Ex husband's Plea for Forgiveness

"How about next time? I’ll take you to your favorite restaurant then." Despite his words, Jonas's tone sounded noncommittal, and it irked Emily.

She pasted a smile on her face and tried to temper her simmering anger. "I’m sorry. I realize I must have taken too much of your time lately. Please go ahead and deal with whatever you need to deal with. I can handle myself."

Jonas could see that her smile was a little forced, and he felt a small pang of guilt. It soon disappeared in a flash, however, and he hurried out of the room.

Emily walked to the window and watched as his car zoomed out of the garage and disappeared in the hot sun.

"Miss Bai, are we continuing with your practice?" It was the coach, who had been in the room for a few moments now. When he first entered, he had found Miss Bai all by herself. He had looked around, confused and unsure what to do, and finally broke the silence when it seemed like his client had no plans to play any more billiards that day.

"No, I’m feeling rather unwell. Maybe next time." Emily had a hard, cold expression on her face, and she didn’t bother to look at the coach as she addressed him.

The poor man briefly wondered at the stark contrast between the image of this actress onscreen and the way she was acting in person. Oh well, she did say she wasn’t feeling well; perhaps that was all there was to it.

"Understood, Miss Bai. Next time you come here, please look for me." With that, the coach left the room, and thought nothing more of his encounter with Emily.

Jonas drove home at full speed, and his tires screeched on the mansion’s driveway as he stepped on the brakes. He got out of the car in a hurry and stalked into his wife’s villa.

Melinda was lounging on the couch watching a show, and she glanced at him only briefly as he entered the living room. He paused in the act of taking off his coat. ‘That’s it? Not even a greeting?’

He rushed back home eager to see his wife; it never occurred to him that she might not share his excitement at finally being together. A heavy lump of disappointment lodged at his throat, but he swallowed it down.

"What are you watching?" he asked casually as he plopped beside her on the couch. The moment he came close, though, Melinda’s face wrinkled into a frown.

She turned to give him a look, sniffed once, and then pushed him away with force. "Get away from me."

He could only gape at her in confusion. He could see the anger flashing in her eyes, but could find no explanation to it. He had done nothing but sit next to her, and he was sure there was nothing wrong with that.

Seeing his puzzled face, Melinda correctly assumed that her husband thought himself without fault whatsoever. It only served to fuel her anger even further.

She knew that scent. It was so overpowering that it made a mark in her memory. Besides, it was associated with one of the top candidates as the bane of her existence, so of course she would know that scent anywhere.

It was Emily’s perfume.

Even after pushing her husband away, with several feet separating them, the cloying scent of the other woman permeated the space.

"You were with Emily today," Melinda stated with conviction. She wasn’t asking him anything; she was citing facts out loud. "And you have been with her these past few days."

A flicker of surprise rose in Jonas's eyes, but he didn’t seem much bothered by what she said. In his mind, he remained innocent—he had done nothing wrong with Emily after all.

words only showed that she cared enough about him to know such things. He felt a ridiculous tingle of

a sudden, smug smile as he replied to her in a calm manner. "Yes, I have been talking to Emily a lot lately.

his voice did not escape Melinda, and she immediately assumed it was because he was talking about his childhood friend. 'This idiot must think the people around him are

much as she wanted to lash out at Jonas, she

all flew over Jonas's head. He was enjoying being the sudden object of all her attention. But then her

as she asked him, and in spite of her soft, homey clothes, she looked every bit as

Melinda that was foreign to him, and Jonas could not muster a word. After a beat of silence, she flashed him a mocking smirk. "Well it seems that you really have forgotten,

now. She couldn’t believe the gall of this man, to declare such professions and make promises that he would

forget of course. How could he forget anything when he obviously remembered much from his sweet, joyful childhood with

little helpless and unsure, but Melinda was beyond angry now, and she was done

when it came to Emily. He could see that

a scheming woman, Jonas. You know that! She might only be chatting merrily with you now, but are you sure she’s going to stop at that? Besides, you said you would

pause, not caring if she was saying too much or speaking too loudly. Her mouth felt dry after her tirade, and she swallowed a couple of times to ease the rough

of water. He handed it to her and she accepted

felt a little better after that, but as she looked at her empty glass, she

nothing, and kept staring at the glass in her hands. Mary had noticed the raised voices, and immediately approached the living room to stop the couple from fighting. When she arrived at the doorway, however, it didn’t seem like Jonas and Melinda were at each

breath. "I think what you’re misunderstanding is how you perceive

days, as he met with Emily, he found her to be simple

part of him that refused to accept that his childhood playmate

Melinda felt utterly defeated. That was the last straw. She felt her hands growing cold as the

moment, she felt an urge to bash the glass in her hands against Jonas's head in hopes that he might wake up from

misunderstanding anything, Jonas," she said in a mocking tone. "In fact, what I have in abundance at the moment is clarity. And one thing has

but the past few days proved to him that his previous judgment about her was

they talked about his wife, Emily would often apologize for the scandal, over and over, and would praise Melinda. On the other hand, when Emily was brought up between husband and wife, everything

were tipped against his wife.

the situation. "She really isn’t as bad as you think. It’s true that she had done you wrong before, but she’s not that person anymore. She’s

hard not to flinch at his every word. If they dragged this conversation out any further, things were

you saying that it’s my fault I wasn’t there to help you with your business problems? Am I being a burden

bubbling on the surface once again. If he managed to push the right buttons, she knew she

been of help to me. If I just cast her aside in spite of that, wouldn’t that

insignificance in the big picture. But it was true that Emily somehow

you can’t look bad in front of other people. Right now, I must be the one acting in extremely bad form. It must have always been me acting irrationally, especially when I tried

him and breathing heavily.

Melinda sighed and walked over to the side table to put down the glass she

shut and let all the fight in her go. She was so, so tired of

he knew that despite its simplicity, that one question was loaded with heavy and complex emotions. Emotions he couldn’t, at