I Was Never Yours - Episode 4
04-09-25 (20:57)
Late on a Tuesday night, Zach walked into my room
like nothing had happened. Had he forgotten how he'd
ambushed me and how frightened I'd been? I guess
he had since he'd made no attempt to apologize and I
left him alone, not wanting any confrontation like
before. I rarely left the house and staying inside so
much was messing with my line of thought. Everything
seemed muddled and confusing and I began to worry
for my own sanity. My parents had made no attempt
to contact me and I didn't think they'd come to see me
anytime soon. They were ashamed of what they'd
done to me and to be honest I didn't want to see
them either. Any reminder of what my life used to be
like was too painful and I'd rather do without it.
An envelope was thrown roughly onto my bed where'
I sat. I looked at Zach in all his drunken glory and
wrinkled my nose because of the strong stench of
alcohol coming from him. I carefully picked up the
white envelope and opened it to find a ticket to
Florida, with the flight leaving the next day. I looked at
him, clearly confused because I hadn't had the slightest
idea that we were leaving.
"Why are we leaving?" I asked him and my own voice
sounded weird to me, not having used it much over
the past few days.
"We need to get away from the city for a while. Dad
thinks it'd be a good idea to visit our family's vacation
home since not many people know about it," he
replied in a curt tone and I nodded. It was only
understandable that our families would want us to
disappear for a while before people started asking
questions. They'd already fed them enough excuses for
why we didn't attend dinners or why we'd skipped out
on our own wedding reception. Florida would provide
an opportunity for the hype surrounding the new high
profile wedding to die down and then maybe we could
return.
Zach was nearly on his way back when he suddenly
stopped, bending down to pick something up. I scooted
over to the edge of my bed to find out what it was
that had caught his attention. I started playing with my
fingers nervously as he picked up the broken pieces of
my phone. The screen had a crack through it and the
back was dented heavily. I had made sure to render it
completely useless so that I wouldn't be tempted to
call him or return any of his phone calls. Luckily or
rather unluckily, depending on how you see it, I could
never remember phone numbers and without the help
of my cell phone there was slim chance that I could
ever contact Noah again. It was better that way.
He held the phone up, examining it and then looking at
me for an explanation. I shrugged casually and said, "It
fell." He pursed his lips at my response and for a
moment it looked like he was actually tempted to ask
more questions, like he actually cared but then
something must have made him change his mind. He
pocketed my phone and nodded. "I'll get you a new
one. I'll take this so that they can take out the sim
card." I was about to protest but then rationality
caught the better of me. I didn't need to give him a
reason to get curious, not that he ever would. He
exited my room and again left me in silence. I
switched on the TV and tuned into the news. Laying
my head down on my pillow, I let the voices of the
reporters become background noise and closed my
eyes. It was a technique that helped; as the reporters
spoke, I conjured up images in response to their
words. This kept certain images from flashing across
my eyes till I went to sleep.
The next day, the butler and the rest of the help
hovered over me, helping me pack. I had no idea what
to do since my mom had always done my packing if
we ever left for an extended period of time. I let Mrs.
Hotch go through my stuff and decide what I was
supposed to take. Zach had already packed and I was
told that he was having breakfast in the dining room
downstairs. I never joined him for any meal and
preferred for it to be delivered to my room. This
morning however I had a strong urge to just leave my
room and go sit with him. Somehow I was hoping that
leaving the city would mean that something between
the two of us would change as well. I wasn't
expecting us to fall in love, far from it, but maybe we
could learn to get along more, just till we got the
situation we were in figured out.
"Miss, Mr. Price is waiting for you downstairs," said a
meek little voice and I saw a young girl, barely 16,
looking at me with frightened eyes. I smiled warmly at
her and nodded. It was time to go and I for one
couldn't be out of this house sooner. Walking down, I
saw that all of our luggage had already been loaded
into the car and that Zach was tapping his foot
impatiently, leaning against the door frame. I hurried
downstairs, the sound of my heels gaining his
attention. With a bored expression on his face, he
signaled the driver to bring the car to the front of the
house and left without acknowledging my presence. I
glared at his retreating figure and stopped myself from
stomping my foot. Who did he think he was? Could he
not be bothered to even say a 'hello'?
"Did you pack everything you need?" he asked me
once we were in the car and headed for the airport. I
nodded and turned my face away from him.
"Are you sure?" he asked again. "I don't want to have
to turn back all the way just because you forgot a pair
of earrings or something." I rolled my eyes and before
I could stop myself uttered the words, "I'm not Olivia."
I bit my lip as soon as I'd said that and watched my
husband flinch and clench his fists. I wanted to
apologize but somehow the words never left my
mouth. I didn't feel like I owed him anything, not even
an apology.
The rest of the journey passed in silence and soon we
were at the airport, checking in. Zach was taking care
of everything, treating me like a child who couldn't be
trusted to handle such responsibility. I wanted to tell
him that I'd travelled alone plenty of times but seeing
my earlier slip-up, I kept my mouth shut and let him
do what he wanted. After we'd checked in, we
headed for the waiting area with Zach walking at least
twenty steps in front of me. I rolled my eyes and
trudged after him, focusing my eyes on the back of his
head. I was concentrating so much on glaring at him
that I didn't notice another person walking towards
me. I only realized it when I barged right into the
figure and her things fell to the ground, making a loud
noise. Zach turned to see the cause of the commotion
and groaned when he realized that I was involved in
it. I bent down to help pick up the things the woman
in front of me had dropped, muttering sorry constantly.
It was only when I was handing her some papers that
I got a chance to see who she was. One look at her
and I froze. I could hear my blood pounding and the
heavy thudding of my heart. The woman had just
turned 21 and was staring at me with her mouth wide
open. Before either of us could get a word in, Zach
came and stood beside me, looking as polite as ever.
"I'm so sorry for my wife's clumsiness, I hope nothing
got broken," he said, pointing to the laptop she carried
in her arms. I had gotten it for her on her birthday, in
her favourite colour red. The red of the laptop now
matched the colour of her face as she glowered at me.
He'd said wife, she must have picked that up. I had to
explain things to her before she got furious and told
him. I opened my mouth to speak, my eyes watering
slightly but she beat me to the punch. Her hand made
contact with my cheek and it stung where' she hit me.
The pain made my already watery eyes pour over
with tears and I said in a shaky voice, "Lexie, please
this isn't what it looks like."
"You bitch!" she spat and raised her hand as if to hit
me again. I closed my eyes waiting for the pain but
that's when Zach finally came back to his senses and
stood in front of me protectively, catching her wrist
just in time.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he hissed at
her, his eyes raging.
"I'm giving this cheating whore what she deserves,"
she replied, her tone acidic.
Zach looked from me to her and then back. He then
stared at me, his arms crossed in front of his chest, his
figure hiding Lexie behind it.
"Arianna what is going on?" he asked me, the anger
and embarrassment obvious in his tone. Everyone in
the area was staring at us and Zach's ears had turned
red because of the show that we were putting on.
I gulped and looked down at my feet, wondering
whether to lie or not. I guessed the truth would be
better seeing how Lexie was right there.
"I used to date her brother," I said, each word feeling
like it had echoed a million times. Don't forget to leave a Comment 
