Chapter 8 Caught

‘What am I supposed to do in this enormous place? What is the meaning of this stupid marriage? What does he want?’ Scanning my gaze around his majestic room where the only unfitting piece I found in that was ‘myself,’. Hugging my knees close to my chest, I had many questions, I had my hesitations, I wasn’t ready for this marriage, my consent was not involved in this, Papa decided it for me. He took me to that hotel, he did this to me still I didn’t resist and went along. ‘But, In that case, how can I behave like a wife?’ Especially when each time I appear before him, my voice, my strength, my ability to perceive disappeared? “Ah, what would happen in these six months?” Muttering to myself, I plopped on the bed, extending my hands out. Struggling very hard to eradicate his perceptions from my mind but they were knocked more and more by each passing second. And when I was stuck in my dilemmas and confusions, my phone rang. It was an unknown number and for a moment, I thought my so-called husband called. Then I realized- I didn’t know nor have his phone number. “Shit. What does he want?” Cursing, I cleared my throat and picked the call in a softer tone, “Hello?” “Liliana…” But, to my surprise, it wasn’t him but the one who heartlessly separated my paths with the second I got married. Gray Clifford. My heart skipped a beat, sitting up, I clutched the sheets with dismal as the ache in his voice pricked me immensely. If there was someone to blame for his condition it was me. I broke his heart, I gave him false hopes only to rip them from him cruelly. Biting my lips anxiously, I called him weakly, “Gray…” “Are…” He gulped, “Are you happy?” I couldn’t reply, I was struck between emotions and that question abruptly stole words from my tongue and my silence encouraged him to speak further. “Do you still think about me?” And to my utter surprise- I didn’t. All on my mind was the obligation, the mystery, the heaviness of this marriage that I didn’t think about ‘anything,’ Not him, the money we got, or even my sister’s operation. “Please try to understand, Gray… I am married now. This is wrong, you can’t call me anymore,” I whispered, getting up in frustration when the realization of how much this marriage was affecting me sank in. And it enraged me because I didn’t want to carve my thoughts around him… which exactly I did. He asked, “Did you marry on your will? Or your father forced this on you?” Holding my side, I knew I must do something so that he would forget about me and using a fake cold tone, I lied. “It was my decision. My husband is a very honorable man, who wouldn’t want him?” He whimpered, “Don’t lie to me, Liliana please,” “Why be this anguished now, Dammit?” When he became desperate, I decided to shatter his heart further by taunting him for his incompetency. “Where were you huh? Flirting? Being anonymous? Now I have married a man who at least doesn’t hides his identity from me,” Pacing around the room, my tone was but filled with wrath because that was the biggest complaint I had with him. That I fell for a man I didn’t see nor met. “Oh, so suddenly that husband of yours has become ‘this’ important?” He argued, voice cracking badly as my words were piercing his heart without a doubt. “Yes,” To my cold reply, he ended up sobbing that stopped me. My mouth gaped, dismal cluttering, constricting my chest that screamed at me for being his culprit but I had no way out of this turmoil. This was the end of us, I wasn’t a cheater… No matter how I got married, I couldn’t allow myself to be disloyal. “Please, please, Liliana, have mercy on me, I love you. Think about me for once. What can he give you that I couldn’t?” To his miserable wailing that was agonizing me as well, unwillingly my voice broke too with a tear glistening in the corner. “Please try to understand, we cannot be together anymore. I cherish our bond but I am-” Turn to continue my pacing only to bump into the muscular chest with thick scent that froze my whole being that my mind turned blank. It took me five seconds to comprehend what happened and when the fury of his glare dropped to my core, I gulped apprehensively. Lifting my gaze, I saw him before him, jaw clenched, dripping with seethe, holding his composure briefly, he slowly took the phone from my hand and put it on speaker. My throat dried, eyes widening in appall when Gray began to beg me for a chance and he heard everything. “Please, Liliana, I don’t know who your husband is or whatever