"Ewan, I want a divorce."
Athena spoke, finding her voice a minute after seeing her husband, Ewan, and his self-acclaimed best friend, Fiona, in an intimate position on the black, long, plushy L-shaped, gold trimmed sofa in the sitting room.
What good husband would abandon his wife to grief today? What good husband would choose his work—or rather mistress now—to spending at least five minutes to mourn with his wife over her mother's death? What good husband was that cold hearted?
Seeing them had brought to her remembrance the unflattering, yet heartbreaking picture that Fiona had sent to her two days ago; of Ewan sleeping at Fiona's home, in her bed, intertwined with her.
Athena had been beyond pained then, but now she just let out a sarcastic laugh.
Athena had always thought it an abstract event, relegated to certain people, but not her. Yet at this moment, this was the only thing she wanted to do. Oh, the tides of life!
She watched now as Fiona dealt her a withering glare before slithering out of the arms of Ewan who had turned lazily to see the disrupter of his peace.
"What did you just say, Athena?" Ewan asked, sitting up properly on the sofa, his countenance, a canvas of aloofness. A bystander would think that he was asking about the weather, or inquiring about the time.
"I've had enough, Ewan. Grant me a divorce." Athena answered, clamping down the hurt and searing pain that was threatening to mask her face on seeing Fiona slip her right hand into Ewan's open palm.
Was that a solidarity stance? Athena wasn't sure, but it pained her the most; her heart tethered on breakage the most when Ewan clasped, and covered Fiona's hand with an attitude that suggested normalcy.
Athena felt faint then, yet she stood her ground, choosing to see the end of this matter there and then, before disappearing to grieve two losses. She believed that she had no choice at the moment.
Seeing that Ewan didn't care for her emotions, had never cared actually, it would be stupid of her to break down in tears before them. Her foolishness and naivety of three years ended here. She no longer had the desire to thaw the ice that was Ewan Giacometti.
"I told you from the very beginning." Ewan started, rubbing gentle slow circles on Fiona's palm.
An act, which Athena swallowed bravely amidst the withering ache that assailed her heart, without blinking an eyelid.
"There would be no easy way out of this marriage. Not until I get what I want from you and that day looks to be a long way off. Unfortunately, cliche though it may seem, you've made this bed and we both have to lay in it."
"I can't live anymore, Ewan. Yes, stupid me made the bed, but I think we should get rid of the bed at this point. There is no use lying on it again." Athena attempted the dark humor with a chuckle, resting nonchalantly by a wall, choosing to take up the aloof countenance that her husband was sporting. She knew she couldn't cower at this point.
On her lips were a chilly smile that grated on Fiona's nerves, and in her eyes were a mixture of stark hatred and anger which unsettled Ewan deeply.
Ewan stood then, so instant and aggressive—the first crack in his aloof countenance—that Athena's right hand unconsciously flew over her stomach.
This action didn't go unnoticed by Fiona, whose mind wheels were already in motion.
"Do you think I'm happy being with you?" Ewan asked, unable to mask the tremor in his voice, still raking in a shallow unbelief that Athena would want to dispose of him nonchalantly.
Had her love been fake all this while? Well, wasn't she her father's daughter?
"I need a divorce too, wife. But first, you need to bring forth a son for your father, so that he can return my property to me." He covered the distance between them as he dropped the bombshell.
Athena furrowed her eyebrows, not understanding what property Ewan was talking about. "What are you talking about, Ewan?"
"The illiterate breeder feigns ignorance." Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs NovᴇlFire(.)nᴇt
Athena bristled at Fiona's snide comment, but she didn't grab the bait.
Ignoring the jab at her education status, another cruelty of life to her, she concentrated on the other two disturbing factors. Breeder? Property? What were the two idiots talking about?
She had thought that Ewan's obsession with a son had been because of the maintenance of his noble lineage, and to further cement the union of the two companies that had been at loggerheads with each other since forever. However, she was beginning to think that there was more to the story, more that her father had kept hidden from her.
This knowledge pushed her to tighten her hand over her stomach, as if to protect the child that she recently found had taken solace in her womb.
Athena had gotten the great news two days ago, but had decided to keep it under the wraps till after her mother's funeral. Foolish her had thought she could thaw Ewan's cold heart with the news, but with these new revelations, she knew that was an impossible matter.
She didn't know of her father's role in her marriage, only that he had persuaded her, his only child, to marry Ewan, but she wouldn't leave her child in the hands of two cold men.
"You want to be gone?" She heard Ewan ask, his voice retrieving its cold and aloof quality.
She nodded her head slowly, holding his gaze, unruffled when his blue eyes got darker with rage at her answer.
"Then give me a son. Until then, take that thought of divorce off your head. Hopefully, your barren womb will take pity on us, and conceive after this night."
"No way! I will never ever-"
But before Athena could finish her statement, Ewan, with an insane speed and agility, to the surprise of both women, carried Athena on his shoulders, and trudged angrily towards their bedroom.