Arabel's POV
A gasp leaves my mouth as I rush forward, just in time for the two nurses passing by to also bend to help him up.
I am left with picking up the crutches. This is when I realize Mother didn't help. She is standing in the same spot, alone and uncaring.
Anger is brimming in her eyes.
When our eyes meet, she quickly darts them away and walks to the reception seat. We planned to grab some food for Richard, but she left her purse in his room. When I didn't see her, I decided to help her check so we could get the food, and I could finally bid them goodbye so I could catch the next flight and make it in time for the party.
That was when I heard it all.
Every single thing.
I follow the nurses back to the room, holding onto Richard's arms. For the first time since I came, he avoids my gaze.
They lay him down, and he turns sideways while I drop the crutches beside his bed. Richard used to be a tall, imposing man, but seeing him in this bed, knowing full well that I might have something to do with this, makes me feel some sort of sympathy for him.
He seems small.
Without a word, I stride out of the room and go to the reception to meet Mother. I meet the guy from earlier halfway, and I stop him with a wave, flashing him a smile.
“I know you, don't I?” I ask, hoping he can help me remember him. If he works for Richard, I should recognize him, but I don't. He just seems so faintly familiar that I can't place where I know him from.
He only smiles and walks off, as if I'm not talking to him.
Then it hits me.
That smile.
My mind races back to the night Richard appeared on my doorstep. He was the guy I met halfway.
Yes, he is.
The fact that I found him familiar that day also remains unresolved. I must have seen him before that day, and I am not certain that I haven't.
“Bella?” Mother calls, coming back with a pack of food. “I got them already. Do you want some?”
“No, I'm fine.” I smile at her, and she stretches the pack to me. “Go drop it.”
I don't have time to argue because she turns her back and walks to the reception again.
She is really mad at him.
If she is acting this way now, I wonder how she must have behaved when she learned about the divorce he requested and my subsequent disappearance.
She must have been so angry with him and me. To be honest, I have never seen her so angry, and it scares me.
I just hope this won't continue to create a problem between them. I know Richard to be someone who always listens to whatever she tells him, including our marriage.
That made me admire him more. He wasn't like the new world man who would stand up to their parents and never listen to one thing they say just because they are men and could make decisions for themselves, whether bad or good.
Nevertheless, I believe she shouldn't have forced him into a loveless marriage. All of this wouldn't be happening now.
Perhaps he would have been happily married to his girlfriend, and I would have found someone else who loved me with every fiber of his existence.
Perhaps I would still be married now and not a divorcee.
Richard is still lying on his side with his bad leg on the good one, but he doesn't move as I enter. Quietly, I drop the pack of food on the high table beside his bed and hurry out.
I just hope they resolve this soon. The air between them is really tense and awkward.
“Did he take it?” Her voice jerks me back to life, and I see her on the other side of the transparent door. She stops and turns to look through the door. He is still in the same position. “Jerk!”
“Mom, I don't think you should be hard on him…”
“He deserves whatever I throw his way. How can he accuse me when he also bears the blame?” She blasts out, making me shut up.
Tempted, I really want to ask her about what she said earlier. Eve betrayed him, which was why he wanted me back. What did she do? Did she reject him? Cheat on him?
But I can't find my voice.
Despite her anger towards him, she continues to stare at him. Finally, her eyes soften, and she lets out a deep sigh.
A lone tear slips down her eyes, and I step beside her, unsure of how to comfort her with our standing position and the fact that we are in public.
“To be honest, what he said hits deep. I feel responsible, but I just keep blaming him because he is so stupid. He should have opposed me from the very beginning when I first asked him to marry you, knowing that he would eventually divorce you.”
“Mom, it's all in the past now,” I say, placing a hand on her back in a soothing manner.
“I can't help it, Bella. Anytime I see him this way, I can't help but blame myself. This isn't the first time we've had such a heated session. When you left, we were at odds with each other for months. He was already sorry for his decision, but I wouldn't stop blaming him and cursing at him because I was terribly hurt. I didn't realize he was hurt until it was too late. And now, after promising never to blame him, I just did, because I couldn't hold back. The more pathetic he is, the more upset I am.”
I want to ask what she meant by it being too late, but I don't.
