Breaking Free, Loving Again -The Flash Marriage with Mr. CEO

The heat of anger that Arwen felt in her core was unexplainable. The moment she heard Ryan asking her to return back the diary, she wanted to scoff loudly and ask him how dare he even think of asking it back from her.

Her fingers clenched into fists, and she was no longer able to hold herself back. Turning to face him, she asked, "Return it to you?" Her tone was cold and piercing.

Ryan flinched and staggered a step back. The way her eyes turned fierce scared him. "I … I …"

"Mr. Foster," Arwen cut him off, "a thing could only be returned to someone if it belongs to them. And I don't I have anything yours to begin with. That diary is mine, and it can't be returned. I hope I made myself clear here." Her eyes weren't just fierce; they carried a warning —a warning for Ryan to understand his limits and abide by them.

However, Ryan was too overwhelmed to read them well. His thoughts were just around the diary. By any means, he just wants to have it back as proof of something surreal he once shared with Arwen.

Saying her part, Arwen felt no need to stay there any longer. Turning, she was about to leave; however, just as she took a step, Ryan came forward in front of her, blocking her way.

Her jaws ticked visibly, but Ryan simply stared at her. His eyes begged her to listen to him once … just once.

"Arwen, please," he implored, defeatedly. "I know I don't deserve your forgiveness. I have done too much wrong to you. But that diary is all that I have. Please don't take it away from me. Please give it to me."

Arwen frowned. She didn't melt at his words, but something shifted inside her, seeing him like this. Ryan Foster always stood arrogantly dignified, worthy of everything —seeing him getting so pathetic over something that doesn't even concern him made her feel pity for him.

"Give me one reason," she said all of a sudden, and Ryan looked up at her, confused. She nodded to him and explained her phrase better. "Yes, one good reason that tells me why I should give it to you?"

He felt she was offering him a chance to explain, but all she was aiming to do was to make him see the reality that he was desperately trying to ignore.

Ryan's gaze brightened at the little hope. Looking at Arwen, he said, "Because that diary might be yours, but it's each page is about me. It —"

Arwen shook her head at him. "It's not," she said, brutally clear and loud.

"What?"

"It's not you, Ryan," she repeated again. "Anything written in that diary is not about you. How can you even think it can be about you when we never share any such feelings together … when I never did feel anything like that about you?" A small scoff escaped her lips as she crossed her arms. "You can't think I imagine you everywhere to write a love story that never existed in reality."

Ryan felt struck dumb. Her words cut through him, and his consciousness jolted awake. But then, shaking his head, he tried to reason with something that couldn't be denied. "But you have sketched my picture in it."

"I didn't sketch you," she blatantly refused without giving any explanation. She didn't owe him one, and what she didn't owe, she would give. "If you have looked at it a little better, you would have seen Mrs. Quinn's attempt to manipulate you into believing something that never existed."

Suddenly, Ryan remembered his mother's words. She had told him that Catrin had tried to manipulate him, but he couldn't bring himself to believe her.

But now with Arwen speaking the same, he could no longer refuse.

"Then everything written in that diary is nothing but a lie?" he asked, no longer having the courage to look at her. "It's not you who wrote it, but someone else?"

Arwen solemnly shook her head. "I never said that," she said. And when he gazed up at her, confused, she continued. "Everything written in that diary is true. It's in my handwriting and I have written it, but it was never about you." She laughed as if it was very obvious. "How could it even be about you when all the experiences shared in the pages have never been the ones we lived together. How could you be such a fool to get manipulated so easily?"

Now that she put it that way, Ryan was embarrassed. What she said was true. They never shared any memory that could be penned down.

"I thought —"

"Save it," Arwen raised her hand to stop him. "I don't want to know what you thought or what you will think. I clarified what I needed to clarify to you. And that was it."

And with that, she turned to walk past him. Ryan didn't move, nor did he turn back to look at her.

Only when she was a few steps away did he ask. "Arwen," he called, his voice soft but carrying the realization that was no longer far-fetched to him, "did you never hold any feeling for me —not even the slightest?"

For the world, they have been in a so-called relationship for more than a decade. In all those years, was it even possible that she never felt anything for him?

Arwen paused in her step. She didn't turn to look back, and neither did he turn to look at her again. They both simply kept their backs to each other.

"I wouldn't say I never had thoughts about you, Ryan," she confessed, honestly. "You were the man I was supposed to share my life with as per our parents' plan, and for that reason, I tried finding emotions for you. But feelings couldn't be forced, and you never did anything to make it come naturally."

She paused to take a deep breath before she gave the final verdict. "So, no, I never felt anything for you. Not even the slightest. And I realized this very clear after I truly started feeling something for someone. For my husband."