The Return

His hooded eyes slowly raked her body, but there was nothing like admiration in those eyes. What she saw shattered her already frail heart. It was contempt…disdain.

Aurora lifted her left hand and placed it on his big hand holding her neck, while his intimidating form pressed her against the wall. Her hand didn't even get a fraction of Damian's wrist, his hand was big, his veins threatening to pop out of his skin, While Aurora's hands were small and soft. Her hold on Damian's wrist wasn't felt.

"You're hurting me, Damian…" Aurora croaked out. 

"You've not answered my question," Damian's tone was unyielding.

"What do you want me to say?" Aurora retorted, offended by his strange behavior. "You saw him take my hand…" 

"...And kiss you in my face, Aurora, don't you have some self-respect?" 

"What are you saying, Damian, you're being insensitive? This show you're trying to put on is uncalled for. You were there, you saw it all happen," Aurora still tried to pull off his hand but her attempts were futile.

"Am I being insensitive? Aurora, you're my wife, you shouldn't let anyone touch you. The next time something like that happens you won't like me," Damian dropped his hand from her neck, turning his back to Aurora and heading for the bathroom.

Aurora touched the area he held seconds ago, there was a fleeting pain. She massaged the spot a little, to calm the spot.

She walked into her closet and stood in front of the mirror. Her mind reeled with questions. Thoughts. And she wondered what could be going on in her life. Why was everything falling apart? She'd lost her first fruit to cancer. She's losing her husband's admiration and she's scared she may not get it back. He looks far gone; he doesn't even see how much she's hurting even when she's standing inches away from her face, looking into her eyes.

Aurora drew down the zipper of her dress, letting the dress fall. The dress swept against her smooth olive skin till it touched the ground.

After the dress was down, she took out a pair of pajamas and wore it. By the time she returned to the room, her husband was out in the bedroom and was dressing up. He was half-naked up, his back was bare, and he already had jeans beneath. He threw on a black T-shirt. He was dressing casually which meant where he was going wasn't work-related.

"Where are you going?" Aurora asked calmly but with a slight tremble in her voice. 

She didn't expect him to leave the house. 

"Nowhere that concerns you. I would have told you." He said, picking up his wristwatch and sliding it through his wrist.

"It's late. You can't go out now?" Aurora was sitting on her side of the bed. Her voice sounded like she was about to cry. 

Damain swiveled to look at her, "Says who? And who gave you the right to question me?" 

Aurora retracted her eyes from his and looked down at her thighs. From her peripheral vision, she noticed he was still dressing up. She didn't want him to leave, she wanted him to sleep beside her, she wanted him to cuddle her as she mourned her baby.

"Please stay, don't go," Aurora pleaded with him.

Damian scoffed "What are you? Five? Are you scared of the dark?" Damian turned the major lights of the room on so that lights were beaming in every corner. "Better now?" 

"Damian, I'm serious, I want you to stay back for me." 

"For you? Why should I do that? Do you know how important where I'm going is? Remember I have to care for you, fund your lavish lifestyle. It's my job to bring money home, so let me do what I'm good at. Take care of our room," Damian finished dressing and started heading for the door.

"It's not about the money. Damian, we've grown distant lately, I want us to spend some time together as couples." Aurora pressed on. Sounding a little too desperate.

"There'll always be time for that," 

Aurora was slapped with disappointment, her husband's mind is fixed on wherever it is he is going. 

Aurora sniffed as hot tears pricked her eyes, "Damian, are you seeing someone?" Aurora asked the one question that came to her mind unfiltered.

"Seeing someone? You'll have to explain what you mean by that Dear. I'll see you tomorrow," 

As the door closed, Aurora was embraced with a cold reality that she was losing the one thing that had kept her up for years. Her husband, Damian. She still loved him very much, and it hurt her deeply whenever he showed indifference.

She slowly laid her head back on the plush bed, facing up. Her emotions rode up, tears rolled down her cheeks, with all the emotions she was battling with and the way her bed was arranged, she felt like she was floating. She held the hem of the sheet with one hand, using the other one to wipe her tears. 

Sometime in the night she finally fell asleep, but it was a restless sleep. Aurora was too optimistic for her own good, she had hoped that her husband would realize that she wanted him to stay and come back but he didn't. 

