CHAPTER 210
During the entire trip home, Xander chose to remain quiet, hardly acknowledging Arianna’s existence, as if she were invisible. His frosty indifference pressed down on her, and even though they were seated side by side, it felt like an insurmountable gap had formed between them. Once they arrived, he quickly moved ahead, leaving her in his wake without a single glance back, behaving as if they were mere acquaintances rather than a married couple.
Ronald, caught in the uncomfortable tension, kept hesitating with each step. His head swivelled between Xander and Arianna, unsure of whom he should follow. He fidgeted nervously, his brow furrowed with worry as he tried to gauge which way to go.
When the three of them reached the airport exit, a black sedan was already waiting by the curb. Ronald, eager to smooth things over, rushed ahead to open the door with a forced smile. “Mr. King, Mrs. King, please step inside.”
Xander, his eyes hard as stone, barely spared Ronald a glance. “Take her home,” he said icily, his voice devoid of emotion.
Without waiting for a response, Xander flagged down a taxi, slid inside, and disappeared into the traffic without a word, leaving Arianna and Ronald standing by the car.
Ronald’s smile faltered as he turned to Arianna, clearly caught in the middle.
“I’ll, uh… I’ll take you back then, Mrs. King.”
Arianna offered him a small, understanding nod before climbing into the car, her heart heavy with the weight of what had just transpired.
Back at the villa, she thanked Ronald softly, her voice barely above a whisper, and made her way toward the front door.
Ronald watched her retreating figure, his expression conflicted. He opened his mouth as if to offer some words of comfort, but the right ones never came. With a heavy sigh, he resigned himself to silence, wondering why their relationship seemed to face obstacle after obstacle.
Would they ever find peace?
...........
Arianna stepped into her room, feeling the exhaustion weigh heavily on her. She slipped out of her clothes, changed into her pyjamas, and crawled into bed, pulling the blankets around her tightly. She shut her eyes, trying to block out the whirlwind of emotions swirling inside her.
Sleep was all she wanted at that moment. Maybe it was the aftereffects of the pill she had taken, or maybe it was just her body's way of escaping the mess she found herself in. Either way, the lure of sleep was irresistible, offering her a brief reprieve from reality.
Surprisingly, she drifted off quickly, her body surrendering to the fatigue without much of a fight. When she awoke, it was already nightfall. The world outside her window was dark and quiet, the passage of time slipping through her fingers. For a moment, she lay still, staring blankly at the sky, feeling a sense of disorientation.
What day was it even?
Everything felt like a blur.
A soft chime broke the silence. Arianna reached over to her bedside table and grabbed her phone, noticing a notification from WeTalk. She tapped the screen, and as soon as she saw it was from Rochelle, her heart skipped a beat.
Rochelle: [What’s going on?]
Arianna frowned, confusion washing over her.
*What did she mean by that?*
Her mind immediately raced to the worst possible scenarios. After everything that had happened recently, she had grown used to unpleasant surprises and nasty rumours surfacing at the most inconvenient times.
Panic bubbled up inside her as she sat up quickly, typing a response as fast as her fingers would allow.
Arianna: [Is there something being said about me again?]
Her heart thudded in her chest as she hit send, waiting anxiously for Rochelle's reply, dreading what might come next.
Arianna's phone buzzed with a flurry of notifications, Rochelle firing off several messages in rapid succession.
[Why are you asking me? You should know what’s going on!
[Are you living under a rock?
[Seriously, Arianna, do you have no clue about your own life?]
Arianna groaned and facepalmed.
*Living under a rock?*
She hadn’t been hiding from the world; she had just been sleeping! How could she possibly know what chaos had unfolded while she slept?
Maybe it was just a bad year for her—everything seemed to be spiralling out of control. She could hardly catch her breath before another problem cropped up. Frustrated and not in the mood for Rochelle’s teasing, she quickly typed back:
Arianna: [Just tell me what's going on, no more games.]
Rochelle’s response was quick and to the point: [Check GossipNet!]
Arianna’s heart sank as she immediately opened the GossipNet app. Her stomach twisted into knots as she saw her name sitting at the very top of the trending searches. But that wasn’t the worst of it—Xander’s name was right there alongside hers, both of them caught up in the storm.
Her pulse quickened. If it was just her, she could handle the public scrutiny, the gossip. But is Xander being dragged into it? That was a whole different level of stress.
Without wasting a second, Arianna tapped into the trending topic, bracing herself for whatever scandal had erupted while she was asleep.
The top comment under the trending topic was from a well-known account, claiming that Xander’s affection for Arianna had waned soon after their high-profile marriage. The post had quickly gained traction, spreading like wildfire.
Attached to the comment was a photo of Xander and Arianna arriving at the airport, capturing the uncomfortable distance between them.
Xander walked ahead, his expression cold and indifferent, while Arianna trailed behind him, looking lost in thought. They hadn’t exchanged a single word, and the tension between them was palpable.
It didn’t take long for the post to explode, especially since their marriage had only recently become public with much fanfare. Xander’s declaration of love had practically gone viral, with his words becoming a favourite meme among netizens.
Given how the public had romanticized their relationship, the photo of their cold detachment was a stark contrast, igniting even more gossip.
A group of online sleuths had even created a GossipNet poll, speculating how long it would take before the couple divorced. Tens of thousands of people had already participated, and an overwhelming 99% believed they wouldn’t last more than three months.
Arianna scrolled through the comments, unsure whether to laugh or feel outraged. She and Xander were practically crowned the least likely couple to survive in the public eye, far ahead of the runner-up. The comments were brutal, filled with jokes about their inevitable split.
Her phone pinged again, and she noticed a new message from Rochelle in WeTalk. Sighing, Arianna opened it.
Rochelle: [What’s going on with you and Xander now? Hasn’t he already made your marriage public? Why is he suddenly freezing you out? Is he stirring up trouble again?]
Arianna grimaced at her friend’s blunt words. Rochelle wasn’t one to sugarcoat anything, and this time was no different.
