Feather After// Chapter 67 // Love And Other Drugs

Aria's POV

I crumbled, I felt numb, unhappy, cheated on and what not. I took the piece of paper and sat down on the floor and looked at it again, maybe I had heard the wrong thing; maybe what I had heard wasn't what it was supposed to mean.

I didn't even care if someone found me, I didn't care if Ignatius came back looking for me and It would have been it. I didn't understand this, why was everyone playing games with me? I really wanted to end this all, all of the wound have taken from my side was some courage to just end it all, to end my life.

I re-read the whole document and again and again. I could feel my tears flowing down my cheek and I sobbed. I didn't know how this was all going to end.

This document certifies that after the legal marriage ceremony of Aria Everly Rhett, daughter of Adam Cohan Rhett and Zachariah Addalynn Albason, son of Christopher Demitri Albason a new empire will be formed, Rhett Albason private limited, will form a new company which will be owned by both parties owning fifty-fifty percent of the profit or loss. The Albasson Corporation Private Limited will sell four percent of the company's shares and transfer the money to Rhett Enterprises. The Rhett Enterprises owner will give two properties to the Albasson Corporation Private Limited. The two properties are, The Blue Lake Old Age Home and Seattle's Animal Centre which will later serve as the warehouse of the new business formed. Any failure of the fulfillment of the above-mentioned terms and conditions will result in the nullification of the deal.

I had questioned my self before, I knew Zachariah was getting something out of this but I didn't know what he was getting out of this until today, he was not getting anything out of the deal but he was getting everything from this deal. He was getting two of the largest estates in Seattle from the deal. And I was pretty sure they were worth more than ten million dollars.

God, how selfish could someone be? He was willing to let go of everything, he was going to throw so many old people out on the street just for some god damn money. From the first day I knew something was wrong, he was so very nice, too nice to be real. I wish I knew this from the starting.

I cried more when I saw my mother's and Zachariah's sign at the end of the document, why was my mom so inhuman? Couldn't she see anyone else pain except hers? She was ready to and in the future was going to abandon so many dogs and other animals or probably they were going to put to sleep.

God, I couldn't even do anything about it. All I could do was to sit in that damn room and cry, why was all this happening to me? I could feel my heart beating faster. I had trouble breathing and I felt pain all over my body, bone-crushing pain in my body and I felt dizzy.

I picked up the document and kept it in place, someone could come here anytime and I didn't want to be caught. I didn't want to be seen as a weak pathetic person because I was anything but weak, I was anything but pathetic. I could do something about it; I had to do something about it.

I realized one thing about human beings. No matter how intellectually and scientifically we were developed, we were nothing but animals, greedy and selfish animals who would do anything just for their benefit and I refused to be that. I refused to just sit back and see so many people suffer just because my fiancé and mother were selfish.

I wiped my tears and closed my eyes, I had to do something about it, I had to do something. I took a deep breath and before I could leave I felt someone open the room. I kept the document on the table on which it was initially kept and I rushed towards the washroom.

I hid inside the washroom and shut the door, hopefully, whoever was entering the room, he didn't want to use the washroom otherwise, it would have become a little problematic. I wiped my cheeks and blew some air out. I was going to be okay, my heart was beating so fast, it made me feel otherwise.

I heard someone step in the room and there was a girl too. One foot movement was silent while the other sounded like heels on the wooden floor. I could tell each step that the girl was walking. Hopefully, it wasn't Ignatius. He told me he stopped everything, and he was not up to anything.

I heard that the guy and the girl were shouting and screaming at each other. What was the hell happening? I kept my calm, I wanted to burst out and walk out on them, probably open the washroom door with a bam, but then I let it be. I pressed my ear to the washroom door, to hear what they were talking about better, but I still couldn't hear anything.

"You know what, we are done!" I heard the girl scream, and before I knew what was happening, I heard her walking towards the door, "you can do whatever you want! You can just go and fuck yourself, I'm not going to lie, you're a piece of shit and so is your whore mom! You're probably the biggest mistake of her life and probably my biggest mistake too! You're nothing but crap!"

"Tell you what, you're a slut! Go fuck yourself, bitch. Go fuck every other guy you want!" I felt the voice felt familiar but I didn't know who it was. I kept my calm and soon the guy and the girl both were out. This was my time, I opened the bathroom door and then I heard someone else come in, I ran into my hiding again.

