Lucas saw Sara make her way from the stage in quick succession towards the house and he ran to catch up to her. He intercepted her just as she reached the double doors leading into the massive hallway. Luckily, no one was present except for a few servants as everyone else was having a food festival outside since it was time for item 7. He gripped her arm gently but firmly, pausing her mid strides.

"Hey, where are you going? I told you I needed to speak with you." He asked, watching her brows furrow in confusion.

"I need to use the ladies. Can it wait?" She asked, darting her eyes everywhere but at him. She didn't have it in her to deal with him right now.

He eyed her countenance before replying. "Not really, if you really have to go, please do."

She turned her gaze to his face, studying him. Then she exhaled audibly. Best to get what she was feeling out of her chest before it chocked her to death."You know what? Let's talk now. I just wanted to check my makeup."

"Are you sure? I can wait here for you." He was doubtful.

She nodded her head dismissively. "It's fine. We can talk now. Let's do it here."

He eyed the hallway and deciding he knew just the place, pulled her along towards the hallway on the right until they were completely alone in the living room. This place offered the privacy he needed for what he had in mind. He briefly toyed with the idea of forgoing the proposal but shook the thought away. He had to do it tonight, and right now was the perfect moment.

"Here goes nothing," he began but exhaled deeply twice, wondering why he was this nervous about it. Funnily enough, he was not this anxious the first time around, he noted.

"Sara, I know I may be getting ahead of myself here, but this past two months has been different and memorable for me than the last five years put together. Except of course, for when I was with Freddie. Those moments were priceless." He grinned, looking flustered.

Taking another breath, he continued. "I also know you may not be ready, or may be skeptical about all these but I want us to try again, like really make it work. It won't be like last time as it'll be different this time, I promise."

That word had her self-control snapping. "Promise?" She chuckled mirthlessly while shaking her head slowly from side to side. "You talk about promise as though you have any plans of keeping them. Do you even know what a promise is, Lucas?"

He frowned, instinctively stepping back from her rage. She did not look very happy right now. "What are you talking about, Sara?"

"You don't know what I'm talking about?" She mocked, her lips lifted up in derision. "Alright then, let me spell it out for you since you have no idea. How can you possibly ask me to try again with you if you're still with that woman? What will our relationship be like? Me as your wife and she as your mistress? Because I don't think we really defined it the first time around." Foolish tears escaped her eyelids and she dashed them away angrily.

"That will not happen," he began tentatively.

"What is the guarantee that it won't?"

He looked at her before reaching his fingers into his trouser pocket for the box and then frowned immediately. It was not there! Where did it go? His mind drifted to earlier that evening and he paused, very confounded.

She continued taking his lack of response as cue. "You don't have any guarantees because there is none! You obviously can't seem to keep your hands off of her. Why her, Lucas? Why can't it be anyone else? Why do I have to play second fiddle to that woman? Why?!" She cried brokenly, tears streaming down her cheeks rapidly.

He looked up from his frantic search across his two trouser pockets to stare at her. "I really wish you wouldn't say that."

"I'll say it because it's true. You act all lovey dovey to me and then you go behind my back to sleep with her. Is this some sort of game to you, where you compare which woman is better in bed? Or perhaps you come to me when you realize you cannot have her? That's what you did back when we met, isn't it? She left you to go for that beauty pageant and you married me as a revenge tactic. And once you had me exactly where you wanted, you flew back into her bed! And it's that disgusting thing you're doing all over again!" She accused, glaring angrily at him.

That was his cue to flip. He stared at her in bewilderment. To hell with this stupid ring and proposal, he thought angrily.

"Is that what you think of me? That I'm that horrible? That I'm with you because I couldn’t be with her? That I married you because of her, because I wanted revenge? How could you?!" He choked on his own breath.

Enraged, he tugged at his tie, tearing it and then flung it across the room. He grabbed his shirt and tugged at the top two buttons in frustration, freeing them.

"You know what? This is messed up. I'm such a fool for ever thinking you loved me. For ever thinking that what we have, what we had between us was love. You probably never loved me since it's obvious you and your family wanted me for as much as I could give you what you wanted financially. Tell me, were you ever once while we were married in love with me?"

"Yes, damn it! That is why this hurts so much." She cried, sinking into the sofa.

He remained standing, watching her, completely lost as to what point she was driving at.

"If you truly love me, then I don't see what the problem is."

Was he blind? Annoyed with his question, she reached down and removed her shoe, flinging it in his direction but it narrowly missed him and hit the wall behind him instead. He was stunned. "You, Lucas Onyedikachukwu Caspian-Asiegbu, are the problem!"

"I was beautiful before I met you. You said I was so beautiful, it dazzled. You called me beautiful so many times it became my name. To you, 'Sara' meant 'beautiful' and I believed you every single time. Then I got pregnant and all that love you showered me went away with the wind.

"As if that wasn't enough, Karen, who is obviously more beautiful than me, got back into the picture and I didn't exist anymore. Your stupid excuse about having 'too much work' overshadowed the fact that I was pregnant with your child and needed your love, that  I needed your attention, Lucas. I needed you to tell me everyday that I was still the most beautiful girl you had ever seen, but no, you preferred to tell her that instead, right?

