you like without, you know, legally cheating on your legal-on-papers wife, although I don’t really mind. But this annulment works both to our advantage.”

“Are you seeing someone?” he asked without forethought. Lea was taken aback but did not much think about his intention. Out of curiosity, perhaps.

She stretched her legs and crossed them while looking up, slightly squinting at the clear blue sky, “Never again in this lifetime. I told myself dating is just a waste of time and a pre-trauma idea.” her hair danced along the blow of the wind. He looked at her with regret, knowing he was the one who changed the concept of love for her. He was her pre-trauma. “Give me the annulment as your birthday gift, okay?”

“That’s the most dull birthday gift ever.”

“It’s my most-needed gift and only you can give it, that’s your privilege.”

“I think Matthew won’t agree.”

“Don’t use that card against me.”

He smiled rather faintly, “Okay,” it left a better taste in his mouth as it was against his will. “I’ll talk to my lawyer about reprocessing the annulment papers.”

“Thanks for being cooperative this time. I truly appreciate it.” she smiled at him, then diverted her attention to Matthew’s stone. “It wasn’t your fault, babe. Things just didn’t work for Mom and Dad. We love you just the same no matter what.”

Yet on the other end of it, they both wished Matthew didn’t die. It could have helped in fixing things. He could have saved their marriage.

Aga hesitated whether or not to give the necklace to her. His supposed gift before he learned that she wanted the annulment over anything else. Finally, when Lea asked him to leave already, he decided to mention it.

“I do have a better birthday gift for you though... aside from the annulment.” he fished out the box from the inside of his suit. “I bought you something.”

“Oh, no, no, no, I can’t accept that. That is already too much, Aga.”

“It’s nothing, I promise you.”

She persistently shook her head, “No. Just give it to someone else, okay?”

“I don’t know anyone else whose birthday is triple two and has an initial LS.”

Lea’s jaw almost dropped, “You had it personalized?”

“Yeah, so it’s either I give it to the right person or fly back to Singapore to return it. I don’t want to go back to Singapore because plane tickets are too expensive.”