Her scars, his obsession

Ava's POV

The door creaked open and the blood drained from my veins. Ethan was naked, slamming into not just any woman... but my step-sister.

"Ethan!" My voice mimicked the sound of a high mountain crumbling down, with raging thunder backing it up.

Pulling his hardened length out of her, he pushed his finger in and out of her before walking towards me with his dripping finger. He moved it towards my mouth and without thinking, my pale palm met his cheek with a force strong enough to turn his head to a whole new direction.

"Happy anniversary, wife," he chuckled at my despair while my step-sister, Ivana, only smirked in satisfaction when I held the wrap of the condom up.

"You couldn't even wait or leave our anniversary out of this, Ethan! How could you do this to me?!" I slapped his chest with blurry vision from my tears. Wasn't Ivana supposed to be tending to our father? Wasn't he planning a surprise? Haven't I done everything that I was supposed to do as a wife and as a woman crazily in love today and days before today? What then did I do to deserve this?!

"I'll suggest you take your filthy hands off of him," Ivana's cold and venomous voice stung me in my chest.

"He's my husband, how could you?" I spat, feeling like the earth should swallow her up already.

She just sat on the bed with her hands dancing and slowly caressing her bare body just to tick me off. I glanced over at Ethan at least to draw some sort of sympathy out of him, but his emotions towards me were as cold as ice, void as space and flat as a mirror.

"You wouldn't dare talk to her in that tone ever again, Ava," he sneered at me with disgust, crushing the part of my heart that's barely beating. "And I'm not your husband," he added with an intense gaze and clenched jaw. " I'm done with you, so get lost!"

Was it the hate in his eyes? The venom in my voice or the irritation that he exuded when he spoke to me? Everything made it clear that he was done? Everything made me question if it was truly the man I had grown to love.

I looked over to Ivana, trying hard to hold back the tears the second time, but it hurt. It hurt so bad that I felt their betrayal literally burning my skin, leaving my veins popping out and my complexion red.

"You will pay for this." I slammed the door in their faces and ran as fast as my feet could carry towards my car.

As long as I stayed within the premises, it became more difficult for me to breathe. It felt like the memory of them together drained down the air in my lungs and everything left for me to do was to run as fast I could.

Driving back to the company, I decided to stay for a while until I was a bit fit to go back home as my father would be worried sick if he got to see me like this. However, Ethan was fond of creating a romantic scene at my place of work during the past wedding anniversary. Now it was going to look strange if I walked into the company again on the day of my anniversary.

I stayed in my car, drowning in sorrow until there were no more tears to shed. My head ached as much as my heart did and when the noise began to fade, I smiled sadly hoping to finally get some peace. My phone rang for the second time today and my heart skipped one unlucky beat in anticipation of seeing Ethan's call hoping that maybe, he wanted to apologise. However, it was the nanny.

"I'm sorry I couldn't make it home quite early today, I-"

I was interrupted by an indistinctive whispering at first, then came a sniffing sound and finally an outburst.

"W-w-what's wrong?" I stammered, not ready for another bad news in one day.

Her fears spoke louder than whatever was going on in her mind, and the cryptic message her sobs sent made the hairs on my arms stand erect. My gaze was fixed in one direction and my grip against my phone tightened.

"Take it easy, okay?" I tried to soothe her across the distance. "Whatever that's happening, you have to at least try to speak," my own words were laced with the same uncertainty a diver has before he jumps from a cliff.

Seeing that she wasn't going to stop sobbing, I opted for a different approach with a fuzzy mind, but before I could ask anything, she had already spoken up.

"Please, Ma'am, I need you to come quickly to the hospital," her voice cracked.

Hospital...

Fear crippled my feet while my irresponsibility covered my mouth. Damn! How did I forget about my father's condition?!

"I-is everything okay? Is-" I swallowed, but there was nothing to go down my throat. I emptied my bag on the seat next to me while searching for both my car key and the right words. "A-are you alone there?"

"It's your father, Ava," her sobs continued. "Please be quick, I think you're the only one he wants to see now."

Ava's POV

"Over here!"

I ran behind her as she directed me to her room. There, I stood face to face with my worst nightmare. The nurses were spreading the blue cloth over him and the machine made just one sound.

"Dad! Please don't leave me!" I clung to his bed and had the nurses struggle to pull me away from him.

"Please, Ma'am, you need to calm down," one of the nurses tried to soothe me while pulling me away, but I didn't flinch.

I shook him, hit him hard, told him I was there and I wouldn't leave his side ever again. Still, I got no response from his stone cold body.

