Anna took a deep breath.
She needed to breathe. Fear was not the only emotion clouding her mind at that moment, there was confusion, anger, and then there was remorse and guilt.

She shut her eyes for a second and then opened it slowly to take a good look at herself in the mirror

How on earth did you let things get so complicated Anna?

For a second she wished she didn't know what she knew. She wished she had not confronted Gina. How on earth was she supposed to forget now? How on earth was she ever going to get Angelo to forgive her if he ever found out. Especially after standing up to everyone like the way he did before? Anna stood still
She slowly reached for her belly and rubbed it gently. She wasn't even sure what she had to do anymore about anything. She was so deep into everything now and she wasn't sure there was a back door out of it. God, she was sick. She was sick of all of it.

Anna could feel her nausea set in again.
She could feel herself want to just die. She held her breaths

"I didn't see you leave this morning."

Anna jumped in fright at the sound of Angelo's voice from behind her.

Gosh.

He scared her. She had almost forgotten he was in the house too. She had left so early in the morning that she couldn't even blame him for noticing.

"A-Angelo." She said almost in a whisper

Angelo frowned a bit, lowering brows. He tightened his towel on his waist, placing the shorter one around his head to dry his hair.

"I Uh- I went for a morning run." Thank God she was dressed for it

Angelo paused for a minute. He could notice the look of shock, on her face. He could see how pale she had gotten. He took a step to her.

"Are you okay?"

He was worried about her. Anna cringed backwards. She was so nervous, her palms were sweaty and she didn't want him to see. She wasn't sure she was going to be able to hold back from telling him the truth if he got one step closer.

"Uh huh?" She looked away quickly, tucking her hair behind her ear. She couldn't even bring herself to look at him, her heart was so heavy.

Angelo paused for a second. Something was definitely wrong, he could see that. No matter how she tried to hide it.

"Is this about what happened yesterday? About what mum said?" Anna looked at him, it was like he was trying to say something but didn't know how to.
"About the divorce?"

She exhaled. She wished that was it.

"No." She whispered just as she slouched. "that's not-"

"Anna if that's the reason -" he took another step towards her and at this time, she knew it was better if he believed it was about the divorce than what the truth really was, talking about the divorce could be a distraction as well.

"Why didn't you tell me about it?"
Anna cut him off.

Of course she thought about it. No matter how much Anna tried not to think about it, that divorce was the last thing she needed. She wasn't sure how much she needed this man but she needed him. He was the only thing about her life that wasn't planned out for her by her family. He was the only choice she made on her own.

"Did you think I didn't need to know ? You think it didn't matter that your family actually suggested that we annulled our marriage? You think it didn't matter?"

Angelo exhaled
He took one step closer and then another one till he was really close to her.

"I had the right to know." Anna's voice broke. She just wanted to let it all out. She was dying inside. The guilt she felt was eating her inside. She just had to lash out on something, on anything. She needed to let it out

He slowly reached for her hands. Anna looked at him. She pouted, and started biting hard on her lower lip, trying to stop herself from shedding a tear. That was obviously not the time for it.

"I didn't tell you," he touched her hair behind her ear "because I didn't think I needed to." He raised his eyes until it settled on hers.

"And yes, it wasn't important. I already told mum and all her lawyers that I wasn't signing those divorce papers, the reason was obvious."

He raised her chin so she could keep her gaze on him.

"It's because I'm not going anywhere. I intend to spend a lot of my years with you, darn it, I want to spend every breath of my life with you, every second and every minute. We're going to grow old together, and have a lot of kids too."

Anna inhaled sharply. He placed a hand on her face to feel her warmth

"It's because I love you. I love you and there's nothing that could possibly happen that'd change the way I feel about you. Not even mum and her incredibly scary  threats."

They both chuckled. Anna couldn't help it.
She had never imagined any of Juliana's threats to be so funny. Her laughter was cut short by Angelo's grey eyes starring right into hers. God, he had the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen

"I love you."

He told her again.

For a second Anna felt a whole better. She wanted to say those words back. She wanted to look him back in his eyes and say

Thank you for having my back the other day.

But she wasn't sure those were the right words to say. Especially since that was a decision he was going to regret in the long run because Juliana was actually right. She had a hand in his father's death, indirectly.

How on earth was she going to explain the fact that she was the leader of an anti-human atian group that was helping her brother start a war that could end the entire human race. How was she supposed to tell him that that same anti-Human group killed her father and replaced him with a clone just so her people could get control of his father's legacy? How on earth was she going to explain to him how he could regret all his choices in the blink of an eye and most of all, how Gina wanted him dead? How was she supposed to explain to him that she was with child, their child, a child that neither of them had planned for? A child that could ruin everything. A child that could be murdered by both her people if they were to find out?

That was crazy thinking about it alone. All of it.

Anna took a deep breath. She just needed to feel better than she did. The man standing in front of her would literally do anything for her.

"Angelo, there's something you need to know-"

And she was going to start with telling him about the baby. She had to start somewhere. Angelo looked at her, he was patient. He was going to wait for her to talk

"I Uh-" Anna swallowed hard. "I'm Uh-"

Ring!

And there it was, the sound of Angelo's phone ring. Anna wished so hard that she could use that phrase "saved by the bell" but in that case, she really wished the bell rang a bit later. She watched Angelo reach for his phone from the bed. He looked at it and a large frown covered his face. He turned to her

"It's from the office."

Anna blinked twice

"I Uh-do you mind?" He asked her

Anna hesitated

"N-no, of course not." She faked a rough smile.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah ," she nodded "take it."

"Okay." Angelo swiped his screen

"Timothy?"

He turned his eyes on Anna, gluing it on her while she studied his expression closely

"Uh-right now?" Angelo scratched his brows "Did they say why? - look I already made it clear that there would be no board meetings till Thursday. I'm sure whatever it is, it can wait- "

Anna watched him listen to Tim, she watched him closely and knew the moment Timothy was able to convince him.

"Okay fine, we'd be there in a hour." Angelo hung up. Anna could notice the anxiety in his eyes

"What's wrong?" She stepped forward

"It's the board." He told her

"They saw the news about Dad and they want a meeting."

Shoot!

There were a lot of people involved now. Her hands were getting sweaty all over again just by the thought of it. Soon the whole country was going to know, and she might not be able to keep her lies together. It was getting worse and heavier by the minute.

Breathe Anna!
You've got everything in control.
Breathe.

If the world was going to end soon, she just hoped it ended that moment, that minute, so she didn't have to feel as guilty as she did.

She exhaled.