Ariella acted strong and calm, but inside she was freaking out. "What if Asher wants to get back with Scarlett? What will happen to me? And to this baby," she said, touching her stomach and caressing it.
Sigh!
"I can't think like that. It's going to be okay. Asher loves me now. Yes, he loves me now."
But even as she chanted that Asher loved her, he never called her back as she had expected. And she was starting to give up. However, he showed up in the evening just as she was getting down the stairs to go and have dinner. She had not had lunch, just eaten a few bites of a banana because she couldn't stomach the sight of food today. She was so excited to see him. She couldn't hide the smile on her face and started walking down in a hurry as if she couldn't even control her feet to get closer to him. Even her brain was signalling to go in his arms.
"Whoa…whoa, whoa. Slow down, slow down,"
Asher told her as he ran towards her to stop her from sloping downward the stairs too quickly, defending himself, he was running up the stairs hastily so she wouldn't fall and hurt herself.
"Come on, I keep telling you to be careful with your health now. You know you're carrying our baby. I wouldn't want anything to happen to you or our children."
Ariella's heart was filled with warmth. This was the man she had married and he still cared about her. Asher grabs Ariella by her shoulders, then carefully goes down the stairs. Arielle couldn't help but raise her head and takes a look at his handsomeness. By looking at him she was convincing him how much she has been missing him. Suddenly a voice from the doorway spoke.
"Oh, you two look so cute together."
She turned towards the sound of the voice and saw Scarlett standing there. She had been so wrapped up in seeing her husband Asher that she hadn't known there was someone standing behind him.
Ariella was surprised. "What was Scarlett doing here?" she wondered silently. She threw a questioning look at Asher, who smiled, acting unbothered.
"Oh, you're..." Ariella trailed off,
"Oh, darling, I neglected to inform you. Yesterday, I thought we would have had time. I had anticipated that we would have had a chance to converse this morning. However, I received the phone call, and I needed to go visit her. Asher introduced Scarlett as his best friend, the person he had mentioned before.
Ariella bit her lips and forced a smile on her face. As she walked towards Scarlett.
"Oh, Scarlett, it's nice to see you," she greeted and tried going for a hug.
Ahhh!
Scarlett acted as if she was hurt so badly. Scarlett's paid groan made Asher worried.
Asher gently pushed Ariella away from Scarlett as he asked her, like a worried mother, "Are you okay, Scarlett? Is everything okay? How do you feel? Are you in pain?"
Scarlett smiled tightly, her face showing signs of discomfort. "It's okay, Asher," she reassured him, "she didn't know, she was just trying to hug me, but you know how my body is still healing and I think she might have hugged me a little too tightly."
"How do you feel now? Are you feeling better? Come on, you should sit down," Asher said as he gently took Scarlett's hand and put the other on her backside, leading her to the living room. Ariella followed suit behind them, feeling like a scolded child.
As Asher held Scarlett on the sofa, he turned towards Ariella. "Scarlett has been through a lot, we will talk later, but she is still in pain and her brother was supposed to pick her up from the hospital but he didn't show up. The next emergency contact was me and I couldn't leave her there, so I had to bring her home. I hope you don't mind."
Ariella smiled sadly. "No, it's okay, you're very welcome. I was just about to have dinner. We should go there and have some dinner."
"Okay, that sounds great," Asher agreed. Ariella started heading to the dining room, and Asher went towards Scarlett and helped her go to the dining room. Asher went to his usual seat by the head of the table, and Ariella sat to his right, while Asher helped Scarlett to his left.
The two sat on opposite sides of the table, and it looked like they were in a fierce battle with Asher between them. Asher took Ariella's hand. Ariella smiled triumphantly as she looked at Asher with love shining in her eyes, telling herself, "He loves me." And then Asher looked to his left and looked at Scarlett, also taking her hand, and then he said to her, "You're going to be fine, Scarlett. You're going to get better, and we are here for you." Scarlett smiled up at him and threw Ariella an offside triumphant glance before redirecting her attention back towards Asher.
The whole time they were having dinner, Asher and Scarlett kept talking about everything. Scarlett would ask questions about how everybody was doing, and what had changed from the years that she had been gone. Every time Ariella tried to contribute something, Scarlett would interrupt her and ask something intimate between them or between Asher and his friends to single her out. In the end, she gave up and stopped talking altogether.
After they were done and had moved back to the living room, Ariella was expecting Scarlett to leave, but As her suddenly said, "Let me go and see if your brother is available," and he left the two of them there.
They didn't say anything to each other, and Ariella had the feeling that Scarlett did not like her. She supposed nobody in her position who had been gone for years expected to come back and find that their fiancé had married another woman, so she didn't say anything to interact with her.
A few minutes later, Asher came back to the room and said, "I just talked to Thompson K. Apparently, he had a phone call that needed his attention in Asia, so he has gone for two weeks. He told me he had been trying to call, but he couldn't get a hold of us. I did find his missed call."
Ariella's eyes widened in surprise. 'This cannot be happening' she thought in horror