Chapter Ninety two

It was a pretty long flight and as usual I just wanted to sleep for a really long time after we touched down.

Rome truly is a beautiful place. I saw that when we drove far down into the city headed straight for Damien's resort.

The place was a jaw dropping sight. I expected no less for a man who went all out on everything.

The large expanse of land that had been finely crafted and sculpted to perfection had me wondering how they pulled it off in a space of six months. This should have taken years to set up.

"You like what you see?" He asked, placing his hands on my shoulders as we walked around the place after we were well rested.

"I don't know how to express it in words." I said breathlessly as I looked up at the glittery ceilings.

"It's amazing." I said for lack of a better word to describe it.

"I love the effect it has on you." He smirked. I smiled up at him.

"This project is a huge success. I'm happy for you."

"For us." He corrected and stole a kiss from my lips.

"Damien!" I exclaimed in shock, looking around the place to see that all eyes were on us.

"What? It's been over a month since I last kissed you."

"And you just had to do it in public in front of your workers?" I narrowed my eyes at him.

"I promise you it's not PDA. I just stole an opportunity." He said sheepishly.

I smacked his arm while I chuckled, bemused at how cute and childish he got sometimes.

"Silly you." I muttered, mirroring his smile.

We were soon up in our suite and I was unpacking my suitcase when I heard him speak up.

"I haven't seen you smile like that in a pretty long while." He said, sounding observatory. I stayed quiet as my mind pondered over his words. He was apparently right, I had been so sullen for weeks.

I had never actually lost someone before and my father was all the family I had. I never knew my mum so I guess that the feeling of losing her wasn't as strong as it would have been if I had a few memories with her.

"Babe," he turned my face back to his when I looked away.

"I know you're still hurting but give me a chance to take care of you. Let's move past this, please."

"I,"

I opened my mouth to speak but no words came out only tears fell from my eyes.

"I don't know what to say." I managed to speak out amid a teary whimper.

"Babe just say yes." He said in a pleading tone. His eyes -the mirror to his heart- showed sincerity but I was hesitant for reasons unknown to me.

"Damien I want to say yes but I'm scared you'll do something that'll hurt me badly again."

"I've told you everything there is to know."

"I still feel like there's something you're not telling me and my intuition never fails me." I said, strongly convinced that something was brewing and was about to rock us to the very bottom.

He was dumbfounded for a minute. He looked like he was contemplating his next move.

"There's something I have to tell you." He said and made me sit on the bed.

"I'm all ears."

"Some months back, something happened and I couldn't bring myself to tell you."

"What happened?" I sat up and watched as he struggled to put his words together.

His phone beeped several times within a few seconds and when he checked it, I saw his eyes go wide as saucers.

"Damien?" I called out to him when he let out a nervous breath.

"I'll tell you after tonight. But whatever you do, please do not check your phone." He sounded frantic, worrying me even further. He rubbed a hand over his face and wrangled his fingers in his large mass of jet black hair.

"Damien tell me. What's going on?" I insisted following him as he stood up.

"I messed up." He shut his eyes tightly and sighed.

"What did you do?!" I yelled at him. He was worrying my already fragile heart.

Just then, a knock came through and the person on the other end walked in without our permissions.

We swiftly turned to the door only to be met with a shock.

"Aleena?" We chorused in disbelief.

"Hi guys." She said with an overly excited grin.

My eyes trailed over her outfit which was nothing out of the usual I had seen her wear. The loud makeup, blonde hair styled to perfection, emerald eyes shining with mischief, and a little black dress that stopped above her knees with designer high heeled shoes.

What caught my attention was her protruding belly. It was a baby bump.

I looked up at Damien in a questioning manner. I didn't know Aleena was pregnant. In fact I hadn't heard from her ever since she left the house few weeks after our wedding.

"Aleena what are you doing here?" I heard Damien ask her. She ignored him and turned to me instead.

"Ariana, how are you doing? I'm so sorry for your loss, accept my condolences." She said with a somewhat forced sad face.

I nodded, unable to find words to reply her as a result of how confused I was about her presence.

"I can see the puzzled look on your face. You're wondering why I'm here, aren't you?" She said placing her palm on her chest in a melodramatic pose.

"Damien darling, didn't you tell her?" She inquired with a pouty face.

"Tell me what?" I frowned, questioning him with my gaze. Damien looked too tensed to speak.

"Oh I'm sure he's too excited. I'll break the news to you instead." Aleena said with a dismissive wave.

"As you can see, I'm pregnant." She grinned widely.

"And Damien is going to be a father."

It felt like there was glass shattering all over the place as soon as she said that. I could not believe my ears.

The ache that tore at my heart had a sort of resentment bubbling through my veins, into my blood stream and eventually swelled up to my throat where venom and acids were willing to spill out in form of hurtful words to God knows who.

But, I couldn't at this point because it was just a series of shock that slapped me here and there and kicked me in my gut.

"Babe I," He was saying, but my bloodshot eyes that snapped to his had shut him up.

"Save it." I said coldly and turned to the bitch who had a triumphant smirk smearing her face.

"As for you, now that you've made your announcement known to me and the rest of the world,"

It wasn't hard to figure out why Damien didn't want me near my phone. Everyone out there must have heard that he was the father of Aleena's unborn child because she must have announced it to spite me but I wasn't going to give her the satisfaction.

"What are you waiting for? A hug or a kiss?" I asked sarcastically and I could tell she wasn't expecting my reaction.

"Miguel!" I hollered, fully aware that he was standing outside the door with two other guards.

"Yes ma'am." He said as he walked inside quickly.

"Escort her to her room for the night and see to it that she is comfortable and well taken care of during her stay." I ordered, ignoring the stupefied looks on the faces of both Aleena and Damien.

Aleena was too stunned to speak and could not resist when Miguel ushered her out.

Once the door closed, I heaved a sigh and turned the grey eyed man next to me.

"Babe let me explain." Damien hastily said.

"There's nothing for you to say."

"You cheated on me and even when I gave you the chance to tell me the truth, you didn't!" I yelled angrily, not caring who heard what I was saying.

"Ariana I was just about to tell you truth." He said and tried holding my hand like he usually did whenever I got mad. I smacked it off me.

"You would never have told me if your actions didn't catch up with you!"

"I would have. I just can't understand what-"

"You basically tricked me into marrying you, I'm not even over that and now you just had to go and get your so called childhood best friend pregnant. Aren't you just the best husband, Damien?"

My sarcasm was biting and venomous even to him and I had never seen him look so pained.

I blinked back the tears that were about falling out of my eyes. I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat and licked my parched lips.

I took one look at him seated on the bed with his eyes to the ground.

"Like always, I'm just going to pretend everything is alright between us tonight. But you had better fix this mess you got yourself into." I pushed my hair behind my ears and walked into the bathroom for a little alone time.

Of course I wanted to cry. I don't know why but it hurt me so bad that Damien had cheated on me even though it was way before we became a thing, sort of. The thought of Aleena being in the same bed and having her hands all over him made me shudder in disgust.

I never liked that woman and now I knew why. She had to kidding me if she thought she had the victory because she was carrying his child.

"She's the mistress and I'm the legal wife." I chanted the mantra as I wiped my tears in front of the mirror.

"For now." I breathed out.

I made my decision there and then. There was no going back. As soon as the thirtieth of August came around, I was going to file for a divorce without delay.

I was not going back on my decision. Ever.