Aiden stepped out into the hallway, ready to face whatever was coming his way. It had been a long time coming.
Sienna had moved from the entrance of the house. With her head high, she sat on the couch waiting for him to come forward. She heard his footsteps approaching.
A thousand thoughts ran through her mind. But she was hurt, and he must give her an explanation today.
His steps came closer, and he was just behind her. His thumping heart could be seen pulsating in his carotid vein.
"Sienna" he called. Unsure of what would follow, his hands held the couch firmly.
"How could you!? How could you Aiden! After all these years?" Sienna screamed her lungs out, tears pouring down her eyes with every sentence she made.
"I quit my job because you told me to! I gave up everything—my career, my life—to raise our children and keep this home together. And this is how you repay me?" Her voice cracked, but the anger in her eyes was fierce.
"Cheating on me with a married woman? A woman with kids of her own?" She stared at him in disbelief, her fists clenched at her sides.
"What the hell, Aiden! What did I ever do to deserve this?"
Each word came out more broken, but the hurt was undeniable, hanging in the air like a sharp, unforgiving blade.
"Sienna, Sienna please listen to me. I..."
"You what Aiden? You what?" She interrupted. "What are these paper? Who are they for? Me? "
"Sienna please listen to me it's not the way you think." Aiden spoke slowly, calculating every word he said. His mind was a rollercoaster of thoughts unsure of what to say. "But she had seen the papers" his mind reiterated to him.
"I... I want a divorce," he muttered, the words falling like lead.
The impact was instant. It felt like a bomb had gone off inside her. Sienna stood frozen, her heart pounding in her chest. She had seen the papers—she wasn't naïve—but deep down, she had hoped he would deny it, beg for forgiveness, or at least try to fix what they had.
But now, hearing those words from his mouth, her world shattered. He wasn't going to work things out. She had lost.
The instant realization of it pushed her to her knees.
"Aiden, Aiden, please... I'll do anything. Anything, just don't do this." Her voice trembled, raw with desperation as tears streamed down her face. "What about our girls? Ayla, Brielle… what do I tell them?" She choked on her words, her body shaking.
"What did we ever do to deserve this, Aiden? How could you just throw us away?"
Her heart was breaking, her pleas filled the room, but she could already feel the emptiness between them growing wider, impossible to bridge.
"Mum, mum... " Brielle rushed up to her mum. It broke her heart to see her mum crying and begging.
"Bri-Bri darling, please go upstairs." Sienna managed to say, trying to maintain some composure.
"No mum! I..."
"Go upstairs young lady, this is between your mum and I" Aiden quipped sharply.
Neither Sienna nor Aiden knew how long Brielle had been standing there, but Sienna tried to shield her from the growing storm. "Please, Aiden, think about our girls. They need their father," she begged, her voice cracking under the weight of it all.
Aiden's face hardened, his words slow and deliberate. "It's not that simple, Sienna. I love Ayla and Brielle, and I'll always be there for them. But the picture you found…" He paused, struggling with the confession. "That's my real family. The children in that picture—they're my sons."
Sienna's breath hitched as his words sank in. "What? No… no, that's not possible." She crumbled to her knees, her mind reeling. Anger and disbelief collided in her chest.
"You've been cheating on me for that long? For that long, Aiden?" Her voice was a mix of anguish and fury.
"No, Sienna," he snapped, his own frustration breaking through. "I've been cheating on her with you. Those are my real family. I love her... and I love my sons. I married you because my father wouldn't approve of us being together."
Sienna felt as though the ground had been pulled from beneath her. She looked up at him, tears streaming down her face. "How could you? Why would you ruin my life like this, Aiden?"
Her voice shattered in the room, but the answers felt hollow, unable to fill the questions in her heart.
"What the fuck Aiden" Sienna was not just broken she was furious. "I have been living a lie for seventeen years? How could you?"
Brielle who had been silently listening could not help but rush to her Mum. She needed her now more than ever.
"Sienna... Sienna just try to understand" Aiden muttered trying to console her.
"Leave us alone" Brielle snapped. "You bastard!" "Brielle!" Sienna replied.
"It's fine, let her... He stuttered. He had never really been there for them. He didn't know them.
"Just go " Sienna pleaded as a last resort. "Just leave us Aiden. Go be with your family. "
"I'm really sorry" Aiden mentioned, turning to leave. "I hope you can forgive me"
"Just go Aiden, Go!" Sienna cried.
"It's gonna be alright mama" Brielle consoled.
Aiden left without hesitation. It was as though a huge burden was taken off his shoulder.
He could finally stop shuttling two families, and stop making excuses all the time.
He could be with Harper once again.
...
"I swear, I'll make him pay," Brielle said angrily, her fists clenched tightly at her sides. Pacing the room uncontrollably.
Ayla stood beside her, still in a state of shock, struggling to make sense of it all.
"He had never been a dad to us, never been here for us, and we never complained, at least we had a room over our head and food to eat." Ayla said softly, her voice barely above a whisper as if she couldn't quite believe what had happened.
Brielle's eyes burned with fury. "Two boys—his sons—and he used Mum just to please his father. She was just a toy to him, and we were just wasted cum. He never really cared about us, Ayla. But he'll regret it. I'll make sure of that." Her voice was sharp, each word dripping with anger.
"Calm down, Bree. What's the point of holding onto all this rage? What do you even plan to do?" Ayla tried to reason, her tone gentle despite her own hurt. "Maybe it's better to just let him go. At least now we can find our own happiness without him holding us back. We can start afresh, take courses, learn skills..."
Brielle whipped around, eyes blazing. "And what about Mum, Ayla? He ruined her! Left her with no job, no career, nothing. All because he insisted she stay home and take care of us. What the hell is she supposed to do now? Where does she even start?"
Her voice grew louder, more unrestrained with every word, her anger barely contained. Brielle's fiery temper had always been her trademark, but now it felt like a wildfire, spreading too fast to control.
Ayla hesitated, her voice dropping to a near whisper. "Does Aunty Sarah know?"
"Yeah, Mum called her, but she's out of town. Said she'd be here as soon as she could," Brielle replied, her words clipped with frustration.
Ayla swallowed hard, the thought of their mother's anguish weighing heavily on her. "I can't imagine the kind of pain Mum's going through," she murmured, feeling the ache in her own heart grow deeper.
"Do you remember, when Mum was complaining to Aunt Sarah that he keeps away the details of his company from her?" Brielle asked, it was all starting to make sense.
"Yeah, what has that got to do with this?" Ayla had not understood where Brielle was headed.
"He must have put his fucking sons in the business, his mistress too." Brielle said with a lot of certainty. She had always trusted her gut and she knew she wasn't wrong this time.
"I will bring that company down if it's the last thing I do! Aiden Cole will regret messing with us!"
"Brielle...!" Ayla screamed "what are you talking about? You better don't do anything stupid."
"My mind is made up, and there's no stopping me now.
"Bree!" Ayla called out trying to calm her sister down.
"I need to head out to get some air. I'll most likely be back tomorrow"
"Where are you going? Bree... Don't do this... Let's just be calm and know how mum plans to handle this"
"This has nothing to do with mum. It's my revenge!" Brielle walked out hurriedly.
On getting out, she stood on the streets just thinking on how to get back at her father.
"Hey beautiful, going somewhere?" A middle aged Asian man whispered as he rolled down the window of his classy white Range Rover.
"That is it!" Almost like magic, her plans for revenge was birthed.