The Reason

Chapter Seven

As soon as I return to AMU, Aidan looks flustered as soon as he sees me. "Rex is back on the ward...I've been waiting for you so you'd know where we are." He starts walking quickly, sounding out of breath with each anxious foot that he puts in front of the other. "They're only wanting two visitors per patient on the ward, so Marion is with him at the moment. I've asked her to tell him that you're here." He quietly adds, his words coated with such obvious wariness.

I force a small smile. "It's okay, Aidan...I'll understand if he doesn't want me here." Although I say it in a way that is as positive as I can realistically muster, I am feeling anything but positive. I know Rex. He is one of those men who is fiercely loyal and trusting, but if you trample on his loyalty and his trust; it's irreparably damaged. So I'm not expecting him to want to see me. It's just enough for him to know that I am here—he may not like it, but I am here.

Aidan shrugs with a relieved smile. I don't think he's holding out much hope for a happy reunion between us either. "That's good." He chorally replies, still warily smiling.

We hurry to the ward where Rex has been taken and nervously sit and wait for Marion. She isn't long at all. She saunters across the corridor with a cautious smile to greet us. "He's a little out of it, so I didn't want to be in with him for too long." She softly explains. With a warmness sitting within her green eyes, she looks directly down at Aidan. "He would like to see you."

"Did you tell him about Angel?" He asks, quickly glancing sideways at me before rising from his uncomfortable hospital seat.

With a careful nod, Marion answers. "Yes, but he only wants to see you."

Although I knew that Rex wouldn't want to see me, it still hurts to be told it. I try to hide it really well, but the hurt can certainly still be felt. Forcing yet another wide smile, I look at Aidan who is looking back at me with a face full of apology. "Don't worry about me, just go and see him." My voice is as light as I can possibly make it sound, keeping the rejection deep within my throat.

"I won't be long." He tells me, still looking more sorry than ever.

Gently nodding, I turn to look at Marion who is just about to sit beside me. "He's very weak, Angel." She slowly turns in her seat. "I just don't think he's strong enough to see you right now, so please don't be too upset about him not wanting to see you."

Everything about Marion has surprised me. I'm not entirely sure what kind of woman I had imagined her to be, but here she is; comforting me. She obviously once loved Rex a great deal; she probably still does. Yet just as I have had to accept how things are between Rex and myself—she has had to do the very same.

Her initial reaction to me was a little prickly, and understandably so. Her marriage to Rex was a failed one. She may very well still point the finger of blame at me, yet she has surprisingly decided not to be bitter about it. I can't help but admire her for that.

Marion has a dignified strength about her, and I can't help but like her because of it. My smile in her direction is genuinely warm and genuinely thankful. "I appreciate your kind words, Marion. All things considered, they are more than I deserve." I honestly say.

Her eyes slowly lift to mine, a serene smile pulling on the corners of her relaxed mouth. "I stopped hating the both of you quite some time ago. Rex's heart was totally closed off to the possibility of feeling love with someone else, because it had been completely broken by you. He did try to love me, he really did...but just like our marriage; it horribly failed." She laughs softly, a sad but gentle laugh before continuing her lonely tale. "I always felt like I was competing with the memory of you, Angel—with the memory of your love. In the end, it took its toll. Wanting what you can't have is simply beyond exhausting. I was exhausted trying to be loved by Rex and he was exhausted by trying to love me. So I filed for a divorce within seven months of our doomed marriage. Rex was truly sorry, because that's the kind of man that he is. If he could have loved me, he would have. Which is why I am saying this to you now." Her steady gaze into my attentive eyes intensifies. "If you love him, be prepared to fight for him. That heart of his has been shattered beyond recognition. Just because you were the one who done that to him, doesn't mean that he will make it easy for you when you try to carefully put it back together...because he won't."