It was quite difficult to spend the next two days hiding her body from her husband, but she did her best. However, it all came crashing down when he was staring at her from across the kitchen while she cleaned.
"Layla, what's that on your neck?" He asked suddenly.
Layla froze. "W-what are you talking about?"
"That, there. You and I haven't had sex in a few weeks, so anything I left on you would have been gone by now."
Her hand came up to where he was looking.
"Oh, the kids must have bumped into me." She said as lighthearted as she could. "Don't worry too much about it. I need to pee though."
She moved as far away from him as possible and entered the bathroom, locking it behind her.
Layla: "Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, fuck you" followed by a bunch of middle finger emojis.
Luka: "We have an excellent lawyer on standby waiting for you to call them."
A moment later, another one came in.
Luka: "He looks pissed, Layla. Just go out and ask for a divorce. You don't need to tell him anything. Or I could come over and tell him for you if you'd like."
Layla: "That's a horrible idea."
Luka: "Alright, either ask him for a divorce immediately, or we will send him the video of you riding my dick. Or maybe the video or you taking us both? Not sure yet."
Layla gritted her teeth. "You're resorting to blackmail now?"
Luka: "We told you it was possible. We will do anything to have you as ours. You have ten minutes before we send the video."
Layla: "You're a fucking dick"
Luka: "I love you, baby ❤️ "
Luka: "We're both sitting right outside your home in case you need us."
Layla put her phone down and rolled her eyes. She splashed some water on her face, checked the rest of her makeup, then stepped out.
"Kids can you go play in your room for a bit? Mommy and daddy need to talk." Layla ignored the kids complaints, hearding them into their room instead with a snack.
Her eyes flickered to her husband leaning against the island with a beer in his hand. He took a large swig, then met her gaze.
"You gonna tell me the truth about that now?" Nick asked, his voice lower than normal.
Layla fidgeted with her fingers nervously, looking down.
After a few minutes, Nick spoke up. "Who are you cheating on me with? And for how long?"
She flinched, then blurted, "I want a divorce."
Nick's eyebrows shot up. "Excuse me?"
Layla cleared her throat and spoke a bit louder. "I want a divorce."
Nick straightened his back, slammed his beer down on the counter then grabbed his keys and stormed out.
She looked out the window and saw him drive away. She braced her hand on the wall and held her head. A moment later, she felt the warmth and comfort of a familiar pair of strong arms.
Luka quickly pulled her onto the couch on his lap. He kissed her forehead and stroked her hair.
"Thank you, baby. I love you so much." Luka murmured.
Layla looked up and stretched out a hand to Aronin. He smiled gently and sat down beside the two, taking her hand in his. She was in a bit of shock.
"That didn't really go so well." She muttered.
Aronin took her phone and typed out something.
"What are you doing?"
"Telling him to stay at a hotel tonight and not to come back until tomorrow." He answered.
"Ah, that's good. I really don't want to see him." She toyed with Aronin's fingers when he put her phone back down.
"I know." Aronin replied softly.
"Mommy, I need to go potty!" Her daughter called out.
Layla rumbled in complaint but slipped off Luka's lap and got up to usher Sarah into the bathroom.
"Mommy, who's that?" Brandon called out.
While her back was turned, her son had slipped from the bedroom and spotted the two men.
"J-just some um, friends of mine. Hurry to your room."
"But waaait! I forgot my tractor!"
Layla smacked her forehead and the two guys looked on with amusement.
"Fine go get it."
Then her daughter whizzed past her. "Hi, you wanna play with me?" She asked Luka. "Oooh, you have a LOT of tattoos. Mommy only has a little bit."
Luka grinned. "You like the tattoos?"
"Yeah!" Sarah giggled. "When I'm a grown up, I'm gonna get a UNICORN tattoo!"
"Really? Wow!" Luka chuckled. "Unicorns are so cool."
Layla watched on carefully.
"TRACTOR!" Brandon shouted and turned on the tractor noises. He lifted it to show Luka.
Aronin pulled out his phone, clicked on something, then offered it to Layla. "Get whatever you want."
She looked down. It was the food delivery app. She hummed and sat down on the sofa chair, tucking her feet under her as she examined her options.
After adding a few things from a nearby Mexican restaurant, she passed the phone back. "Add stuff for you two. I don't know what you guys like to eat."
"We can stay for dinner?" Aronin asked while Luka played with the tractor with her kids. Luka paused to hear her response.
"Well, it's fine, I guess. They've already seen you and he's gone for the night, so..."
"Mommy, where's daddy?" Sarah asked.
Layla flinched. "Ah, daddy went to um, his friends house."
"Oh, I see." She nodded like that made sense. "When is he coming back?"
"Not sure. Tomorrow, maybe?"
"Hey, would it be okay with mommy if we went o-u-t-s-i-d-e?" Luka asked, spelling out the word so the kids didn't understand.
Her brows twitched up. "You want to?"
"Yeah. It would be fun. We could come back in when the food gets here."
Layla fidgeted with her hands for a moment. "S-sure, I guess that's fine."
Luka grinned, then looked at the kids. "Okay, we need socks, shoes and coats!"
Her daughter gasped. "Where are we going?" She bounced up and down.
"To play outside!" Luka knew where everything was and rejected Layla's assistance then brought the kids outside, immediately beginning to chase them around.
Layla bit her lip and watched carefully.
"You know I wouldn't allow him near your kids if I didn't know he was safe."
Layla turned from the window and looked at Aronin who watched her from his seat on the couch.
"I've seen him around his sisters kids. He's great with them."
Layla glanced once more out the window, then decided to curl up on Aronin's lap. His breath hitched and his hands trembled faintly, then settled down on her gently.
"Thank you." She mumbled softly.
He started stroking her hair and her body slowly relaxed on him, laying her head on his shoulder and breathing in his scent.
"For what?"
"Everything."
"Hm, I should be the one saying that to you."
Layla glanced out the window, then relaxed again against him, winding her arms around his waist.
"Aronin, what made you start following me? Did I do something?"
He continued to stroke her hair gently as he spoke. "Well, for one, you are so damn beautiful I fell in love with you at first sight. Instant obsession and major crush. Then you were actually nice to me. It wasn't something I was used to. You're still one of the only people on the planet to have ever been so nice to me. That's when I started to genuinely fall in love with you. And just everything you did, everything you said... my heart started racing. I could hardly stand to be around you because I couldn't breathe, yet when I was away, it felt like the world was crashing down around me and everything hurt.
"It was that day, after school, when I saw you leave the building and I felt this stabbing pain in my chest the moment you left my sight. So I almost instinctually chased after you. I could only breathe again when I saw you. I followed you to the edge of the school property then stopped, not wanting to be a stalker creep. But once again, I felt the pain in my chest when you turned the corner and I couldn't see you. So I once again followed you. It went like that until you went into your home. I sat outside your house for hours, surviving off the little glimpses I caught of you in any on the windows. Eventually it got dark and I had to go home, not that anyone at home cared if I was there or not.
"So that became my new daily ritual. Every moment I was away from you, it hurt. Every time I couldn't see you, it felt like I was dying. When you spoke to me, it felt like I was given a high. When our eyes met, I felt like I was floating. It was only natural that I slipped into the roll of a stalker. I was obsessed. Decorated every inch of my room with photos of you. My whole apartment now also has lots of pictures of you up, but not as much as when I was younger. Although my computer and phone has my entire collection of your photos. Then I grew curious about your online activity, and began to hack into all your accounts. You soon forgot about me, yet I couldn't exist without you. From the first time I laid eyes on you, it only took about two months before my existence became entirely reliant on you."