Ciara was in the large living room, performing her usual finger magic on her system's keyboard, with her gaze fixated on its screen.
She did not notice the man who had just entered, or maybe she did notice him but decided not to acknowledge his presence and continued with her work.
The man stared at her for quite a moment, his intense gaze seems like it was piercing deeply into her skin. He said nothing nor moved away from his position.
Ciara felt the gaze was too intense and heating her up. “What is it?” She suddenly asked, still not sparing him a glance. “You are staring too much, it's creepy, and it's making my skin to crawl.”
He scoffs at her words as he finds them offensive. “Your skin to crawl, eh?” He repeated huskily, with a trail of mock in his voice. “I see…"
Ciara wanted to ignore his presence, but she just could not, no matter how much she tried to. “Did you have anything you want to say?” She muttered in questioning, her voice far from friendly, giving him a quick glance. “Or maybe, you just decide to stand, hovering over me for no reason?”
“And what if, eh?” He replied nonchalantly with a question instead, probably he intended to anger her.
“Well, your presence is distracting, yeah. As you can see, I'm busy here. I'll need no interruption, Ryan —not even from you.” She told him plainly, her choice of tone saying it all. “You know what that means, don't you?”
The guy, whose name turns out to be Ryan, laughed lightly. “Ah, yeah. Of course…" He nodded his head curtly. “I do, you don't need to say much. Alright?”
“If you can excuse me, then…" She said in a drawling tone, expecting him to excuse her, as she has expected.
“I'm afraid I can't.” His voice was plain and as well as still as water too.
Ciara suddenly raised her head up. “You can't, eh?” She felt the mock in her voice, her gaze now fixated on him. “Why —?”
She couldn't help but wonder why he likes taunting her, can't he just let her breath normal —even if it's just for a day?
For the past few months, she had thought she would adapt to his nonchalant attitude and get use to him as the day rolls by, but soon, she was forced to realize her thoughts were nothing but mirage.
This man —he would never stop getting on her nerves. This minutes, he would treat her like she never exists and the next minute, he would be on her neck.
After a few seconds of silence which felt like forever, he managed to break the silence with his cold voice. “Wait here, I'll be right back.” He told her.
Ciara felt the coldness in her voice hit her in the guts, and before she could reply to him, he was out of her sight, already racing through the stair.
“Arrgh…!” A soft groan escaped her throat as she clenched her fist in a tight ball. She was pissed off, but she managed to control it, calming herself mentally.
She breathed in slowly before returning her attention to her system. Barely ten minutes had passed before Ryan returned and with him was a file he was holding.
“Have it…" He muttered as he stretched it towards her, but before she could figure out what he's stretching towards her, he dropped it on her system's keyboard, a heavy clapping sound erupted.
Ciara was burning red. “What the…"
Ryan interrupted her abruptly, giving her no chance to complete her words. “Go through it, woman.” His husky voice sounded like he was commanding her.
Her heart clenched tightly at how he addressed her —woman. Is he not supposed to be more formal, even if he would only address her by her name?
This was because she's not just any random woman, she is his wife —his contracted wife at that. She could not even recall the last time she heard his name from his lips.
Yeah, they might not be bind by love but only papers, Ciara's ears still ache to hear him call her by name, but that day won't just come —never!
Sucking her heavy breath in, she managed to let words escape her throat. “What's in there?” She muttered in questioning, not acknowledging the document on her system.
“I believe that's why you are an literate woman. You can read, can't you?” His rhetorical question was nonchalant and he sounded really rude.
He is really succeeding in pissing her off, he really is. Ciara, who did not want to do as he had commanded her, but she finds herself unconsciously picking the document.
She couldn't help but wonder what's inside as she slowly open it, ready to feed her curiosity. Steadily, she ran her eyes through the content in the document.
Her eyes suddenly widened in shock —no, the shock is an understatement to what she felt at the moment. Her breath seized almost instantly, unable to comprehend its content.
“Tell me this isn't true, Ryan. Tell me it's a stupid prank you decide to pull on.” She blurted out as the document dropped from her fragile grip.
Like it was natural or maybe just a normal routine for him, Ryan picked up the document from the floor and dropped it right on her thighs.
“Well, I'm sorry to say, but this is not a prank, woman.” He replied to her, carelessly picking his words. “I'll implore you to believe whatever you read there because it's true.”
Ciara shook her head all of a sudden, like she just fell out of a trance. “I won't fall for this, it's not true.” She muttered, she sounded more like she was only talking to herself, but her voice was audible enough to Ryan's hearing.
“It is true.” He stated plainly, forcing a ball pen into her right palm. “Sign it, woman. Sign the divorce paper now…!”
Ciara doesn't know the reason behind it, but she finds herself laughing out loud at his sudden command. Wait, what was he taking her for? His maid he could just order around to do things as his will?Well, if that is what his thinking is —then he is mistaken, she won't do things because he wanted her to or allow him boss her around like he owns her.“What's funny…?” She heard him almost thundering, cutting her off her sudden laughter. Ciara did not notice the hard glare on his face that was being fixated on her, he was red with anger. “Why are you laughing? You find what I just said to you amusing, isn't it?”Her face was blank like she was not laughing a few moments before, as she stared down at the ball pen in her hand instead of replying to him or saying anything. She pressed some few buttons on her system and shut it close like she was exiting his sight, leaving his question hanging.Her attitude did hit a hard spot on Ryan as he finds her offensive, did she not hear him? Why is
Ryan could only watch her leave his sight after throwing the document at him, her face crumpled down in a disapproving frown.“You can't force me to do things against my will. I'm sorry, but your silly threat can't move me…" She had told him before leaving, stomping her foot away.A deep but low grunt escaped his throat as he clenched his fist tightly, gritting his teeth in anger. “How dare her?” He growled under his breath, more like speaking to himself.He was angry —no, he was in rage, and he felt like his anger would take over him soon. How did the table turn against him in a snap of a finger, eh?Did he not threaten her enough, or maybe he threatened her more than he was supposed to? Ryan thought, his mind was clouded in confusion.He badly wants to end everything with her, but she's making it seems hard, like there is a big deal in it, but to him, he found none.“…Why try to breach the contract midway for no reason?..” Her voice rang loudly in his ears. Who cares whether he's tr
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. Th
*•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