Married with the Broken Hearted CEO novel Chapter 71

Adira’s POV 
I am not mad. 
I am just tired. 
There’s no way I got mad because he’s defending Isa. 
I stopped walking and sighed. For many times, I kept on telling myself that I am not affected at all. However, all evidence so far tells me that I am in denial. 
First, I called him dumb, idiot and foolish. I failed to control my expression and my tongue. 
Second, it was suffocating staying with him alone in one space, so I escaped away. 
‘I am not being my usual self. This isn’t me.’ 
To gain my sanity and snapped myself out, I walked alone onto the shore. 
My eyes looked at the ocean. There was a brief minutes of blindness as my eyes adjusted force of orientation based on the sound of the wave. At night it feels completely different from the beach during the same daytime. It is the same place, yet the atmosphere has changed. 
There are no daytime crowds, couples, groups playing volleyball and seagulls raiding unattended food. 
The darkness envelopes me with a sense of peace; a feeling of freedom and a little fear in contrast to the dominant sense of the tranquility. 
Wanting to feel the sand, I took off my sandals and stepped through the dunes onto the beach itself. Slowly beginning to move toward the water, my feet fell gingerly through the sand, and my toes feel first for sharp shells and stones, but the view begins to resolve itself under the light of star and shining moon. 
Standing at the edge of the high tile line, the emptiness of the ocean and the dim quivering light reflecting the moon on the water gave me a familiar place. From a distance, I could see few lights of the boats sailing in the middle of the night, and the pulsing signal of an airplane in silent flight overhead. 
I took a deep breath of the wind, the carries sting of sand and the taste of salt. Damp sand beneath my bare feet sent its chill up through my ankles and calves. 
Walking toward the water, I could feel the wind buffeting every of my worries. The curling waves delivered brisk sprays of water, hitting my face, and coating it with a sand-papery salt tasted as my tongue licked my wet lips. 
‘It’s salty.’ 
Continuing, I walked alone while carrying my sandals. There are no people to interrupt. No work, no husband, no Isa, and no voices to distract the peace I had  at this moment. Surely, no one would notice a lone person like me if I ran along the shore while singing at the top of my lungs. Or if I bravely take my clothes off and run while screaming into the chill of the night. 
“If I really do that, my husband will surely give me an earful nag.” 
I stopped walking. Next, I tilted my head in wonder. 
‘I came here to forget anything about my husband, but I am thinking of him right now.’ 
“Adira!” 
“And now, I am hearing his voice.” 
“Adira!” 
I shook my ear, wondering if that voice was only a product of my imagination. 
“You’re going alone in the dark again. Tsss.” 
No. 
This is not my imagination. 
Slowly, I looked back and saw Chadwick walking to my side. 
‘Just how many times will he follow me today?’ 
Pretending that I did not see him, I set my eyes forward and picked up my pace.
“Hey! I know you already saw me!” he complained. 
I heard the flashing of the water behind me, and that made me jolt fast away from him. 
“Adira! Argh. Why are you so fast? Ele… Ahh!” 
My feet stopped when I heard him groan. Gradually, I turned around. Then I saw him kneeling and rubbing the sand from his knees. 
‘Did he trip down while chasing after me? What a waste. I should have seen it.’
Wincing, he stared at me and sighed. 
I stood standing from the distance and crossed my arms. 
“Why are you stubbornly following me?” I asked. 
“Why are stubbornly running away?” he refuted. My husband brushed off the remaining sand on his wet shorts and stood up. “You are always running away from me. Didn’t I tell you before that you should learn how to listen?” 
The reason why I did not choose to listen to him before is because I am not interested. But now, I did it because… 
‘Because I feel I won’t like the next things that he’ll say.’ 
Whether he will defend Isa again, or he will tell me that he does not want me to misunderstand him, which makes me confused; I don’t like to hear these. 
“What’s more to talk?” I responded after a long silence. “I already told you what’s on my mind. But you did not believe me.” 
“Who says I don’t?” 
“...” 
“I was… I was only shocked. But Adira is someone who does not lie without reason. You only lie when you want to blame yourself. Just like when you said that the drink has alcohol content with it when it hasn’t. You only lied for the sake of others.” 
I felt a prickling pain behind my eyes, a lump in my throat and drum rolls inside my chest. 
‘It’s annoying. Why does this guy know more about me that I don’t notice?’ 
As if he can hear my thoughts, he uttered, “Because I’ve been watching you for a whole time.” 
“...” 
“I was pretending I did not. But my eyes were glued to you, Adira. And right now, all I can see is you.” 
His words, his eyes, and his voice. He looks like someone who’s about to confess his love. But when I remembered that the other person is me, a wife he married for business and the woman he rejected for too long, I doubted my thoughts. 
‘There’s no way. There’s no way he fell for me.’ 
If he really likes me, then why did he suggest us get a divorce? 
