CHAPTER THREE

She wants to live past Antoine.

As soon as she got out. She took in a deep breathe and then let it out. She couldn't move for close to twenty minutes. She just stood, doing nothing.

After twenty minutes, she began to cry. She's free. Free at last though her heart hurts. It burns like a furnace. Her pain was still there.

She recalled all her close relations who adviced her to walk out of this hell called marriage but she never listened.

"He will change. I feel he would." She told anyone who worried for her.

In all of those that worried stood Ambrose, her highschool male friend, not only a male friend but her best friend.

He worried the most. Right from the first time she met Antoine, he always found faults with him until she married him.

He didn't stop complaining until she cut all ties with him so he would stop bothering her.

Standing in the middle of nowhere, the sky already giving a sign for a heavy rain, she remembered him. She brought out her phone and dialed his number.

She hoped that he would take her call. She hoped that it won't be awkward phoning him after two years. She hoped she won't that she's so shameless right now.

Quitting your husband's family without proper planning in the middle of the night. Whoa! Amélie really got some nerves!

"Amélie..."Ambrose said as soon the line came through.

She wanted to apologize, she wanted to say that he was right all along. Antoine wasn't good for her. She wanted to say that she was wrong when she married him.

But she was too exhausted to say a word. "Please, come pick me up infront of my husband's house right now. Else, embarrassment will kill me." She said and hung up.

She didn't shake. Cry or try to think about everything that happened. She was mute. She stood and waited. Ten minutes later, Ambrose's car stopped infront of her.

He rewind his glass and stuck his head. "Get in." He said.

"How can I get in? My bag, aren't you gonna help me put it into your car?" She asked and he got down from the car.

She got in while he helped her with her bag. She leaned her head on the car door as she strapped her seat belt in. He got in and zoomed off.

No words were exchanged between them. But he watched and observed her till he reached her house. He stopped and she unstrapped her belt.

She was about grabbing the car door handle when he stopped her. "You did well. " He said and she turned to look at him.

She nodded. "Thanks. Can you help me and prepare divorce papers. Just call my lawyers and they will help provide that for you." She said coldly.

He nodded. "I will do that for you."

"Thanks so Amby. I wasn't sure you were gonna show up. Not after all I've done."

"I'm so happy that you came to your senses. That's more better."

She smiled while he squeezed her arm. "Are you sure you can stay alone in this large house of yours? "

"I will. It's better than being in the Guillaume's family. I will be fine."

"I can stay with you for the night."

"You don't have to worry about me anymore, Amby. I'm fine." She said and opened the car door, she got down and went to the back seat, she took out her bag and began to wheel it to her gate.

Amby stepped out watching her until she got in to her house without looking back. He pitied her. How lean and un-lively she looked. Amélie who used to be so bubbly and full of life, someone who laughed a lot and smiled a lot until she met that stone-hearted husband whom she called a husband.

Till today, he will stop asking himself what Amélie saw in him that made her go crazy over him. To make her go against so many of her rules. To make her reduce herself to some kind of slave. A punching bag for everyone.

He clenched his fist watching her disappear into her house and then close her door. He will come visit her tomorrow. He told himself as he got in and drove off.

As she closed her door, she leaned on the door. Her eyes were shaking. Her heart was aching. Pain and pain latched through her. Everything hurts.

Getting married, settling down and hoping, always hoping that everything will turn out fine even when there was no hope.

And now, she's back into her large empty house. She's back into this house which she vowed never to come back to no matter how badly Antoine treated her.

She's such a fool. She sat down on the floor, still leaning her back on the wall, she fell asleep. She slept for so long. She didn't wanna wake up, she just wanted to sleep.

All the sleepless night she had in Antoine's house, she wanted to sleep them all off. When she finally wake up because of the ringing of her door bell, she didn't stand up immediately.

She was confused at first, where she was, what she's doing and how she happened to be in her house. But one jog of her memory relived everything in her heart.

The door bell rang again and she stood up and opened her door. It was Amby. "Hi!" She shifted for him to come in.

"Hey Amby."

"Hey. Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah I did." She replied warmly.

"Have you eaten?"

"No. But I'm not hungry. Uhm, did you prepare the documents?"

"It will be ready by tomorrow."

"I need it today. I wanted to get away from Antoine as quickly as I can. I need it very urgently so I can travel before next week runs out."

"You're leaving Paris?"

"I don't have anything here in Paris anymore. I need to return to America to be with my family. Manage the family business which I've been neglecting for four years too." She shrugged and moved to her kitchen area. "How come everywhere is so clean, were you sending someone over to take care of this place while I was away?"

He nodded but he was disturbed. "Amélie, I'm sorry that I let you suffer in the hands of that man for quite too long. Yesterday was your birthday, I didn't even call."

She smiled. "You remembered my birthday? I guess someone at least remembers that. Guillaume's family don't even know that I age. Like a piece of furniture in their house, I was always..." She kept mute. Reliving that experience won't make her get better.

Amby went over to her side. "Let me make some food for you. You need to fatten up before you face your parents else, you will just make them worry so much about you."

She nodded. From then on, she ate, drank, slept, bathe, sleep and she will repeat the cycle again. She do go out to parties on Ambrose's persuasion but she didn't break her cycle for a week.

She was getting over her Antoine. She was beginning to enjoy the life which she have missed for four years. She laughed more and the next day, Amby showed up in her house with her divorce papers.

"They're finally ready Amélie. Look at it." He said as he handed the papers to her. She flipped through it, nodding her head.

"It's okay. They didn't add the alimony and that's fine. I don't want anything to do with that family ever again." She said while Amby patted her shoulder.

She breathed hard. She was about to take the final step in her marriage and she was so nervous. "Take me to Gillaume Designer Bags." She said and Ambrose looked at her.

"Are you sure about this? Are you sure that this is what you want?"

She nodded her head. She have already made this choice and she can't go back on it. "Yeah, this is what I want and all I need to do in order to get it is meet Antoine for one last time."