"Do you have any idea what that scandal did to me? All I could think of that night while lying on the hospital bed was 'I got fat and ugly' and he fell out of love with me'. It went through my mind repeatedly it became my litany. I kept thinking about all those months before, when you were always someplace else because of work and we weren't together as often. I knew I had gotten fat but I desperately wanted to go back to the girl you fell in love with. And don't tell me that's not true cause otherwise, tell me why else were you in bed with her?"

She paused to take a calming breath, her mind reminiscing the events of the past. "You may have noticed I freeze whenever you kiss my CS scar. Do you know how much I hate that scar on my belly? Do you have any idea how much I resent the fact that I had to go through surgery for childbirth? That is because it reminds me every single day that I'll never be beautiful anymore, that you'll never love me like that anymore, that no one else will love me like that anymore, and I was okay with that fact. But you had to swish back into my life like Superman on doomsday and bring me out from the safety of my shell just to set me up for that same pain again." She finished, with more tears streaming down her cheeks in pools.

Now that he understood where she was coming from, he could only shake his head in disbelief. Then his lips lifted up in disdain at her logic.

"Are you saying then that we shouldn't be together because I failed to tell you how much I loved you? How much you meant to me all the time? Are you that shallow?"

"This is not about me!"

"Of course, it's about you!" He countered sharply, getting piqued. "You accuse me of not being loving enough while you display a complete lack of loyalty towards me. Tell me honestly, do my words mean absolutely nothing to you?"

Annoyed with the conversation, he tugged at his jacket and pulled that off too. The damned thing was beginning to feel tight and constricting.

"Did you think you're the only one affected by what happened five years ago? I can tell you truthfully that I too was in pain. That if Freddie wasn't there with me, I would probably be a drunkard or worse right now."

She didn't reply him so he continued however. "Do you have any idea how many times I drank myself to sleep because I couldn’t deal with the pain of loosing you, because I didn't want to remember that I lost you? Cause remembering meant feeling and that hurts right inside. I went through so much pain to be here right now standing in front of you so I refuse to let you drag me down to that low again.

"I will not let you manipulate me into taking the blame for your doubts over my fidelity. If you love me as you claim, you should learn to trust my words. A gentleman is known by his word above all else but as always, that is utter nonsense to your ears, am I right?"

Lucas pinched the bridge of his nose to stop the waterworks threatening to break free. He would not cry, he had done enough already five years ago.

"It's unfortunate then since I believe in action speaks louder than words," she retorted sharply, nullifying his claims.

She was right about that since his actions had never put him in a good light. Not then and definitely not now. Who would have thought, huh? He asked himself as despair creept in slowly. Five years later and they were back to where they started. He felt like punching something or someone. And hard.

But he clenched his fists instead. "Perhaps it was wrong of me to have come back here. What is the point of all this if we go around only to end up at this particular junction?" He stretched his arm wide around the room in metaphorical comparison.

She sprung to her feet in an instant, the difference in their heights more pronounced now that she wasn't wearing her heels. "We will always reach this particular spot because it is the pothole in our relationship. Do you know why? Because everytime I see you with her, I'm forced to remember that I loved you so much and you threw that love to the dogs like I meant absolutely nothing to you!"

He nodded at her, accepting his condemnation. He paced along the length of the sofa he was standing in front of earlier, his mind reviewing what must be done if they were ever meant to move forward.

"You know what? I strongly think it's about time you opened your eyes and realized the past is in the past and get a move on. You're putting your life on hold because of that night while the entire world is passing you by. You are so locked up in the past to understand that the present will not wait for you. That I will not wait for you."

She would not let him sweet talk her into believing his lies, though. She turned her face away from him, with the aim of blocking off his charms. "You cannot expect me to move on with you if you're bound to break my heart again."

He shook his head, giving her a defeated look. "No, I don't expect you to. In fact, I don't expect you to do anything anymore. In likewise manner, don't expect me to continue fighting for us, fighting to earn your trust, fighting so damn hard for your love if you won't even lift a finger to help!"

She was adamant about her resolve as she glared defiantly at him. "Why would I lift a finger to help when I know it will lead to certain heartbreak? Do not ask me to act so foolishly, Lucas, I beg of you!"

"Be rest assured that I won't do that." His response was curt, his features grim.

"Truthfully, I'm tired of asking for your forgiveness for my sins. In fact, this will be the last time I'll do it. So, forgive me Sara, for coming back into your life, for having these feelings for you. I was a fool, but don't worry, I won't do it again," he gritted out, pausing to stare at her with a broken expression.

He continued in anguish, his voice breaking slightly due to the pent up emotions bubbling inside like an active volcano.

"You know what? I will take my feelings, these feelings you're so hell bent on rejecting to someone who wants them. That way I won't have to bother fighting anymore because I'm tired. Damn it, I am fucking tired!" He yelled, turning to storm out of the room, towards the hallway that led to the front of the house, leaving Sara a sobbing mess in his wake.

~~~~~~

Let me just say, I was crying, like real salty tears, at the end of this chapter. I knew I was somewhat emotional but this is something else. 😭😭😢

Please use the video in the media to cry with me as I cannot cry alone 😭😌😝

Fact: I don't even know why they were arguing sef 😩

Who here sympathises with Sara? 😣

Who here thinks Lucas should be thrown away? 😒👉🚪

It's a pity we can't throw him away cause it's a romance book and we are going for a happy ending but still.

Vote and comment, people.

Thank you 😍😙