Married For Now

CHAPTER 41 - AGREEMENT

"SO YOU weren't able to persuade her either?" Uncle Jim asked Phoenix in a calm yet disappointed tone.

All of the family members are gathered together in the living room. Aunt Beryl and Uncle Jim are sitting together in a couch while his mom and his father, who rushed from work, were sitting together in a long sofa adjacent to Jewel's parents.

Phoenix sat on a sofa across Jewel's parents and Grandpa Fred was seated on the single-seater sofa across his parents. In front of them is a glass table with a vase filled with Iris flowers. The air around them is filled with worry and dread for the unknown.

"How can I persuade her?" He said, his palm covering his face while his elbow propping his knees, trying to calm himself in the current turmoil of the situation he just discovered. "I'm just her husband in paper, her childhood friend. I don't have the power to change her mind." He added in a frustrated tone.

His mind won't accept the reality he just uncovered. It's like he was struck by a lightning and held imprisoned by the pain. On the contrary, he would've preferred to be struck by lightning and maybe realize that this is all just a very terrible nightmare.

Unfortunately, no matter how many times he tried to deny everything, it will never change the truth.

"You don't need power for that Phoenix." Grandpa Fred said to him. "You just need to show her that there is still hope in this. That you wanted her to stay. And that you need her."

He removed his hand from his face and stared on the lines of his palm. "I've already said that to her. But it wasn't enough."

Grandpa Fred sighed. "Even I..." He paused on his words. "...even I'm afraid of this operation as well. I'm too afraid of losing her as much as you do. That if she agrees to take this operation and doesn't make it...I don't want to even think about it."

He looked at his grandpa who was also depressed as him, directly staring unto his Irises.

"Grandpa, I wanted to ask. Is this the reason why you forced this marriage between me and Jewel? For me to try and persuade her to change her mind?"

"Yes." He said without any hesitance.

A sad smile formed his lips. "I haven't thanked you for that yet, haven't I. Grandpa, thank you for bringing us back together. I almost made myself hate Jewel for the rest of my life if you didn't do this." He said. "But I'm sorry... I can't persuade her." He clasped his hands together, digging the tip of his fingers to his knuckles. "Maybe, being with me is not enough."

"That's not true Phoenix." Aunt Beryl suddenly spoke. He turned to her. A motherly smile was painted on her lips. "She has always been yearning to be with you again. After you left that summer, she would still plead us to go back to this villa, hoping that maybe, you'll show up again. But when she turned into the age where she could finally understand things, she thought that maybe, you hated her for being too dependent to you. But we could always see it in her eyes how much she wanted you two to be together again."

A pang of guilt pierced his chest because what she said was right, he did hate Jewel for a period of time...but that was before he realized everything.

"That's why she started to learn how to take care of herself, avoiding to rely on others. Even to us. She said that she never wanted to be a burden again."

So it was really his fault why she was so stubbornly independent.

"Phoenix, you asked us before why Grandpa Fred gave Dash to Jewel and not to you." His mom stated.