Considering how hard my heart was pounding in my chest, I wouldn’t be surprised if it leaped out of the cavity any moment now. To say I was having a mild panic attack would seem as though I was exaggerating, but only I knew how terrified I was of flying.
As we slowly ascended, the imbalance in my ear was beginning to grab my attention. I was too focused on minding my breathing to even bother grabbing a hold of my earplugs that were inside my purse.
I should’ve known better than to travel alone. Especially when I was well aware of my qualms when it came to flying in an airplane.
In a desperate attempt to keep my mind off things for a while, I closed my eyes and thought about my family.
Back in high school, I was always sure what I wanted to be and who I wanted to be with. But like all of my other plans, they were put to trial. I no longer wished for them now. These days, I just wished for small things to happen.
Coming home to my family and talking to them about my day, celebrating Christmas and Thanksgiving with close friends and family, accompanying my dad for his general medical check-ups - these were the few things that I knew I wished for the most at this point in my life.
I wished my job didn’t consume most of my time. I knew I wanted to be an actress ever since I was in high school. There was a small phase before I was sending out applications for college where I had doubts about my chosen career path. No matter how rewarding, being part of the entertainment industry is intense.
But again, isn’t that what I’d wanted in the first place? I wanted my life to be like this. I enjoyed being a workaholic and found true pleasure in pursuing my passion. But it came with the price of not finding enough time to spend with my dear ones.
It had been seven years since I last saw my friends together. I met them separately and mostly bumped into a few of them at parties but I could never attend any of the reunions they had planned for us. I had missed most of their weddings too because I didn’t want to see him.
It was seven years ago that I last saw the former love of my life. Ethan. He was my first love, of course. And also my only love. Whilst we were together, I shared a profound bond with him. Although we had both disappointed each other at times, we had managed to grow out of quarrels and emerge stronger than before.
When we had first split, we were just seventeen. Since we were relatively younger, I had imagined that it wouldn’t be as tough to move on from him. We loved each other so much despite the rivalry between him and my brother. I loved him so much that even now, seven years post my heartbreak, I couldn’t manage to lose my heart to another man.
The day of our graduation was probably the last time I ever looked at him directly. For the past seven years, I’ve kept myself away from him but seldom did that work well for me. No matter how hard I tried, I would always know about how he’s doing from various sources. My friends would randomly talk about him with me and how he’s coping with our breakup.
When I was young, so young to even remember my age, I lost my family in a separation my parents had. While the divorce built a permanent gap between my parents, it also separated my twin, Nick and me, who had to live with either of the parents. While I stayed behind with my mom, Nick chose my dad.
With passing years, our frequent visits came down as did our daily calls. Misunderstandings grew to a point where complete ignorance of each other seemed like a better option. We only met after my mother eloped with one of her lovers leaving me alone for my father to take in.
I moved to LA to be with my brother and father, in other words, the only family I had left. Things eventually started to get better between us and we finally were leading a comfortable life with each other. That was when I fell in love with Ethan Parker.
He was rude, notorious and also the biggest rival of my brother. His friends and my friends never got along. They had their rivalry going on since the longest time I could ever think of. Things turned different when we started off our relationship and soon enough, my friends fell in love with his, and I, with him.
When things turned great for all of us, and when everyone was ready to let go of their rivalry, something so terrible had to happen that separated Ethan and me forever. The gap that formed between us was so huge that we hadn’t met each other until now.
Although it had been seven years since we broke up, I couldn’t forgive him for doing what he did. I didn’t find it within myself to have the heart to let go of everything he did and be with him.
In these seven years, I grew to become an actress, the profession I had always dreamt of taking up. It was probably the only thing from my teenage years that remained concrete in my wish list.
I wanted to do the films that genuinely intrigued me and made me feel like it was a story that had to be told. It was perhaps this notion of mine that worked well for me at the box office.