Aurora woke up Nauseous, her temperature was strangely high. She had a banging head and vomited three times between her two hours of staying awake. She was alone in the room, sitting on the bathroom floor. She couldn't speak so much as speak. She was very tired. 

She tried to call her husband with the little strength she mustered, but he didn't pick up. She dropped the phone and rested, till she felt sound enough to get up. 

She ended up vomiting again and she concluded that this was out of hand, that she would go see the doctor right away. And that she did. 

She wanted to wear something flexible, so she took out her yellow floral dress and a pair of sandals from her closet. She styled her hair in a tight ponytail. Praying her vomiting doesn't continue on the way. 

She was taken to the hospital in one of her husband's BMWs.

When she got to the hospital, the Doctor welcomed her warmly. "Please sit, Mrs." She gestured to the seat opposite her desk.

"What brings you to our hospital today?" The Doctor asked politely, with a beam.

Aurora carefully explained all the occurrences she had earlier that day and how she was feeling to the Doctor. As she spoke the doctor wrote some things down. 

When Aurora was done explaining, the doctor took her samples to use in running the test. Skylark Hospital was one of the best in town, they were known for having the rare medical technologies. 

So Aurora didn't need to come back for her pregnancy results.

In an hour the Doctor waltzed back into her office, with a big smile on her face. Aurora still sat there, feeling nervous about what might be the outcome of the results. Anyone could see her shoulders were tense from a distance.

"Congratulations, Mrs. Caldwell, you're two weeks pregnant!" The Doctor handed Aurora the file.

Aurora's breath hitched, she squinted in disbelief, receiving the file from the Doctor. She had a hard time believing her ears.

"I'm…pregnant?" She stuttered. Scanning the file in her hand. 

"Yes, Dear," The Doctor said enthusiastically.

It was real! She was pregnant! Aurora's belly felt as if a butterfly cage had opened in her stomach. The last time she felt like this was when she was given her bundle of joy at the hospital years ago. 

After losing her, she lost her biggest source of happiness to a terminal disease, and ever since then it felt like something irreplaceable had been snatched from her and she'd lived with this hollow feeling in her heart. And now she felt like the joy had been restored.

"I see you're very happy," The Doctor chimed playfully.

"Yes." Aurora nodded vehemently, she couldn't wait to break this big news to her husband.

"Thank you, Doctor, I have to tell my husband," Aurora got up excitedly.

"It's okay. I'll see you some other time," 

"It's okay, see you some other time." Aurora left the Doctor's office.

Aurora's legs didn't lift her fast enough, she couldn't wait to get home. Once she got back to the car. Her driver, Ray, opened the back door and she got in. 

Through the drive, she kept looking at the file she was given by the doctor that she didn't even notice when they got home. She stepped out and ran in, it was early afternoon. Damian usually doesn't come home by this time unless someone's about to die or he forgot something important. So she wanted to pay him a surprise visit to his office. 

As she walked inside, she thought of making dinner for him and presenting him the results as he ate. She pushed the thought aside.

As she entered the house she saw a big suitcase in the living room. A pink one. She knew at once that it didn't belong to her husband because he loathed pink and pink wasn't Aurora's favorite color. 

She held her big dress in her left hand, while her right held her bag and the results. 

She started hearing a female's voice as she went upstairs…Aurora's reflexes kicked in. She stomped her feet harder, eager to know who was in her house. 

One of the guest rooms was open and she peeked inside. She saw from behind a woman wearing booty shorts and a green tank top, with white blonde hair.

"Do you like it?" Damian asked her, there was warmth in his voice. Compared to the way Damian had been treating her lately. Most of their talks had been fights and arguments. 

"Yeah. This can do," The lady said with approval. Aurora waited patiently for her to turn. They hadn't seen her.

"Let's get you settled," They both turned in unison and the trio's eyes clashed.

"Aurora, are you back? I heard you went to the hospital." Damian acknowledged his wife. But Aurora didn't like that her husband was addressing her by her name. 

"Oh Hi! I'm Juliet Langford. You must be the wife, I've heard so much about you," Juliet stretched out her right hand to Aurora for a shake. 

Aurora stared at the hand with contempt, not comfortable with the idea of a woman that was looking like this to be around her husband.

"Aurora, this is my best friend, Juliet Langford. I've told you about her in the past. If you remember, she's staying for a week."