A Third Chance In Love

CHAPTER 3 - I Am Sorry, Alexus

Aloida, took a deep breath before she was able to speak again. She needed to be strong to do what was right and for the good of her daughter.

“Alexus, I am so sorry. Last night my heart grieved while I was embracing my daughter to say goodbye. I am a mother, and I can’t go on living without my daughter . . . I will be with you, but I might not be completely happy, knowing that my daughter is hating and cursing me. My conscience will be haunting me, Alexus,“ Aloida murmured while her tears were flowing like rivulets. Her heart felt so painful, excruciating. It was like a sharp dagger that seemed to be slowly slitting every part of her.

“But Aloida, how about us . . . please . . . stay with me. I promise to make you happy. I will not hurt you. We can get your daughter if that is what you want,” Alexus’ voice was so sincere and assuring. Aloida was his life and without her, his heart would stop beating.

“I know you will make me happy, Alexus but please do understand, I cannot sacrifice my child’s future. Augustus will kill us, and we have no way to get Aalyna from him. I can’t ruin my own flesh and blood… I don’t want my daughter to forsake me, Alexus.” Aloida was shaking as she was trying to control her emotions.

She broke off Alexus’s tight embrace and ran as fast as she might without looking back.

“Aloida! I am strong enough to fight Augustus!” Alexus’ grieving voice echoed all over the cave. His weeping could torment a heart even those with less or no empathy at all.

With such long and strong cries of Alexus, the wolves’ palace had been shaken. It torments every wolf on guard.

The roaring cries of wolves had shaken the cave, like thunder.

Aloida had been abruptly stopped by such a sound. She looked back with tears bursting and with a heavy heart.

She ran thereafter like rushing for her last minute of breath, for she could not take the sight of the breaking walls of the cave.

She ran and ran without looking back with uncontrollable emotions and a torn heart. And then, from a distance, she heard the last sound of the breaking walls. Sound-like thunder that had broken her soul completely.

As Aloida looked back, her visions were being blurred by her overflowing tears. She saw nothing any more of Alexus’ cave; the cave where she left her heart, beating.

The cave was nowhere in sight but only the traces of the palace of Alexus, the man with an undying love for her. Aloida’s knees weakened as she slowly kneed onto the ground, weeping.

“Alexus, I am sorry. I am sorry. I am a coward, I know. But, how could I choose our love if I broke the heart of my innocent child?” she murmured, weeping while still kneeling on the ground. She could not stand it. Her knees were not permitting her to do so. They were so weak that her bones melted. Her heart died at the moment, she knew it. She could feel it.

For a moment, she was like that, unable to move. She was like a statue. Her only difference from a real statue was that she was a statue whose tears were flowing abundantly onto her cheeks.

...

Five years passed just like a thief in the night. Aloida lives in misery. There was no time that she never remembered Alexus. She treated Agustus as coldly as she could and devoted herself to her daughter. Until such time that Señor Agustus became irritable to her always.

Like tonight, Señor Agustus came home late again. He smelled of another woman’s scent, but instead of being sad or hurt about it, Aloida even rejoiced. It had been a long time already since she was waiting for Señor Agustus to be fed up with her, find another woman, and divorce her. She knew very well that their daughter would choose her over her father should the court ask her to choose between them, worst comes to worst. She would not be on the losing end, she knew it well.

She did not move when Señor Agustus laid his body beside her on the bed. She pretended to be sleeping soundly.

“Goddamit, Aloida, you are useless! You could not even satisfy my lust!” Señor Agustus hissed with irritation before he finally dozed off beside her. Aloida wanted to clap her hands.

“Just a few more times, you will discard me already, Agustus, and I will be the happiest woman on earth,” Aloida thought while secretly smiling.

A few more days and Señor Agustus started to flaunt already to Aloida his womanizing activities. He would even take a woman into the mansion and flirt with her even in front of Aloida. She could not count anymore in her hands, how many women did Señor Agustus bring to the mansion? Sometimes, he would even have s*x with the woman in the next room beside their bedroom and Aloida could hear their moaning and the sounds of two slapping bodies doing s****l deeds.

But Aloida was not affected at all. She was even getting happier as the days went by. She knew that in just a few moments, Señor Agustus would give her up for another woman until he divorced her.

Aloida knew that if she was the one to file a divorce, Señor Agustus would not agree and might even deprive her of seeing their daughter. That she could not allow to happen. Aalyna was the reason why she gave up Alexus before, and she would not let such a sacrifice that she did, go to waste.

Until the day that she was waiting for finally happened.

“Read those documents, Aloida, and sign them!” Señor Agustus threw onto the bed a set of documents while looking at her with disgust.

“What are these, Agustus?” Aloida asked while she reached out for the documents.

Señor Agustus looked at her with squinting eyes. “I told you to read them, Aloida. Are you deaf or just a jerk? Read them for you to know and sign! I need to marry Natalia because she is already pregnant!”

Hearing what he said, joy suddenly flooded all throughout Aloida’s heart. She read the documents and, without thinking twice, got the pen that had been thrown at him too by Señor Agustus. She signed them after checking the parts about their daughter’s custody and alimony part. Satisfied with what she read, she immediately signed the divorce paper.

“Here it goes, Agustus. Good luck to your new marriage,” she said coldly. “Aalyna and I will pack our things now, and we will leave this place tomorrow. Since you have given me, as part of the alimony, the mini-bungalow in the downtown, we will be residing there then for a while, until I can find a better home for us,” she added. She looked at her ex-husband now and smiled.

“You seemed to be even happy that I divorced you, Aloida?” with a mocking tone, Señor Agustus said. He got the documents from Aloida after that and walked out of the room.

The moment her ex-husband went out of the room, she started to pack her things, and thereafter, spoke with her daughter, Aalyna about their moving out.

The next day, Aloida and Aalyna were ready to move out. She then drove the oldest car, which was given to her by Agustus as part of the alimony. Aloida was ecstatic, she was even singing a love song while driving, while Aalyna was sleeping in the car’s back passenger side seat.

Her singing, however, was suddenly interrupted when, out of nowhere, a luxurious metallic dark-gray model of a car sped off and hit the side of her car. She stopped her car and got out. She was frowning while looking at the man who was getting out of the luxurious car. He was tall and seemed to be one of the wealthy executives in the city. He was wearing dark sunglasses, and although Aloida could not see his eyes yet, she could already determine that the man had a dashing personality.

He approached her and slowly, removed his sunglasses. Aloida’s mouth suddenly fell open.