The Only Exception

Part One - Chapter Twenty-Six: Surprise Warning

“How about we go out for lunch?” Lionel asked with a smile as he sat down at the dining table, his brown eyes locked at only one of the occupants that were seated at opposite ends and who were ignoring the others presents.

Lucia didn’t look up from her cereal as she messed with it, she wasn’t going to fool herself into thinking that her husband of ten weeks was even speaking to her.

In the two weeks since Antonella had arrived, Lionel had barely spoken five words to Lucia unless he really needed to and even then it was just to tell her that he was doing something with his ex-girlfriend.

Lucia swallowed as her stomach rolled as she stared at her breakfast suddenly not feeling at all hungry, she quickly got to her feet to bin the majority of her cereal; she’d barely managed two mouthfuls before Lionel had spoken.

Antonella watched Lucia leave the table before she turned to smile at the footballer, she knew that she shouldn’t be messing with his marriage but she had missed him and regretted just walking out when she had lost their baby.

“I would love to,” Antonella said with a warm smile, guilt bubbling in her stomach as she watched Lionel light up at her words; she swallowed glancing over at Lucia who had quickly left the room unable to watch anymore.

Antonella chewed on her lip as she looked down at her breakfast that Lionel had made especially for her; she hadn’t seen him do anything like that for Lucia in the two weeks that she had been staying with them.

Lionel had pretty much confessed his reasons for marrying Lucia and Antonella had felt horrible when she realised that Lucia was very much in love with the footballer and he was ignoring her.

“Will Lucy be joining us?” Antonella asked carefully as she looked up at Lionel, she had grown up with Lionel and had known Lucia through that extension though they had never been truly close.

Lionel raised an eyebrow at his ex-girlfriend wondering why she was asking about his wife, he shook his head as he turned his attention to his coffee; he had no plans to spend time with Lucia when Antonella was with him.

“Oh,” Antonella whispered as the guilt flared up in her stomach again, she picked at her breakfast as she recalled her talk with Daniella Semaan.

Daniella had insisted that it was okay for her to be this close with Lionel and that the footballer was madly in love with her still; however the Lebanese refused to listen to her friend’s guilt about hurting Lucia.

As far as Daniella was concerned, Antonella had every right to take back what was hers, screw Lucia; she should have never gotten married Lionel in the first place in the Lebanese’s eyes.

“Is everything okay?” Lionel asked picking up on Antonella’s uneasiness, a lot of the papers had noticed that he was spending a lot of time with his ex-girlfriend and he didn’t care.

Antonella forced a smile to her lips as she nodded her head, she was going to have to have a talk with Lucia about this; she really didn’t want the other woman getting hurt because of her.

***

Lucia looked up as she heard knocking on her bedroom door, she frowned as she glanced at Poppy who was curled up beside her knowing that it could only be two people; neither of them she wanted to see right now.

“Can I come in?” Antonella asked softly as she peeked inside of the room, she swallowed nervously as she stepped inside knowing that Lionel had popped out and that they were home alone.

Lucia shrugged as she turned her attention back to her book, she had nothing to say to Antonella right now and she really didn’t want to speak with her.

“Lo siento,” Antonella whispered as she eyed the woman across the room, she wanted to make sure that Lucia understood that she wasn’t here to win Lionel back in that way; she just wanted to be friends with him.

Antonella had first worried that Lucia might stop that from happening but as time passed and she spent more time alone with Lionel, she realised that she was giving him the wrong impression and she was doing a lot of damage to his marriage.

“I didn’t come here to steal Leo from you, I just wanted us to be friends again,” Antonella said hoping that she could explained what was going on and why she had really come back to Lucia.

Lucia raised an eyebrow at the other woman wondering why she thought that any of this would matter to her; she didn’t want to know anything about why Antonella was here.

Lucia closed her book as she moved to look at Antonella who was still standing, she wasn’t sure what she wanted Lucia to say.

“I’ve moved on with my life and I’ll always love Leo in some way but you are his wife and I can’t destroy his marriage,” Antonella said knowing that she’d had her chance with Lionel and it hadn’t worked out.

They had broken up for a reason and she wanted Lionel to be happy, he needed to move on from what they’d had and she was happy that he had found Lucia and married her.

Lucia snorted as she shook her head, she shouldn’t be bitter about what was going on; she had known that it was always going to be like this and she couldn’t deny that it didn’t hurt.

“It’s okay Antonella, I’ve always known that you were the one that he loved and I still married him,” Lucia said as she tried to stay in control of her emotions.

Lucia didn’t want to cry in front of the other woman, she was going to be strong since she had accepted that nothing was ever going to change and she wasn’t going to hold onto any hopes that Lionel would change his mind.

“You are the one that he loves and you always will be,” Lucia said making Antonella swallow, she realised just what she had done by showing up when she had.

Antonella had hoped that Lionel’s marriage would have secured his moving on with his life, however Lucia’s words had made her realise that just wasn’t the case.

Antonella wasn’t sure how she felt about all of the trouble that she had caused; of course, she was sort of happy that her ex-boyfriend had feelings for her still, even if it did make her feel sorry for Lucia for being stuck in a marriage where she was unloved.

“But Antonella, if you ever break his heart again I will end you,” Lucia said as she stared at woman in front of her, as long as Lionel was happy then that was all that mattered to her.

It was the one thing that she could ensure even if she wasn’t happy that Antonella was around; Lucia wanted to make sure that Antonella would never hurt Lionel again.

Antonella stared at Lucia for a moment knowing that she would never hurt Lionel unless she had no other choice; she cared about him and just like Lucia wanted him to be happy.

“Now can you leave? You are the last person in the world that I want to spend time with,” Lucia said as she picked her book back up, she didn’t mean to be rude but she was tired of watching her husband fawn on Antonella and she didn’t want to be around her.

Antonella nodded her head as she looked at Lucia for a moment, she knew that there was nothing that she could say that would warm Lucia to her; the damage between them had been done.