"Come out, Aria! It's just me!" That voice was more than familiar to me, it was Ignatius. I opened the door and saw him standing there with his arms crossed. His arms were bare and I could see all his ink. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I just found out what a nut case my fiancé and mother are, so don't even start now!" I saw and moved out of the washroom, "and I was stuck right in this god damn room while I heard a couple fight in the same room as me."

"Well, someone is not that happy, I see," I felt him behind me and he continued, "want to drink some more? I have a few other kinds of drinks in the house too. We could get you a little tipsy. Don't worry, I'll make sure you are in your senses, so do you want to?"

"I want to beat someone up, I don't want to get drunk, I want to call Zachariah and tell him that he is a-"

"-A what?" He encouraged me to continue. I did feel a lot of things; I mean it was just him. I could tell him, stuff. What could be the worst he could do to me?

"Well some non-polite things, but it doesn't matter. Whose room is this and what is that thing even doing here?" I asked him and he gulped.

"Well," he said and I knew she was mocking me, "I could ask you what you are doing here. You're not supposed to be here and for the matter of fact even read the document what so ever."

"Well," now I was going to mock him, "I came here because I don't know, I just felt like it. And I have the right to know, I didn't understand why everyone kept hiding things from me! I mean, I had the god damn right to know! I had each and every right to know!"

"I'm sorry, I kind of stole the document and then I made a Xerox copy of it, it is a long story. I'm sorry this is happening to you? Are you fine?" And until before that 'are you fine', I was actually doing fine.

When I heard him ask that, I started crying again. I had cried in front of him so many times that I didn't even feel ashamed now, it felt like every other day I was crying in front of him.

"Come here," before I knew what was happening, he wrapped his arms around me. I didn't even realize how much pain I was in until I felt it. All the consolidations that I had offered myself had suddenly disappeared and I felt like my world was crashing all over again. "You're doing just fine, you're doing more than okay," he rubbed my back.

"I don't know, I keep crying all the damn time, I mean what have I done wrong, I didn't even think this all could happen half a year ago. And now I feel like ending my life twice a day at least," when he heard me say that, he tightened his grip around me. I was going to be okay. Everything would be okay.

He pulled me away after I had cried enough. "I don't know what will happen tomorrow but let's make this night, the best night of your life. I know what is happening with you right now, and I know it's not what you want. But you can't do anything, so let's get down and do the best you can. Have fun," I'm surprised he didn't ask me to marry him again, he had said it before and he had tried multiple times then but now, he didn't even bring it up.

I nodded, and he smiled. He put his hands on my shoulder and turned me around so that my back was facing towards his front, he led me to through the door, and lightly squeezed my shoulder, and lightly whispered in my ear while we were descending down the stairs, "have all the fun you can possibly have."

As I was walking down the corridor towards the kitchen, I could hear people hooting. Someone picked up the microphone and tapped on it, "this party is thrown by my brother from another mother, Ignatius," the guy laughed at the microphone, and it was clear he was drunk as hell.

"Oh no, that fucktard gets drunk all the time, and then instinctively grabs the microphone and talks shit and then we have to drag him down, the funny part is that he brings the microphone and the amplifier from his house, he is literally fuçking crazy," I could feel a laughter rumble through his chest.

We merged into people and they just brushed past us, by the time I had noticed that none of them were sober anymore, everyone was drunk and were shouting, screaming and hooting. I'm pretty sure if I had even screamed on the microphone that you all are shit, they would have clapped anyway. People had started doing body shots and the party was going crazier every second.

"What is happening?" I asked Ignatius as he stood on the other side of the kitchen, he poured something in a cup which he had found from somewhere and then I continued, "What the hell is this?"

I don't know what he was mixing but I could see that they were some huge gigantic bottles, "you'll like it, wait."

"Are you trying to get me drunk? I'm happy sober you know?"

"You say so because you have never been drunk that's why. It's good in its own way. You feel happy and the strangest part if you don't even know why you feel happy."

"You speak so passionately about these things. It's not strange, it's crazy," and I took the glass he had offered me, "I'll have a taste," and in no time I had drowned all the contents of the glass.

"Come on," he said and led to the dance floor. I felt dizzy and alive all at the same time. I felt strange. I looked in his eyes and he smiled at me. I reminded myself, capture all you can Aria, this is your last night with him.

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