Past Six Years

“It’d been a while,” she said casually, her lips beaming friendly smile, though her eyes telling them another story, ironic and real. Ire grimaced. The greeting may appear simple, but in truth it was laden with a thousand different meaning. Both of them knew this, but none was likely to mention it.

“Six years,” he replied, short yet meaningful. Isabelle smiled bitterly. Silence occurred, and Ire sighed. Six years and that was all they could talk about? It was just too obvious, the feeling each of them had been hiding.

Ire sighed. Isabelle was pretending to be busy with the brochure inside her hands. Perhaps she was trying not to look at him, should their glances fell into each other’s eyes. A myriad of feeling may be circling within her at this moment, and he was sure of it.

“Isabelle,” Ire noted, short. He wanted her to look at her, at least…

“Call me de Blanc. Miss de Blanc,” she said quickly, and moments later, her face changed, as if she had just realized something. Perhaps her thought must've been really terribly tainted she had to act so embarrassed in front of him.

Ire was furious when she said that, but tried not to show it. Inhaling deeply, he neared her and placed his hand on her cheek in a very intimate manner, which shocked her. In reflective manner, she took a few steps backward, her eyes filled with all sort of glimpse, notably, horror and surprise. Disappointed, Ire dug his hand into his pocket and again tries his best to bury the emotion within him, and not make it public. He beamed a meaningful glimpse, and looked at her straight into her eyes.

“You’ve talked to him.”

“Who?” she asked, short and straight to the point, clearly sending the message that she had started to grow uncomfortable talking to him, and that her participation in this cold conversation merely in the name of being polite. However, after five minutes of silence, she turned to look at him, and found him beaming his eyes at her, sharp and unforgiving.

“Your son.”

Isabelle’s eyes snapped into attention, that her lips parted in a way that suggested shock. Ire realized that she wanted to say something, although he wasn’t sure if it’s a question or a statement, but with that sort of expression he knew that shock had a better hand over her. He took the liberty to do the talking since.

“You spoke to him minutes ago,” Ire noted, sounding casual, but his eyes denote his actual feeling. His furry eyebrow suggested that emotional element’s grasping his conscious, and at the mention of the son, his composure began to crumble.

That son must've been precious to him.

“That child, his name, Alex…”

Isabelle gasped, again, in shock. Yes. She had spoken to him few minutes ago…that child with beautiful green eyes dusted with golden crumbs and exquisite brown hair with strands of gold…

When she first saw him he reminded her of…

This man…

“Alexander Fate,” he noted the full name, his eyes carefully observing Isabelle's reaction. To his delight, she took the mentioned name in and started to digest it. She began to tremble, and he looked upon her longingly.

“Isabelle, it was not my intention…six years ago…” he tried to explain,

“But you lied!” she noted suddenly, face filled with imminent rage as the memory of that one faithful day rekindled at the back of her head. “I waited for you, but you never showed up! Mother…mother was the one who rescued me…”

“I have no choice! I was there, but weren’t allowed to see you…!” he said, full of emotion, his face red, his eyes glassy, almost like he was about to cry.

“I couldn’t forget that day, Ire,” she muttered, as tears swelled at the corner of her eyes. “Because of that I lost the child…”

“I made a bargain on that. In return of your release I demand that Alex be handed to me. They agreed only after I told them I’ll leave the country and never come back, and that I will take him with me. They wanted to give away our son to someone I don’t know, someone we may never know…”

She was listening, attentively.

“I left this country merely weeks after Alex was born. I couldn’t bear loosing both of you, but Alex…as a child, I don’t want him to loose him so bad that…”

“You sacrificed me…?” she asked in disbelief, eyes wide with shock. Ire swallowed her words calmly, but his expression clearly gave of the sense of sadness.

“I’ve sacrificed everything, Belle, for this day…”

She still did not say anything.

“Belle, do you know, what happened in the six years past?”

“Ire Fate, you were the one who signed our divorce form, and you…left me during childbirth, to deal it alone…do you have any idea how would that affect me? I was so young, and so deeply in love with you. I was hoping you could protect me, but…where were you? You disappeared after signing the papers…”

“What papers?!” he screamed, which halted her words, when he threw a yellowish piece of paper towards her after acquiring it from his jacket’s pocket. For once his face contained within it, ‘rage’.

The piece of paper floated down onto her leg, and she reluctantly picked it up. Isabelle was shocked to see the contents of it.

Their marriage certificate.

And it was still valid.

Her eyes were filled with tears and fear, as well as disbelief.

“Those papers were merely a hoax,” he said, face still red with anger. “I sacrificed everything for this day, including your trust in me. We weren’t really divorced, Belle. No matter how I tried I couldn’t take the fact that we were to divorce, so I got a friend from the registry department to help me with it. I managed to fool them into believing that we’re…divorced, but that doesn’t mean I could…”

Isabelle was listening, face filled with horror. Ire could tell in one glance that she refused to believe his every word.

“And why would I continue wearing this ring, even after six years?!” he said, half yelling, as he held up his hand, naked now to her eyes a ring she will never forget. It was a simple silver ring studded with a single diamond, which gleamed brilliantly under the artificial light of the display area. Isabelle was shocked, and silence followed. None of them reacted, and Ire was frozen, when the sensation of someone hugging his leg draw his attention. A boy with mystique features was clinging to his leg, his eyes alternating from him to Isabelle who was standing a few feet from them. Ire slumped onto the stool which happened to be behind him, and the boy instinctively hugged him. It’s the boy from earlier, Isabelle realized. The boy they’ve been talking about.

And when Ire, out of nowhere, began to sob, the boy wrapped his hands around his father’s head, trying to comfort him, when his eyes stared at the woman standing a few feet from them, whose face bore what she was thinking, and the feeling within her.

Not a single word was spoken, and Isabelle had her eyes fixed on the boy in front of her, as he mind raced backward, remembering the moment that changed her life, six years ago. No, she could. She couldn’t bear to remember it. She had lived in pain, in pure pain, for six long years, and six years since…and today, confronted with truth, it was hard on her to accept, hard on him to reveal. Everything. The drama…the drama…a well written drama of agony, pain, lies, like a soap opera, only this time it was for real, a cold reality…

Love. Their love. No words could ever describe it. And truth. For them, is the ugliest thing that could ever come forth, between them, ever…

In the end they just stared at each other, no words spoken. No one knew what happened to them, or to the little boy after they left that place…

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MAJOR PS: NO THIS ISABELLE IS NOT ME OR RELATED IN WHATSOEVER WAY EXCEPT THAT she is a character and im the author. that is all. haha. 

as always, thank you for reading it