The days roll by quicker than expected, Ryan and Ciara doing their best in avoiding each other. Well, literally, it was Ciara that keeps avoiding Ryan just because she doesn't want him to make mention of the divorce near her.
And of course, he figured out that was what she was trying to do but pretended to let things lie the way they were at the moment. He concluded within himself, he's going to bring it up again when she least expected it.
Ryan had left on earlier that day, sooner than usual, and leaving Ciara all alone in the huge house.
Ciara woke up but could not find him anywhere around the house, the thought of not seeing him that day, breaks her more than anything.
She might have been avoiding him for a few days before that moment, and she was always fine with it —but not seeing him…?
She groaned lowly under her breath but decided to let go. He will surely get back home before dusk, right? And that was enough to console her.
Ciara's stomach growled softly, she felt starving. There isn't any good and sustainable food left in the kitchen except cereals, not even grains.
She was mad and could not help but wondered if the heavens were against her at that moment. She knew she had to go for alternatives to tame her anger.
Since she doesn't really like ordering food for herself alone, it would have been much better if she had a company, she decided to go eat out instead.
Hastily, she picked her keys and left the house, it's the first day she will be stepping out of the huge house in weeks.
She is always indoor, either busy with her system or maybe reading. Well, that was because she had no reason whatsoever to go out —the house is being stocked with every of her need.
The ride from her home, to the eatery was a thirty minute drive. She got to the eatery, not without parking her car properly.
It was not the usual and expensive ones she does go to, but it was modest enough for her. As always, she preferred taking her seat not far from the door. The walls were of transparent glass, it gave her the access to a good view of the outside world —just like she used to like it.
Ciara was still sitting and waiting on the waitress, who had just taken her order a few moments ago, her gaze fixated on the outside world. All of a sudden, she caught a glimpse of a car that was parking outside a mall on the other side of the road.
The car was familiar to her as her instinct kicked in, but she shrugged the thought off her mind. Well, he is not the only one using that brand of car, right?
She managed to convinced herself, even though her gaze was still on the car. It is unclear to her why, but she just couldn't look away from the car.
Like the car's occupants were trying to respond to her thought, firstly, an elegant lady stepped out of the car from the passenger's side. With a few feet away, she could tell the lady was laughing.
Ciara was awestruck and was still admiring her when the driver's door opened and a male figure hopped out of it. The figure was just too familiar.
—and her thoughts were right. It was Ryan. Ciara wiped her eyes continuously to be certain she was not seeing things.
‘Is he not supposed to be at his place of work?’ She asked herself, still staring at them. She could not stop herself but wondered what he was doing in a mall and with a lady too?
Her head was spinning, and she felt like a wife, who had just been cheated on by her husband and needed an explanation from him —she is his wife, yeah, she deserves an explanation from him.
With no second to waste, she picked her phone and dialed his digit. He cut the first few calls from her but picked up on the fourth or maybe fifth call.
“Ryan…" She trailed off, unsure of how best to start with him.
From the other end, he butted in almost immediately like he was not ready to hear anything from her. “What is it…?” His voice sounded cold, and Ciara could not help but feel a shiver down her spine. “Why are you disturbing me with your nonstop calls?”
Ciara opened her mouth to speak, but no words were coming out. She badly wanted to say something in reply —anything. She wanted to yell at him and demand an explanation from him, but surprisingly, she felt an invincible lump in her throat.
She tried opening her mouth yet again but nothing was coming out, she felt mad at herself.
Ryan was furious on the other end, impatiently waiting on her response but heard nothing. “Did you call me just to annoy me, woman?” He asked in a husky and rough voice.
Ciara was sure his eyes would have been darkened with an unexplained emotion in it at that moment as she swallowed the invincible lump in her throat.
She managed to speak, forcing her mouth open. “Where are you, Ryan?” She asked him, her voice was as as broken as a distressed kid waiting on her father's arrival, who has gone for days.
“Where am I?” He repeated her question with sarcasm laced in his voice. “Did you not receive my message?”
‘Message…?’ she asked herself with an obfuscated look on her face. ‘What message?’
