Part One : The News
[Monday: 5th January 2005: 5.20pm]
“We’re getting married.”
“Promise you’ll tell me if you ever get married.”
“Of course.” He turned and gave her a soft smile laced with just a tinge of surprise. “Why wouldn’t I tell you?”
She shrugged and kept her gaze fixated to the dusking sky, no answer for her own question. Why did she ask such a dumb question? “I don’t know.”
He let out a hearty laugh and reached out, shuffling the top of head affectionately. “You’re so silly.”
“Grace?” Silver’s voice jolted her out of her thoughts. “Are you there?”
It took her awhile to collect herself but Silver’s words refused to register. “Married?” She echoed dumbly.
“Yes! Isn’t it great? We’re having the banquet at the English Garden end of this month. You’ll come, wouldn’t you?” The bliss in her voice so assaulting that Grace almost had the impulse to hang up the phone. She struggled to regain her composure and knew she was failing terribly. It felt like someone had just threw a punch into her stomach and the pain was beyond comprehension.
He’s getting married? At that very moment, Grace witnessed her entire world crumbling to the ground.
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world. Congratulations. I’m so happy for you.” She lied, sounding shaky even to her ears.
Could Silver hear the devastation in her voice?
“I’ll get Ian to call you about the details then. Ciao!”
He didn’t even call me himself.
—
Grace had been sitting in her own bed for the last hour, her knees drawn up to her chest rocking to the soft rhythm of her broken heart. Beside her, the phone has been ringing non-stop but she hadn’t answered a single call. It was probably Amanda. Or her editor. Or even Ian and Silver—the last two people she want to be hearing from right now.
She had expected this to happen, hadn’t she? Him getting married. But not this soon. Not now. And especially not to Silver.
She drew in a shaky breathe. She was on the verge of tears but somehow she couldn’t bring herself to cry. All she felt was an overwhelming numbness and that hurt even more because it twisted her insides and made her cold.
She hugged herself, not in an attempt to keep warm, but in an attempt to keep herself from falling apart.
She wanted to wail, to scream, to yell. But would it have mattered? Would it change anything? No. She supposed not. Ian would still be getting married. She choked back a sob that had escaped from her throat. It was her own fault. She should have walked away the first chance she got but she chose to stay.
Now she will have to witness him marrying someone else. She wasn’t sure she could survive that, and the torrid image of Ian and Silver walking hand in hand down the aisle was beginning to materialize into something much too real.
Grace stared at the ringing phone and finally took a wary glance at the caller ID. It was Ian. She took the phone off the hook and crawled under her covers.
He never cared the way she did for him. Now he never will.
Related Entries:
Somebody Part 2
Somebody Part 3
Somebody Part 4
