Aurelia

chapter 3

The soft click of the front door broke the suffocating silence inside the penthouse.

Arkana stepped inside, loosening his tie as exhaustion showed on his face. But he stopped short the moment he realized Aurelia wasn't there to greet him as she always was.

She sat upright on the living room sofa, staring at him with a look he had never seen before.

"Sweetheart, this is unusual. You're not coming to greet me?" Arkana tried to lighten the mood as he walked toward her. "I'm sorry about this morning. The meeting really took up my time, but thankfully it ended earlier than expected."

Aurelia didn't move.

Her eyes remained fixed on the shirt Arkana was wearing, the very shirt she had lovingly ironed just a few hours ago. Now it was slightly wrinkled from another woman's embrace.

"The meeting?" Aurelia's voice was flat, almost a whisper. "Was it a board meeting, or was it at the VIP wing of the Upper East Side hospital, Arkan?"

The room instantly turned ice cold.

Arkana's hand froze halfway through removing his watch. His jaw tightened, and his eyes sharpened.

"You followed me?" he asked, his voice low with disbelief.

Aurelia let out a hollow laugh, one filled with nothing but pain.

"Followed you?" She rose from the sofa, gripping her phone so tightly her knuckles turned white. "If I hadn't gone there and seen it with my own eyes, I'd still be the fool who believed her husband was busy leading a meeting, while my husband was actually busy holding another woman as she cried against his chest!"

"Enough, Aurelia!" Arkana snapped, his voice echoing through the spacious penthouse. "Stop making baseless accusations. You don't know anything about what happened there!"

"Then explain it!" Aurelia shouted.

The tears she had been holding back finally broke free.

Her chest heaved as she struggled to breathe through the overwhelming pain.

"Tell me who that woman is, Arkan! Who is she that she can call you in the middle of the night on our anniversary? Who is she that at six in the morning, when we hadn't even..." Her voice faltered before she forced herself to continue. "You walked away from me without a second thought just to rush to her at the hospital. Who is she?"

Arkana pinched the bridge of his nose, his breathing growing uneven as anger began to boil inside him.

He felt cornered, accused of something that, in his mind, wasn't what Aurelia believed it to be.

But his pride, and the promise he had made, kept him from explaining.

To him, everything involving that woman was his responsibility alone, something Aurelia had no reason to interfere with.

"I don't have to explain every detail of my life to you when you're acting this childish," Arkana said coldly, disappointment flashing in his eyes. "I went there because there was an emergency I had to handle. Why has your mind become so twisted? Where's your trust in your own husband?"

"Trust?" Aurelia pressed a hand against her shattered chest. "How am I supposed to trust you when you keep lying to me? You said it was work, but you went to the hospital. You hid her behind a contact saved as 'S.' And..." She swallowed hard. "That mark on your neck last night, was that part of your office business too?"

For a brief moment, Arkana's expression stiffened at the mention of the mark on his neck.

But instead of explaining himself, he felt his pride as a husband being trampled. In his eyes, she had treated him like a criminal by following him and questioning everything he did.

"Enough, Aurelia! I won't be interrogated and followed around like this!" Arkana shouted, fury blazing in his eyes. "I married you because I thought you were understanding, not because I wanted a jealous woman who loses all common sense and spies on her own husband. Then accuses him without knowing the truth!"

His words struck the deepest part of Aurelia's heart.

Childish?

Lacking common sense?

Her mind drifted back three years.

They had fallen in love while working at the same company.

For three years they had dated, laughing together, supporting each other's careers until Arkana finally proposed.

After they married, it had been Arkana's wish for her to live comfortably without the pressures of work.

She had willingly given up a thriving career.

She had buried her ambitions and devoted herself completely to becoming the wife who would always be waiting for him at home.

And after every sacrifice she had made...

This was all she had become in his eyes.

A childish, unreasonable woman.

"We dated for three years, Arkan... and we've been married for one." Aurelia's voice trembled violently between broken sobs. "I gave you my entire life. I quit my job so I could take care of our home, so I could be the person waiting for you every day. But what have I gotten in return? You treat me like a stranger who doesn't even deserve to know the truth about her own husband's lies."

Arkana turned his face away.

His wounded pride refused to let him look at his wife's tears.

"If you're going to keep accusing me without even trying to understand my position, then this conversation is pointless."

"It is pointless!" Aurelia cried.

Her emotions surged past the point of control.

The pain and disappointment bursting inside her forced the words from her lips before she could stop them.

"If you'd rather protect that woman than care about how I feel... if this marriage is nothing but lies, then let's get divorced, Arkan. Let's just get divorced!"

The room fell completely silent.

Only Aurelia's heartbreaking sobs could be heard.

Arkana stared at her with piercing eyes.

His jaw clenched so tightly that the muscles in his neck stood out.

The anger he had been suppressing finally exploded the moment she spoke that forbidden word so easily.

"Divorce?" Arkana asked, his voice now icy and razor sharp.

He let out a mocking scoff.

"You think this marriage is some kind of game? Something you can end whenever you throw a childish tantrum?" He gave a bitter laugh. "Fine. If that's what you want, if you've already decided you can't trust me anymore... then fine. A divorce it is."

The moment those devastating words left his mouth, Arkana snatched his car keys off the table.

Without another glance at Aurelia, who stood frozen in place, he turned and strode out of the penthouse.

The front door slammed shut behind him with a deafening bang, leaving an oppressive silence throughout the apartment.

Arkana left to cool off.

He left behind the storm he had just unleashed on his wife's life.

Aurelia slowly collapsed onto the cold marble floor.

She covered her tear-soaked face with both hands.

Her entire body shook with painful sobs.

Her chest felt hollow, tight, and shattered into countless pieces.

The man she had loved for four years, the man who had promised before the altar to cherish and protect her, had just agreed to divorce her rather than set aside his pride or explain another woman's place in his life.

She cried for hours on the cold floor, letting every ounce of her pain pour out through her tears.

Gradually, her sobs began to subside.

Aurelia slowly lifted her head and looked toward the empty front door.

She wiped away her tears roughly with the back of her hand, though her eyes were swollen and red.

The warmth that had once filled her heart was gone.

In its place stood a quiet resolve, forged from unbearable pain.

*Fine,* Aurelia thought, drawing a long breath that ached in her chest.

*Maybe divorce really is for the best. I won't let myself be destroyed any further in this house.*