Revenge and Redemption: Aaron's Tale of Resilience

Chapter two

 Aaron refused to believe what his eyes were revealing to him.

Anna? How could she be here when she was supposed to be on a business trip? I mean that’s what she had told him before she 'left' four days ago, or had he heard wrong? Very unlikely. More confusing was, why was she with his boss? Why did they stand so close together? What the fuck was going on?

 He rose to his feet, “Anna? What are you doing here?” He asked, his voice quivering and he couldn’t control it.

She sighed and shook her head, her face visibly annoyed. “I didn’t want to come here, Aaron, but you were so persistent when my mom and brother came here that I had to show up, so here I am.”

 “I don’t understand, why are you here when…when you were supposed to be on a business trip?” He asked, refusing to look at his boss who he had been working under like a slave for the past year or so. “Josh said stuff about you and some boss’ house and-”

 “Aaron stop,” Anna said, getting fed up with his shameful and embarrassing behavior.

 “What did your brother mean by a business trip that is supposed to go further than my boss’s house? Huh? Why are you here? And why is my boss next to you?” He asked, his eyes wild, his voice hysterical and loud.

 Something happened next and Aaron had to take off his rimmed glasses and rub his eyes with his palm to make sure it wasn’t his imagination playing tricks with him. His boss wrapped his hand around Anna’s waist and pulled her to him. That was his lovely wife whose slender waist Lucas’s arm wrapped around!

 “Sign the papers, Aaron. Just do it and save everyone the stress.” She said to him, “You don’t want to do this…”

 “Do what for fuck’s sake? Where have you been? You were at his house? Lucas? You knew she was my fucking wife!” Aaron bellowed with a scornful and accusing voice.

 “That’s true, Aaron,” Lucas said calmly. “But then, you didn’t deserve her, she needed a real man, one who could take care of her.”

 “You didn’t expect me to stick with you for so long, did you, Aaron? We’re not of the same class, I’ve never wanted to be with you anyway. Have you forgotten how we even became married in the first place?” She threw at him and Aaron felt his head growing bigger, it was all too much for him to take.

He could never forget how he was appointed by Anna’s grandfather to be her husband after Aaron had saved his life. He saw it as a great opportunity and he loved her with all his heart. 

Even when she refused to let him touch or sleep with her, he understood and just decided to give her more time. Their marriage always seemed to be on the edge of a cliff but the moment her grandfather died, everything went South. The marriage vows Anna’s promises to her father to always stick by were all thrown to the wind.

  “Have you forgotten so soon that I saved your grandfather from getting killed by a drunk driver, Anna?” He asked, his eyes melancholic and heart already shattered into a million pieces.

She rolled her eyes, “Yes you did, but now he still ended up dead, so that favor of yours died with him.” She said indifferently. “Look at this situation, Aaron, you’re so broke, you’re too impoverished for my liking, you can’t even take care of yourself, talk less of me! I need a man that can take care of me and a man that can win me over.” She stared at Lucas affectionately and kissed him, sending thorns into Aaron’s heart. “And I’ve found that man in Lucas, he is my prince charming.”

 Aaron’s eyes were welling up with tears but he refused to shed tears over a woman, although he loved her dearly. “But he is my…” His voice broke and the anger in him was boiling hotter than a volcano. He could have wrung her fucking neck. “That’s my freaking boss, Anna!”

From their intimacy and the way they went about it freely, he knew he had been taken for a fool and Anna had been cheating on him for a very long time.

 “Not anymore,” Lucas said flatly and Aaron stared at him in shock. “You’re fired, Aaron. Sign the divorce agreement, clean out your desk, and get the fuck out of my company.”

Aaron couldn’t believe his ears, was he going to lose his wife and job on the same day, what did he have left then?

 The sun disappeared behind the thick, gloomy, and dark clouds that suddenly clothed the sky and in a minute, pellets of rain beat on the window of his office. The battle was over and there was a gloomy downpour to go with his mood. He lost, he lost everything, he had nothing to lay claim over now. Everything was gone!

 Dejectedly, he picked up a pen from his table and as he scribbled his signature on the divorce papers, a tear from his eyes created a small poodle on the paper. Anna quickly snatched the paper and shoved it into her purse, then clung to Lucas again.

  “Good, now get out!” Lucas snarled harshly.

Aaron stared at Anna for most of the time, wondering how she could do such a thing to him. When he was done packing his few belongings, everything started to sink in. It sank so deep that it created a huge hole like an empty abyssal pit in his heart. Outside his office, his ears picked up various taunts from his colleagues who never liked him.

  “What a loser, he didn’t even put up a fight for his wife.”

“Could he? He would have gotten chewed out! What’s a pauper to our boss? Aaron is nothing, just like he had been when he first walked into this building.”

 The rain was relentless, it beat him mercilessly and his glasses became blurry and he found it difficult to see as the rain wet them and obscured his vision. 

He had the small bag containing his belongings under his armpit and he kept his head down as the rain poured down on him. All he could hear were the sounds of tires against the ground in front of him and he stopped walking when he heard the screeching sounds of a lot of tires in front of him. He had been walking for about twenty minutes.

  He wiped his glasses and when he looked up and squinted at the scene in front of him, his heart stopped beating for a split second. These cars were the most luxurious he had ever seen, of every expensive brand. The various brands of cars completely blew his mind and for a moment he was frozen in the rain. His awed eyes picked out six Rolls Royce cars, four Bentleys, two Jaguars, two Aston Martins, and the last car which the old man stood next to thrilled him the most. It was the most expensive of the bunch, a Bugatti Chiron! Standing by these cars were well-suited men with dark glasses under the rain.

They had cold and hard expressions on their faces and it sent fear into him instantly. He started back away but stopped as he saw an old man with a hat walking towards him. A guard held an umbrella over the old man’s head and told Aaron that he was their leader. What was going on?

 Aaron was about to turn and run when the old man’s voice stopped him.

 “Don’t run…You're the one we have been looking for.” The man said in a firm voice that commanded respect. “For all these years, we have combed the earth in search of you and finally, we’ve found you, young master.”

Aaron’s ears weren’t sure they had heard right, his eyes widened with shock when the old man bowed to him and all the guards did too.

This was crazy!