"Let the dead man be, Ava and stop acting as though you care," Ivana scoffed from the doorframe while Ethan stood beside her.

I aimed for her neck immediately to perhaps strangle her for being so heartless and cruel with her choice of words. How could she say that to the man who has never treated her differently from me? He was her father too!

Ethan came between us immediately, finally pulling us apart and saving us from each other's claws.

"You killed him in the first place so don't act like a hypocri-"

"Ivana!" Ethan raised his voice with his hands slightly above his voice. Ivana's breath hitched while swallowing hard. She took a few steps back, leaving me puzzled as to why he'd scold her in that manner, before she stormed out of the room.

I looked away the moment his attention went from enraged Ivana to me.

"I'm sorry things had to happen this way, Ava."

He patted my shoulder and then he left. The calmness in his words resurrected a storm within me. I could easily blame him for everything, yet when he spoke to me like this, it was almost as if my Ethan was still around.

***

It has been three days since my father's death and guess what, Ivana hasn't shown up since. Today was his funeral and though I had relieved the nanny of her duties, she still insisted on staying for the funeral.

"I promised myself the day his health became terrible that I was going to be by his side even till his last moment and if you ask me to leave now, Mrs Ava, it would be me breaking that promise."

"Fine, then," I lowered my voice with no strength left in me to argue. She had been faithful, and I didn't mind hiring her as well .

"Mrs Ava, you are not the only one that feels guilty for not being there," she began, making me furrow my brows in confusion. "Miss Ivana Ha called earlier asking me to pick a parcel from the company. She emphasised on how important it was, so I left. I came back as quickly as I could to meet thick black smoke. Yes, I called for help and even found out that he was locked in his room from the inside."

"How possible is that?"

"I don't know, Mrs Ava. All I know is that by the time we were able to break the door open, he was already unconscious. Whether or not somebody tried to kill him, there's no one there to serve as an eye witness. So please, don't feel the guilt alone."

She barely looked above my waist while she spoke and I could see her struggle to speak with the way she fumbled her fingers and stammered in between her sentences. Was she trying to say that my father was murdered in his own room? The mere thought of it was hauntingly hilarious and I just had to push it to the back of my mind to avoid losing my sanity completely.

The preparation was almost done and I left with the nanny to the church for his last service. During the reception, I still noticed that Ivana was absent until I had almost given up on her showing up.

"Where is the lawyer?" She took off her sunglasses to look me in the eye, wearing nothing but meanness and unconcern.

"Today is our father's funeral and you're clearly not here for the funeral, so try checking back later," I sighed while tucking some stray strands behind my ear.

"Unfortunately, big sis," she sent me an evil grin as though I was nothing. "You're right. I have no interest in attending his funeral, besides you were the only thing he cared about when he was alive and I owe nothing to his death, but," she dragged the last words. "He does owe me something," her grin grew wider.

"Did you seriously come here to create a scene?" I threw my purse to the couch, taking bold steps towards her.

"Just tell me where the lawyer is," she spat.

The sound of someone clearing his throat made us look back to see Mr Albert, my father's lawyer walking towards us.

"Here you are," she smirked.

"Mr Albert," I acknowledged his presence before swallowing hard.

He held a brown envelope and signalled for us to move into my father's library.

"It is your father's wish that this will be read on the day of his funeral and if you don't mind, I'd like to proceed with his last wish," he looked from me to Ivana who was now biting her bottom lip.

"Yeah, you can proceed," I said with my heart barely beating, as the content of the will would tell our future.

With that he passed one of the envelopes to me before passing the larger one to Ivana. The excited look on Ivana's face made my heart sink. Obviously, everything that was good news to her was definitely bad news for me and the fact that the situation we were in was what had to do with the will, it only made me quiver. Hopefully, my father wouldn't make one mistake twice by showing Ivana an undeserving love again.

"Ahhhh!!!" She jumped on Ethan with a wide smile spread across her lips.

Just after seeing her reaction, I braced myself for the worst while finally tearing the sealed envelope open. My jaw dropped open as I began to read the content of the will. By the time I was done, my limbs gave up, earning me a brutal fall to the ground.

Ethan quickly snatched the will from my hands while Ivana flung the property papers to my face.

"They are all mine!"

Ava's POV

"No, this can't be real..." I whispered.

"Perhaps, he knew you were worthless all along," Ivana smirked while wrapping her arms around Ethan.

"There has to be some misunderstanding or mistake, but–" I swallowed my salty saliva as fresh hot tears were starting to form in my eyes.

