Worthy Of Love

02: Just A Hope

She wiped the foggy mirror with her hand to see her image reflected in front of her, with red eyes surrounded by dark circles, and a face slightly puffy from repeated crying over the past two days; Natalia stared at herself for a moment... before reaching out and pulling out the under-eye cream from the bathroom stall.

The cold touch made her fingers shiver a little but she continued to apply it until the end, before sighing and walking out of the bathroom towards her room. She was only wearing a cotton bathrobe, and she was unable to change it or even dry her hair, so she lay down uncomfortable on her bed, which she had spent most of her time on since she had last spoken to William.

She had tried to contact the latter countless times, but he had blocked her number or something because she couldn't reach him, this made the feelings of anger add to the sadness and confusion she was feeling, but all those feelings had now evaporated and nothing was left behind but emptiness.

Natalia was currently feeling an incomprehensible emptiness and distress, and her mind did not come up with any solution other than calling William again and sending text messages like crazy without stop until he respond and explain to her what happened. They are adults and can talk about any problem and solve it.. And even if there was no hope for their relationship and its only fate was divorce, Natalia felt that she had the right to at least understand all the reasons.

If their last conversation had been normal, and William had asked her for a divorce as calmly as he usually did in all situations, Natalia would have understood that all this was because of Lily's return, and she would have withdrawn calmly, accepting the reality.

In the end, this marriage was not the fruit of love from both parties.. and from the beginning, William treated it as a friendly, interest-based relationship.

But what happened last time made her realize that it was more than that, William was emotional and couldn't even control his feelings, and this was proof that Lily's mere return was not the only reason for what happened.

Natalia tossed and turned in her bed and stared at the ceiling above her. She had slept under this ceiling for years. Sometimes alone, and sometimes with William. He acted like a normal husband to her, but she knew every time the lights went out that she was not the woman he wanted to hold.

Their relationship was built on mutual interest. William told her from the beginning that he didn't love her and wouldn't be able to in the future, and she didn't ask him for more than to be with her. That was enough for her. Even if she had expected him to love her a little, in all her naivety, he might get used to her presence little by little, and one day it would be difficult for him to give her up. Isn't that love?

But whether her definition of love was correct or not, it didn't matter now, because William had already abandoned her, and there was no way to change that.

She closed her eyes as the soft light of dawn came softly from behind the curtains. She hadn't slept for a minute in the past twenty-four hours, and her body couldn't keep up, so she quickly surrendered to sleep, and her mind couldn't think any further.

Suddenly, the sound of her room door knocked, making her quickly open her eyes and look around. Her room was completely lit. She looked at the clock and discovered that she had been asleep for six hours. She felt a bit shocked because she hadn't actually fallen asleep and hadn't even dreamed, but she quickly realized that she had woken up and looked towards the door that had been knocked on again.

“Come in,” she said, already anticipating who the caller was. Her expectations were confirmed when a middle-aged woman entered the room and looked at Natalia, saying respectfully, “Good morning, ma’am. I came to pick up my things. Would you like me to make you breakfast?”

This lady was William's maid, and when they got married she moved in with him to serve here, and she had helped Natalia throughout the past years, their relationship was nothing more than a practical one as the lady drew strict boundaries around herself, but that did not prevent Natalia from considering her a member of her small family, which apparently did not exist except in her mind.

Natalia looked at the lady in surprise and said, "Taking your things? Are you moving from here?"

The lady nodded and replied, "Yes, ma'am, I will return to work at the family house."

Natalia quickly came to her senses and said, "So William called you, can you give me your phone for a moment? I'll make a short call. Believe me, William doesn't answer my calls for some reason."

The lady kept her cool and replied, “No, ma’am, Mr. William didn’t call me himself. The family housekeeper called and ordered me to go back to work there. I also have to supervise the movers today before I lock up the house.”

Information kept flooding Natalia's mind, asking, "Moving the furniture and closing the house? Will it be sold?"

"I don't think so, ma'am," the lady replied, "it will just be locked."

Natalia remembered how William had asked her to pack her things two days ago, that was apparently the reason.. She had thought that William would come back by himself so she hadn't left, but her assumption was now wrong.

She swallowed her saliva and felt her throat stiffen, then she said despite the pain, "Can I make a call from your phone, please?" The lady looked at her for a few seconds, as if she understood what was happening, then she sighed and took her phone without saying a word.

Natalia quickly called William, at least she could beg him to come home so they could talk, or even meet at a nearby cafe, she couldn't give in to the reality without at least understanding it.

But after calling him repeatedly, she got the same cold automated response she had heard over and over again: 'Sorry, the number you are trying to reach is currently unavailable.'

She returned the phone to its owner and despair began to creep into her heart. William's phone was apparently switched off and his whereabouts were unknown. She knew very well that it was unlikely that he would return to his family home under such circumstances, and if he continued to run his company as usual, there was no way he would allow her to meet him if he did not want to. It would be humiliating to be fired in public, but it seemed that her only option now was to go to his workplace.

She cleared her throat and its soreness became a little worse, she must have caught a cold from sleeping without enough heat, but she didn't care about that now, she quickly stood up and headed towards her closet to choose anything suitable to go and meet William without considering whether it was elegant or not.

After a while of getting ready and covering her tired face with some makeup, Natalia went down from her room towards the living room, where the lady was collecting the things neatly and putting them inside the moving boxes. She frowned at this, but she was unable to say anything, and she kept looking at the furniture in her house as it disappeared from its usual places and was parked in cold boxes without objecting.

The lady noticed her presence and turned to her, saying, "Do you need anything, ma'am? Do you want me to help you pack your things, too?"

Natalia felt that the lady was throwing her out of her house with this offer, but she knew despite her feelings that this was not the truth, and that the one who threw her out was her husband and not this poor maid, which increased her desire to meet him and understand everything from him.

Although there was great hope inside her that all of this was just a misunderstanding and would be resolved immediately with their words, she realized that hope was unreliable and that this was most likely the end of the road and she had to leave the house today, so she said with difficulty, “Yes, you can start packing my things, and I will come back to finish the rest, thanks in advance.”

“No need to thank me, ma’am,” the lady said as she returned to her work without focusing on Natalia any more, leaving the latter standing for a few seconds in the living room with a lost mind, before she gathered her courage and left the house to her destination.

Maybe...just maybe; everything will be okay.