Matters Of The Heart ✔

Chapter Twenty Two

“Say something please”

Abigail begged as her fiancée looked blankly at her as she told him with her encounter with Angie and the reason behind her visit. Ian found it hard to believe what she was saying to him. The whole situation almost seemed planned, staged. The other man had the upper hand now and Abigail was falling for his lame trick. He underestimated Austin, clearly the other man had game.

“How fucking convenient”, he stood on his feet to walk to the kitchen. He heard her heave a sigh as she followed after him.

“I know you don't believe this whole thing, but he's convinced that I can help him in some way to regain his memory back”, she explained to which he gave a brief grunt as he gulped down the glass of water in his hand before setting the glass back into the sink and turned to face her

“Do you also believe you're the only one who can help him regain his memory back?”, he watched as Abigail heave a deep sigh

“I don't know, but I also didn't want things to end up here”

The anger that was building inside him was uncontrollable. He wasn't supposed to feel like that, but he couldn't help it. The whole situation was frustrating.

“What a fucking coincidence that he was involved in a car accident and suddenly lost his memory”, he drew a breath and watched her features soften as she tried to calm him down

“He's playing you Abbie, and you're too blind to see it”, he was convinced this was the other man's plan to try to reel her back to him, and she didn't even notice. He was sure this was just a plot to make her feel sorry for him, and then he would strike whenever they least expected it.

She wasn't surprised at his reaction, but she expected he would be a little understanding

“Ian, you just need to trust me”

“I do trust you Abbie. It's him I don't trust”, he felt her hands stroke his face softly.

“Nothing is going to happen”, she reassured, but he couldn't look her in the eyes, he was too angry as he looked everywhere but her. She held his face firmly, so that he looked at her, he drew a breath. “We're going to make it through this”

“I really hope so Abbie”

“We're going to be okay, trust me”

Austin was laying on the couch, staring at the ceiling above him as if it had the answers to the questions he desperately wanted to know. It was just a matter of time as he was going to see Abigail soon. His mother informed him that the private investigator found her and that she was a lot closer than he had thought.

He felt nervous. How will he react when he sees her? What will be her reaction? Will things be awkward between them?

He was interrupted as Mira's voice pierced through his thoughts,

“Are you hungry love?”

“No Mira, I'm fine”, he deadpanned in a duh tone. This woman had been breathing down his neck from the minute he came back home. She always wanted to be around him. He didn't even have some time to reflect and just think about everything that's been happening. His life for instance, took a drastic turn in just a matter of years. He was no longer with the woman he loved. He married a beautiful woman he had no idea what he ever saw in her to even get married to her. He was living in a huge house and drove an expensive car. He was working at one of the biggest companies in the country as an accountant. He was making a name for himself. 

He took a look at the framed pictures around the house, mostly of him and Mira. Their wedding pictures, vacations pictures, holiday pictures ; they all looked the same to him, he didn't look happy. His eyes looked empty and deflated.

“Mira?”, he helped himself up to balance with his crutch as he stood up and carefully limped to the kitchen where she was making herself a sandwich. Her eyes rose by the calling of her name and a smile played on her face.

“Yes darling?”, this sweet name-calling of hers made him secretly roll his eyes

“Can I ask you something?”, he asked as he stood at the counter

“Sure”

“Were we happy?”, his question made her blink repeatedly. She was obviously waiting for any questions he may ask to help him regain his memory, but that question was just out of the ordinary. But she had to reassure him that he was happy, with her and their life together. He didn't seem convinced when she told him the other day of how they met, through his mother at one of the charity events a few weeks after he gave up looking for Abigail.

She twisted the story to him about how they fell in love at just a few dates they went on, but the truth was... Angie was behind everything in their relationship, from the beginning, to the proposal and to their wedding by manipulating him into seeing that being with her was right for him and that he can finally be happy, but the truth was, he didn't love her, he never did, and she feared that he never will.

“Of course we were, love”

“I surely could remember meeting you, if we were so happy and so in love”, his words stabbed her heart so deeply, tears pricked her eyes, but she forced a smile instead and walked to him and wrapped her arm around his neck

“It will all come back to you. Give it time”, she placed a gentle kiss on his cheek and surprisingly this time he let her because he seemed to be deep in thought.

“Here, your mother sent this for you”, she pushed an envelope towards him before she carried on with her sandwich. He took the envelope, tore it open and took out a file with the name Abigail written in bold on the front cover. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he paged through the contents on the document. Some pictures fell out of the envelope, and he took them in his hands. They were Abigail's pictures. His lips instantly spread into a grin as he traced his finger on her face on the picture. She was still beautiful as the last time he saw her.

“Are you okay?”, Mira asked as she noticed his face go pale as he come across some pictures of her leaning to kiss another man fully on the lips

“Yeah, I'm fine”, he continued to go through the pictures, the man he saw was almost in every picture. Some pictures Abigail was with a brunette haired young woman. The picture that grabbed his attention, was the one with the pair and a little girl with them. His heart skipped a beat as he zoomed the little girl's picture carefully. His lips parted in surprise as he noticed the little girl looked like him.

He put the pictures aside and scanned through the content of the document, his heart dropping as he learned that Abigail was engaged to the man he saw in the pictures and the little girl was her daughter, and they were raising her together

He continued reading the document, to find that Abigail shared an apartment with the brunette haired young woman he saw with her in some pictures. The young woman was working as a managing director at an oil company.

He paged through to the page with the information about the man in Abigail's life. He owned a construction and property development company. He was also currently the CEO of his family business. Parker Enterprises.

His eyebrows rose in surprise as that name sounded awfully familiar to him

“Mira, where did you say I was employed at again?”

“At Parker Enterprises”

Fuck.

“I couldn't be working for the guy called Ian Parker, would I?”

“Yes, you are. Why?”

His heart sank deeper in his chest. “My boss is Abigail's fiancé”