Chapter 45 Chapter Forty Five “She once had a child?” I thought to myself and my b*dy stiffened a bit. Surely never expected that update. When could this have happened? Was it during those three interminable years when she had vanished without a trace? But despite the amount of questions I had, I still tried to act composed and I schooled my expression into one of indif- ference. I focused on the almost invisible ripples forming on the surface of my coffee as I slowly stirred the steaming liquid. “I don’t want to hear it,” I said flatly with nonchalance. To be honest, I was mostly not interested in hearing any stories about her murky past even though at some point before, I used to be interested in it. What purpose would it serve to dredge up all of those stories anyway? In the background of where we both sat I could hear voices and clinks of cut- lery, but it all faded like far away murmurs as Bella’s eyes drove like nails into me. Her fingers curled around her own cup and she slowly took a sip before rolling her eyes. “I’m going to tell you anyway,” she shrugged. I also shrugged as I sipped my own coffee, turning my attention to the view out- side the café window, I tried to lose myself in the bustling cityscape, hoping Bel- la would take the hint and spare me the sordid details of her tale. “Isaac deceived me into eloping abroad with him and shortly after that I found out pregnant.” Though outwardly impassive, I was suddenly hanging on her every word with morbid curiosity. “We both stayed in a shabby rental we had called home. I even had to survive 12:33 1/5 Chapter 45 Chapter Forty Five +30 Vouchers on terrible… terrible food I tell you. But in spite of the hardships, I still felt happy and proud,” she was now looking somewhere far away behind me, “Knowing I had bravely escaped the shackles of our family’s arrangements and taken con- trol of my own fate without having to let someone control my life and my fu- ture. Did she just say ‘our family’? I took a second to scoff silently, but I still listened. The good times didn’t last however,” Bella continued; her voice was growing somber. “It was only when I started running out of cash that I discovered Isaac’s true nature. He got very abusive with me. He always gam- bled, and most heartbreaking was that he even flocked around with prostitutes.” What a story. I was human too and what she was narrating to me was quite sad, that was if it was true. But I mean, she’d chosen him anyway. Maybe I would have been ex- tremely pitful had she been forced on Isaac or vice versa. “Every time he came back to the rental, it was to demand money from me. The last time he appeared was even a week before my due date.” Her voice trem- bled, but she pressed on. “He ignored all my pleas and took all my remaining. money that I’d intended on using for my childbirth. Things got very physical on that particular day and I got pushed to the ground…” She frowned like she was reliving the memory. Pl started bleeding immediately after I’d collapsed, powerless on the floor and needing urgent help but he didn’t even bat an eye at me. He just walked away!” She gestured the ‘walked away‘ with a flick of her hands in the air. By the time the neighbors found me, I had already lost consciousness. And When I came to, I was already lying on an operating table, completely weak. But Fordeal wasn’t over; the doctors told me the baby inside me had died, but I needed to deliver the dead fetus urgently to save my own life.” 2/5 Chapter 45 Chapter Forty Five 430 Vouchers A lump worked its way up my throat as Bella described her excruciating ordeal of her labor which got prolonged because the stillborn was unable to move up the birth canal on its own. “Like other mothers, I went through a painful and long labor, even longer be- cause a dead fetus does not move through the birth canal on its own. I had just become a mother and then immediately lost my child,” she whispered and I saw her hands clench tighter around her cup that I thought it was going to break in her grip any second. “I held my child and wept bitterly on the delivery bed.” I was at a loss for words at that point. What do I do? What was I supposed to say to her? Clearly not a heartfelt speech of pity because in as much as I got poked a bit by her story, a larger part of me wasn’t that sorry. I leaned back in my seat, my cup of coffee already emptied. “Good story,” I said with a wave of my hand. “but that doesn’t make us friends. You see, a woman who intrudes in another’s marriage is a b**ch, and you, choos- ing to intrude in my marriage, means you’re also a b**ch. Whatever you just told me, true or false, your suffering was not caused by me. Instead, I have to deal with the
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aftermath of your recklessness, so I won’t sympathize with you.” Bella’s face morphed into anger, her nostrils flared as she clutched the coffee cup tighter, veins protruded from the back of her hands. “I don’t want your pity,” she sparked. “I’m only telling you because I’ve suffered so much. I must marry Mark, so you better not meddle, or I’ll do something you’ll regret for the rest of your life. You hear me?” A laugh escaped my l*ps and my shoulders wracked with amusement at the ab- surdity of her words. I fl*pped my hair back from my shoulder, still laughing. Bella hissed, “What’s so funny?” 12:35 3/5 Chapter 45 Chapter Forty F +30 Vouchers I sighed, a chuckle still coming from my ch*st while I regarded her with both pity and bemusement. How delusional this girl was, to think I would still go back to Mark after our divorce. “You’re unbelievable, and that’s what’s so funny,” I said, shaking my head in dis- I belief. “Mark and I are divorced,” I enunciated slowly and I made sure to emphasize each word so she would read my l*ps. “For good!” “Who cares if you marry Mark? Me?” I scoffed, rolling my eyes at the mere sug- gestion. “Yes, because I know how sly you can be,” Bella retorted contemptuously. “Oh, I’m sly, hey?” I arched my eyebrow. Bella met my eyes head–on as her l*ps curled into a sneer while she also rolled her eyes at me and I, all the same, felt a perverse thrill in this verbal sparring. “You think you know me, Bella?” I tsked, shaking my head, “You have no idea who I am, not really. You’ve been gone for so long, living in your own little world of misery and self–pity, that you’ve lost touch with reality.” Bella’s jaw clenched, “Don’t pretend like you understand what I’ve been through,” she spat. “Oh, I think I understand perfectly,” I countered with sarcasm. “You claim to have made a series of poor choices, and now you’re trying to shift the blame on others. Classic Bella, always the victim.” “How dare you?” Bella slammed her palm over the table. “You have no idea what I’ve endured, the pain and suffering I’ve experienced.Y- ou’re not a mother. You’ve never been one, you barren hag. Then you sit there in your ivory tower, judging me, while you’ve never had to face true adversity.” I barked out a laugh and said, “You’re such a confused fellow, Bella. And what did you say? Adversity? Is that what you call running off with some deadbeat and getting yourself knocked up? Wake up, Bella, that’s not adversity, that’s stu- 12:35 4/5 Chapter 45 Chapter Forty Five pidity.” 30 Vouchers Bella recoiled as if struck, and it looked like she might lunge across the table and slap me. “Well, let me tell you again, in case you forgot or since you’re still stuck in your world of delusions. I’m not your real enemy here; your enemy is lurking in the dark,” I told Bella. The blow really hit her, I knew. She was boiling with the sting of her wounded pride. “Just wait, I will succeed,” she spat at me. “And I simply don’t give a damn f**k sweetheart,” I purred. Bella pushed back from the table, her chair scraping against the floor with a jar- ring screech and without another word or look back, she turned and stalked out of the café. 12:35