ROBERT'S POVI wanted to kill him. I kept on punching him and soon, he was punching me back. For every blow I dealt, he returned it to me. Ariana was screaming and begging us to stop but none of us would listen. I was out of breath now and Josh was gasping too. We were both bleeding from the nose and there were several bruises on my face but I wouldn't stop. I had to get all my anger out.Too tired to go on, both of us stopped at last and stood there panting.“You are just a jerk,” Josh spat. “You hurt her every chance you get, yet you claim to love her”.“She's my wife,” I screamed.I watched Ariana curse under her breath and rush to his side as soon as she was sure we would not rush at each other anymore.“I'm never going to forgive you for this,” she swore.I was hurt deeply. “Wait…what? You are MY wife! It makes absolutely no sense for you to choose his side!”“Oh please stop repeating that! Marriage doesn't mean you own me like a caged bird!” She screamed, staring at me with her

ARIANA’S POVI couldn’t believe my eyes. My husband for years had been walking about with a picture of my dead sister. After everything! And now, he wanted me to believe he loved me?I knew he has been trying to impress me these days because of the pressure my parents gave him but when taking the pictures, I really thought he could love me back.I had no idea if to be hurt or angry but I angrily flung the wallet and it hit the wall.“Hey baby”, Rob called as he entered the changing room.He stopped when he saw me and saw the picture on the floor.“I can explain”, he began.“Of course you can”, I said sarcastically. “My husband can explain why he carries a picture of my dead sister in his wallet”.“Ariana, I do not know how to explain this to you and I know it doesn’t make sense but please don’t allow it ruin the future you and I could create”.“Oh please!” I shouted. “Spare me all of that. I’m not a child Robert. You loved Flora”. I broke down and began to cry.I had thought I would f

ARIANA'S POV“I don't understand," I asked, confused, “For what reason?”“C'mon, we have to go now”, Babs said in an urgent tone.She began to run and I followed her trying to keep up with my shoes and the big wedding gown. Few minutes later, we arrived at Flora’s hideout. It was an abandoned warehouse in the grounds of my parents house and we used to play games there when we were children.When we got in, we found Flora sitting on the dusty floor putting on the bridesmaid's dress she was supposed to wear to my wedding.“Flo?” I called softly.I saw that she had been crying, her face was wet with tears and her eyes was red. The warehouse was dank and dark and smelled really bad. I felt uncomfortable standing there. The rays of the sun were shining in through a broken part of the roof casting a beam of light on Flora.“I hear you want to kill yourself?” I said again. “Don't do such a stupid thing like that, okay?”“Babs, can you leave us?” She said in a squeaky voice. Barbara sighed

ARIANA’S POVI kissed him back but suddenly stopped and pulled away, reclining now in the passenger seat. I wished he would say something. We were going to be stuck here for a while and nobody had exited the ball as yet.There was something about the night. Perhaps it was the torrential rainfall beating the roof of the car and the lightning tearing the skies apart and the booming thunder but the atmosphere in the car was charged. He then said, “Do you think in another universe you and I could be in love?”I was quiet for a while. Wondering if to answer.“I do not know Rob but I know that in every universe, I love you, perhaps more in each one because I've loved you from the first day I saw you Rob”, I finally said.It took a lot of willpower for me to say those words to him.The rain began to trickle to a stop and I said, “Take me home Robert”.We drove home silently all the way. I stared at his serious profile for a while. I could tell that he was holding his desire back, and so wa

ARIANA’S POVDays rolled into weeks and weeks into months and the gap between Robert and I grew wider. Joshua and I met on a regular basis now but even I could not force myself to fall in love with him. Our meetings were mostly formal and even though he wanted more, I couldn't give him that. I was thinking of our brand branching into the pharmaceutical industry and Joshua's friend's father is the owner of the biggest pharmaceutical company in Chicago so we were striking a deal to benefit us all. Besides, a part of me still loved Rob. He was heavily invested and I had grown accustomed to the flowers on my desk and the romantic cards that accompanied them. I sometimes even searched for his face in the middle of a meeting and almost every time, Rob would be standing out there looking at me through the glass walls with such intensity, I could almost feel his eyes on me.It was all complicated. That day I had exited the boardroom and was slightly disappointed when I got to my office an