Chapter 1
The last thing Clara would have ever anticipated seeing when arriving home from her soul crushing shift at the ER was her fiancé, well EX-fiancé tangled up in their sheets with another man. It stung worse knowing Christian hid this kind of secret from her from the very beginning, at least if it were a woman Clara could have handled the bitter jealousy and resentment easier than seeing the inhumanely beautiful man that was topping her ex.
Sitting on her best friend Tamara's couch, she thought back on the beginning of her day and how it lead to witnessing her life crumbling down around her feet.
~Flashback~
The shrill beeping of her alarm pierced through Clara's foggy, sleep addled mind as she struggled to wake up from her last shift at the ER. Fumbling around her nightstand for the offending device, she finally found her phone and peeled one eye open to locate the silence button to turn the alarm off. Hearing her fiancé grumble beside her as she struggled to silence the noise, Clara finally got it to stop and rolled over to cuddle against Christian.
"Good morning love bug" she murmured as she pressed a kiss against his 5 o'clock shadowed cheek.
"Morning" he mumbled back, shifting away from her as he began to rise from the bed. Frowning at his back, Clara sighed heavily as she rolled to get out of bed as well and began to get ready for her next shift. "What are your plans today?" she asked him casually as she prepped her morning skin routine.
Clara and Christian had been together since their college days. Both coming from relatively affluential families, their relationship was supported on both sides and enthusiastically celebrated when Christian proposed to Clara after 4 years of courtship. But recently, and Clara isn't truly sure why, there had been some kind of invisible strain on their relationship.
Whether it was from Clara pulling long shifts at the hospital, or big projects Christian kept finding himself in, she wasn't sure if it was the time and work related stress that was putting a wedge in their relationship, or something worse that her fiancé wouldn't open up about.
Watching him in between washing her face and applying her skin care, she struggled to contain the questions she desperately wanted to ask him, instead she watched him brush his teeth and rinse his mouth before moving into their joined closet.
"I have another presentation today and a few closing meetings happening today as well with a few big time clients we are working with." He told her from within the closet. The sound of hangers screeching across the bar, almost muffling the sound of his soft voice.
Christian was always like that, soft spoken. His voice hushed whenever he spoke, unless it was something he was passionate about. Then his voice grew strong and passionate as he spoke. But with her, and that's one of the biggest reasons she fell in love with him. With Clara, he was soft, never a harsh word with her. He always treated her kindly and delicately and she loved that about him. Recently however, between the lack of gentle touches and soft words. His voice was colder towards her. Still as hushed, but there was a lack of care in them, his eyes contained more frustration and spite in the times she caught him looking at her when he didn't think she was paying attention.
"No lunch stops today?" She teased gently. Before this rift between them began to develop and grow, Christian would take time out of his day in between major meetings and other tasks, to come and eat with her when she was able to steal time for a proper meal. But those visits began to dwindle down and stopped altogether as he claimed that his hard work and efforts were being recognized at work and that his bosses began to assign him more difficult projects to manage.
Watching a frown crease his beautiful face, Christian turned and scowled at her. "Not today Clara. If you were actually listening to anything I was saying, you would know that I have a very busy schedule today and I just can't take the time to see you." He snapped.
Shrinking back as his words hit her, Clara stared at him wide-eyed. Stunned at the harshness in his voice.
"I...I was listening, I was just joking Christian, I'm okay that you don't have the time to visit me anymore, I get that you're even more busy now than you have been in the past." She said, speaking to him in a soothing voice, hoping to deescalate the impending argument.
"Then act like you're listening. I know you aren't stupid, but this is ridiculous how dense you've been acting recently." He bit out, grabbing the suit jacket that went with the rest of what he was wearing, Clara watched as Christian stormed out of the bathroom, bumping against her as he left, forcing her side to bite into the sharp edge of the marble sink counter.
Eye's watering as her side throbbed from the impact, Clara turned around and faced herself in the mirror. Gripping the counter with both hands, she took a deep inhale and focused on calming down before finishing up getting ready for her shift.
It was moments like these that made Clara vividly realize that something was wrong between them, but she was too much of a coward to confront Christian to figure out what had happened between them.
"It's just stress." she whispered to herself as she dabbed the tears from her eyes. Shaking off the surge of emotions, she quickly set about the rest of her hygiene routine and got into a clean pair of scrubs for the day.
After a long arduous day of seeing back to back patients in the ER ranging from, this could have been consulted with your P.C.P to quickly escalating to a life or death situation, Clara couldn't remember how she had driven home that evening. Her mind was numb from the day's events and her eyes bleary and sore from exhaustion. Glancing over at the dark screen of her phone, she sighed in frustration at the lack of response from Christian.
On a normal night, she would give him a call as soon as she got off work to chat with him a little bit on her commute home, but all of her calls this evening were going straight to voicemail. Trying to keep the uneasy feeling that was growing in the pit of her stomach at bay, she just chalked it up to him having brought his work home as he is prone to do, and just working through the night.
Pulling into the driveway of their modest home, she noticed Christians car was there and relief surged through her.
'See? nothing to worry about, he's probably just working in the dining room right now.' She though to herself as she shut her car off and began to grab all her things and exit the vehicle.
Unlocking the front door, she stepped into the quietness of her home. Frowning at the lack of her fiancé working, Clara set her stuff down by the door, calling Christian's name as she surveyed the interior of her house.
Nothing appeared unusual or out of place. Her home was just unusually quiet for Christian to be home. Normally he would have some form of soft music playing while he wrapped up projects he'd bring home, or while he would work on making dinner for the both of them.
Walking upstairs to where their bedroom was, Clara noticed that at the end of the dark hallway, the dim light of their bedroom shone through the darkness. Walking quietly down the corridor, she strained her ears to pick up any signs of life in her house.
Finally she came to a stop in front of her own bedroom door, her heart beating a fierce tempo in her throat as her hand wavered over the doorknob. Pressing her ear against the door to see if she could pick up any sounds, she heard a thump on the other side followed by a low guttural moan.
Anger course through her veins as she twisted the knob and threw the door open. Only to freeze at the sight before her.
What Clara was hoping to see was her fiancé cheating on her with another woman, deep down Clara feared that the distance that was growing between them was because of another woman. But instead, she watched the broad expanse of another man's back arch in front of her as the sounds of her fiancé's breathy moans came from beneath him.
Feeling her blood pressure hit the floor, Clara wavered as she watched the strange man dominate her fiancé. Clasping her hand over her mouth, Clara felt the fiery hot tears drip from her eye's as she struggled to process what she was seeing. "Oh...oh my god." She finally gasped out. Watching as the men before her freeze at the sound of someone intruding upon their bubble of passion.
Feeling herself step back as she watched Christian's head pop up, eye's wide in surprise, she let out a whimper as he tried to get up and call to her.
"Clara-Clara wait! I can explain!" She heard him shout out after her as she dashed down the stairs. Key's in hand as she rushed out the door. She couldn't even remember if she had closed the door or left it open as she fled. All she knew is that her mind and heart felt splintered and she still couldn't believe what she had witnessed.
