AllFreeNovel
Share Us
1
One Month Ago
Sirena
Surrounded by my family and yet I still feel so alone. I close my eyes tightly as tears threaten to fall. I’ve cried a lot recently and it’s not all down to the pregnancy hormones that currently play havoc with my health. At twenty-five, my life hasn’t turned out exactly as I’d hoped it would.
Growing up, all I ever wanted was to have a marriage like my grandparents—like my parents. Except I’d been so desperate to grab on to that dream that I hadn’t stopped to really look at the man that I was tying my life to.
There’d been chemistry at first and we’d quickly married under the assumption that it would be easy, but Harry hadn’t been prepared to work for a happy marriage.
While I’m carrying his child, he’s been dropping his zipper for other women. When I’d first discovered what Harry had been doing, I’d been angry and upset, but then I’d felt nothing. I suppose that I’d accepted it to some extent, but I no longer knew the man that I call husband. He has become an ugly stranger compared to the man that I used to at least like.
The only reason I haven’t packed up and left our apartment is because of the child I carry. Now though, I have finally come to the conclusion that I’m no longer able to stay. Harry doesn’t really want our child or me. He just wants the bachelor life back that he’d relished before we’d married on a whim in Vegas.
My family was disappointed in me and when I really thought about it, deep down, I’d known that I’d agreed to the quick and sneaky marriage so that they didn’t have the chance to talk me out of it.
I’d acted stupidly and in hindsight, I wished that I hadn’t been so irresponsible and that my family had stepped in . . . now I was just over four months pregnant with constant bouts of sickness and no one to help me, no one there to ask me if I was okay, or if I needed anything. My mother and father were always concerned about me, but that wasn’t the same.
I want to be loved and cherished just like my father, Michael, does with my mother, Lily. My parents along with my aunts and uncles are all still in love with each other, and I want that more than anything. I’d always thought that I would have that and then I would have my first child that had been made with love. Looking back, I’m not even sure love had ever been involved, it was just infatuation.
My heart isn’t broken, but I do feel betrayed by the one person I should have been able to trust. Deep underneath all the hurt is the knowledge and regret that I’d known the minute I said ‘I do’ that I was making a big mistake. My tenacious nature has always gotten me into trouble and now I don’t know what to do.
There is a smile plastered on my face while I think about my miserable life and I have a feeling that I’m not fooling anyone—not my parents, my siblings; Michael, Charlotte and Joshua, nor our grandparents who currently celebrate their sixty-eighth wedding anniversary. That’s what total love and commitment is, and I want that . . .
2
Present Day
Sirena
“Michael do you have a minute?” I ask my brother with a wry smile on my face. My brother looks at home sitting behind the huge desk in the McKenzie Holding’s building in downtown Lexington. He became CEO along with our sister—his twin—Charlotte, and our cousins, Alexander and Olivia, when our father and uncle Sebastian had semi-retired. I smile at the thought because neither of them have fully retired and not a week goes by without them being in the office breathing down Michael or Alexander’s neck.
It irritates Charlotte and Olivia no end because they leave them alone and personally I think it’s because they both have a wicked temper.
Michael has always been the more sensitive and he’s always the one I go to fo
r help or advice and I know that he will always be in my corner regardless of what I have to deal with. He reminds me of our father in that respect. Michael has broad shoulders and the McKenzie dark hair, and with the dark scruff covering the lower part of his face, the girls go crazy. He’s never short of company, but I know he isn’t happy. He isn’t fooling me.
As I’m trying to read his mind, Michael looks up and smiles. “I always have a minute for my sister,” he replies, smoothly. “Come and sit, Sirena. What’s up?”
Moving forward, I sigh in relief as I take the weight off my aching legs. “I’ve had enough, Michael.” My chin trembles and I know that my tears are going to be falling soon. “I’m not sure I can do this.”
“Oh crap.” Michael jumps up and crouching in front of me takes hold of my hands. “I think Mom might be better at this.” He winces and truly looks pained.
My brother’s panic makes me laugh as the tears finally start. “What am I going to do?” I wail and Michael looks to the door, probably contemplating his escape or praying for help.
“Oh stop.” I tug my hands free. “You’re my brother and should be used to us girls by now. You’re also a guy and I need someone to explain Harry to me.”
Michael sighs and moves to sit beside me. “Harry is an asshole who doesn’t deserve to share the air you breathe.”
I hiccup and silently cry into my hands. After a few minutes, Michael gently tugs them away and gives me a sad smile.
