Fallen Apart

The large doors of the Cathedral opened as the bridal march began to play which was my cue. I walked down the red carpet that extended from the entrance to the altar in a white flowing wedding gown.

On each side of me were seats filled up with the friends and family of the Mendez family from all over the world with a few of my friends and family scattered around in the seats on my right-hand side.

Every girl's wedding day, she was supposed to have thousands of butterflies erupting in her stomach and excited to be trying the knot with the man of her dreams, but that wasn't the case for me.

All I could feel was anger, hatred, and despair toward the man smiling at me from the end of the aisle because he was the man of my nightmares. A man I still used to love with all my heart a few hours ago but he repaid all my love with lies and deceit and expected me to spend the rest of my life with him.

If I could have my way, I would stab him to death on our wedding night and flee far away from this country but I knew that would be the end of my peaceful and free life. The Mendez family would never let me go scot-free after murdering their son in cold blood.

I climbed on the altar and stood opposite him. The constant smile on his face fuelled my anger but he couldn't see the angry expression I was wearing because of the wedding veil covering my face.

"We are gathered here to witness the union of Dave Mendez and Aria Stephenson..." The priest started but all I could think of was what the Mendez family did to hurt me and my family, and there was the only way I could think of repaying them for what they did.

The priest turned to Dave. "Do you Dave Michael Mendez take Aria Carter Stephenson to be your lawfully wedded wife, to love and cherish in times of good health and bad health, rich and poor till death do you part?"

"I do," Dave answered with a big smile on his face.

He turned to me. "Do you Aria Carter Stephenson take Dave Micheal Mendez to be your lawfully wedded husband, to love and cherish in times of good health and bad health, rich and poor till death do you part?"

My fingers tightened on my gown as I turned to the side, searching through the crowd. I locked eyes with my brother who had a blank expression.

"Aria?" The priest called my attention.

Taking a deep breath, I turned back to look at Dave. "No, I don't."

SIX MONTHS AGO

ARIA'S POV

"Mom, Dad, I got the job," I yelled, running downstairs with my phone in my hand as the wooden floor made creaking sounds under my feet.

"Ari, slow down. You're going hurt yourself," My dad who was sitting in our portable living room shouted.

I jumped on the maroon couch he was sitting on, shoving my phone to his face. "Dad, I did it."

He took the phone from my hand and read the message I got from Styles Company, one of the biggest Fashion Companies in Chicago. Ever since I graduated from Fashion school earlier that year, I had hoped to get employed in a big company in Chicago. I applied to different companies over the months and sent them some of my ideas as an interview but I got rejected by two companies already.

When I woke up that morning, my phone lit up with a message from Style Company, another company I applied in. At first, I ignored it thinking it was another rejection message, only for me to decide to check it out and get the shock of my life.

"Honey, come here for a minute." My dad's grey eyes widened and he called out to my mom who was preparing breakfast in the kitchen.

She came out with her brunette hair tied in a bun, wiping her hands on her apron. "What's all the fuss this early morning?"

"Take a look at this." Dad handed the phone over to her.

"Oh my God," she shrieked before pulling me into a hug. "I'm so proud of you. I've always known you could do it. Congratulations baby."

"What are we congratulating her for?" My Twenty-five-year-old brother, Xavier came down the stairs all dressed for work with his heavily pregnant fiancee beside him.

Xavier graduated as an Architect two years ago and got a job with good pay in Pittsburgh where our family resides. He earned enough money for him to move out of our parent's house and start a life on his own but he didn't because he squandered all his money on drinks and girls.

His fiancee, Savannah was my best friend that I met when I got into fashion school. When she started visiting our house, I noticed she was getting too close to my brother, so I warned her to stay away from him.

Little did I know that she was seeing my brother behind my back but the truth was revealed when she got pregnant at the beginning of our final year. She got thrown out of the house by her family, so she had no choice but to come to my brother to take her in.

My brother who was not ready to settle down denied the baby but my parents who knew what was going on between them forced him to take responsibility. Being the middle child, Savannah was cut off from her parent's support which made her drop out of school. But my brother promised to get her back in school after she delivered their baby.

"Your sister just got a job as a fashion designer in Chicago," Dad announced as Mom showed him the message on my phone.

"Wow, that's amazing." He smiled and pulled my cheeks. "Congratulations, little sis. You are finally growing up."

"Congratulations, Ari," Savannah said from behind my brother with a smile on her lips.

"Thanks." I forced a smile back.

After I found out the truth about Savannah and my brother, our relationship has been strained. I was mad that she disregarded my warning but I was madder than she ruined her future by getting pregnant.

Savannah was one of the brightest and most talented students in my class. With her talent and her family's wide connection, Savannah was bound to have a great future in the fashion industry but she ruined all that by getting deceived by my brother and getting pregnant. I knew it wasn't my dreams that were put on hold but it didn't stop me from getting mad.

"It's good to start a new week with good news," My dad said with a wide smile on his face.

"As much as I want to keep celebrating, I have to get to work in thirty minutes," Xavier added, reminding everyone of their early schedule.

My father works as a reporter in a struggling press company while my mom owns a small cafeteria downtown. Even with the little income they made, my parents made sure they gave me and my brother the education we deserved. They provided everything we needed without complaints even when things were not going well for them.

I promised that I was going to repay them for everything they did for me because I couldn't have gotten to that point without their support.

After breakfast, everyone left for their various workplace, leaving Savannah and me alone in the house. I was sitting in the living room alone, wondering who to call among my friends to give them the good news when Savannah strolled into the living room, rubbing her seven months old pregnancy.

"It's going to be boring with you here." She sat on the couch opposite me, trying to pike up a conversation.

