Don't Say Love (BOOK 2)
Chapter 27
"You're Arnetta?"
The woman immediately turned her gaze to the source of the voice. Seen on the doorstep of his room, a middle-aged woman looked at him with a sharp gaze. Not forgetting there was another figure who was also standing behind the middle-aged woman. As he tried to sharpen his eyesight, he was surprised to find Lusi standing there with his sly smile.
"Lusty?"
The woman simply smiled with a face looking up. His eyes stared at Arnetta cynically, as if he had just found out that this time he was going to win. While Arnetta could only be glued to his place seeing the arrival of two people who could somehow come to Jullian's house today. After a long time he was confined this time he saw again Lusi, his brother who he knew was not good enough to be near him.
"Are you deaf? I asked if you were Arnetta?"
The voice sounded slow, but it was piercing enough to make him inevitably refocus himself on the figure of a middle-aged woman who came with Lusi. From his face he could guess who this woman was. She must be Jullian's mother. The resemblance of the two he could not get rid of just like that. It was like looking at Jullian in the middle-aged female version.
"L-yes, I'm Arnetta."
THE PLAQUE!
The attack immediately brought down Arnetta. The woman immediately slammed onto the floor as the slap soared into her cheek. Holding her painful cheek as well as hot, she immediately looked towards the woman who had raised her hand. Inevitably Arnetta knew that she would return to feel her heartache again. For there is no intention in him to rise. He sat on the floor holding his cheeks and stomach. At least she knew the slap had no effect on her pregnancy.
"****** you should know your position. How can a lowly and despicable person demand to be married by my son. Don't you realize that Jullian is married and has a wife?"
Arnetta could only bow his head. Without needing to be told again he was quite aware that Jullian was a married man and especially his wife was his own half-sister. But from the beginning he never wanted any of this. Over and over again he wanted to get away from the man, but Jullian could do whatever he wanted. And all the money he ever borrowed would have dragged him into prison. In fact, he had already asked Jullian for death and was never given.
Really, he was tired of all the drama of his life. His life never meant anything in anyone's eyes. His mother is no longer there either. So what does Arnetta hold on to? If Jullian only wanted this child to be as broken as he was, wouldn't it be better for Arnetta to take him all in death.
Dark shadows reflected on the floor. The grunts from the familiar voice drew closer to him. He knew Lusi was laughing at him right now. Yes, that woman deserves to laugh. Lusi had already won his life by snatching Jullian from him five years ago. If he is now enraged by Jullian returning to his side, Arnetta is ready to hand him back. He also wants to be free from all this suffering.
"After all the things you've taken away, I think a despicable woman like you deserves to disappear from the face of this earth." he said.
Arnetta raised his face and looked directly at the two black eyeballs belonging to his half-brother. The hateful gaze he received from the woman was deep, as if what Arnetta had ever done was a fatal mistake. Until this moment, he could not find an answer to why Lusi hated him so much. From the beginning it was the woman who asked him to change positions to meet the matchmaking event with Jullian. The woman came to him and asked for help. Even when they were young, Lusi spent more time with her and her mother, compared to her own biological mother. I don't know where the figure of Lusi who used to be his little friend. The woman in front of him was like an adult woman who had never grown into the Lusi she had known as a child.
"Why?"
Arnetta's voice asked softly, quietly, almost inaudibly. However, Lusi's reaction said that the woman was able to hear him clearly. His cynical face suddenly turned into a woman's face that held a deep wound in his heart. It was like there was an old wound lodged in Luci's heart.
"You ... have all that I cannot afford to belong to, Netta. You took away everything that was supposed to be mine."
Arnetta's tears slowly fell. Which one does Luci want. His life is ruined. Not a single one of the lives he had could make others feel envious, let alone Lusi. Since childhood, a father's love he never got. Their father only loves Lusi and considers the woman his only child. The treasure and honor that loomed over Lusi was the thing that all women wanted the most, including her. The woman never worked to risk her life as she had. Everything in Lusi's life seemed perfect and dazzling to Arnetta. He should be envious of everything in the woman's life.
