Max POV
As I drive Ariel and myself down to the registry office, I continue to ask myself if what I’m about to do is right. I know I love her, but is it right to marry her? What about Alicia? How will she feel if she finds out about this? I have already hurt her so much, she’s going to be broken if she finds out that I married Ariel behind her back. Gosh! Aren’t I a bad husband?
“Are you ok?” Ariel’s voice pulls me back to reality, and I glance at her before I nod my head.
“You don’t look like you are fine. Are you regretting your decision already? We can go back from here if you don’t want to do this. I’m not forcing you to do this, I swear it,” She utters, but I quickly shake my head.
“Not that… I’m fine, honestly. Why will I regret my decision?” I stutter nervously, and she slowly nods her head. I don’t regret this right now, but I’m just not sure if I made the right decision.
“Alright,” She mumbles before she turns her gaze outside the window while resting her head on the glass.
“Are you okay?” I ask her, and she slowly shakes her head.
“What’s the problem?” I inquire.
“I’m just missing my mom,” She whispers as a drop of tears slides down her cheek, and I squint my eyes. I mean, her mom has committed a grievance offense toward her by selling her off, so how can she still miss such a person?
“How can I miss someone that hated me to the point of selling me off to a stranger for money… How can I still want to see the person that treated me like a piece of trash, you may wonder that…” She glances at me and scoffs as more tears pour down her cheeks. How much did she have to take in all these while? How much did she endure?
“Yes, I want to hate her… I don’t want to see her… I want to detest her so much… I always wants to think about everything she has done to me just so I could stop loving her, but it never worked. Thinking about the time I was her only priority, how could I hate someone like that?” She bursts into tears as she buries her face in her palms, and I sigh briefly as I pull over at the side of the road now.
“Ariel…” I pause since I don’t even know how to comfort her. I have learned some things about her these few months we have been together, and I have come to realize the pain she has been through while growing up. I know it can be traumatizing, and what her mom did was really bad, but she’s right, anyway. I mean, the woman will always remain her mom no matter what happens, right?
“Don’t cry, ok? Everything will be fine,” I assure her as I cup her cheeks in my palms, and wipe off her tears with my thumbs.
“Hmm,” She slowly nods her head, and I pull her into my arms afterward, hugging her warmly.
I finally drive us to the registry office, and we proceed to what brought us here once we arrived.
It only took a few minutes before we were done with everything, and we are now legally married.
“Are you going to tell your wife?” She asks as I drive her down the road later, and I glance at her.
“Yes… I’m going to tell her,” I know this is crazy, but I don’t want to keep lying to Alicia. It’s going to hurt her more if she finds out by herself, right?
“This is crazy, but I really need to tell her, and I hope you understand why…”
“What happens to me? Am I going to be your second wife?” She cuts me off, and I bite my lip. I haven’t thought of that. I know Alicia may file for divorce when she finds out about this, but I don’t feel too bad about it.
“You don’t want me to tell her?” I ask her, but she shakes her head.
“She will still find out, anyway… So there’s no point in hiding it from her,” She shrugs, and I slowly nod my head.
The rest of the drive home was filled with silence, and it was already 7pm by the time we got home. Yeah, we went to the marriage registry office from office after we closed from work earlier.
“Are you now shameless that you take her around as if she’s your wife?” Alicia barks at me as soon as we step into the living room, and I sigh briefly.
“Uhm… Can we not do this now, please?” I ask her calmly and politely, but she only scoffs as she ruffles her hair like a crazy woman. Yes, I know what I’m doing is driving her nuts, but I can’t help it.
“What is the meaning of this, Max? Did you go to the marriage registry office with her? What the hell did you two go there for? Please tell me it’s not what I’m thinking. You went there for a meeting concerning business, right?” She screams at me as she shows me the screen of her phone, and my mouth drops open in shock as I stare at the picture of me and Ariel coming out of the marriage registry office.
“Ho… how did you…”
“You bastard! Your names are on the hot search on the internet, and you are here asking me stupid questions, are you nuts?” She screams at me as tears stream down her cheeks.
My hands tremble as I reach out for my phone and turn on my data connection, and tons of messages pop up on my phone. What the hell! We are trending on the internet. Who the hell uploaded the pictures? I tilt my head to look at Ariel whose gaze is already on her phone, and tears streaming down her cheeks.
I hurry down to the comment section, and the reason behind her tears is obvious there.
“What! She’s dating a married woman? Didn’t she know he was married? She’s such a home breaker,”
“Wow! This is crazy. Men are indeed crazy. I have seen his wife a couple of times, and she’s classier than that bitch. What do men really want?”
“I heard she’s even his secretary, now I’m scared of my husband having a female secretary. Who knows what she and her boss has been doing behind the closed door?”
“Poor Alicia, she must be going through a lot of pain now. I heard she’s carrying the man’s child after two years of barrenness. He’s an ungrateful bastard, and the little girl is a gold digger,”
“I know Mr. Dante very well, and I know he won’t ever do such a thing. I mean, he won’t even stoop so low to having affair with that dirty thing. Maybe she drugged him. That has to be the case,”
“Wow! I just heard that she was hired by then to get pregnant for Max for some reason I don’t know about yet. Wow! She betrayed poor Alicia. I mean, she was just trying to help her husband, but he was a bastard to have turned and married that thing,”
“Wow! So she’s even their breeder. This is crazy and complicated,” Seeing the hateful comments drive me crazy and I find myself tightening my fingers around my phone, as I grit my teeth. Who the hell did that?
Ariel turns and rushes away in tears.
“Don’t I deserve an explanation, Max? What the hell is happening here?” She yells at me when I turn to run after her, and I stop.
“I got married to Ariel,” I give her the answer she craves so hard before I rush up the stairs to meet Ariel. I think this is all my fault…