"It's not my fault that you are stuck here." I stood up and walked away from her.

Yeah, that was rude but It was already coming out of my mouth before I could stop it.

As I got into my room, I received an incoming call from Lena, my senior from the fashion school who was more like a friend. Lena graduated a year before me and got a job at Styles Company. When I was applying to different companies in Chicago, she encouraged me to try my luck at Styles and I was happy I did.

"Hi Lena," I answered in a happy tone.

"Judging by how happy you sound, I assume you have good news."

"Yes. I got the job." I squealed and she joined in.

"That's awesome. When do you start?"

"Next week but I have to find an apartment and settle down this week."

"Instead of stressing yourself to look for an apartment, why not just move in with me? My apartment is a minute's walk to the company."

"Really?" I asked with a wide smile on my face.

"Yes. It's boring living alone, so I could use your company around here. What do you say?"

"Sure. I'll let my parents know."

"Okay then, let me know when you will be coming. Talk to you later." She hung up.

Feeling overly excited, I stood on my bed and jumped on it. My life was falling into place and I couldn't be happier about it.

ARIA'S POV

As I parked my clothes in the wardrobe inside my bag, footsteps approached my room followed by a series of knocks. Savannah was the only person in the house with me, so it had to be her.

"Come in," I said as I continued to fold my clothes inside the suitcase.

The door opened and I didn't bother looking up because I already knew who it was. "Do you need some help?" she asked.

"No," I replied without looking at her.

"You're leaving this week, right? Have you arranged for an apartment yet?" she continued.

"Yes."

"Don't you think we should talk before you leave?" She walked further into the room to stand beside me, but I ignored her. "Since I moved in here, you avoided me like a plague. Whenever I tried to talk to you, you either give me one-word answers or give some hurtful remark."

Refusing to look at her, I muttered under my breath, "I wonder why?"

"How long do you plan to keep hating me?" She asked but I ignored her as I left her side to fetch my fashion magazines piled under my wardrobe. "What did I do so wrong?"

I stopped in my tracks and turned to her. "You don't know what you did wrong? Fine, I'll tell you." I took a few steps closer to her so that I was standing in front of her. "You ignored my warning when I told you to stay away from brother as if my words meant nothing to you."

"Don't you understand that it's so hard to stay away from someone you love?" she countered.

"Love?" I gave her a confused look. "What kind of stupid love does not warrant you to use protection when having sex? For Goodness sake, he denied you and the baby. You would have been begging on the streets with nowhere to go if my parents hadn't forced him to take responsibility, is that what you call love?" I yelled in her face.

"I... I... I..." she stuttered when she couldn't say anything to prove me wrong.

Taking another step closer to her, I said with a soft expression, "We had everything planned together, Ana. Graduate from fashion school with good results, find the perfect job, and get married to a man who would love us unconditionally. This was not part of the plan." I pointed to her belly. "But who knows, you might be happy the way you are. Happy that you have been disowned by your parents, happy that you are restricted from chasing your dreams because of an unplanned pregnancy, happy that you are stuck here with nowhere to go and engaged to a man who is only obligated to take responsibility for you, not because he loves you."

Her brown eyes were clouded with tears and her lips trembled as she stormed out of my room with her ginger hair bouncing after her.

My words were coming out harsh, I was well aware of that. She didn't realize the gravity of the consequences of her decision on her life, and it pissed me off that I was the only one who was unhappy about how she turned out which was why I decided to point it out to her. I wanted her to regret her decision and learn a big lesson from it.

They said every cloud had a silver lining, I hoped she finds her silver lining and does not repeat the same mistake.

I took a deep breath to calm myself and continued to pack my stuff. I arranged all my boxes by the side of the door and slumped on the bed. Just when I was about to close my eyes and take a brief nap, my door was pushed open.

Assuming it was Savannah again, I shot up from the bed and raised my voice, "What do you want this time?"

"My guess was right." My mom leaned on the door frame.

My eyes widened in shock as I tried to process why she was home by that time of the day. She doesn't close her business until evening time.

"Rest your brain. I came home because I needed something, I will leave once I get it."

"Okay." I nodded.

She walked into the room and sat on the bed next to me. "I stopped by Savannah's room and found her crying, so I assumed it has something to do with you." She narrowed her Hazel eyes at me which I took from her.

My mom and I had the same physical features except for my light brown hair which I took from my dad. My brother was a photocopy of my dad but he also took my mom's eyes.

"I only told her what she needed to hear, it's not my fault that she is a crybaby." I rolled my eyes.

"She's pregnant, of course, her emotions would be all over the place." She held by hand in her. "Ana is not the first person who would make a wrong decision that would have a great impact on their future, so you shouldn't judge and hate her because of one mistake she made."

"A mistake that could have been avoided if she had listened to me."

"Ari, I understand that you care about her and you are not happy with the way she is right now. I can tell that you want more than anything for the both of you to have graduated together and celebrate finding your dream jobs, but what has happened has happened. You can't turn back time and change the future by hating her. As her best friend, you should be supporting her and giving her hope that everything will be fine instead of making her feel worse about the situation."

She was right. I was so mad at Savannah that all I wanted to do was make her regret not listening to me. We promised to always stand by each other, I couldn't believe I broke that promise first and turned my back on her when she needed me to stand by her the most. I was a terrible friend.

"Do you think she can ever forgive me after what I said to her?" I glanced up at my mom with a remorseful expression.

"There's only one way to find out." She smiled at me. "Go."

I stood up to leave the room but her voice stopped me. "When you get there, don't forget to thank her too."

"Why?" I gave her a confused look.