Between Truth and Tenderness

Chapter Five

Lucien's POV

She was avoiding me.

It had been a week and I could barely get a long conversation with her. It was always a one-sentence reply and the excuse that she was busy.

She made sure to sit several seats away from me during meetings, her contributions were simply a nod and, honestly, it was pissing me off.

"What's wrong, Arielle? It's like you don't want to see me," I said, looking at her.

I had managed to corner her in the kitchen before she slipped back to her room.

"I'm fine." She opened the fridge to bring out a pack of orange juice.

"Are you sure? You don't look like you're to me. Did I do anything wrong?"

"No."

She picked the glass on the table and walked out, not sparing me a glance.

I looked at her departing figure, as she walked up the stairs, there was something wrong, and she wasn't going to tell me.

I wondered if it had something to do with her sister or maybe the stress in her new role.

•

"This seminar is quite important, it's like a workshop and there's no one here that'll be in a better position than both of you. It's your company, you'll want the best for it and your wife will add to that," the stakeholders said, looking at me.

They had brought up the idea of me attending this mandatory company seminar.

"Okay, when is this seminar?" I asked, closing the file in front of me.

"This weekend, the main event will be on Saturday, so that by Sunday, everyone can come back to their normal lives. Just see it as a weekend getaway."

"Okay."

"Is it possible to reschedule?"

It was her.

She was looking for a way not to attend the event. It pissed me off the more.

"It's not something that can be rescheduled." Mr. Jones said, looking at her.

"She sank back in her chair."

"Is there a particular reason why you want the seminar to be rescheduled?" My uncle asked, smiling at her.

For obvious reasons, my anger boiled. He wasn't supposed to be here. I'll

Not the first place, I had gotten married within a year as my father's will had mandated. He was no longer the caretaker or whatever he called himself.

I was now eligible enough to oversee the affairs of the company, but somehow, he still came here.

"I have a bad migraine, and it might not be the best way to travel."

"Oh, that's quite understandable, we'll leave both of you to decide that," Mr Jones said, and the meeting ended.

Her plan didn't work.

The boardroom soon had people walking out of the tiny door. I watched as my uncle approached her, my hands gripped my seat tight.

What were they talking about? Why was she laughing?

Watching them made me angrier. I bent down to arrange my documents instead. If I spend more seconds looking at them, I'll be forced to slam his head against the wall like the prodigal son he thought I was.

•

"Are you going to sit there?" I asked as she slid into the back seat, a murderous look on her face.

She didn't reply, and I raised my hands in surrender. I moved to the driver's seat and started the car.

The weather was confusing, but it was a little drizzle, and I was sure we would get to the location before it got bad.

The silence in the car was thick and deafening as we continued the journey, the rain had started lashing at the windshield angrily.

I watched her from the mirror, her arms were folded on her chest and her body was slightly resting on the window, with her eyes glued outside. Every mile stretched the tension between us.

"You know you could have taken your own car if riding with me was this much of a hard chore," I said, my hand gripping the steering tighter.

She didn't reply but shifted closer to the window.

"I don't want to drive." She said, still looking outside. "Don't flatter yourself." She whispered but loud enough for me to hear.

I almost asked her what her problem was, but I had bigger problems at hand. The rain had gotten heavier and the highway had already been blocked. There was a sign telling drivers to go back because of the flood.

"Great." I muttered hitting the steering.

I, however, decided to follow the GPS, and it led me to a narrow road. There was no way I was going back when I had no idea of what was happening behind.

I stopped when I realized where I was going. The road looked like it had not seen humans or maintenance in a long while. The rain was getting heavier.

"Now what?" She asked, looking at me from the head mirror.

I sighed "There's an in three miles back," I said, squinting at the map. "I think we have to stay there until the road clears up."

"Great." She muttered, sinking into the car seat.

The Inn looked like it had been pulled out from a horror movie– the place looked dirty, the woods were old, and the lobby was dimly lit up by a dying lamp, but we had no choice. It was either this or sleeping in the car. The former was a choice I wouldn't want to make.

"Welcome to Comfort Inn." An elderly man who I assumed ran the place said with a crooked smile.

"Yeah, thanks, we want to spend the night here." I replied, wondering if he could see.

"One room left."

I looked at her, she opened her mouth but said nothing. The thunderstorm outside was enough to make her accept what we were offered.

The room wasn't different from the lobby, we sat on the bed and said nothing. No TV, Wi-Fi and the only duvet looked like it had not seen water in years.

"We'll have to manage this tonight. At least we have light," I said.

The lights went out immediately.

"Great," she said, turning on the little torch she had come with.

There was no light, the bed smelled like doom, the duvet was horror, we had only a bottle of liquor and the uncomfortable silence we had slipped into.

"Okay, I get it, you hate me." I said, breaking the silence.

"What are you talking about?" She asked. "You think this is about hate?"

"I don't know what to think anymore, you've been avoiding me for weeks, what is this about?" I asked, looking at her.

"The proposal in high school. Why have you been pretending like you didn't remember? You acted like I was a total stranger the first night and then the next morning, you're proposing a contract marriage for reasons I still don't know."

I had nothing to say.

"See."

"I didn't think it was anything, we were kids then."

"It didn't sound like that when you were talking about it with your friend. You think I'm stupid? You had everything planned out, the one-night stand and all, you probably thought I was a fool."

"Arielle." I called her name, reaching out to hold her, but she pushed me and continued hitting my chest.

"Leave me alone."

I held her close till she was crying into my chest. "Please leave me alone." She kept saying.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean any harm. You were the only one I could trust. I'm really sorry."

She stopped.

"I'm really sorry, I was going to help you get your revenge. While I sorted out my own issues, I didn't know you didn't like the fact that I pretended like I didn't know you. I'm sorry for what happened in high school too. I was a child then. I'm sorry."

She looked up at me. I didn't know how, but soon our tongues were fighting to get an entry inside the other person's mouth, my hand slowly wrapped around her waist.

"I'm sorry, I won't ever hurt you again, I'll make up for everything," I said, wiping her eyes.

Clothes fell away, and soon we were wrapped under the duvet. It wasn't as horrible as I thought.

I looked at her sleeping frame as she breathed out lightly, my phone rang, distracting me.

"Lucien, your marriage contract is everywhere on the internet and in the news. The shareholders have been calling nonstop."

I turned to look at her again, my breath caught in my throat.