She sniffs and continues to watch his back. “The company suffered for it. He alienated himself from everyone, moved out of the mansion, and was miserable for months. Then I felt ill; I thought I was going to die. He thought so too, and we made up. Richard wouldn't talk to anyone but me. The company went up in flames. I forced him to visit a therapist, which he did, but nothing was working. When I mentioned the idea of a psychiatrist, he was red-faced. I didn't mean to, but I was just scared. I thought he would wake up one day and do something rash, like commit suicide or something else for everything. He was suffering in silence, and he wouldn't confide in me. I was more of an authority-giver than a listener. I didn't even know how to ask him or persuade him to confide in me.”
A whimper leaves her mouth, and she clamps her hands over them.
“God, you have no idea how terrible those moments were for us. We even thought something bad had happened to you. It was really traumatic for us both…”
“I'm so sorry.” I look down at my foot in shame. I didn't know how much pain I caused her with my actions.
“No, it's not your fault. I wasn't even angry with you. I was just pissed with myself. I kept beating myself up for everything until we got a lead on you. Someone in California claimed to have seen you, but you disappeared instantly. That gave us hope. We knew you weren't dead, and that was when everything became normal again.”
I am already in tears.
"Richard didn't cease his search for you until you entered his office as his partner," she turns to me. "I am well aware that I have no business doing this on his behalf, as he is an absolute jerk."
We both laugh at this and then turn to stare at his rigid back, which is now relaxed. He must have fallen asleep.
“I shouldn't be doing this, Arabel, but I need to. You should stop hiding from yourself and from him. He might deserve all the things you throw his way, but you shouldn't deprive him of knowing that Daisy is his child. This conflict is between you both, and you should resolve it. However, he has the right to know his child, and the child also has the right to know her father.”
At this point, my tears increase.
Richard wasn't there when I was pregnant with her. He didn't even know I was pregnant. This was my fear. I was terrified that he would replace me.
She hugs me, patting me on the shoulder. “Richard is sorry, Arabel. I am his mother, and I have watched him suffer for his mistakes in silence. I've seen him go through the trauma of losing you. I have watched him change from the man he used to be. I have watched how the thought of you motivated him, and I have seen what a strong man he is.”
I continue to cry as the words sink in.
“Lastly, I believe the whole fault isn't entirely his. He was deceived too, and he fell for it by asking you for a divorce.”
That catches my attention, and I pull away from her hug, wiping my tears with my hand.
“What..how do you mean?”
She points at him. “Richard's father and I loved each other so much until the night he cheated on me. Slowly, the love between us died, no matter the effort we put into it. I forgave him, but I couldn't trust him anymore. That always led to one fight or another between us, until the morning I hit him and called him a cheat in front of Richard. He was just 16 years old. Richard's respect for his father decreased, and there was nothing I said to improve the relationship between them. I felt bad for all my actions, and I decided to put in every effort to make things work and stop fighting him, but I was too late. Richard already saw his father as a cheat, and he became closer with me, which always broke my heart. Because he felt my pain, he vowed he would never be unfaithful to his wife. I didn't even know how to explain the whole situation to him until he became a man.”
Richard stirs and turns to the other side, revealing his peaceful and calm face as he sleeps.
“When Richard finally summoned up the courage to confide in me, he told me he didn't want to become unfaithful to you, and he didn't want the tag of a cheat like his father, which was why he asked for a divorce. The idiot never knew you were in love with him. He thought he was doing you a favour by letting you go so he could marry that bitch.”
He never knew I was in love with him? Despite all my care and kindness as well as the submissiveness? What else was I supposed to do to express my love for him?
Slowly, scenes from almost eight years ago down to the end of our marriage race through my head as I realize where the problem was coming from.
Richard and I never said the “love” word. I never told him I loved him, and he never did.
"Eve, or whatever her name was, cheated on him with his best friend the very night he got divorced, and he wanted to tell her about his intentions to marry her. It turned out Jake, his best friend, was the same person who gave him the idea of going along with the marriage to please me for just a year and, after that, file for divorce and marry Eve. But Eve left New York heartbroken and didn't return until three years later with Jake, who was already her lover. Richard was fooled. If he hadn't caught them together that night, he would have married her. However, I believe that happened for a purpose: to make him see the truth, to appreciate the beauty of his happy marriage with you, and to value you, even though it was already too late. You were gone. You disappeared into thin air, and all hell broke loose.”
As I slowly look up to gaze at the man I have resented for four years, more tears spring to my eyes.
While wiping my tears and staring, something catches my attention, and I blink repeatedly to concentrate, only to meet the gaze of the ocean-blue-eyed man.
Richard.
He is awake now.
And watching me.