For a moment, I think I am forgetting the most important question to our situation. 
And it is: ‘What about me? What do I feel about him?’ 
At first, I think he’s dumbed for loving a woman he cannot have. 
Second, he’s cute. Whenever he tried to push me away with reddened cheeks, it felt so fun to see his face. 
And third, he made feel uneasy. When he said to me sincere words, it touched my cold heart. 
And fourth, I’m starting to get annoyed when the word ’Isa’ comes from his mouth. 
But are those enough? Can I take responsibility for his confession when I, myself, not sure of my own feelings? 
“You are making me confused, Chadwick,” I said that widened his eyes. “Give me some time to think,” I added. “There are things that hard to decipher when you will only put it on words. So don’t say anything. Because I might not accept it.” 
I turned my head and walked towards the land again. 
This time, Chadwick did not follow me anymore. 
-----------------------------
Third Person’s POV 
Actions speak louder than words. 
When Adira was walking back to the villa after leaving her husband on the shore, she thought carefully about the confession he made. All this time, she never thinks that there will be a day when he’ll come to him one day and tell her how he truly feels. 
It’s like seeing the sun in the sky when it is raining so hard, and the wind is crazily blowing. 
It hardly sinks in. 
What Chadwick only did to her is to push her away, to choose another woman before her eyes and to make her feel that she’s unlovable. But what did he say? 
[“I was pretending I did not. But my eyes were glued to you, Adira. And right now, all I can see is you.”] 
A sardonic laugh slipped from her lips while her cheeks turned red. She feels like a teenage girl in the comic that was bullied by a man then suddenly, the man said that he only did that because he likes her. 
That is why she stopped him from saying the words. Because it will be hard to process as of now. She needs more time to evaluate the scenarios. 
“So,” Adira murmured while walking. “Chadwick liked Isa. But Isa likes Geoffrey. Geoffrey likes me, but I married Chadwick. Then, Chadwick and me, we… we…” 
She shook her head and quickened her pace. When he lifted her eyes back onto the road, she saw employees gathered while smoking. 
“The pretty girl before, do you think it is the girl that was rumored to Sir Chadwick?” 
Adira hid behind the tree before they see her. Then she listened in secret. 
“No way! Didn’t you hear their conversation before? The girl looks like she’s friends with the couple. That’s why they knew each other.” 
“Exactly. I read the articles released by Wine&Vibe. They said that the woman who Sir Chadwick saved at the party is just a friend. Didn’t you notice the girl’s eyes? She’s looking at Sir Chadwick as if he is her property.” 
“If that is true then how shameless of her to appear here and mess with our bosses. As expected, girls with angelic face are more dangerous.” 
“Why are you only getting mad at the girl? Sir Chadwick is at wrong too.” 
“Hey, lower your voice. Aren’t you scared to lose your job?” 
“Why not? I am not talking as Wine&Vibe’s employees, but a woman. What do you think ma’am Adira would feel? He dared bring his woman at our vacation.” 
“Let’s not be sure. Be careful of what you’re saying and not cause an unnecessary rumor.” 
“Hmp! I don’t know. I still hate cheaters. Poor ma’am Adira. She’s pretty and perfect but her husband is cheating.” 
“Hey. I said lower your voice.” 
Adira wanted to approach them and teach them a lesson of talking behind their bosses’ backs. However, an opinion will always be an opinion. She cannot stop what everyone’s thinking. What they see is what they will think. 
Just like in her case. 
What she saw before made her unable to believe Chadwick. 
Instead of suddenly appearing to the employees who were talking about them, Adira changed her route. 
While walking, she could not help but feel irritated at how others address her as the poor lady. 
“Poor me?” Adira murmured, pointing at herself. She flipped her hair and crossed her arms while walking towards the swimming pool at the back of the villa. “Why am I the poor one? Those three are the people who cannot leave me alone. Huh.”
She rolled her eyes and was about to pick up her pace when suddenly, she heard a flash of water. 
Scowling, her head turned to her right side, there at the direction of the swimming pool. From afar, she saw a woman standing beside the pool. Soon, she recognized the woman as her secretary, Hansel. 
Adira uncrossed her arms as she squinted her eyes at the water in the pool. At the deepest part of the pool, there is a drowning woman. 
“H-Help! Help me!” 
Her eyes widened when she recognized that the woman is no other than Isa. 
Adira stared at Hansel who got frozen at the spot while staring at the drowning Isa. Then, Hansel caught, and glimpse of Adira and she stared at her with gape. 
‘Hansel can’t swim,’ Adira told herself remembering the time she read her resume a long time ago. 
Figuring out the situation, Adira ran faster towards the pool. If there’s one person who can save Isa, then it is her. Time is short. One wrong mistake, someone might die. 
While running towards the pool, Adira took off her shirt, revealing the bikini  that she hid underneath. She threw her shirt on the side, and then without hesitation, she jumped into the deep water.