-Chapter 111: Mercy is a Luxury
"Here, I have something you all need to hear about President Aruto of Hiden Intelligence," Gai says softly, speaking into the microphone.
He called a Press Conference for something on Aruto? It must be important. I wonder what it could be since I haven't really talked to him privately. He's honestly doing whatever he wants on his own now without me being slightly involved.
Gai turns to Yua and nods his head, giving her the okay to do whatever he wants her to do. She turns a bit and presses on the remote for the screen behind them, showing a picture of Aruto and me. That is Aruto and me meeting up not long ago. How did he get that?
"President Aruto of Hiden Intelligence has been trying to steal my wife from me, which has completely broke my heart. My wife, who has been needing time away from the public, has been trying to avoid his advances," Gai says, lying through his teeth. He's trying to get the vote in his favor right now by tarnishing Aruto's name. "I have some audio clips of him hitting my wife."
"Look me in the eyes, Mari. I will end your marriage the moment I can."
I pull my hat lower as my mouth hangs wide open. He has been recording me at home? He's been spying on me to make sure that I've been doing what he wants me to hasn't he? How can he do that to me?
He edited that. He has completely changed the context to fit his narrative. He's going to keep doing this and I now know for sure that he's never going to let me go. He does not want me to be someone else's woman at all.
"I'm happy with my husband," my voice says, edited like I responded like that to Aruto.
He has been waiting for this moment since he let me go didn't he? He really allowed me to leave him just to do this! I can't...how can he do this to the two of us? He messed with our emotions and played us.
"I have released more clips already to the media, which will be played on the news," Gai says as I keep my head down. I don't want anyone to notice me. "Now that I am done speaking, I will let my representative talk some more about what I will do if the vote goes in my favor."
I need to get out of here quick before he gets to me.
~.~
I stop, my body trembling as Gai approaches me. "Gai..." How did he know where I would go to?
He steps closer to me. "Trying to get away? You have no choice but to come home and be my wife right now. If you don't, you will just ruin his image completely. No one will accept him ever again. Besides, the exit here is blocked off." He blocked it off?
Gai grabs my wrist and pulls me to the side, causing me to gasp as he smirks a little. He made up that evidence to make Aruto seem like the guilty one. He's going to bring him down and make him end up alone at this rate. He wants the proposal to rebuild Daybreak to be voted down and never to be brought up again. He wants every that Aruto has and more.
"You're my wife again, Mari," he tells me. "I bet you thought that you were going to finally get away. No, I won't allow you to ever get away from me. You're always going to come back to me no matter what happens."
"Why are you doing this?" How could he go and record me and my private conversations like that? "How can you be like this to me when I've done so little to you?"
Gai stops. "Because I want you to myself. Isn't that obvious?"
I look down, my heart sinking. "Because you want me? How can you want me when you don't love me? Do you want to say that again to me with that smug face of yours?"
"It doesn't matter if I love you or not, Mari," he responds, sounding like he could careless about my needs. "What does matter is that I appreciate what you have to offer me."
This is my reality once again. There really is no way to escape this husband. Everything that has been done has backfired completely on me and only made the situation much worse. I've tried the fleeing on the airplane thing and that was something I didn't want to ever try, but ended up doing so. How did he even find out that I bought the ticket? I thought I did it safely.
"You had a HumaGear hacked on live TV," I state, bringing up his activity from when I was with Isamu, Horobi, and Jin. "How can I go back with you if you're doing such dirty things in the competition?" I don't know everything that happened, but I did look into it a bit.
"You don't get a say in what I do." But I have to do what he says? "Mari, you're my wife and your only job is to stay by my side. I think I have demonstrated that today. You know you have no where to go but back to my arms where you belong."
I bring my eyes back to his face and nod. "You didn't let me go because you wanted to, but because you had a backup plan. Is that what happened here? Did you plan this out so you could get me back that way?" My eyes burn, tears wanting to leak out.
"What are you going to do about it if that was what I did? Did you seriously think I would let you go, Mari? You're my wife and I intend on maintaining our marriage for years to come." Maintain?
"You're treating me like property." I blink, tears leaving my eyes a bit. "You don't treat me like a person."
