“Where are you going?” Kieran asked Arabella as she stood in the kitchen sipping from her juice. She was wearing a t-shirt and a pair of jeans.
“Eh?” she replied, turning to him as he entered the kitchen. It seemed like her plan had failed. Aurora had been tried and given a sentence of a year in a detention centre, seeing that she did not have a record of then. Arabella, however, felt that it was unfair to her and that she wanted to hear from Aurora why she would do that sort of thing. She was going to sneak out of the house and go see her. She did not want Kieran to know because she knew that he would kick against it.
“Where are you going?” he asked again, waving to the fridge to take a bottle of water.
“Out,” she said with her voice coming out like a mouse.
“Out where?” he asks, taking off the cap of the bottle and gulping down the entire bottle. She looked at him and turned her back to him. The reason she wanted to sneak out was because she did not want to lie to him. Why did he wake up so early? Why did she waste her time trying to drink something before leaving when she could? Buy something outside.
“You know just around,” she said. Kieran pressed his lips together. As much as he wanted her to always be in his thoughts, he did not want to seem like a control freak. He was just worried; even though Aurora was sleeping, he did not want it to be like he was trying to leave her when in fact he was just worried.
“Can I come? You know it’s been a while since we went out together.”
Her mom and sister had left yesterday. When they knew who Kieran was, they extended their stay for a month and attended Aurora’s trial. Ava only left when she was sure that the wicked woman who did this to her daughter was put in jail. Throughout their stay, Kieran and Arabella could not catch a break because they were constantly being watched by their family.
“I would like to go myself,” Arabella said.
“Well, okay but can you share your location with me? I know Aurora is at the jail and all that, but just to be safe, I am not trying to be controlling or…”
“It is okay; I will share my location with you,” Arabella said, cutting him off. She knew that he would throw a major big man tantrum if he knew where she was going. She knew that he was going to see it anyway, but she would already be there, and there would be nothing he could do by then.
Arabella was now standing in front of the building; she blinked her eyes multiple times. She had never imagined having to come here by herself to see someone. She gathered her courage and pushed through She was now sitting in one of the booths that had a glass wall separating them when Aurora entered from the other side and sat down in front of her.
“I have said that this kind of life does not suit you,” Arabella said as Aurora sat down. The once beautiful, flawless-skinned goddess was now looking like she had survived major climate change and disasters.
“Why don’t you drip the charges and let me go then?” Aurora asked.
“I came so you can apologize to me,” Arabella said, blinking at her. At least this woman should show some form of remorse for what she had done; shouldn’t that be the way it should be? Why was she so bold after being the wrong one? Arabella began to hear a loud laugh from the woman sitting opposite her.
“What?”
“Why are you laughing?” Arabella was shocked. That was not the expression she was expecting from her.
“Dearest Arabella, you must think the world revolves around you,” she said, leaning in that she was seated at the edge of her seat. “Why do you think I would apologize to you? I did what I did, and I would do it again and again if need be.”
“You are not sorry for kidnapping and assaulting me even though you ended up here?” Arabella asked.
“Of course, if I had the chance to, I would do it again. Can you imagine how hard I worked? I worked hard on Kieran, and you swooped in from nowhere and decided you wanted to take him from me. Oh, please, like you deserve him,” Aurora said, leaning into the chair.
“If you are here to ask me for an apology, I am afraid that you have to go back without one today and that you need not expect one from me,” she said, looking at her nails like she had gotten a fresh set of nails. “Arabella, I think one of the problems you have is that you seem to overrate yourself. To be honest, I did not think too much about you; I never wanted to hurt you personally. I think you are a good person, but I hated you for trying to latch yourself to Kieran, and if it were any other person, I would kidnap them as well,” she said before leaning in again. “I hope that makes you feel better than an apology would.”
Arabella sat there speechless, If someone is wrong, then they should at least find their fault and make amends, Why did this woman seem so confident in her crimes? “Well, I guess I have to leave now.”
“And I pray I never get to meet you again,” Aurora said, waving her hand at her. Arabella pushed the chair back; she was going to storm out, but she knew that Aurora would still have a certain kind of pride if she did anything to trample on it.
“Well, I would have invited you to our wedding, but unfortunately, I cannot because…” Arabella Sai pointed to her uniform and raised the corner of her nose. “But I hope you find all the sadness you need in life,” she said before walking away.
As Arabella walked out of the place slowly, her phone began ringing. It was Kieran; she felt so kind. If she had gotten a favourable response from Aurora, then she would have felt at ease, but now that she had gotten nothing, she knew that Kieran was going to be angry and she had nothing to brag about.
“I guess I was just foolish,” she slid her hand across the phone and put it to her ear.
“WHERE ARE YOU?” The tone of his voice was scary, and she did not like it.
“You know where I am,” Arabella said sluggishly.
“Why did you go there? What were you trying to achieve? Why would you go there? Don’t you know how dangerous it is for you to be there?” He asked in haste. He sounded angry, but his worry was overshadowing any anger he felt.
“Don’t worry,” she said, but was cut off by him.
“Stay right there; I will be there in a jiffy,” he said, and the line beeped dead.