The Man She Betrayed

26. Ghosts Of The Past

Clara

"You look stunning." Ava said as she finished doing my hair. I smiled as I look at my reflection into the mirror. Thankfully, I had brought a formal dress with my salary otherwise I would have to request Ava to lend me one more dress.

The top half of the dress was nude and the lower half black. It complimented my figure, giving my curves a smooth look. Ava had curled the ends of my hair, giving them more volume and she did my makeup too.

"The cab is waiting for you downstairs." she said and I once again stared at myself nervously. What if I was overdressed? Or underdressed? Ava had noticed the confused look on my face as she Put her hands on her hips and glared at me. "Ugh not again. You're looking perfect Clar. Now go."

Letting out a long sigh, I made my way out of the apartment to the cab waiting for me in front of the main door. I gave the address to the driver and within half an hour, I was standing outside Aaron's house.

It was a nice neighbourhood, with houses thrice the size of our apartment. The door was already opened and guests were going in and out of the house. Bracing myself, I trudged forwards into the house. The entrance led inside where almost fifty people had gathered in an adequate sized hall, most of them I have seen before in the company building.

Thank God, everyone was dressed in clothes just like me. There were no children in the party, all sophisticated grownups who were talking among themselves, sipping wine from the glasses in their hands.

"Clara!" a familiar voice called me from behind and I turned around, only to regret my decision of coming here at all. It was Amber, standing by the side of a familiar man. "Have you met Aaron's father yet?"

The hazel pair of eyes that glared into mine just looked just as surprised as I was. But where there was guilt in mine, his were flashing with an unshed fury.

"Darren, this is Clara. My secretary." Amber introduced me to him and I gulped nervously, burning with shame under his gaze.

"Does she work with Aaron?" he asked, without averting his gaze from me and Amber replied in yes. His jaw ticked at this and rage flew through his eyes. "I should go check on other guests." he said and walked past me, towards the place where Aaron and Crystal was standing, busy laughing at God knows what.

"What happened to him? He was just laughing with me a minute ago." Amber passed me a confused look. I shrugged, knowing exactly what had happened to him.

Darren went to Aaron and a hint of tension could be seen on all three faces. I swallowed the ball of nerves in my throat, feeling bad that I just ruined their party with my presence. After arguing for almost five minutes, Darren walked out of the party, leaving Aaron and Crystal with worried faces.

The party continued just like that. I stood there observing my environment, watching as Aaron and Crystal stayed glued to each other's side. My heart clenched every time they gripped each other's hand or he snaked his arm around her shoulder.

I was staring at them when Zac Rivers walked towards me. There was something about this man that irked me and the way he smirked, it made my skin crawl. During our trip to New York, he flirted with me many times and everytime I rejected him subtly but he just couldn't take a hint.

"Drink?" he passed a glass filled with orangish drink to me.

"No thanks. I'm fine without it." I replied.

"Oh come on Clara." he rolled his eyes, leaning a little too close to me.

"I'll prefer if you don't call me by my first name Mr. Rivers." I said with a straight face and his eyebrows furrowed at this.

"Loosen up sweetheart. We aren't in the office right now." he said and put his hand on my waist but I jerked myself away from him. In doing so, his other hand slipped and the juice in his hands landed on my new dress, wetting and as a consequence ruining the thin material.

"Shit." I muttered. Mr. Rivers picked up a handkerchief from a table and instead of passing it to me, started to wipe the juice off the bodice of my dress.

"I am fine." I tried to pull myself away from him but he kept invading my personal space, acting as if he was helping me.

His actions continued until an arm appeared out of nowhere in between Zac and me. "It's fine Zac. I'll take it from here." Aaron said in an unusually dry tone and stayed like that until Zac retreated completely. After muttering something under his breath, he walked away and that's when Aaron turned his focus to me.

"Are you okay?" he asked, trying his best not to sound worried.

"Yeah. S.. Sorry." I mumbled in a barely audible tone.

"Sorry?" he cocked his head to a side.

"Yes. For this and um.. Darren." I said and his jaw clenched unmistakenly. He nodded, a mask of indifference coated his face.

"Crystal!" he called her who was standing with some guests. She came towards us and passed him a smile. "Can you please take her to my room and help her?" he asked politely and she nodded.

She led the way and I trailed behind her, into the room at the end of the corridor. It was a fairly large room, with a king sized bed and other expensive furniture inside. The walls were painted in dark green and the rest of the room was decorated in white.

"He must have one of my spare outfit in the cupboard." she said and search through the wooden cupboard, ending up finding a pair of jeans and a light blue shirt. I eyed the clothes warily, my mind imagining the reason why there were her clothes in Aaron's room.

"It's not what you're thinking. I often have sleepovers with Aaron, since the time we were kids." she said when she noticed the frown etched on my face.

I nodded, taking the clothes from her hands. It was not like I had any right to object on whatever Aaron did in his life. I lost the right when I walked out of my husband's life.

"I'll be in the hall. You can change here comfortably. That door leads to a bathroom." she informed me and then left the room, leaving me alone.

I walked inside the bathroom and changed into those jeans and floral shirt. Crystal had a weird sense of style, judging by the unique emoji patterns on the shirt that made me chuckle a little.

Once I looked better, I walked out of the bathroom. Everything about his room captivated me. There was his scent dispersed in everything, from the bed sheets to the curtain. Sitting on the edge of the bed, I gently ran my fingers along the white material, imagining Aaron's presence there, sleeping with his head buried inside my neck and his arm wrapped around my waist.

Not wanting to look creepy, I stood up from the bed and stared into the mirror. The curls of my hair looked really messy so I ambled towards the dressing table and used the brush to remove the tangles out of my hair.

After doing my hair, I was about to put the brush back into the drawer when something caught my attention. A photo frame in the back of the drawer, placed upside down.

Pulling it out, I turned it around and gasped when I realised it was the photo of Aaron and me, on our wedding day. My eyes were puffy and a frown was plastered on my face while Aaron had a faint, innocent smile on his face.

Tears streamed down my cheeks as my knees buckled under my weight. I slid down against the wall, moisture leaking from my eyes at the memory of our wedding night when I ruined everything with one wrong decision.

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