"You have no intention on learning how to love the husband you have do you? You don't care to appreciate a good thing that you have."
"A good thing? What is good about you?" I look him over. "Nothing is worth looking at when it comes to you. The only good things about you are the sex and the fact you're wealthy and have good connections." And that he's super talented and an absolute genius when it comes to solving his problems. I have to admit, this plan of his was pretty smart. I never suspected he was recording my conversations and what I did.
He steps closer to me as he smiles a little bit. "You might want to watch your mouth when you're in the open like this, my wife," he says, keeping his voice low as his lips curve up even more.
He knows I can't fight this now without bringing Aruto completely down with me. Aruto won't have a thing to rely on and I'll have only Gai to go to then. Gai wouldn't ditch me. He'll stay with me in order to keep me as his wife and to look forgiving.
He brings a hand up to my hat and pulls it off, removing it from my head. "You won't be needing a disguise to get around, dear."
He brings up his free hand to my face and I pull back, moving back from his hand as tears go down my cheeks. He has no right to touch me like that. I don't want him to touch me ever again. He has betrayed me completely by leading me on. I really thought I was going to get free for once despite his suspicious behavior.
"I see. It is going to be that way, huh?" His eyes narrow a bit and his smirk drops. "How about we get home together? I already took the liberty to tell that man to stay away from you. I even threatened to have him charged if he keeps bothering you by claiming he's your stalker."
I look away from him, probably having the look of a bitch on my face, and he sighs a little. He does not deserve a response. I will not give him the response he wants me to give him.
"We'll go home now. It seems like you're ready to."
He pulls on me and I follow him, stumbling a bit as he drags me towards the exit. He just won't let me live. Am I not allowed to live as who I want to be?
~.~
Gai releases my wrist as I stumble to a stop. I look at him as he looks me over, a smug look of victory on his face. He thinks he is the winner right now, huh? He won't be in the lead for long. I will end him.
"I think you will learn to see things how I see it," he tells me, his eyes leaving me and scanning our living room. "All the rooms in the house have devices that listen to what you're saying. You're not allowed to speak ill of me while in our home."
I narrow my eyes a bit, glaring at him.
"Oh, do you have nothing to say all of a sudden?" His eyes return to me as his lips curve up even more, making him look even smugger about the situation he has caused. "Aruto probably has a lot to say right now. Do you think he'll admit to trying to steal my wife from me?"
"Aruto wasn't stealing me from you. I was never yours to begin with. Our relationship is only one based on a one-sided deal," I say, stating the truth. He made sure it was completely one-sided and that I would slip into the marriage with ease.
"You'll never find the evidence against you. If you wish to leave me, that is probably your best chance to gain control over your situation. I won't have control over you then because you won't have to be worried about your past."
"Put it out there. I rather rot away than be your wife again," I state, my words coming out drenched in venom.
He steps closer to me and I bring up my hands and push him back, making him stumble. He looks me in the eyes, glaring as the smug look leaves his face. Does he want me to just to stand back and be all sweet to him? He lost that the moment he twisted all of ours lives and bragged about it.
"You're going to find that you're in the wrong here, Mari," he says, acting like he's right about everything. "You'll accept this marriage whether you want to or not. You stuck in it until I make you disappear." He steps closer to me and lifts a hand up towards me.
I step back and look down. "I do not wish to be touched by your hands at this moment. I want to go and rest." I look back at his face, keeping my poker face up.
He nods his head a bit slowly as he puts down his hand. "Fine then. Go to our room and keep your trap shut."
Will do.
A/n: Now this will lead us into the next part of the story. And did Gai just give out some important information? Hmm...maybe that will come into play later on.
Don't worry, there is no love triangle in Gari's relationship (yes, I gave them a name for their pairing. I don't know what we should call Aruto and Mari and Horobi and Mari yet).
Mari isn't going to tolerate Gai's crap any longer so please watch for how she gets out of their marriage (I mean, she's tolerate his existence but that is pretty much as far as it'll go). We have a lot of drama coming up and I'm going to give you all a few extra chapters today as an apology for delays in posting :D I'm addicted to catching all the pokemon in the world. D: