MR BILLIONAIRE'S REGRET: CHASING HIS IRRESISTIBLE WIFE

(ARIELLE'S POV.)

His words hung in the air. He leaned in a little closer, his expression intense. I could feel my cheeks flush, and I hated myself for it. His words were like an emotional punch to the gut, stirring up feelings I wasn't ready to face. I watched him carefully as he waited for my reaction, searching my eyes like he was looking for some sign of hope.

Finally, I exhaled, a deep sigh escaping me. "If that's all, Jared... You can leave now."

I was stunned by the calmness of my own voice. But my reaction pales in comparison to Jared's look of confusion. He was in utter shock. He narrowed his eyes at me as if focusing on me would wake him up from an ugly trance.

His face was the literal picture of shock, his eyes wide as saucers, his lips hanging apart from each other as he stared at me.

His eyebrows knitted in frustration. "Why? What do you mean, Arielle? Did you hear a word of all I just said? I explained everything clearly!"

I nodded as impassively as possible, my hands clasped together as I reclined in my seat. "Yeah. I heard you, Jared," I nodded.

He looked more in disbelief as if he had somehow been expecting that I hadn't heard a word he'd said by some stroke of chance. Maybe he'd imagined the entire scene. But my confirmation only stunned him further.

"Then why are you acting this way, Arielle?" he cried in frustration, his voice cracking from the weight of a dozen emotions. His face was a mask of pain and he didn't try to hide it being his usual façade of manliness. "I love you, Arielle. Can't you see? Please.. all I ask is for a second chance," he said passionately. His chest rose and fell heavily and his eyes were glazed over with what I could imagine to be tears. But my mind was made up already and my mouth remained shut.

(JARED'S POV.)novelbin

The room seemed to grow smaller in size, the walls moving in on me like experienced lionesses on the hunt. The air became too thin to draw small breaths. I adjusted the knot of my tie for the umpteenth time again. I was faced with everything I had feared coming back into Arielle's office. The atmosphere was the polar opposite of what I'd imagined coming-devoid of the relief and joy I'd expected when rehearsing my confession in my head.

I'd expected her to be moved, maybe even happy. But the impassivity of her facial expression was heart wrenching. I couldn't tell what she felt. If any of my words had touched her. If she even believed anything I'd just said. I was a mess of confusion and frustration. And boiling anger. I gritted my teeth and forced myself to continue speaking. I wasn't about to let her slip away from my grasp so easily again. Never.

She let out a sigh and sat upright in her chair. I could almost imagine for a second that when she'd sat up, her expression shifted to reveal the softness of her heart. Almost like she'd considered my words.

She clasped her fingers together and looked at me intently. Her voice was firm and calm when she spoke again, like that of a school principal to an erring student.

"You ask me to give you a second chance. What would that entail, Jared? What does that mean to you?" she inquired and I realized she didn't expect me to explain right away. I couldn't anyway. Maybe it was the intensity of her gaze. But I watched keenly, waiting for her to invite me to speak.

"Should I go on dates with you? Probably share a roof with you as well... Marry you again to make your family happy.. Should I keep tolerating your endless 'friends'?" she asked with bitterness I nearly forgot to speak.

"I'm not asking for all that, Arielle.. At least not yet. I just want patience. Your trust. These days, you treat me like everything I do, right down to the way I breathe around you, is wrong. I just want that to stop. As for my friends.. Don't you have any friends, Arielle? Come on.. Not everyone in my life is damned lunatic!" I sighed in exasperation, my throat itching with emotions. I let out another sigh and pinched the bridge of my nose.

"Look, Arielle. I know you don't think I can handle any of this. But I promise... I'll never make the same mistakes again. Never," I said with such passion a cleric would have commended me.

She kept silent for a while, her face still drawn in straight lines of indifference. "It's not about the past, Jared," she finally said. Her voice was calm, and infuriatingly so.

