Chapter 5: Correcting a mistake
Ari felt someone push her, her feet stumbling as she was wearing a pair of high heels. Unlike Ariel who feigned her fall, Ari truly lost her footing, which led to her ankle twisting awkwardly. A sharp pain shot through her body, and Ari fell on her bottom with a harsh thud, since she could no longer keep standing.
"Ouch!" Ari winced. She tried to get up, but her ankle hurt too much. Tears brimmed into her eyes as she raised her head. It turned out that Ryan was the one who pushed her just now, causing her to fall. Behind him was Noah, but he was looking at Ari as if she were a stranger. He did not even reach out to help her, instead, he went to look for Ariel.
She heard him ask her elder sister, "Are you all right?"
"I am fine," Ariel put on a brave front as she stretched out her hand and then placed it on Noah's palm. She glanced at Ari when Noah was paying attention to her foot and gave Ari a provocative smirk, who wished she could lift her hand and pull the skull of her sister before smashing it on the ground.
Until everything spilled and shattered. However, a little voice in her head told her that it was not worth it to go to prison for a woman as shameless as Ariel.
She watched as Ariel shifted all her weight on Noah, who supported her by wrapping his arm around her waist and said, "Ari is just angry. I know I was in the wrong too, I mean, no matter what our relationship was in the past …we are now no longer together."
As she spoke, Ariel's eyes turned red as she said, "It's my fault… I understand why Ari is angry with me. If this helps her elevate her anger, then I don't mind getting treated like this."
However, Ryan who had always been Ariel's lapdog immediately blew up when he heard Ariel's words. He turned to look at Ariel and then said, "What do you mean you don't mind?" His voice was filled with dissatisfaction as he whipped his head to look at Ari and snarled, "She is the vicious mistress who chased you away and took your spot. Now who gives her the right to get angry at you?"
"Noah had always loved you, Ariel!" He announced. At this moment, he hated Ari so much that he wished he could do more than push her. However, he was a man and did not wish to touch Ari, more importantly, he believed that Ari was too dirty and did not want to dirty his hands by touching her.
But Ryan knew that there were other ways to hurt Ari. He turned to look at Noah and asked, "Isn't that right, Noah?"
Though Noah felt a bit complicated when he saw Ari staring at him, the alcohol in his head seemed to have gotten a better hold of his rationality. He nodded and announced, "That is right. I have only loved Ariel and not you, Ari. I f*cking hate the fact that I was schemed against by you! Marrying you was my biggest mistake!"
Ari felt all the air in her lungs escape as she looked at her husband in shock and despair. Her fingers curled on the ground as they instinctively searched for something, but she stopped them and tried to calm herself down.
It was fine. She could do this.
She was fine.
"Fine," she said as she pushed herself from the ground. Though she continued to chant soothing words of affirmation in her head, the calm attitude that she was holding onto started to crack and splinter as pain shot through her heart.
But she refused to shed a single tear in front of these as*holes.
"Then I will help you correct this mistake!"
She turned on her twisted foot and ignored the pain in her swollen ankle. Compared to the despair and heartache that she was feeling, this pain was nothing.
Noah was silent until he saw her get up, but when he saw her leave while dressed like she was going somewhere to impress, he could not help but shout, "Where are you going?"
Ari did not even bother to stop to reply to him. She continued limping and snapped, "Why do you care? Just shove your head up your beloved ass! I wish you luck!"
She increased her pace when she heard footsteps following her and was quite thankful when Ari heard Ariel cry out painfully and say that her foot was hurting.
Ari had always hated it when her elder sister tried to take Noah away from her, but this time around, she was happy. She was even glad Ariel had stopped Noah, as she would rather not see him.
She continued walking, her back straight and her eyes filled with determination. However, once she turned around the corner, Ari stumbled on the well-trimmed hedges of a stranger's house and fell on her knees.
No matter how much Ari tried to delude herself into believing she was fine, she was not.
Tears. Big fat ones fell from her eyes as she asked herself, "Why? Why am I crying? Have I not shed enough tears for those two heartless beasts? They don't even care about me!"
She wiped her tears but the more she wiped them, the more tears continued to fall. So, Ari decided to ignore them and gathered her strength before getting up.
In her entire life, she had never done anything to harm anyone. She had never deviated from what was expected of her. In fact, Ari had made it her goal to listen to her parents, her in-laws and her siblings.
She made sure that they would be happy and content with her.
In return, she only asked for love and loyalty. However, this was what she got in the end!
Ari lumbered to continue walking, but she tripped many times, causing her to abandon the heels that she was wearing. Fortunately, no one was outside currently to see her pitiful self, or else she would have made a joke of herself.
She walked past the streets barefoot, aimlessly. As Ari walked past the window of a store, she looked at her defeated self. Her hair which was arranged in waves, was now a mess. Her makeup was ruined, because of her tears.
All in all, she was a miserable sight.
"You are such a loser," she scoffed at her reflection.
Her sister had often told her that she was just a rip-off. A defective product.
Someone who was only good at hiding like a loser.
And Ari agreed with her. She was indeed a rip-off, if she wasn't, then why did her parents love Ariel more than her? Why did her husband choose Ariel instead of her?
A sudden moment came from her side and Ari turned to look at the taxi approaching.
She raised her hand and then flagged the taxi, which came to a stop.
The taxi driver stuck out his head and asked Ari, "Miss, are you okay? This place is not safe at this hour, you should go back home."
"Do I even have a home?" Ari mused with a chuckle. Her in-laws did not care about her. Her father-in-law thought that her background was too low for his son, while her mother-in-law liked her sister more and her sister-in-law hated her more than she hated her rival who stuck gum in her hair.
As for her parents, if she were to go to their house, they would only tell her to give way to Ariel as she had suffered a lot ever since Ari was born.
The taxi driver thought that the woman in front of him was drunk and asked, "Miss, do you have someplace to stay or not? I can drop you at the hotel if you don't?" In fact, staring at her crazy state, he was worried that Ari was a mental patient and was rather concerned about his safety.
But as a responsible citizen, he could not watch a beautiful woman walk alone at night. What if someone with ill intentions catches her?
However, Ari did not have any money in her pockets. She only had a pitiful amount of three hundred dollars in her account, and they were definitely not enough for her to stay in a decent hotel.
Ari closed her eyes before opening the back door of the taxi. Even if she was on the verge of collapsing, she knew that she could not stay on the streets at such an hour.
"Pub ram Hills," said Ari coldly. That place was no better but she had to go somewhere, she couldn't possibly risk her safety for those worthless pieces of trash, right?
Though the driver did not understand what Ari meant, he turned the ignition on and drove away. As he was only responsible for dropping his passengers to their location.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone