Departed With A Belly {1}

You Are Trying to Drift Us Apart

Claudia left Victoria's office with a grim expression. Her hands were trembling as she gripped her dress. She never thought that even Peter, a lowly assistant, would dare humiliate her.

Although she didn't slash out at him, she knew she couldn't look past this matter either. Thus, as soon as she entered the office, she couldn't help but spill every thing that had happened to Alaric.

She wasn't complaining since she only wanted Alaric to comfort her, but the man
didn't budge after Claudia was done talking.

"Al?" Claudia looked at him in confusion. That was when she realized his
pupils were dilated, and he seemed to be in a daze even though he was staring at his laptop.

She called his name with a sigh. Only then did Alaric snap out of his trance and look at her while frowning. "You're back." Hearing his words, Claudia became speechless and thought, l've returned
for some time and have been talking to him all this while. Was he oblivious
to all this?

As she thought about it, her face turned slightly pale while she forced a smile. "Yeah. I've been back for quite some time. I was talking to you, but you weren't listening. Is something the matter?" she asked cautiously.

At this point, Alaric had already regained his senses. When he heard her words, he shook his head and said faintly, "It's nothing." Then, he frowned deeply when he saw that the food container in her hands was gone. "Did she accept your food?"

Didn't she send it back yesterday? he thought. Hearing his question, Claudia shook her head. "No, she still doesn't want to eat the food I made. Say, Al, does my food taste bad?"

Honestly, Alaric wasn't picky about what he ate. To him, food was just something for him to gain energy. Hence, he couldn't tell if her cooking was terrible or not. However, since she had saved his life before, he wouldn't simply just give her an answer.

Instead, he said softly, "No. Don't over think it. However, if she didn't accept the food, where did it go?"

Initially, Alaric only wanted to know what happened to the food container. However, for some reason, he felt at ease when he knew that Victoria refused to eat what Claudia had cooked. He didn't know why, though. Claudia told him what had happened again.

"I see," he hummed in response. Turns out that Peter ate the food. No wonder she returned without it. After that, Alaric kept quiet.

Claudia waited for some time before realizing that Alaric made no move
to do anything. Then, she called him again. "Al..."

"What's wrong?" Alaric looked at her.
When Claudia saw his usual expression, she couldn't say the words she wanted to. Thus, she held back and replied, "It's nothing."

Hearing her words, Alaric went back to thinking. Then, he seemed to be irritated by something as he raised his hand and pinched the bridge of his nose.

At this moment, Claudia saw a bite mark on his arm. Immediately, her expression changed as she asked, "Did you hurt your arm, Al?"

Hearing her words, Alaric paused and followed her gaze along his arm. When he saw that he had accidentally shown the marks on his arm, he couldn't help but remember how Victoria had bitten him yesterday.

At that moment, his head throbbed in pain. Then, he tugged on his sleeve and replied faintly, "It's nothing."

Lies! Claudia thought. Although she had only seen half of the wound on his arm, she was sure it was a teeth mark. Why did he have a bite mark on his arm? A guy couldn't have done this, right? That only means...

At that moment, her face turned pale as she realized that Victoria had not
kept her promise!

:)

The next day, Claudia went to confront Victoria under the guise of bringing food to her. "Is this how you repay me, Victoria?"

On the other hand, Victoria, who was waiting for her to put up an act, frowned when she heard Claudia's accusation. "What are you talking about?"

"Stop faking it!" Claudia snapped as she gripped the food container tightly.

Although she was furious, she still kept her voice low. "Do you still remember the third rule in our agreement? You can't have any close contact with Alaric before the divorce. Do you still remember it?"

Hearing her words, Victoria pursed her lips and said, "Yes. What's the
matter about it?"

"Did you really, though? Are you sure you have kept your promise?"

"Yes." Victoria nodded. "Other than needing to interact with him in front of
Old Mrs. Cadogan, I have never come close to him."

She felt that she did a great job keeping the promise. "You're lying! You broke our promise!" Claudia barked. Seeing that she was getting hysterical, Victoria furrowed her brows.

"I saw teeth marks on Al's arm," Claudia remarked. As she brought this up, she could feel the hatred in her boiling. After all, there could only be a particular instance for a woman to bite a man.

Thinking about it made Claudia enraged.
On the other hand, Victoria was startled when she heard Claudia's words. If Claudia hadn't brought this up, she'd have forgotten that such a thing even happened.

"Why aren't you talking? Is it because you are guilty? You never wanted to keep the promise, did you, victoria?" asked Claudia through gritted teeth.

"You're wrong." Victoria raised her head abruptly and denied the accusation. Since she wanted to repay Claudia, she would have kept their promise. However, it was indeed her fault for leaving the bite mark.
"Have I been mistaken? If that is so, then why did you..."

Before she could finish her words, Victoria cut her off and sighed. "I think I have to make things clear with you, Claudia. Since I vowed to keep the
promise, I won't break it. However, I also hope you'll understand that some
interactions between him and me are passive."

"Passive?" Hearing her words, Claudia slowly calmed down.

"Before Old Mrs. Cadogan is done with her surgery, we can't expose ourselves in front of her," said Victoria as she nodded.
"I understand this. However, you can't possibly bite Al's arm in front of her,
can you?"

"Well, you do have a point."

"Are you finally admitting that you broke our promise?"

"No. If you insist on finding out, I can only tell you I did it out of resistance. I
didn't break the promise." As for why Victoria had to resist, Claudia would have to guess it on her own.

Since she had promised Claudia that she would keep their promise in the coffee shop, they were even.

As expected, Claudia froze on the spot when she heard her words. Resistance... Did she bite Alaric out of resistance? From what, though? As she thought about it, she widened her eyes as her mind went hazy.

"Are you telling the truth, Victoria? Are you trying to drift Al and me apart because you never wanted to divorce him in the first place?"

"Do I have to do that?" asked Victoria expressionlessly. "Do you think it'd be
easy to drift you guys apart when you've saved his life?"
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Edited on: February 11th 2024
Time: 11:55 am
Word count: 1223 words