Part B: Chapter 43

***Carter’s POV***

Aidan was a mess and so was Jemila. I didn’t understand why they were both putting themselves through the unnecessary heartbreak. I’d known something was wrong when I opened the door and found a tear stained Jemila standing by my doorstep. Back then, I didn’t ask any questions. I hugged her and let her in, offering her shelter.

But as the days went by, she looked more miserable than the last and when I met up with Aidan at work, he looked like he hadn’t been sleeping. Everything reminded me of the days when Jemila had been kidnapped and we both spent sleepless nights trying to find her but this seemed much more different and painful.

“Okay, enough of this pity party. I need answers,” I said on the third day when I walked into Aidan’s office and found him hunched over a bunch of papers but he didn’t look like he was actually reading anything. “What the hell happened you two? What did you do this time around?”

Aidan looked up from his papers and his eyes were red as if he had been crying, something I had never seen him ever do except at his mum’s funeral. This was more serious than I had thought.

“Talk to me, I don’t know how I can help if you and she don’t both talk to me.” I sighed as I walked over to his desk, my anger having disappeared at the look on his face. “I can’t keep pretending that everything is okay when it isn’t. Jemila isn’t sleeping and I know well enough that you aren’t as well, so what happened?”

“Nothing,” he sniffed and looked away from me. “Just leave it be and get back to work. We have so much to do.” He was looking everywhere but at me which was another thing he only did during his mum’s funeral.

I ran my fingers through my hair in frustration. “Stop lying to me, this is starting to piss me off and what work are you talking about? All you’ve done these past two days is make so many mistakes that I have to fix them for you.”

“Drop it,” he said and finally looked at me. He looked angry but also worn out. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Then I will ask Jemila and I’m sure she will tell me what exactly you did to mess up,” I snapped as I pulled out my phone and searched for her contact. “I’m sick of this pity party and one of you has to tell me before I lose my temper.”

Jemila’s phone rang and she answered on the fourth ring. I threw a glance at Aidan whose body was completely stiffened.

“Hello,” came Jemila’s voice and then he sniffed. “Carter, is there something wrong?” I put her on speaker so that he could hear what she had to say too.

“Yes, something is really wrong.”

“Is Aidan okay? Did something happen to him?”

My eyes narrowed as I watched Aidan take a breath, obviously glad that she still cared about him. “Well, you tell me,” I replied coolly, keeping the bite from my voice. “What happened?”

There was silence from her end and I looked at my phone screen to see if she had hung up but she was still there. “Nothing, we just need some time apart to think,” she finally replied. “Did he tell you something?”

“He told me everything but I want to hear the truth from you.” I threw him a dirty look to keep his mouth shut. If he wasn’t going to tell me what happened, I was going to use my own ways to find out the truth even if it meant I had to lie to her.

“I don’t know, one minute everything was okay and then it wasn’t,” she said and I heard her take a sharp breath. “I finally thought that he had forgiven me and that he trusted me but turns out he really didn’t and we were both fooling ourselves.”

If glares could kill, Aidan would have been dead by now. All this was his fault.

“You should have seen him, he acted like nothing mattered and the look in his eyes when I asked if he trusted me broke my heart because it told me everything I needed to know.” She continued and I could tell from how much her voice was cracking that it was taking a lot for her to tell me all this but I guess it being a phone call helped because I doubted she would have told me all this if we were in the same room. “I honestly don’t know what we are doing now. If he can’t trust me then we are both just wasting each other’s time and I don’t want to do that to him or to myself. I still need to figure out what really happened to my parents.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “Do you really mean that? Do you plan on leaving him?”

Jemila sniffed, “I don’t know but I don’t want to force him to forgive and trust me. I know it’s a lot to ask but I just need him to tell me how he really feels before I can make my decision.”

“But you know what that would mean for the both of you?”

“I know, but I don’t think we even have a relationship that’s worth saving anymore.”

Aidan looked away and turned to his laptop, scrolling through it mindlessly but I knew he was listening. “Let me talk to him and try to make him see sense in all of this.”

“I don’t think you can,” she replied. “I just can’t do this anymore.”

“Do you want to talk to him?” I asked, looking at Aidan who was still pretending to be busy on his laptop. “I’m with him right now.”

“I’m sorry but I can’t,” then she hung up.

I placed my phone back inside my pocket and calmly said. “Fix this before you end up regretting it for the rest of your life.”

“I don’t know how to,” he replied, looking at me with sad eyes. “What am I supposed to do because whenever I look at her, I’m reminded of that day.”

I stood up and walked over to him. “I can’t tell you what to do, only you know the right answer to that question.” I patted his shoulder. “But whatever it is, I hope you are ready for what that will mean because the longer you take, the more convinced and determined she will be about leaving and breaking all ties with you. Is that what you really want for yourself? To be alone and regretted by the one woman who is supposed to be your everything?”

“I don’t know, I love her but I, crap,” he tugged his hair furiously then tossed everything that was on his desk onto the floor. “I don’t know what I should do and it’s driving me crazy because I don’t think I can live without her.

“Then why don’t you try telling her that and you know, just talking. See where things go.” I patted him once more on the shoulder and then left him alone with his thoughts. I just hoped that whatever decision he made, it would be something he could live with for the rest of his life.