"There's so much that's wrong with us... why it can never work. Do you even see me as your equal? You claim to love me wit all the conviction in the world, but how come it's so easy for you to make decisions about my own life without even first finding what I want? And you do this all the time!

"And this absurd childish strategy of yours... pretending to get married.. Can you just stop it, already, Jared? You claim you don't want to break any more hearts but you're just so blind to the number of hearts you'd crash with this silly move. Have you thought about her family? How they'd react to learning that the marriage of their only daughter is all a sham.. And have you considered your mother? Aren't you tired of disappointing her with these foolish mistakes you make? Do you see how much hope she has with this?"

Her words pierced with the intensity of a judge reeking out the crimes of a serial offender, one who was without any argument undeserving of mercy. It was almost like she'd sworn not to listen to a word I'd said. At least not a in the way that I'd meant for her to listen and understand. All she could do was find the faults and it ate up my sense of reason. I could feel the bottle of frustration in my head pop open.

I slammed my hands hard down on the desk. "But that's not your problem! That's mine," I shouted in exasperation.

"Al I care about, Arielle, is for you to come back to me. That's all that matters. Everything else is secondary. I can fix it... I'll fix it. Just come back to me," I said.

"Jared," Arielle began so softly, her tone pierced a dozen times deeper than if she'd raised her voice to speak. "I used to cherish those three years of marriage. I remember forgiving you over and over. I let you and Sofia clinch every bit of my patience like it belonged to you both..." "And I've apologized for that already!" I threw my hands in the air in frustration.

"I let you speak, Jared. Let me speak too," she said and paused. I looked away and bit down on my jaw.

"I let you and Sofia test my patience on countless occasions, all for a sliver of hope. Now, I have Maverick. I'm responsible for my son's life. I can't risk doing any of that again," she declared.

"But you see.. that's the thing. Maverick is my son too! I would never let him get hurt," I implored passionately.

"That's exactly why we're better off

like this, Jared. We can live

peacefully with this arrangement. You can visit him. Of course, I won't stop you from being in his life. You're his father after all. But your don't belong in my life anymore. That's a ship that has long sajfed. I'm sorry I've been irrational with you, Jared. I realize now that I've been getting sad, or hopeful with you because somehow, I still had expectations of you. But all of that changes now. We're just not meant to be. I'm sorry," she said with an air of finality.

I realized she'd said my name more times today than she'd ever done since our divorce. And with this new revelation, I could only dare and imagine there was a glimmer of hope for me. If only she'd just give me a chance instead of stating reasons why we could never be. "Nonsense, Arielle. None of these should hold any weight, and you know it. Let it all be in the past. I've given you my word already. I'm a changed man!" I explained, my voice shaking with frustration.

"No, Jared," Arielle countered sharply. "It's you who doesn't want to accept the truth. Just..."

"I said no!" I snapped, louder and fiercer than I'd intended to speak. I could see the uncertainty in her eyes at my outburst. I pushed back my chair and rose to my feet. I walked around the desk over to her corner, my hands trembling and my eyes alight with emotion. "You think this is over, huh? You think I'll just give up on us after all we've been through? I can't. No.. I won't! I love you, Arielle. I've never been more convinced.. more sure if a thing in my life, as much as the air I breathe. Yours is the only soul that matters to me. And our son's."

I saw the protest dancing on her lips but I didn't give her any room to speak.

"I know I've made a whole lot of mistakes. I know I hurt you with my selfishness. But I'm not that man anymore, Arielle. I've changed and I'll prove it to you. You can push me away all you want.. tell me how you're done and how we can never be again. But I'm not giving up. Not on you. Not on us.

"I don't care how long it takes. I'll fight for you. I'll fight for our family. I'll make you see just how much you mean to me. And I don't care what it costs, Arielle. I'll do whatever it takes to win you back. I swear it.. On everything I have. You'll see."

When I finished speaking, the room was engulfed in deafening silence and all that could be heard was the combined sound of our breathing.