Losing my love forever would be painful. If I were to be separated from Hendrix, my future would be incomplete.
However, if I continued to tolerate his ignorance towards his family's machinations, my family would have to live in constant fear and chaos for the rest of their lives. I believed that Hendrix would know better than anyone else how terrifying it is to lose a loved one.
Temporary confusions were acceptable, but we couldn't be like this forever. I was clear on my stance now, but I still wanted to wait for Hendrix.
Hearing everything I said, Hendrix, who hadn't responded, looked at me for several seconds, then smiled.
He leaned in and pecked me on my pale lips that have been chapped from all the crying and biting earlier.
Before I could react, he did it again, and again...
Hendrix held my cheeks gently. His warm kiss felt like a spring breeze brushing against my cheeks as tears welled up in my eyes.
He planted one last kiss on my forehead, before he slowed down and looked into my eyes
intimately.
"I had already given you the answer as soon as I entered the house and told you to cook me a bowl of pasta."
There was pin drop silence in the bedroom. All I could hear was our heavy breathing.
Perhaps my mind was still muddled from all the kissing, because I didn't respond for a moment and asked blankly, "What?"
Hendrix's heart suddenly ached. His big hands softly wrapped around my cheeks. He was holding me like a precious treasure. It felt like I was surrounded by warm feathers, protected in his embrace.
Six years ago, the Marshall family's search-and-rescue ship had found Hendrix in the sea among the reefs and brought him back for medical treatment.
After waking up, Hendrix was fed a memory... that he was the eldest son of the Marshall family, who had only recently returned to them. Arianna was his wife, a heartless woman who had left her husband. Aurelia wasn't of the Marshall family's bloodline, and he only had one son, Wynn.
Evan had been sent away by the Marshall family to a water-starved area in the west. Hendrix had nothing and no one, so he had to accept Nathan's subordinates.
Hendrix had been suspicious of "Arianna's" change of heart and ordered some people to investigate it in secret. However, all he found was information that Nathan had prepared for him in advance.
After that, Hendrix had gotten very busy handling Wynn's custody and the consolidation of assets between the Roberts Group and the Marshall family. With everything thrown at him at once, Hendrix had no free time on his hands. In addition to that, his memories of me had been sealed away. Gradually, the matter was put to rest.
Until the day of our reunion.
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: My Pretty Sweetheart (Arianna)
How do you save these stories so you can pick up where you stopped...