Trouble in Paradise

The beeping sounds of someone entering the password suddenly stopped. A voice laced with anger came through from the other side faintly. "Open the door."

I had been huddled on the floor in fear. My fingers that I'd been clenching stiffened. As I breathed a sigh of relief, a hint of resentment arose in my heart simultaneously. I denied the person outside entry. "Go away, Nicholas." "Ariana, it's me. Your mother is very worried about you. She asked Nick and me to come and check on you." Claudia's cheerful voice came from outside the door.

I lay on the floor and bumped my head against the cool tiles gently in exasperation. I could feel a splitting headache coming on. Nicholas knew exactly what was bothering me, yet he brought Claudia along just to annoy me! Nicholas knocked again. He was confident that I would let him in. "Ariana, let's talk inside."

He must have tried many passwords while I was asleep earlier. Was it really that hard to guess? If he had spent a little more time on me, he would have figured it out.

Soon, I heard a phone call outside. Nicholas was calling Beth and asking her to arrange for someone to come over and open the lock.

J didn't want my home to be broken into, so I raised my voice and said, "Claudia, let me talk to your brother alone, okay?"

"Do you not like me anymore, Ariana? Tell me what I'm doing wrong. I'll change my ways," Claudia said while sobbing.

In the past, if she had cried in front of me whenever she felt wronged, I would have dropped everything to comfort her. But now, I realized she didn't need me at all. When she cried in front of me, she probably did it to get Nicholas' attention. I struggled to stand up. Then, I looked through the peephole to see Nicholas persuading Claudia patiently. "Wait for me in the car, please."

Of course, Claudia didn't want to Nicholas had to put his arm around her shoulders to steer her to the elevator.

They moved out of my line of sight, but my eyes still reddened as sadness washed over me. Some people would cry and call their exes when they were drunk. But the more intoxicated I was, the more clear-headed I became.

I didn't have anything to fall back on if I clung to him because he never liked me.

I leaned against the shoe cabinet and slowly slid to the floor. I hugged myself as misery filled me. At that moment, I felt so cold.

"Are you going to open the door for me yourself, or should I wait for my secretary to bring someone to open it?" Nicholas' voice rang out again from behind the door.

I sighed and responded in a barely audible voice, "The password is my birthday."

After two short beeps, everything fell silent again.

I had no choice but to open the door a crack and look at Nicholas defensively. "What do you want?"

He frowned deeply while staring at my miserable form on the floor. He looked exceptionally handsome with his cold and noble demeanor. Sadly, he couldn't remember my birthday.

Neither of us spoke, and I had no intention of inviting him in. Finally, as the hallway's motion-sensor light went out, he grabbed my wrist through the door crack.

Nicholas' voice was calm as he said, "Brenda called my mom and asked me to bring you home. Now, the whole family. knows we're quarreling.

I laughed in response. "Isn't it because you didn't answer my mom's call? Stop joking, Mr. Hawk. You and your dear sister can go home. I don't have a home anymore."

"Are you feeling wronged?" He yanked me up from the floor and stepped in with one swift movement. I stumbled and felt my vision going dark before my stomach churned due to being pulled up suddenly without warning. Ignoring my discomfort, Nicholas held my chin and forced me. to look up. "Whether you feel wronged or not doesn't matter to me. Don't affect me and my family. The Hawk family doesn't need an unruly daughter-in-law." He gave me a rational reminder. "You should know that from the moment we got married, our marriage was no longer just

between us."

After he said that, he was silent for a few seconds. He then reached out to brush the wet hair off my face and study my face in the hallway's dim light.

I knew I must have looked utterly terrible. Therefore, I turned on the light by the door to let him see me more clearly.

Nicholas let go of me right away. He glanced at his hand and the floor. Then, he took two steps back and shook off the water droplets.

I had gotten drenched in the rain and collapsed at the door when I came in. But to him, I, along with this place, was filthy and unsightly. He hated even standing in here.

My stomach churned violently, so I turned and ran to the bathroom. The next thing I knew was that I started vomiting uncontrollably.

After flushing the toilet, I turned back to see Nicholas standing at a spot that was mostly dark and only partially lit while watching me coldly. He had no intention of coming in, judging from the way he kept his distance. "Don't worry, I just had too much to drink. I'm not pregnant." I laughed humorlessly at him.

"Even if you were, I wouldn't acknowledge a bastard child," he replied icily.

"Is there anything else you wish to say to me, Mr. Hawk? If not, you can leave." I looked at him and kept my distance as I

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started to remove my soaked clothes. My hands paused as they reached the buttons.

"Or do you want to have sex with me because you got drugged again? Oh, but Claudia is downstairs, so I guess you can't," I remarked tauntingly.

He replied in a mocking voice, "Do you think you're some supermodel that I find irresistible? If it weren't for your mom, do you think I'd come over?"

His words were hurtful. All of his tenderness was reserved for another woman, and the difference in his treatment toward me and the other woman was stark.

"We can't go on like this. I'll explain everything to my mom, and you explain to your mom. Now, can you leave?"

With that, I locked the bathroom door and stepped into the bathtub fully clothed. I sat there and let the warm water gradually envelop my body.

The shadow of Nicholas' angular side profile came closer to the door. His nearing presence loomed over me like a dark cloud and made it hard for me to breathe. It felt equally as suffocating as sinking into the water.

I wanted to kill myself for my stupidity. While underwater, I saw Nicholas walk to the other side and open the door. The bathroom in my apartment had double sliding doors, and I had only locked one side..

I thought he would pull me up, but he didn't. He stepped into the bathtub and kissed me underwater.

I desperately needed air, so I kissed him back fiercely while hoping to get some.

His smile looked a little creepy in the dim light. "Ariana, look at how you kissed me just now. How can you say that we can't go on being husband and wife?"