“I need to talk to you.” Amber rushed through the front door, pushing past her sister without so much as a greeting. Mia blinked back her surprise, using the moments to compose herself. She desperately wanted to laugh at her sister's nervous energy. The last time Amber was this worked up had been in university when one of her lecturers lost her final assignment and she'd been worried of failing.
"Come in to the kitchen, I'll make you some of the herbal tea you like," Mia patted Amber on the back, guiding her towards the kitchen. She knew it best to allow Amber time to bring up whatever was plaguing her. This, however, did not prevent curiosity from consuming Mia.
Whatever could be the problem?
“I am sorry to be the one to tell you this, Mia.” If she held it in any longer she feared she'd throw up. Who knew truths could be this damning?
“Tell me what?” Mia took two slow steps to the kitchen table after she nudged the refriderator close with her hips. She offloaded the contents in her arms on the table, growing more worried by the second. She'd thought she'd seen it all when it came to Amber but this was different. Her sister was pale and drawn.
"You can tell me anything," Mia reminded Amber after she'd gone a bit silent.
“It’s best if I just show you.” Amber reached into her side purse to fish out her cell phone. She exhaled, staring at the screen before she handed the cell to her sister.
Mia saw a picture of another woman exiting her husband’s car, a female that looked all too familiar. She gazed at her sister. The cell phone in her hands threatening to fall to the floor. A sickening swirling erupting in Mia's stomach. Her entire body trembling.
“Swipe to the next photo.” Amber whispered. There was no satisfaction in revealing the truth to her sister. Not an ounce. Mia did as she was told and saw her husband entering another woman's house.
“When was this taken?” Mia questioned, her voice weak, feeble and crumbling by the second.
“I know what you’re thinking, Mia." Amber exhaled to overshadow the drumming in her chest. "This isn’t an old photo. This was twenty-minutes ago.”
The porcelain tiles beneath Mia’s sandaled feet quaked; a fierce echo of her own raging disbelief. Her head motioned from side to side, eyes pressed shut.
“He promised.” She whispered under her breath. Her voice cracking.
“He promised.” She repeated the words to her sister as her eyes moistened. Amber couldn’t bear the sight.
Did marital vows mean nothing anymore? Was the sanctity of marriage a façade told to little girls as some sick prank? Mia let out a shaky breath to quell the fire igniting behind her eyes. She couldn’t believe this was her life now.
“Hus-ban-d.” She groaned the word aloud to the unfeeling walls of her kitchen. Her hands clenching her stomach, her fists full of twisted fabric. Amber was on her feet now. She stood in front of her sister her arms reaching towards her uncertainly.
“Our daughter is only one month old.” She sobbed into her sister’s shoulder.
“I know. It’s going to be alright, Mia.” Amber tightened her grasp on her sister. “You can come stay with me. I will help you with the baby and-”
“No.” Mia swallowed past the lump in her throat. “I need to talk to him.” She slowly picked herself up from the floor.
“What else is there to talk about?” Amber’s temper flared. “He’s broken every promise he made to you. This isn’t even the first time.”
“Send me the photos.” Mia gave Amber her phone. Amber stared at her momentarily before complying.
The baby’s shrill cry echoed through the baby monitor in the kitche, “She is awake. I need to go check on her.”
“Mia.” Amber didn’t understand her sister’s reaction. It was as if a switch had flipped and all her sorrow had dissipated.
“Go home. I’ll call tomorrow.” Mia gave her sister a hug and made her way to her baby’s nursery.
Gabriel Evans parked his car in the driveway of his house and made his way inside. His mouth watering while he thought about his wife’s cooking. He exhaled and pushed the front door open. Without a second thought his feet carried him to the kitchen. He'd worked up quite the appeite earlier today, but it was nothing a good home cooked meal couldn't fix.
His breath caught at the sight of his wife. She was busy setting the table in high strappy heels. "Fuck, you look amazing." he exhaled as his eyes roamed her body. It had been months since he saw her in anything that wasn’t baggy t-shirts and sweatpants. Tonight, she was all dressed up in a little black dress that skimmed her knee. Eyes smokey and mysterious with the help of eye-shadow and a precise winged liner. The full nine yards.
"Do I?" Mia stood straighter, arching her back as she stared at him with a small smile. Over come with emotion, Gabriel stalked towards her, oblivious to the wavering of her smile and the tightening of her facial muscles. He wrapped his arms around her waist and drew her flush against his body. His arousal pressing into her stomach and Mia felt sick. She could smell the unfamiliar soap and toothpaste on his breath and wondered why she’d never noticed it before.
"Is this your way of seducing me?" he lowered his head to the crock of her neck to place open mouthed kisses there. "I hope there's something extra special underneath this dress." he growled.
"It would appear that you are easily seduced," Mia gritted out. She dragged his arms down from around her and pushed him away. The suddenness in her actions caught him off-guard and she was able to create some distance.
"When I am met with such gorgeousness, how could I not be?" his eyebrows arched and he stepped forward, ready to reach for her again but Mia couldn't allow it.
"Shall we delay dinner a bit?" he smirked, "Start of with dessert?" the suggestiveness in his tone was enough to cause her stomach to churn. She side stepped out of his grasp. What a fucking joke! The voice in her head screamed.
Had he no shame? The outline of his arousal obvious in his trousers. How could he think it was alright to touch her with those filthy hands that had been giving pleasure to another woman just moments before he stumbled into their home? How could he be so cruel? All of her effort, all the years she'd given to this man meant nothing. Fucking nothing!
“Is that the reason?” she asked silently as she circled around the table to create some distance, her features betrayed nothing.