My friends had always made plans for me to join them on their reunions but I never showed up because Ethan would be coming there too. He loved our friends and he would not just skip on the reunions because I was going there too. In that regard, he was very different from me. He didn’t give a shit about me anymore.
Ethan took over his father’s business when he was really young, right out of college. Now, he’s twenty-five and from what I knew, he was too good at his job. I had never doubted his abilities - I knew how versatile he was and given any circumstance, he is the kind of person that you can count on to bring a solution. He is the man in the storm. And all the appreciation he was subjected to since he took over the company was completely justified.
Being one of the eligible bachelors in the world, he was always seen hooking up with girls but he never had a serious relationship with anyone until recently. I didn’t particularly focus on him under the gossip section but I had somehow stumbled upon a rumor regarding his wedding.
Nobody knew who the girl was, but the reports claim that he had been dating her for a while now and soon had decided to put a ring on her finger.
After knowing it, I felt foolish to ever think he was stuck up on me like I was on him. He moved on and even agreed to a wedding with someone. It was almost heartbreaking for me to know that the only guy I ever loved was getting married to someone else.
I blocked every source that would make me aware of what was happening in his life. It was a desperate attempt to block him from my life although I wasn’t proud of my ways. I felt despicable being so affected by him and the news but at the same time, he was the love of my life. People take a lifetime to get over their love. How was I any different?
As I stepped into the villa, I noticed that a feverish smile was playing on my lips. Lindsay and I have been close friends ever since we first bumped into each other in one of our college fests. Having been interested in singing, we were part of a small local band in college.We never wanted to professionally pursue singing as it was more of a fun hobby to us more than anything. It fueled our friendship through the years as we shared similar tastes in music. Moreover, due to band activities, we were made to spend a good amount of time together, which inevitably helped bridge a profound friendship between us.Although she was one of my closest friends from college, the bond we shared was a bit unusual, or so it might seem to others. She was a very reserved, introverted person, and often didn’t ask for the liberty to be able to vent to me. She was somebody who was more emotionally mature than I was and didn’t feel the need to share a lot of things about herself with others.She had comp
His otherwise warm eyes, that had always reminded me of how much he loved me, had turned intolerably dark. Visibly paled, he breathed out in disbelief.“Skylar?”It almost felt like a dream. There was something inside of me that hoped for it all to be a one of all the other nightmares I had of I meeting him again in an absurd situation, and then waking up to reality where it would just vanish away like air. But it also was so hard to regard as a dream. I was so aware of all the things that were playing through my mind that I have confined to my heart to until this moment.How could everything that happened around seven years ago just come crashing into my mind like it just happened yesterday? How could just one glance at him stir those deep buried emotions to come back to the surface, brimming with the same level of anticipation. I remained rooted in my place, unmoving.My mind was constantly trying to escape to all the past times I’ve spent with him together, as though my entire life
I had no reason to cast myself another look in the mirror, but I did it anyway. And as I lingered there for a while, the reflection of my figure faded into thin air and instead, images from my life began to play before my eyes.If this was the universe that planned my life, then it did a bloody great job.I masked my face with the veil before Ethan could notice my tears. I knew for certain that nothing could change his mind. He absolutely hated me. Which led me to believe that, maybe, it wouldn’t matter to him if he called the wedding off, and perhaps, he was doing this because he had found an excuse to hurt me.Of course, he would never agree to that. But I knew for certain that he could go to an extent as that if he knew that getting married to him was the last thing I wanted.“Are you done?”I nodded in response. And there he stood in all his glory with not even a worried crease disturbing the calm aura around him. His nonchalance almost created a ripple of frustration within me.I