reasons you had but trust, he cannot love you as much as I do,” Shit. Shit. Shit. His eyes darkened, pressing his teeth to reveal the anger creeping up in layers as I trembled, afraid to confront him. And smearing his last string of patience, Gray spoke what he shouldn’t- “Please, please, my love, after everything, don’t abandon me, I love you, Liliana, I love you so-” Oh, no, no, no, no- He cut the call. Bringing a momentary silence in the room where my heartbeats were pounding heavily against my chest, tears reflecting in the corner. But, before I could justify myself, he slammed the phone away, breaking it in one throw that released a shriek from me. I attempted to maintain a fair distance from him but not allowing me, he grabbed my arm and twisted it in a warning grip that burst the tears I held back. “Ah, Sir, listen-” “So that was why my closeness and touching was repulsive huh?” He snarled at my face, hovering me as he pushed me against the wall, chest nearing mine to lock his terror into my soul. Shaking my head, I whimpered, “No, no, that was not it-” “I told you to break up, didn’t I?” “I did-” “Then who the fuck was he?!” I winced in pain when his grip on my arm tightened, glaring into my soul that flowed uncontrollable tears. Those bloodshot eyes refused to listen but I knew I must do something or else circumstances won’t be favorable for me. “Sir, please, this isn’t what you think. We are nothing-” Sobbing at this harsh grip, his other hand gripped my jaws, forcing me to maintain the eye-contact where his eyes were flickering with intense possessiveness. The fact he couldn’t bear me with another man was ‘very’ transparent. “I SAID WHO WAS HE, LILIANA!?” He growled, pressing me harder into the wall. Shrinking my eyes at the extent of his fury for something wrong, I held his wrist, praying he would be compassionate. Shutting my eyes, I gasped for air, telling him everything, “I don’t know.” He hissed, “Don’t lie to me, dammit,” He wasn’t listening, his grip was hurting, those eyes were stealing my breaths. I never predicted such obstinacy from him. “I swear I am not lying!” Afraid, I sobbed a little, hoping to impede the blazing anger where he pressed me harder into the wall. “I don’t know anything, we met online, it was only a little bit of flirting but nothing…He was anonymous, he never told me about himself…” His jaw clenched, it wasn’t enough to convince him, in fact he seemed more displeased as if my words came as nothing but a lie. “Then how come he is still calling you?” “I don’t know. It- it was casual. Nothing serious.” Sniffling to not let apprehension take over me, I held his wrist in a tender grip, praying some compassion would shower him and he would shred and hold faith in me. “Sir, Please, you have to believe me, I am not lying,” I whispered, probably my tears would melt him but I was proven wrong. “Why would I?” Scowling, he harshly let me go. Drained of energy, I placed my palm on the wall to take support, afraid of him, his wrath, the ownership gleaming in those eyes. I was right about me being a puppet he intended to control, a thing he wanted to possess. “You don’t look at me, you dislike my touch but quite emotional for someone you haven’t even seen,” He hissed at my face with barely recognizable distances between us, staring directly into my soul to embed his dread there. “It was nothing… I was telling him to not call me again,” Yet I miserable reasoned. “Nor will I let him.” He growled, taking a few steps back. “Let’s see how he will call you when you won’t have a phone in the first place,” “Sir, please, don’t-” “Enough,” Pointing his finger at me while crushing my phone under his foot, asserting his dominance that everything in the marriage would go according to him. Lowering my gaze, I held my dress, not sure what to speak anymore and without a warning he stopped before me again. Contemplating me as I was highly perturbed in his presence. “Fuck!” Shouting, he punched the wall. Shutting my eyes, I almost screamed in horror because I thought it was directed to me but fortunately it wasn’t. Not daring to move an inch, I kept sobbing quietly where I could feel his extensive glare on me and too frightened to endure it, I didn’t dare to open my eyes. The sound of his loud breaths, the closeness, the suffocation of his presence drained my energy, I was absolutely scared of him. Soon the sound of his retreating footsteps reached and he walked out of the room furiously and my marriage fucked up more.