My heart felt heavy leaving the kids behind.
The streetlights passed behind us as we drove forward. Turned to look at him, and he tilted his head to look at me at the same time.
He smiled, putting his left hand on my knees making me skip a breath, looking up to match his eyes once again.
But then it was gone as if it had disappeared into the thin air. My husband had his eyes straight out on the road. He would not even look my way.
After contemplating hard if I could come. Cole had called Aiden's doctor and she said it could be a mild irritation in his little tummy.
I had no heart to leave my baby without my presence when he was suffering but there was my husband who expected something of me.
It turned out that I was right all along. The reason he and Bianca were fighting was that she was tired of being not known to the world that he belonged to her and to top it, he had asked her to look after the kids so that he could take me, his wife to the gala.
I understood her perspective. The agony of the heart could wreak oneself. I had been there once upon a time.
But then I also got Cole's hesitation. The gala meant a lot to his family. Harrison's had a reputation to maintain just like my father was talking about it when he could not accept me right away.
The world of the rich worked in a very different way. Things we would not care about meant too much for them. They wore their so-called respect in society as jewellery on their bodies.
If not for this I bet Cole would have forced me into signing the divorce papers but he had a reputation to care about at the same time.
Even his parents kind of knew about the affair but when Aiden was born, they thought we overcame that phase as a couple together and now everything was fine, not having any clue about the fact that their son had proposed divorce months ago.
The way I could maintain a surety in my working life, I had no idea what was going to happen in my personal life.
When we reached his condominium to drop the kids off with Bianca, I sensed the tense situation right away.
Although I disliked being the reason behind this, to be honest, I would have no regrets if Bianca could go because I was unwilling to leave Aiden in such a condition.
"Let's go, Janet. He will be fine."
Cole called out again as I was still staring at his little chest rising up and down, sleeping after a long episode of crying.
Leaning down to drop a sweet kiss on his temple, I stood up and saw Bianca standing by the door.
"Do not worry about him...I will keep sending you updates throughout the night." She said.
It was nothing new. This was also the reason why I could not bring to myself hate her.
She was a nice caring woman and accepted the situation as it was. She knew that if she wanted to be with Cole, the two children would come with him.
I nodded and left without any other word. But then she grabbed my hand stopping me in the middle.
"Take this..."
She offered me a lipstick. I looked up at her. It was no surprise that in no way I looked like someone going to attend a gala.
"...apart from the dress, there is no way it seems like you even wanted to go to the gala."
She chuckled. I gave her a soft smile and took it without another word.
Now standing all by myself in the huge hall with all the people talking away, holding flutes of champagne, I felt like the odd one out.
Cole's parents had greeted us at the moment we arrived here. They offered me to join them as they met and talked with other people of eminence.
That was how the business world worked and I had no interest in it. So I decided to stay back as they went ahead and got lost in the crowd.
It had always been the same. In the beginning, even though I tried to mingle, with time I realized that it held no interest for me and so I just settled for accompanying him as his wife.
I checked my phone for the nth time, the last message that I received from her was half an hour ago.
I knew that I was going restless, worrying without the need to at all. With no Viviana too, I was getting bored all by myself.
Thinking to distract myself, I thought to go to the washroom and use the lipstick that Bianca had handed me. Even Mrs. Harrison whispered in my ears that I needed a touchup.
As I turned to walk the other way, unknowingly collided with someone...the one I had not even thought about getting this close in my life.
I drew my eyes up to see and they got stuck, not being able to believe who was standing before me.
His hand held my arm in a tight hold, not letting me fall and my palms caught hold of his suit, not wanting to fall.
It was obvious that neither of us expected to be in the same space or be this close ever again...the shock in his eyes told everything.
Five years and I never had to risk the situation of coming face to face with him and all of a sudden, out of nowhere everything from my past was resurfacing.
Was it me manifesting it because I often swam in its water?
"Is it Ms. Johnson?"
I was the one who gave him a slight push to maintain a distance between us. A second being so close felt like an eternity as he let go of me.
The woman stood before us with a smile on her face. I felt like seeing her somewhere.
"Do you know my son?"
She asked wrapping her hand around him and then it hit me, she was the one who had come up to my office to convince me to take her son's case.
Arthur Smith...and Mrs. Smith? His mother...why didn't it hit my head before?
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The story will begin with a soft and static note before all the drama unfolds. It will transition between the past and the present.
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