The news spread around like wildfire. After the wedding was over, Ethan cancelled all of the further events since he wanted to call for an important family meeting. There was not even a single soul that didn’t look surprised upon seeing the girl Ethan married.“Where the hell is my daughter?” Luke demanded from Ethan.“Shouldn’t I be asking you where my fiancé was when I went to fetch her from her room?” Ethan replied, shunning everyone with his dangerously low voice.“What are you talking about?”“She eloped with her lover.” He said, “Leaving me with no choice but to marry the first woman I could find in her room before this wedding could become a scandal.”“We had a deal that you’d marry my daughter!” Luke yelled at Ethan, looking at me with a disgust. “How could you marry this wench after giving me your word?”“Hey, watch your words.” Jen, my best friend, said to him, coming to stand beside.I was surprised to have her by my side at a situation like this. Although it was a complete
Ethan’s POV“You know you don’t have to be a jerk to her for what happened seven years ago, right?” Lexi asked me as I hugged her good bye. Skylar was talking privately with my parents while Lexi pulled me to a side for a quick chat.“Is that all you’ve got to say?” I asked her.“If you married someone else, I would’ve asked you to better be careful with your wife. But now, I insist on asking you to handle her with care and to not be a jerk.”“I’m old enough to know when to be a jerk.” I replied.“Exactly, but still you act like the most stupid person I ever knew in my life.” Lexi teased me.“Lexi..” I warned her.“See,” Lexi said, looking at me in the eye. Her voice became serious and gone was the playful tone she was using. “I know why you did what you did. I also know that you were forced to marry Skylar and that you can do nothing about it now. Even if you plan for a divorce, you still have plenty of time to spend alongside each other and fulfil your part. And if you’re just going
Skylar’s POVThe drive to his house was calm and boring, just like the flight journey that we took a few hours ago to come to LA. Most of the time, I was in conflict with my mind if I should turn the music on to lighten up the situation. Part of my mind told me that I should totally go for it, while the other told me how it is impossible to lighten a situation up if it involves my husband.I cringed at that thought. The word husband suddenly seemed so weird. It scared me for a moment. Now, I’ll be known as some else’s wife rather than by my own identity. People are probably going to know me better as someone that married Ethan than a good actress.But I know what people think is not always my thing to worry about. There are always going to be someone to talk about you. I can’t possibly lead a life giving a damn about everything.I blinked a few times and shook the thoughts away. We soon reached his house. I wasn’t surprised to know that he stays in a penthouse.His house smelled of wo
“You say you married one of your ex-boyfriends - scratch that- your only ex-boyfriend, against your wish?” Jessica exclaimed, her blue eyes narrowing at meI left out an irritated sigh. “For the tenth time, yes."“What is the century that we’re living in? Please don’t tell me it’s the twenty-first. Because that kind of stuff doesn’t happen here anymore!” Jess’s expression turned incredulous.“Well, it happened to me,” I said, shrugging. “I was defenceless against him.”“Oh, don’t say stuff like that. You’re never defenceless. You always have your way through with things.” Jess said.“He told me he would ruin my career.”"Wow."“He would. That's Ethan Parker we're talking about, he can do anything.” I said, the energy of fighting anymore draining away from my body like a deflated balloon.Jessica, my manager, sat across from me with her legs folded under her thighs, holding numerous news articles and magazines that posted about my wedding. Apparently, the news broke out in the morning,
“I want to talk to you,” I spoke as the wall clock binged with the completion of one round. Ethan spread himself in the study, going through a few of his files and making rough notes.“I’m busy.” His blunt reply crept into my ears.“It’s important,” I stated, tapping my fingers against the headrest of the chair that lay before the table. He let out a rough sigh and closed his laptop. Leaning back in the chair, with arms held folded, he waited for me to continue.“Jess was suggesting us to go on a honeymoon,” I said, clutching the rim of the chairs and gently digging my nails into them.He frowned. “Who’s that?”“The woman who just got kicked out of this house. You didn’t really have to be so rude to her, by the way. She was being nice to you. Anyways, back to it. I’m really worried about how my marriage is going to affect my career and you already know that people aren’t accepting what we are projecting. We need to be a little more-”“We are not going anywhere, Skylar. I have work to