Chapter 5 - Help me

Asher comes back into the bedroom in the morning and goes straight to the bathroom. After he has showered and dressed, he goes towards Ariella's side of the bed. Ariella has not been able to fall asleep. She has been drifting in and out of sleep the whole night, not getting a good night's rest. She's got her hair in a bed net and her eyes are heavy with dark circles. She looks weak and tired.

"Hey, how are you doing?" Asher asks her softly.

"You don't look so good. Didn't you sleep well?" Asher asks Ariella.

Ariella responds, "I'm okay. How about you? Did you guys get some sleep?"

"Yeah, I managed to get some sleep and Scarlett is still sleeping," Asher replies.

"Okay," Ariella says. "So I'm hoping you can look after her. I haven't been to work in like two days. And I'm managing the Blackwell company and also managing your mother's company. And you know Blackwell is large and we have a lot of projects and subsidiaries. So I have a lot of work and I'm swamped. I really have to get to work today."

"You work very hard. It's okay. I'll take care of her," Ariella assures him.

Asher looks at her for a few minutes before saying, "Okay, I'm going to go now." He kisses her forehead and says, "You promised to look after my twins, okay?"

Ariella smiles. "Okay." And Asher leaves.

She manages to get two hours of sleep. And when she wakes up, she goes to look for Scarlett. Scarlett is not in her bedroom. So Ariella goes downstairs to have breakfast and finds Scarlett already there.

"Good morning Scarlett," Ariella greets her.

Scarlett looks at her in disdain and answers, "Good morning."

"So how are you feeling?" Ariella inquires.

"I know you don't like me. So there's no need for you to talk to me. Let's just tolerate each other until I'm gone," Scarlett retorts.

Ariella keeps quiet and has breakfast. And then later she goes back into her room and calls her best friend Erica Howard.

"Hey, so what's going on?" Erica asks.

Ariella didn't know this and she doesn't know why, but she was suddenly crying. She didn't know she was this mad or she was this angry until Erica asked her what was going on. Maybe it was the pregnancy hormones.

Erica is startled and asks her what is going on. And Ariella tells her about Scarlett. About how Asher brought Scarlett into the house and what happened during the night.

**********

Later that afternoon, Ariella goes to Scarlett's room and asks her to join her for lunch. Scarlett eyes Ariella suspiciously, but Ariella continues, "I know I haven't been very welcoming ever since you came to the house, but I want you to know that you're someone very special to Asher, and he used to talk about you a lot. I know you were friends before you got involved, and I know you went through a lot. I am Asher's wife now, and I'm hoping I can be your friend too. We can't change the past, but that doesn't mean that we have to hate each other."

Scarlett looks at her, calculating, and finally gives her a hand. "Okay, I would like that."

Ariella smiles. "Thank you, that would mean a lot." And then they have lunch. After lunch, Scarlett says she's going to head back to bed, and Ariella decides to take a nap too. When she wakes up, it's already dark, and she might have slept longer than she planned. She gets out of the bedroom and goes downstairs. As she's descending the stairs, she hears voices coming from the dining room. She wonders to herself, is it that late?

She finds Thomas by the hallway and asks, "Hello, Thomas. What time is it? I think I might have overslept."

"Yes, Mrs. Blackwell. You did. It's already dinner time, and Mr. Blackwell and Miss Bennett are already at the dining room having dinner."

"Why didn't anyone wake me?" she wonders aloud.

Thomas does not say anything as he looks down and makes space for Ariella to go through the dining room. As she gets in, she finds Asher and Scarlett laughing at something they had been talking about. When Asher notices her, he stands up and comes towards her.

"Hey baby, are you okay? Are you feeling better?" Asher asks.

Ariella hesitates, wondering if he's referring to her earlier state. "Yeah, I'm okay."

"Scarlett told me that you haven't been feeling well all day and you had just gone to sleep, so we decided to let you sleep in. I'm so glad you could join us," Asher says.

Ariella is surprised. She never talked to Scarlett about not feeling well, but she did not want to have another argument. So she agrees and lets Asher guide her to the table. As she sits down, Scarlett continues leading the conversation, making sure that Ariella is left out. Again.

When it's time to retire to the bedroom, Ariella and Asher go to their bedroom. Asher heads to the closet and comes back in his pyjamas.

"So hey, how have you been doing? How are my twins?" he says as he heads towards Ariella and touches her stomach lovingly.

"We're okay. I miss you," Ariella replies.

"Yeah, I've missed you too. It's been a crazy few days," Asher says, leaning in for a kiss. Just as the kiss gets heated, his phone rings. He stops kissing her and takes his phone.

"Oh, it's Scarlet. I better head on now. I don't want to leave her alone for long."

"She texted you?" Ariella asks.

"Yeah, I told her to tell me when she was ready to go to sleep so I could go there. I'm going to be sleeping there until she goes back to her family house."

Ariella interrupts before he starts talking again. "You know what? I've been thinking, and I don't think it's appropriate for you to be sleeping in the same room with her, being as she's your ex-fiancee and you're now married to me."

Ariella sees Asher's face starting to darken, so she quickly adds, "No, what I meant is, she's a woman, and I'm a woman. She's your friend, and so she's my friend. We struck a truce today, and I think we might like each other and get to be friends for a given time. Why don't I go to sleep with her? It's only two weeks."

Asher seems to ponder this and says, "Okay, let me go and talk to her first, and then I'll come and tell you what she says." Asher answers and Ariella gritts her teeth together.

A few minutes later, Asher comes back and says, "Okay. She laughed and said, 'Yeah, it was kind of weird that we were sleeping in the same room too.' Asher nods his head and then looks back at her. "Yeah, you were right. she's ready to go sleep now, I think you should go."

"Okay," Ariella kisses him again and then leaves the bedroom as the two smile at each other.

When Ariella gets to Scarlett's bedroom, they both smile awkwardly at each other. The mat is already set down with blankets, so Ariella starts heading towards it, but Scarlett interrupts her.

"Hey, you're pregnant. I don't think you should be sleeping down there. Why don't I sleep down there?" she offers.

Ariella shakes her head. "No, you're a guest here, and your body is still healing. I'll just sleep here. It's no bother. Don't worry."

"No, I can't let you sleep there. You know what? Why don't we just put pillows in the centre of the bed? And then both sleep in the bed. It's a big bed. There's a lot of space," Scarlett suggests.

Ariella looks at the bed and then decides to agree, realizing that sleeping on the mat wouldn't be comfortable in her condition. 

"Okay, maybe tomorrow I will add another bed in here so I can sleep here," Ariella jokes, and the two laugh.

They put pillows in the middle of the bed, and Ariella says goodnight. She stares out through her side that faces the window, while Scarlett's side faces the door.

It takes some time, but just as Ariella starts succumbing to sleep, suddenly Scarlett moves and jumps on top of her, sitting on her thighs. Ariella is so startled, that her body goes into survival mode. She slaps Scarlett and throws her on the bed, jumping on top of her.

 The room fills with Scarlett's terrified screams and Ariella's own confusion. Asher's voice cuts through, filled with shock and urgency. "Ariella, stop! You're going to hurt her! What are you doing?" he shouts, trying to make sense of the frantic scene unfolding before him.

That is when Ariella realizes that she's got her hands on Scarlett's neck and Scarlett is screaming, 

"Help me! She's going to kill me! Help me!"