Nicholas laughed suddenly after hearing what I said. His eyes were red, and his voice held a tinge of despair.
"Yes, I'm filthy. I let another woman climb on top of me. I wish I could tear off this skin of mine. But Ariana, if you truly don't loveanymore, why would you care if I'm filthy or not? "If you really cared, you would've dragged Claudia offby her hair. I was drunk, but were you? If you cared, why didn't you stop her? Instead, you waited until after everything had happened to say that I'm filthy." Nicholas's dark eyes began to glisten with tears. He let out a bitter laugh before looking up atagain.
"Ariana, if you truly cared, why didn't you tellsooner that Claudia had inappropriate feelings for me? If you had maderealize earlier, would we have..." Would we have ended up like this? If he had known earlier, we wouldn't have divorced. There would be no Pete, no Tabitha Shelman. It would've been our daughter, Tabitha Hawk.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtFor a moment, I thought I had just heard the funniest joke of the year. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't bring myself to laugh. I stared blankly at Nicholas, trying to make sense of each word he said. Drag Claudia by the hair? He didn't know Claudia had inappropriate feelings for him? I understood every word. But somehow, I couldn't grasp what he meant when he put them all together.
This was Claudia-someone he once claimed he couldn't live without. She was his sacred, untouchable first love, the one he constantly restrained himself from with his rosary beads.
How did it all becmy fault when our relationship fell apart? But things between us had reached a point where there was no turning back. If he wanted to blme, I would accept it.
Worst case, I would leave for another three years. If that wasn't enough, then 30 years. Once we both grew old, maybe we would no longer have the energy to talk about love or hate.
"Nicholas, let's talk another day. I don't think you even know what you're saying right now." I glanced down at my wrinkled dress and smiled abruptly. "Letgo. I can't attend a birthday party like this." My voice grew softer. The tears I had been holding back silently slid down my cheeks as I blinked.
"Just letgo... Letgo..." Whether or not Claudia sat on top of Nicholas was no longer the issue between us.
The issue was that our relationship had never been about her. It wasn't her presence or absence that caused us to part. We simply couldn't be together anymore.
I reached out to unlock the car door, but Nicholas grabbed my wrist. "You still haven't answered me. If you really cared-" "Enough!" I cut him off before he could finish.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"What does it matter if I care? In
your heart, you've already decided that we're both filthy. Let's stopm making each other sick! Besides, we divorced three years ago! We divorced right in that ward!
"Oh, right. You wanted to get revenge on me, didn't you? Wanted to seee.
cry? Well, you did it. My makeup is ruined, my dress is wrinkled, and my ma hair is a mess. You've turnedfrom glamorous to this. Are you satisfied now? "Let go of me!" I almost shouted.
The small space inside the car fell into a suffocating silence.
"I'm the only one who can turn you into this." Nicholas reached out to smooth my hair and wiped away the smudged lipstick at the corner of my mouth.
His eyes grew lost and uncertain as his fingers traced my lips. He om muttered softly "From now on, no other man is allowed to touch you here. Otherwise, I don't know what I'll do..."