“I did not…"
Ryan was just too impatient to let her finish her sentence, as he cut her off abruptly. “I'll be away for a day, if possible two…" He muttered icily. “I think you should know this. So, don't stay up late, waiting on my arrival, like you used to.”
“But, Ryan…"
“I'm sorry, woman…" He stated simply. “—but I won't tolerate it if you should call me again. I have more important things to deal with here rather than being disturbed with unnecessarily calls.” With that, he hung the call-up on her without waiting for her response.
Ciara had wanted to say something, but she was forced to swallow her words due to how he abruptly ended the call.
Ciara felt attacked. Her world seems to be spinning at the moment. He said he's busy with important things, but was with a lady instead. Does that mean she's more important to him than anything, really?
“Ma'am…" The waitress brought her order, cutting her off her train of thoughts.
“You can go…" She dismissed the waitress without sparing her a glance, she lost her appetite already.
The more she thinks through it, the confused she felt. Why would he be with a lady instead of his place of work?
Her instinct kicked in almost immediately, she realized that the lady was familiar —like she had seen her once or twice. She racked her brain hard and then…
She was his ex. The same lady he had promised his mother to let go off. Why are they together again? They don't seem to be on bad terms with one another, if not —why would she hop out of his car, laughing and holding hands with him?
It started getting clearer to Ciara. Ryan suddenly wants a divorce out of the blues, without giving her his reason behind the divorce.
So, this has been his reason? Because he is back with his ex, he felt he no longer needed her? She realized that lately, he had been returning home very late.
She would stay up waiting for him to return because she thought he's been delayed with work, but he wasn't, he had been seeing his ex.
The thought of it made her heart drop down inside her stomach. She felt foolish for loving him all this while…
*•Eight (8) Months Ago•*A stretcher was rushed out of an ambulance into the city hospital building, a few nurses were pushing the stretcher as it was escorted into a ward —a VIP ward.A man in his mid-twenties was laid on the stretcher, he was barely breathing —he's visibly in a coma. Although, he was putting on a new (clothes) but there were still traces of blood on his clothes, mostly around his left arm.He had a bandage on his head and some other part of his body —his left arm precisely, without being told, no one would know he had a bandage around his stomach too. He was given a first aid in the ambulance, which resulted in the bandages on his body.The gentleman was involved in a ghastly accident, but luckily for him, he managed to survive, falling into a nearby pond at the last minute. Well, of course, he was badly injured and lost so much blood. Before he was being rescued by a passerby, he was already in a coma and might have drowned if he wasn't rescued on time.The rescu
It was almost dusk already and Ciara had almost finished with her patient for the day. This time, she was not really as exhausted as she used to be —in fact, she seems to prefer him better than her last few patients.He is responsive and easy to communicate with, his state was not that better due to the much injury he sustained —but still, he acted like he was much okay.At first, Ciara had wanted to declined being his private nurse, but after much persuasion from the doctor, she finally agreed. Well, not because she wanted to.Finding out about the cause of the accident, Ciara felt she could relate to it —she had a familiar incident but not with her, it was her parents. There is only but one difference in it.Ryan was lucky enough to have survived, but her parents did not, they died in the scene. Looking into it several times, she believed it wasn't just an ordinary or a random accident, something fishy was related to it.—this made her grow interest in becoming Ryan's private nurse.
