Husband With Benefits
Chapter 362: The Past

Chapter 362: The Past

Long after her family had gone Isabella continued to keep her eyes closed, as if protecting herself against the painful present. She thought back to her happy childhood when Emerald and her had been best of friends. Why then did he change so much as they grew older?

Was it only because of her ’prosmiciousness’ as he claimed? And her parents, she thought they knew her best. But they too had started to believe his lies. She knew she should have stayed back and fought for her right. She should have defended herself with all her might, knowing how old fashioned and orthodox her father was. She’d never had an abortion. Not then and not now.

Instead, she’d been angry that her parents had questioned her instead of trusting her. She’d been horrified that her parents would believe that their daughter would sleep with anyone and everyone. In her rebellion, she’d made sure that the rumors that had been started about her would get even more wild.

Unbeknown to her, Ian who had gone out to talk to his brothers about Gabe, had already returned to her room and now stood there, watching her silently, as tears rolled down her cheeks. He was tempted to go out and teach those men a lesson, something that would make them remember how to behave with Isabella and with women in general.

Luckily for them, they were Isabella’s father and brother, or he’d have shown them some of his knife skills. Slowly, he walked to her side and gently wiped her face. Her eyes snapped open and the vulnerability in them, tugged at something inside him.

Carefully, he wiped her face as he consoled her," Everything is going to be alright."

His words seemed to make her vulnerability disappear and she gave him a cynical smile," Do you really think everything is going to be alright? How? Do you believe in magic, Ian? Maybe a fairy godmother will come and change everything to the way it was when I was younger?"

Ian shook his head," There is no magic in this world, Isi."

Isabella glanced at him at that. He liked to call her Isi while everyone else was used to calling her Bella. She did not know why but she liked it. However, even that warm feeling of liking was like an arrow in her heart and she turned her head away from his warm touch," Then there is only one way to make everything alright. I guess I must change my ways. I should stop sleeping around and getting rid of my pregnancies."

Ian frowned at the bitterness in her tone. Isabella was always different from his pereption of her. And the more he knew her the more different she sounded from her party girl image.

"You don’t need to change anything, Isi. They just need to learn to accept you as you are."

Isabella smiled at that," Like I said, that would be magic."

"Then maybe there will be magic some day?" Ian said, not wanting her to be sad anymore.

Isabella giggled at that," Ian Frost! You are too amazing. You’d even say something like that with a straight face."

Ian gave her a crooked smiled at that and patted her head," Of course I am amazing. You are only now discovering the truth?"

Her small laughter turned into sobbing and Ian could only gather her in his arms as she cried into his chest, clutching his shirt tightly.

Ian inhaled deeply, gently patting her back, as he tried to console her. He hated how her tears made him feel helpless and he suddenly wanted to go and break something apart.

After a while as Isabella lay her head against his chest, listeing to his cteady heartbeat, she murmured slowly, "You know what is the funniest part? I’ve only even had one se*ual partner in my life."

Ian looked down in surprise at that. Isabella, the girl who was an expert flirt only had a single partner until now. How was that...

But before he could ask, she continued to explain," My head was always in the clouds, reading romance and imagining myself as the female lead who was being wooed by a prince charming. As a child, I used to have friends who wanted to be doctors, engineers, pilots and what not. Me? I only wanted to be a little homemaker, spending days with preparing things for my prince charming, waiting for him to return hom and spend time with me. It made me foolish."

"The first boy who proposed to me, I accepted, not imagining that he’d only want to have se* with me. He was my age at the time. Sixteen. He took me on a date and then directly to a small icky room that he’d booked there."

Ian felt his heart clench, his imagination providing all kinds of things that could have gone wrong. Did Isabella fall for some predator?"

Isabella felt his arms tighten around her protectively and her heart almost melted as she said," Don’t worry, I was never a victim. That night, imaginging myself in love with him, I went willingly. But that fool was too inexperienced and I had too many expectations from all those books. Gosh, it was over before it started and was I thankful for it. I decided that night that since he could not please me, he must not be my soulmate."

"So, I tried to break up with him the next day. To be sure, it did not go well. He spread the rumors that I slept with him and dumped him. Out of solidarity many other boys also said the same thing and soon I gained a reputation. What I did not imagine was that my brother would also believe those rumors and even add more to them."

"When he accused me of being a slu* and sleepign with many boys from my class, instead of asking him for evidence and explaining myself, I decided to go on a rebellion. I flirted with every man in my path and made audacious remarks about them. Hoping against hope that her parents would at least come to me. Like a little girl, I threw tantrums to get my parents attention but instead they chose to ignore me."

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