Ariella stood frozen, her mind racing in a whirlwind of confusion and disbelief. Asher's voice cut through the tension, drawing her attention as he pulled her away from Scarlett, his expression a mixture of confusion and concern.
"What are you doing?" Asher asks Ariella, as he takes her off on top of Scarlett and stands in the middle of the two women, holding his weight and shaking his head in confusion. He looks at Ariella and then at Scarlett and asks,
"What is going on? What happened?"
Scarlett's cries pierced the silence, her distress palpable as tears and mucus streamed down her face. Ariella feels a surge of empathy mingled with suspicion, unsure of the truth hidden behind Scarlett's tears.
As Asher rushed to comfort Scarlett, Ariella felt a pang of betrayal. She watched, wounded, as Asher enveloped Scarlett in his embrace, choosing Scarlet over her and leaving Ariella feeling abandoned and alone.
There is pain in her eyes. Ariella is unable to comprehend the scene unfolding before her eyes, Ariella retreated into her thoughts, debating with Scarlett's accusations. Doubt ate at her, fueled by the suspicion. She doesn't understand either what has just happened.
Scarlett's voice takes Ariella from her own thoughts as she keeps shouting,
"She tried to hurt me. I'm so scared. I don't want to stay here anymore. She doesn't want me here. She never wanted me here. I can't stay here. She just tried to kill me."
Asher keeps comforting her and urging her to calm down,
"Hey, it's okay. It's okay. Nobody wants to kill you. I'm sure it was just an accident. Calm down"
"An accident? She was choking me. If you hadn't come inside, I would have died." And then she's crying again.
Asher looks at her and asks, Ariella, "What happened?"
"I don't know. I was just sleeping. And then she was on top of me. I tried defending myself and I pushed her away…." But Scarlet interrupts her,
"Then if you pushed me away, why did you choke me? I didn't do anything to you. Why would you say that?" Scarlett keeps defending herself and crying even harder.
Ariella sees that Scarlet is taking all of Asher's attention and tries to plead her case.
"Stop crying and stop lying. You started it first. You started this whole thing. You were the one who wanted to kill me…"
"why would I want to kill you?"Scarlet interjects,
"I don't know. Maybe you wanted Asher's to yourself. But you attacked me and I was just defending myself."
"Why would I do that? I didn't even want you to sleep in this room. You wanted to sleep here. I didn't want to sleep in the same room with you to begin with."
"Yes, because I did not want you to sleep with my husband. That is why I did so. And I did not do it so that I would kill you. You attacked me first."
"She's lying! I did not attack her. You saw what happened, Asher." Scarlet shouts and then she's crying again.
Scarlet starts getting hysterical. She cries harder and louder, as she keeps asking Asher to get her out of the house, because she is afraid Ariella will hurt her. She wants to leave. Finally, Asher says to Ariella,
"Can you please just go to the bedroom? I'll meet you there."
"Go to the bedroom to do what? This woman is a liar! I want her out of my house."
" Please just go, Ariella, now. " Asher pleads to Ariella with his eyes.
Ariella deflates in defeat and goes to their bedroom. In the quiet of the room, Ariella's realization struck like a bolt of lightning. She knows what happened. She did not just attack Scarlett. Scarlett attacked her first. And now she's realizing that Scarlett may have set her up.
Ariella stood in her bedroom with Asher, agitated. She was still not over what had happened, and she didn't know why it had happened. She felt herself getting tired and worn out over the whole ordeal. She felt her stomach pain and decided to sit down. She hugged her stomach and caressed it as she talked to her unborn babies.
"I'm so sorry about this. I hope you're okay in there," she told her stomach as she caressed it.
She rested her head on the pillow and looked up at the ceiling, thinking about what she had to do next. Scarlett had just been in the house for two days and already things were upside down. She had to get her life, her house, and especially her marriage back on track before she lost everything. She touched her swollen stomach again and thought of her twin babies. As she was there thinking about everything, Asher came into the room.
Ariella immediately bolted from the bed and ran towards Asher. She took his hand and looked at his tired, given-up face.
"Asher, look at me. You have to believe me. You can't take Scarlett's side. I didn't do anything to her. She was the one who attacked me. I don't know what she's trying to do, but I didn't hurt her." Ariella pleaded with Asher.
Asher raised his face and looked at her. "I'm so tired, Ariella. Let me just... I just came to take a T-shirt so I can go and sleep with her. I just want this night to be over and then we can discuss everything tomorrow."
"You're going to sleep with her again?" she asked, getting angry.
Asher responded, shouting, as he took his hands away from Ariella's hold"What do you want me to do, Ariella? Just exactly what do you want me to do?"
" She said that she wants to leave. Let her go," Ariella answered. "Let her go if she wants to go."
"Ariella, you want me to kick her out? You know she has nowhere to go. That's why she was in this house in the first place."
"I don't care anymore. After what she did, I just want her out of the house."
"Ariella, I saw you on top of her," Asher said, killing any hopes in Ariella that he had believed her in the first place.
She took a step away from him and looked at him. She sighed. "I can't believe this," she said to herself as she shook her head. Then she said to Asher,
"So, you believe her? You don't believe me?"
"Ariella, this has nothing to do with believing you or believing her. Can we just go to sleep?"
"I can't let you continue sleeping with her in that room anymore. She's either sleeping by herself or she's getting out."
"Don't you think you're overreacting? After what happened, I don't think the two of you should stay in the same house."
"Yes, I'm glad we at least agree on one thing. I can't continue living with that woman in this house anymore."
"Yes, thank you for helping me come to that conclusion," Asher said as he started heading towards the closet.
"Asher, Asher," Ariella said as she went towards him and held him back. She looked into his eyes pleading and asked, "Asher, I need you to believe me."
Asher looked at her, then looked to the side and said, "I believe you." Then he continued walking.
"Asher," Ariella held his hand back. "Asher, I need you to know that I would never hurt her. I would never hurt anyone. Why would I even want to hurt her?"
Asher didn't look back and just said, "It is not easy for me, but I know you didn't want her in the house in the first place."
"What do you mean?" Ariella asked, raising her voice.
"I mean, I know you didn't want her here. Maybe you did this so I would kick her out. You keep saying that you don't want her in the house. That's what I mean."
"So you believe her?" Ariella asked.
"I don't know what to believe, but I know what I saw and I know what you have been saying and I know what you're saying right now."
Ariella felt a pain that started in her heart, a sharp stab that radiated to her eyes, releasing tears. Then the pain moved to her stomach as she felt tiny needles attacking her. She couldn't help the pain as she held onto her stomach, looking for something to touch to help her overcome the agony.
"Aaargh..."
Asher turned back and saw her reaction, immediately taking a step towards her. "Hey, Ariella, are you okay? What is it?"
"It's painful," Ariella gritted out as the pain continued.
Asher started panicking. "What is it? What is it?"
"It's my stomach. I feel like..." Ariella trailed off.
Asher had already picked her up as he ran outside the door, shouting for Tomas, who came in his pyjamas running up the stairs. "What is going on?"
"Get the car. We have to hurry. We have to take Ariella to the hospital now."
"I can't lose my babies…" Ariella cried into Asher's neck.