•DARLA•

“Don’t worry, my love. I will get divorced from Darla. Just promise me that you will never leave me again.” 

I woke up from the bed with my pillow wet from my sweat. 

I sat up and gasped for air, and my heart raced against my chest. 

I was shocked at how real the dream seemed, and when I looked beside me on the bed and saw it empty, I felt my stomach sinking. 

When I had cooled down, I laid down on the bed and closed my eyes as the events of yesterday replayed again in my memory. 

Yesterday was my second anniversary with Elijah and also my birthday, of which he forgot and never bothered to celebrate either of the events with me. 

“Hey, Sadie. Is Elijah in his office today?” I asked when I called his secretary to find out from her if he had planned anything for the day. 

“Yes, ma’am. But he’s attending back-to-back meetings. I’ll tell him that you called when he comes back from the board meeting at 3 PM.” 

“No, it’s okay, Sadie. You don’t have to do that. Are you sure that he has nothing else in his diary for today? Is he going to come back home early?” 

“I don’t think so, Mrs. Houston. He’s been busy with a very big project and will be in the office until after 10 PM.” 

I gulped as I tried to keep myself from crying on the phone with his secretary. 

“It’s okay, Sadie. Thank you so much.” I said before hanging up the call and leaning back on the couch with a heavy sigh. 

After shedding a few tears at the fact that my husband had forgotten our wedding anniversary and my birthday, I decided to let it go and take up Amelia’s offer to go and celebrate my birthday at the new restaurant that opened up in town. 

She promised that it was going to be so much fun because I needed to get out of the house and enjoy life like I used to before I got married to the heartthrob billionaire, Elijah Houston. 

And she was right, the restaurant didn’t disappoint and we had so much fun. 

The food and the music were out of this world, and it almost didn’t matter that Elijah couldn’t even call or text and tell me that he forgot my birthday and wanted to make it up to me. 

“Hey, babe, I think I need to go out and catch my breath outside. This place is getting too hot for me,” I whispered in Amelia’s ear while laughing. 

I didn’t have much to drink, but I felt like my body was heating up as if I was about to catch a fever. 

I also noticed the balcony when we came in and wanted to go and look at the view for a while and just get a moment to myself and savor the last few minutes of my birthday and wedding anniversary. 

But nothing prepared me for the sight I saw on the balcony of my husband with another woman. 

I froze in my steps, trying to look more carefully and be sure that it was truly Elijah, and when I saw his olive-green eyes, my heart skipped a beat. 

It was my husband with someone else. Not just anyone. But he was with Abigail Hayes. The same girl he reassured me before our wedding that she was his past. 

That’s when he said the words to her that caused my nightmare in the morning. When he told her that he would divorce me to be with her. 

It made sense why he forgot our anniversary and my birthday. It made sense why he said nothing to me the whole day but was able to take Abigail out. 

I was certain at that very moment that he was going to file for divorce and leave me to be with her. 

After all, she was the love of his life while he settled with me because of the business that his family made with mine. 

At the back of my mind, I didn’t want to worry about who he was going out with when he never wanted this marriage before his family convinced him that it was going to be beneficial for both families. 

But I loved him. He was the first man I ever loved even before he knew me and my family revealed that they had arranged my marriage with him. 

I loved him before I agreed to be his wife, even though his heart was clearly elsewhere, and he didn’t want to be with me. 

I was hopeful when we got married that he would have a change of heart and see me the way I saw him. 

If I never saw him on that fateful day before the whole arranged marriage, maybe I would’ve never fallen in love with him. 

“Darla, are you in there?!” Harper called outside the door as she snapped me out of my flashback. 

I groaned as I buried my head in my pillow for a second before lifting my head and answering her. 

“Yes, come in, Harper.” 

She opened the door and walked inside with headphones in her ears while busy tapping on her phone. 

“My Mom wants to see you. She’s with Poppy in the lounge.” 

“Do you know what they want from me?” I couldn’t help myself but ask. 

“I don’t know. I wouldn’t tell you even if I knew. But anyway, happy belated birthday. I saw your I* pictures,” she flashed me a half smile before she left my room and closed the door behind her. 

After a few minutes of defrosting and mentally preparing myself to face my mother-in-law and her eldest daughter, I dragged myself off the bed and went to take a shower. 

*** 

“Are you ever going to give my son a child?” His mother asked as we had lunch. 

I choked on my toast at her question because if only she knew that Elijah wasn’t even trying to have a baby with me, then she wouldn’t ask me that question as if I would be able to impregnate myself. 

“I’m sure we will have a baby at the right time,” I answered as I avoided looking at her eyes. 

“I’m not getting any younger, Darla, and neither is my son. I’m sure you don’t want to give birth to your first baby when I’m in the grave, do you? Besides that, there are many risks to getting pregnant at an older age. If you wait until you’re over 30, you’re going to be in trouble.” 

I scoffed as I looked at Poppy, who was two years shy of 30 without any prospects of a marriage. But who was I to comment on that? 

I was 24 years old and wasn’t in any rush to have a baby with Elijah while he was keeping me on birth control. 

“You,” a voice roared behind us, and when I tilted my head, I saw Elijah walking toward us with an angry expression on his face. 

When he arrived next to me, he pointed his finger at me. 

“What did you do to Abigail?” He growled.