"But you're in shock that the favourite and hardworking daughter has no inheritance from her father, right?" Ivana pouted while Ethan picked the property papers now signed into her name. First was the mansion, second was the company, and thirdly was a fifty-million-dollar cheque.

I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Even my saliva felt like hot lava hard for me to swallow, and my heart started to feel like it was falling into a bottomless pit.

"Now here is your last gift, Miss Ava Scott," his tune went back to the cheating Ethan and not my darling Ethan. "I'm sure you know what to do with those papers. Be quick and return it to my mansion first thing tomorrow morning."

"Oh Ethan," Ivana sang, drawing lines from his beards to his lips with her maroon painted nails. "I do hate her a lot, but she is my sister, and I sincerely think she's going to die if you leave her at this point. I can lend you some time with her if you don't mind. Besides, it's clear who you belong to now," she winked at him.

"Why are you doing this, Ethan? I love you, and you know it. I've done everything possible to make you happy, and you were happy until she came into the picture–"

"I'd be expecting the papers signed by tomorrow, and heaven knows, you don't want to get on my nerves because of this."

With that, Ivana and Ethan left while I still sat in shock at what had just happened.

"I'm so sorry things had to turn out this way, Ava, but you have to believe that your father is not dumb and everything he does, he does for a reason–"

"Leave," I interrupted Mr Albert. His words were like salt on an open wound and dragon breath to a fire, and I already had enough of it.

He did as I said, leaving me completely alone in the room. I wasn't sure how long I stayed in the room, but I knew that by the time the nanny, Mrs Cordelia walked in to know how I was doing, the voices from the crowd had already died down.

"It's just us," she announced carefully, closely monitoring me. Stooping to my level, she tried to pull me into a comforting embrace. "I'm so sorry about the will, dear," she whispered behind my cold ears.

"What did I do wrong to deserve all this?" My voice was dried and void of all human emotion but hurt, brokenness as well as emptiness.

"I still can't believe that Mr Scott would do such a thing to you, let's just keep hope alive and believe that he had a good reason for doing what he did, else, you have to stay strong and try not give in to your sister's madness."

"I'll try winning my husband back tomorrow not because he deserves it but because Ivana would mock my all round failure if I let her have everything without a fight," I mumbled while getting up to leave.

"Winning him back?" she jolted up behind me in shock.

She obviously knew nothing about the divorce, and that was good for her. I ignored her questions and grabbed a bottle of wine before moving straight to my room.

After successfully drowning myself in my pain and bottle of wine, I felt the world begin to spin. Afterwards, I crashed to the pillow and kept breathing until everything became dark.

***

"Good morning, Ava," Mrs Cordelia's voice woke me up from my sleep.

Oh, I guess it's morning already. Ugh!

Pushing the sheets to the side so that my entangled legs can be freed, I threw myself off of the bed.

"Miss Ivana left a message, and she asked that you come over at night as she would be having a long day with Mr Ethan."

I dismissed her and quickly cleared my morning routine before heading out to Ethan's place.

"I'm sorry, Ma'am, but Mr Ethan left with Miss Ivana not long ago to her father's company," one of the maids informed me after I found them missing in the mansion.

"Alright, then. Thank you."

Entering the company after about thirty minutes of leaving Ethan's mansion, the atmosphere changed, and it sincerely felt like I was no longer needed.

I still walked in, ignoring all the stare, murmurs, and silent laughter intended to mock me.

"Where is Mr Ethans?" I asked one of the staff after my failure at finding him.

"He is with Miss Ivana, and they asked not to be disturbed," she replied with her eyes glued to the floor.

"I command you-"

"You keep hurting yourself, Ava," I heard Ivana's voices, and the clicking sound of her heels interrupted me.

I let the innocent staff go away as I was now face to face with Ivana.

"Where is Ethan?!"

"Ethan? I thought he made it clear to you that he wants no business with you. Why are you looking for him?"

"He is my husband, and you have no business with the reason why I seek him!"

"Was, Ava," she smirked in disgust. "He was your husband. Now hand those divorce papers over and see yourself off."

"What the hell are you doing here?" Ethan's voice cut in like a sharp blade from behind.

"Here you are," I breathed, working towards him even though the look on his face screamed for me to vanish. "I came to see you, Ethan... At least to talk things out rather than to jump into a rash decision by putting our signatures on these papers."

"There is nothing to be discussed. Ivana is going to be my wife, and the last shred of respect to you would be divorcing you before marrying her, but if that is too difficult for you, I also have a solution to that."

Tears began to wail up as my father's employees began to encircle us. He walked past me to take Ivana's hands. Going down on one knee, some of the employees began to take pictures of the scene.

"Will you marry me, love?"