"Reason for what?" His primal nature was being provoked by this cat and mouse game she was playing. Who knew his timid little wife had it in her to dabble in seduction? All thoughts of his hungar dissipated and for the first time in a long time he had a roaring desire to take his wife up against the kitchen table.
“I haven’t been looking the best lately, my body has been a mess after child birth..." She paused, watching his forehead crinkle and his eyes turn confused.
"Right now you look fucking delectable," he interupted her, practically salivating at the mouth for a taste of his wife.
“Is that the reason?” she repeated the question again, her hands trembled and she gripped the back of a chair to steady herself. She hoped the lying bastard would just come clean and spare her the agony.
“Darling, I do not understand you, reason for what?” He barely registered the urgency in her voice, mistaking it for a sexual play. His hands reached down to this trousers and he began unbuckling his belt.
Appalling Pig! She was digusted that he would even deign to have sex with her. Did she mean nothing? How could he treat her like some common whore? Unable to voice anymore words, Mia grabbed her cell phone and chucked it at him. His hands fumbled but he'd caught it, turning it over to peer at the damning image.
“Spying on me, love?" His facade didn't crack. He almost seemed amused as he tossed the cell-phone aside ready to set his eyes on her again. The bulge in his pants only engorged more.
"Hardly," Mia scoffed, her eyes darkened, a visible representation of the shadows engulfing her heart. He'd appeared at her side, covering her bare shoulders with his palms, his head coming down to rest on hers. Mia pushed him off with a grunt, creating space again. She hated looking at his face, hated that she thought her love would have been enough for him but it wasn't. Not even the pain she'd gone through in child birth had made him think twice!
Not their one month old daughter fast asleep in her crib. Nothing!
"What the fuck, Mia?" his brows furrowed and his tone deepened. "Playing hard to get can become annoying very quickly."
"You broke your promise to me.” Her eyes stung for the tenth time that night. This time there was rage added to the mix.
“I did no such thing.” He countered with an indignant huff, as if she was spouting absolute madness.
Perhaps, she was mad. Why else would she be entertaining this? Mia didn't know what she was expecting but it wasn't this.
"You cheated on me, Gabriel." She was peering into his eyes but there was no remorse, no shock. Nothing! Did she really mean so little.
“I am not cheating on you.” Were the only words he said after which he plastered a wide smile on his face. "I love you." another attempt to reach for her, to kiss the terrible accusations away and as much as Mia wanted to believe him, she couldn't. He was a liar, a cheater, a fraud. She'd given the best years of her life to him and he'd squandered it.
"Do not fucking touch me!" she screamed as he got closer and he halted in his tracks. His entire demeanour finally altering.
"Stop being so dramatic, Mia." he sighed, pulling out a chair to take a seat. He picked up a fork and began devouring his meal.
"You cannot be serious right now?" In a state of shock at how little he cared. Did he not see she was hurting? That he was the cause of it?
"If you're not going to fuck me then the least you can do is let me eat. I'm famished." he gulped down some water, paying no attention to her.
"Haven't you been fucked enough for one day?" she bawled at him, her throat hurting? And he had the audacity to grin.
"Obviously not." he answered, rolling his eyes as if she was the offending party. Mia scoffed, running her hands through her hair and pressing her eyes shut.
"I cannot believe you're doing this to me." she said more to herself.
"I haven't done anything, Mia. You're the one making a fucking scene over nothing. Can't a man make a mistake? What happened to 'for better or for worse'?" he groaned, the food tasting like cardboard to him because he was riled up by her disappointing behaviour.
"Mistake?" she stared at him in disbelief. "Did you fall and accidently slip your penis into another woman?" she began to laugh hysterically.
"You absolute piece of shit! I have been here 'for better or for worse'." she screamed. "I gave up everything, I put my future in your hands and you treated it as if it was trash!"
"Calm down, Mia. You'll wake the baby." he droned on.
"Let’s divorce, Gabriel. Say you'll do it and I'll calm down." she pronounced the words through gritted teeth, her jaw pained from the unnatural force. Gabriel studied her, it wasn't the first time she'd asked for a divorce.
Two years ago, after she'd found him entertaining another woman in their bed she was adamant to leave him, God alone knew why she didn't take the chance then. He'd promised, on his knees, to spend the rest of his life rectifying his transgressions and she believed him. Gave him another chance and for what? To be embarassed once more.
He scoffed and shook his head. The fork in his hand clattering on the plate before him as he leaned back in his chair to look at her. "I'll humour you," he shrugged. "Say I divorce you, do you think I'll allow you to leave with my daughter?"
Mia's heart thundered. He couldn't be saying what she thought? He wouldn't. That would be too cruel, even for him.
“You have two choices.” He replied after a few minutes of deliberation. “Leave, but be damned sure you will never so much as get five minutes alone with my daughter.” he threatened.
“Our daughter.” her blood ran cold. Fucking Bastard!
“Not if you choose to leave her.” he answered non-chalantly. These were the words of a man who'd just proclaimed to love her?
“Mia, If you leave me, you leave our daughter. I can provide her with a stable life but you cannot. Have you forgotten that you gave up your job when you got pregnant?” he was usuing her dependance on him against her and she had no one but herself to blame. She'd trusted him and now she was paying the price.
“You are disgusting.” she spat at him.
Mia pressed her eyes shut in a feeble attempt to cease the hot liquid from rolling down her cheeks. “We can have a good life together, Mia. Think about it.” He kissed her cheek and exited the kitchen.
Mia slumped down into her seat. Her tears flowing full force at the sound of her baby crying over the baby monitor.