Over the few years, she had tried all she can, to fix him up with other ladies, arranging him up for a numerous blind dates on different occasions, however, none of them turned well as she had pictured them to be —her only son is really obstinate.Now, seeing him getting real well with Ciara, she felt as if she has seen the dextral lady she's been on the lookout for him —and without hesitation, she's ready to set them up together like she's been doing with other ladies.This time, she simply wants to be believing she is not wrong this time else, she will be left with no other option but to accept Anne as her son has desired. No, the thought of it make her skin crawl.“Earlier today, I saw how he was doing well around you…" Ryan's mother began, drawling her tone. “—well, I must commend your skills because it's really rare to see Ryan getting acquainted with someone he doesn't even know.”How does she explain what the older woman is trying to nail at? Should she explain her words as jus
Reminiscing over how they met and her motives for accepting the marriage contract, Ciara felt she had been wrong from the beginning —in every manner and everything.He used to be a pleasing guy —so, she thought of him. However, all of a sudden, he started changing his mindset towards her. At first, she did not examine much into his change of conduct, but soon, she was compelled to get used to it.As the contract stated, it is a one-year lasting settlement and each party ought to preserve it. Aside from the penalty for breaching the contract, Ciara in no way liked going back on her words, she always kept on with it to the cease.Ciara's preliminary purpose from the start was to get a few clues from Ryan, however in return, she ended up falling for him —she fell for the guy, who is nevertheless obsessed with his ex and barely treats her like she exists.She sighed heavily, with just one thought on her mind —sign the divorce papers earlier than he returns.Just as he had left it, the pap
“Ciara is nowhere to be found.” He stated with a small sigh afterward. “Well, I suppose she left.”“What do you imply with the aid of using ‘she left’? Just like that and for no cause whatsoever?” The voice thundered and Ryan was compelled to take the phone off his ear, the voice was loud sufficient to harm his ear drum. It was his mother, who was on the phone.Ryan sighed heavily when he realized her voice trailed off before placing the phone to his ear again. “I do not know why she left, but I got back home from work as regular and found out she's gone.” He informed his mother plainly, sounding more like it was a day by day habitual between himself and Ciara. “I tried reaching her, but it seems like she did not only go away but blocked me from gaining access to her.”Ryan's mother was angered on the opposite line, she understood something was fishy. This, she's certain of. Ciara may not just determine to leave on her own without any reason. Clearly, there must be something Ryan is a
Ryan sighed for the umpteen times and constantly rubbed his temple. His head was crammed up —packed with different jumbled thoughts of a wide variety, and they seem too tough for him to sort out.Everything was and used to head on very easy and fine, his great relationship with his mother was intact even though she used to be strict then too. All of a sudden, it seems like everything started colliding with one another —that was after he introduced Anne to her.For the reason best regarded to her alone, she vigorously kicked in opposition to his relationship with Anne without giving him any good purpose behind her rash action.At first, he had thought she was only trying to tug his legs, maybe to see how he would react towards it, but instead of things getting better —it could only keep getting sore as time went on.Against his consent, she commenced placing him up on different blind dates, even when none turned out as she desired. However, despite everything of these, she did not stop
“Are you certain she's the same person as shown in the photograph?” Ryan's mother speaks in the phone, her eyes diluting with an untold emotion.Ryan, on the other hand, was confused as he stared at her with his brows creased. He wondered who on earth his mother was speaking with, and what photograph was she referring to, is she hiding something he was not aware of? “Okay, I get it…" That was her undeniable reply before putting the phone away from her ear. As quietly as she had brought her phone out from her bag, she returned it in the same way, too.For seconds and without batting her eyelids, her intense gaze was on Ryan, who finds her stare uncomfortable.“What now, mom?” He muttered, suddenly looking elsewhere just to avoid his gaze being locked on hers. No matter how much he tries, he can't win against her —staring without breaking is one of the things she's in most cases good at her.He sighed heavily in defeat. “I know you are still staring at me, mom.” He informed her in a ca
Ryan is perplexed right now, he did not even know what to do or say. He saw there was with a little or no hope of ever seeing Ciara. He is aware that the task of ever finding Ciara is a huge one that he won't be able to fulfill. The States is too huge, and he can't be searching for one single soul all over the state, it's like looking for a pin in a well. It is impossible for him to do so —and who does that anyway? His phone began to ring, at first, he hesitates to pick the call but on seeing who the caller was, he had no choice than to pick it up. He couldn't ignore her even in a tight situation, and this won't be exceptional —it was Anne. “Hey, there Ryan…" She called from the other end as soon as he put the phone on his ear. Ryan could stare at his mother without saying anything to the caller. In return, his mother, who had returned because she forgot her keys, gave him a deadly stare. “You don't stare at me in such a foolish manner.” His mother said. Ryan quickly composed hi