"Which one is it that makes you feel so hateful to me? Being hated by my own father or being a prostitute for your own sister-in-law." Challenge Arnetta with a voice that almost screamed.
Jullian's mother fell silent in her place looking at the interaction of the two people. He began to suspect that Lusi had known this woman. Judging from the way the two spoke, he was sure that Lusi missed a story that he never knew.
"Lusi, do you know this woman?"
Susi looked at Arnetta with teary eyes. His heart ached if he had to describe anything that made him so hateful to his stepbrother. It might be trivial but he knew that for a long time his mind had always wanted what made Arnetta strong all this time.
"You, ... I hate you when my own father compares me. Saying that I should have been more capable than you, because I was born as his son. And, you have the love of a mother I never had. Even my own mother lured me to the striped-nose man for his business to be achieved."
Lucia stood up and wiped away her tears. With his shoulders straight, he looked at Arnetta, who was still sitting on the floor.
"You sold your body for a dying mother. There is a great love in your intentions. As for me, I was dirty and despicable not because of love, but because of my mother's greed. Don't you think your life's luckier? Don't you understand that I want to have a normal life? In fact, as long as we were married Jullian never considered me a human being at all. He prefers Arif over me his wife. When I had a miscarriage in my second pregnancy, the man wouldn't see me in the hospital."
Jullian's mother couldn't help but cry. He remembered that it was he who was at his daughter-in-law's side all night, helping her through the hard time of losing their future son. Jullian preferred not to leave his business trip to New York.
Luci turned his eyes to his mother-in-law with tears in his eyes.
"Ma, let me remain your daughter-in-law. Feeling the affection of parents I never felt. I'm your son's legal wife and the woman who gave you a grandchild. Please help me to get rid of this woman from our household life."
Jullian's mother immediately nodded in agreement without thinking twice. With a stern look at Arnetta, he exhaled heavily and rebuked the woman violently.
"Now choose, go at your own will or go the rough way you could never have imagined?"
Arnetta was still crying silently while holding her stomach. He must survive at least for his child candidate.
Is this not the freedom he wants? But, I don't know why his heart hurt to hear Lusi's confession. Right, that woman is his legal wife. It should have been Lusi who was in this house, as Jullian's companion and also the mother of Arif. Arnetta was just a woman who snatched away all unknowingly.
"Okay, I'll go. I ... Go."
***
Arnetta looked blankly at the street in front of him. Still with a bunch of tens of thousands of money that he got from Jullian's mother. Actually the woman gave him a hundred thousand dollars. However, as long as he went down the streets of the city he had used the money to eat and also take the bus. Now, Arnetta himself doesn't know where he is. The bus that took him out of town had already arrived at his last stop and left Arnetta to get off at the last stop.
He did not know what time it was, but clearly the sun that had changed with the moon already signified the day had been night. He had no idea how far he had gone. When Jullian and Arif came home, they could not find their presence in the house.
While stroking his stomach that is a protruding dent, Arnetta understood that now there is only himself and his future son.
"We're just two now, baby. Mama will take care of you later with love. I won't let you end up like my mom." Her speech.
A black car stopped in front of him. Just contact it makes Arnetta a little wary. He stood up and prepared to run. It could have been the bad guy, or maybe the wrathful Jullian had managed to find him.
When he was ready to step, a voice he had never heard made him stop and turn around. A man with a black blazer got out of the car. Arnetta did not know who the man was, but his face was no stranger in his memory.
"I thought I was wrong, it was you." Say it with a big smile.
Arnetta frowned. He felt familiar with this man, but completely unstoppable in his brain whether he had ever interacted with him.
"W-Who are you?"
Instead of directly answering, the man even widened his smile which printed both dimples on his face. Right he stood in front of Arnetta, the man immediately said his name.
"We've met in the hospital and you know ... I still remember you clearly. Introduce, I'm Patrick."