Chapter 2
“Nora, you’ve been out for a while. Are you hungry? I brought snacks and fruit tea. Want to have a bite before dinner?”
The sudden voice at the window snapped Eleanor out of her thoughts. She shook her head and walked over to the man without a word.
Aaron reached out and gently took her hand, but she instinctively looked down and noticed a faint stain on the hem of her trench coat.
His eyes followed hers, and just as she slipped off her coat, he took off his jacket too, wanting to put it over her shoulders. However, she stepped away.
He paused for a second, then tried to take her coat from her hands. “Let me take it. I know how much you love this coat. I’ll have it professionally cleaned.”
Eleanor shook her head and tossed the coat straight into the trash can on the curb. Her tone was flat as she said, “Just get rid of it. You know me–I don’t keep things that are stained. I’m kind of a clean freak, remember?”
Aaron’s smile faltered the second he heard her words. He knew she wasn’t just talking about the coat. She was talking about everything–about them.
That night had haunted him ever since. He had been terrified that she would leave him, that she would call off the engagement, that there would be no going back. So, he had chosen to
hide it.
Aaron told himself that if he could just keep it a secret, wait until the baby was born, and have Margaret raise the child, everything would go back to normal. He couldn’t even bring himself to imagine how Eleanor would react if she found out.
He could lose anyone else in the world–just not her.
Aaron’s mind was spinning, but Eleanor didn’t spare him another glance. She simply stared out the window in silence. She remembered how it felt when she had first learned the truth. She remembered the years of love, how devoted he had been, how it had once felt like she was his entire world.
Eleanor had tried–she really had–to bury the gain and pretend like nothing had happened, but she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t live with a love that had been tainted.
After two long months of battling with herself, she had finally decided to let go.
Eleanor knew that if she tried to break off the engagement directly, Aaron would never agree. After all, she had tried once before, years ago, when she had wanted to pursue her dance career abroad. Back then, he had chased her for a full month, begging her to come back.
She had no intention of repeating that all over again. Hence, she planned the crash–the-
wedding scheme.
If there was one person in their world who could pull her out from Aaron’s grasp, it was his archrival–Leon. That was also why she had approached him today. Thankfully, he said yes.
During the drive, Aaron kept trying to make Eleanor laugh like he used to. He jumped from topic to topic, desperately searching for something that would cheer her up.
Yet, she couldn’t even fake a smile anymore. She leaned her head against the window and drifted off to sleep. When she woke up, she found herself tucked into bed in the upstairs bedroom.
A housekeeper entered quietly with a mug of hot ginger tea and said, “Ms. Sutton, Mr. Ford just finished making this himself. He said he didn’t want you catching a cold and asked me to give it to you as soon as you woke up. He’s outside in the garden picking fresh flowers–would you like me to go get him?”
Eleanor shook her head and walked to the window. Looking down, she saw him standing in the garden, carefully arranging a bouquet of roses with full concentration.
Half an hour later, Aaron came upstairs holding the freshly arranged flowers. He handed them to her with hopeful eyes and asked, “Do you like them?”
She responded with a soft, quiet hum, and instantly, his whole face lit up with a smile.
That night, Eleanor lay awake, staring at the ceiling for what felt like forever.
At 11:00 pm, she heard two light knocks at the door. In came Aaron, carrying a pillow and claiming he had insomnia. He asked if he could sleep next to her.
Eleanor didn’t say no. She slid over, leaving half the bed open, and let him wrap an arm around her shoulder like nothing had changed. About 30 minutes later, she heard the sound of his even breathing–he had fallen asleep.
She slowly reached under her pillow, pulled out his phone, and unlocked it with the password she had long since memorized. After that, she opened his messages and scrolled to his conversation with Alina.
From March to April, there had been messages every single day, reporting about the baby. Each text was filled with restraint, humility, and quiet desperation.
Even so, Aaron hadn’t replied to a single message
Finally, on April 17th, a green bubble popped up on the screen–his first response. “Stop texting me. Don’t you understand what this child means to me? Everyone’s excited for him to be born… except me!”
Alina only responded with one word-“Sorry.”
After that, they hadn’t exchanged a single message for over a month. However, by mid–May, Alina started sending updates again on the dot very day.
As Eleanor scrolled further, she noticed Aaron’s green messages slowly began to increase. The texts grew longer, and his tone softened too.
Aaron: “I saw you after work today–you’ve lost weight. You should eat more; the baby needs
nutrients too.”
Aaron: “I heard some people at the office were gossiping and giving you a hard time. Are you dumb? Why are you letting people bully you every day? If something happens, come to me directly.”
Aaron: “There’s a storm coming in a few days. Stay home and don’t go out. I’ll have my assistant drop off some supplies.”
If Eleanor remembered correctly, she had spent the entire month of May abroad, rehearsing for her new dance production. According to Noah, that was when Margaret had brought Alina to stay at the Ford residence, trying to make the two of them bond.
Eleanor wondered if that was when Aaron started caring about Alina. Her lashes trembled slightly as her thumb kept scrolling. She stopped at the latest message. It had been sent just earlier that day.
Aaron: “What time’s the appointment? Text me the address.”
Alina: “Mr. Ford, aren’t you supposed to be with Ms. Sutton today?”
Aaron: “Not your concern. Just send the address.
His tone wasn’t exactly gentle, but Eleanor knew him too well–if he truly didn’t care, he never would have reached out in the first place. Moreover, he had used a fake meeting as an excuse to cancel their plans, then spent the day with Alina at her prenatal check–up.
Eleanor knew she wasn’t Aaron’s number one anymore, not the way she used to be. Glancing at the man sleeping beside her, she let out a quiet bitter laugh.
Then, she opened Alina’s social media profile. She scrolled through three months‘ worth of updates over 20 posts and nearly 100 photos, each documenting the pregnancy in detail.
In the most recent ones, Aaron’s face had started to appear. Photos of him focusing behind the wheel, studying the ultrasound results with a furrowed brow, looking conflicted while picking
out baby clothes in a store.
The more she looked, the harder it became to breathe. If that night had been a drunken mistake, something he had never meant, everything he was doing now said otherwise.
Eleanor quietly set the phone back under his pillow. Right then, still asleep, Aaron instinctively pulled her into his arms again.
Chapper 2
The same arms she had once found comfort in now felt suffocating. She took a slow, deep breath and gently pushed him away.
She thought, “Aaron, just one more month. One more month, and I’ll finally be free of you- for good.”
