Max POV
Seeing Alicia here kind of makes me feel guilty. I made her pass through a lot, and it hurts that I can’t even make up for it.
“Alicia…” I pause and bite my bottom lip as I become nervous. I have no idea where to start, or how to apologize, I don’t just know what to do. I know that no matter what I do, nothing can make up for what I’ve done to her.
“How have you been, husband?… Hold on, I’m sorry, you no longer belong to me, so I have no right to call you that. How have you been, Max, rather?” She asks after she glances at Ariel, who just stares back at her.
“You’ve been fine, it’s obvious,” She shrugs before she catwalks over to me.
“You didn’t miss me, did you?” She bites her lips as tears well up in her eyes. The pain in her eyes makes me feel this sting in my heart which I know was caused by a guilty conscience.
“How would you miss me, when you have your new wife here with you? That’s crazy of me think to think that. But come to think of it, do you think this is fair, Max?” Tears finally stream down her cheeks as she stares at me with what I can call resentment. She has every right to resent me because I deserve it.
“Alicia…”
“You’re sorry? You didn’t mean to do any of that to me? You regret everything…”
“No, I don’t…” I cut her off before I can stop myself, but yes, I don’t really regret my decision.
“Wow!” She scoffs as she throws her gaze away.
“I’m sorry about everything… You didn’t deserve to be treated like that… I know what I’ve done is hard to be forgiven, but one decision I never regret was following my heart… I never regret getting married to Ariel,” I utter, and glance at Ariel whose sad expression slowly melts into a happy one.
“We started as the best couples ever… We were through a lot of tests in the past, and we managed to pull through it. You were there for me all the time and you made sure that I was happy…”
“Then why? What happened? What the hell changed?” She screams at the top of her voice this time before she turns to face Ariel with hatred written all over her face. She looks like she would stab the innocent girl if she had a dagger in her possession. I understand the raw hatred though.
“It was because of her, isn’t it? She was the one you neglected me… The reason you made me lose my baby. Why, Max?” More tears stream down her cheeks, and I gulp down nothing as I slowly clench my fingers beside me. My heart wrenches in pain as I bite my bottom lip, and waves of guilt wash through me. I know how she suffered before she got pregnant, how we stayed in this marriage for two years before she finally got pregnant, and I made her lose the baby, what kind of a man am I?
“You are just going to stare at me like that? You are not going to say anything?” She pushes me slightly, and I only stagger back.
“Fine… It’s fine…” She mutters as she wipes off her tears and takes a deep breath. I watch as she picks up her handbag from the center table and brings out papers from it before she flings them on my face.
“You wanted a divorce, that is it. Sign the papers you desperately wanted. Let’s not ever cross paths again. Let me know when you’ve signed them,” she utters and with that, she turns and strides out of the living room, slamming the door behind her.
Staring into space, tears threaten to leave my eyes, but I fight them back. Everything is falling apart in my life, and I feel like I’m the cause of it all. As much as I know that I don’t regret getting married to Ariel, there are things I regret doing. I shouldn’t have agreed to this in the first place when she brought up the idea of getting a surrogate, but I never knew that I would eventually fall for her and can’t even control it.
“I will be in my room,” Ariel utters before she walks away, and I’m glad she has chosen to leave me alone because that is all I need for now. I just want to be left alone to think about the possible solution to all this mess now.
One after the other, I pick up the papers slowly before I sit on the couch, staring at them.
‘You have to take her back as your wife’ recalling what my dad told me, I slowly tighten my fingers around the paper. I can’t do any of the conditions he gave me, but how sure I am that these won’t be better than the one he asked me to wait for?
What if this is the only option I have later to save myself from this mess? How will I be able to cope? Will she even agree to come back to me? With all these running through my mind, I don’t think it’s time to sign the divorce papers yet.
The rest of my day was filled with boredom, and I end up passing the night on the couch unknowingly.
Waking up this morning with many missed calls on my phone, from my dad, the company, and even Alex, I can’t help but get worried.
“Max… Max… There’s a problem,” I snap my head up to find Ariel rushing down the staircase while holding her phone in her hand, and I need no one to tell me that something is up there.
“What happe…” My voice trails off and my eyes widen when she trips on the stairs and came stumbling down till she hits the last staircase, while I just stand here frozen on the spot.
“Babe…” I rush over to her, but she’s already bleeding, and her body is bruised.
“Babe… Babe… Ariel… Open your eyes!” I shake her slightly and gulp down the sudden lump that forms in my throat. Seeing the blood coming from her makes me feel dizzy, and I step away from her, confused about what to do. Occurrences from the past flood my mind, and I feel my eyes closing. My heart wrenches in pain and I find myself finding it difficult to breathe. Have I mentioned that I’m hemophobia? Yes, it all started when I just turned seven after an incident I have tried to bury in my past. These past few years, I have tried so much to always stay away from blood, but it seems like I can’t dodge it here now.
I try to touch her, but my body trembles fearfully, and I end up stepping away from her. She’s dying slowly, she’s bleeding, her eyes are already closed, and her body is becoming pale. I know I need to do something about it, but I can’t overcome my phobia at this moment.
I hear the door suddenly burst open, and I turn to see a blurry figure rushing over to us. That was all I remembered as I slump to the ground and everything became blank…