The President's Humble Substitute Secretary

Chapter 1: Alone

"I waited for you all night. You should have told me you weren't going to make it. I looked like a fool in front of everyone."

Arturo's voice boomed through the bedroom walls.

The streetlight flickered behind him casting dancing shadows across the walls. They'd moved into this city a year after their marriage because Isabella had always dreamed of living in the city as they both grew up in a small downtown.

Isabella ignored him as though he wasn't even in the room.

She ransacked the wardrobe throwing her clothes onto the opened blue coloured suitcase laying open across their matrimonial bed before moving to the bed to fold the clothes neatly into the suitcase.

"Bella. Baby" he tried again, his voice softened as he stepped closer. "Why are you doing this? Why do you want to leave and end everything we've built so far? Are you just going to throw all of this away?"

All of this.

The vows they made.

All the years they've spent together.

A life they'd spent so long building.

Her shoulders stiffened. For a moment he thought his words had finally got to her. And then she turned to face him but the anger shining in her eyes nearly knocked the air from his lungs. She looked nothing like the kind woman he knew.

"Can't you see Arturo or are you just pretending to be oblivious to everything?" She screamed. "I've had enough. I'm tired, Arturo. I feel suffocated in this marriage. All I want is to be free"

"Free? What do you mean free?" His laugh came out raw and filled with pain. "What do you want to be free from? Me?"

"Yes,you!" She snapped. "I'm not in love with you anymore. You do not make me happy anymore. I'm tired of pretending. I can barely recognise myself again."

Her words seemed to slice through his heart clean and deep like a brand new knife.

He took a step back as if physically struck.

"What are you talking about?" He asked quietly. "We were happy. You never told me if something worried you."

"We used to be happy. I used to be happy but... people change."

Her voice shook at the last part of her sentence.

He reached for her arm. "Lets talk it through then. Let's try to fix things. Tell me what I did wrong and I promise I'll change. I'll make it work. For you. For us"

She pulled away as if his touch burned.

"You didn't do anything Arturo. You... we can't fix it." She whispered,then louder,harsher. "This is about me. This is about what I want and... I do not want any of this anymore."

She zipped the suitcase closed.

The sound echoed like a gunshot.

Without thinking, Arturo rushed to the stand between her and the bedroom door,his broad frame blocking the exit completely. Isabella had always told him that she loved how commanding and confident he was.

But now his eyes were glassy.

"I can't let you leave. You're not going anywhere. You're going to unpack and then we'll fix everything." He said though his words lacked authority. "At least tell me what you want. Tell me what I did. I deserve to know what went wrong."

She stared up at him, jaw tight "Move."

"You have to tell me why you're leaving," he demanded. "Tell me what I fucking did wrong"

Her hand came out of nowhere.

Her palm connected with his right cheek,the sound cracking through the room. Arturo's head snapped to the side.

Neither of them said anything for a brief moment.

He raised his head to look at her, shocked. She'd never raised her hand on him before.

"You're trying to keep me trapped." She said,her voice trembling now. "Don't you dare try to keep me locked in this marriage just because you're scared that you'll be alone. Don't make me suffer."

His chest tightened.

"What about our unborn child?" he asked, his voice hoarse.

The question hung between them like a ticking time bomb.

Isabella's expression faltered. Something dark passed through her eyes. Something that looked almost like pity.

Then it hardened.

"I got rid of it," she said.

The words were quiet and she didn't sound like she regretted it.

"Having a child with you would only keep me tied with you for the rest of my life and... I do not want that."

The world seemed to stop.

Arturo felt it... as though a hammer was struck against his chest splitting him from the inside out.

"You... what?" His voice barely above a whisper.

"I aborted it." She repeated. "I wasn't going to make a child go through the trauma that came with being in a family where the parents didn't love each other anymore."

He staggered back, as though she had shoved him instead.

She'd been so excited when she'd told him about her pregnancy weeks ago. She was so happy as if she couldn't wait to have a child that was a part of him and a part of her.

He had lifted her into the air.

He had laughed like a boy.

He had pressed his forehead to her stomach and whispered, "I'll give you everything."

He had already started planning a nursery design.

And now...

"But... you were so excited." He whispered more to himself than her. "Why didn't you say anything then? Why are you saying it now?"

"I tried so hard to pretend. It was all a lie" she replied,eyes glistening. "But can you really lie to yourself? I'm in love with someone else."

Silence swallowed them.

Then she stepped around him.

This time, he didn't try to stop her. That was the last straw.

He couldn't believe it. She was in love with another.

She dragged her suitcase behind her, wheels scraping softly against marble floors. Each step echoed farther and farther away from him.

At the door, she paused for a second before pushing the door open.

Cold air rushed in.

And Isabella walked out of his life.

The door clicked shut with unbearable finality.

Arturo stood there in shock staring at the empty space in front of him. The small house they'd bought for themselves suddenly felt too large and too empty.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They had met at nineteen.

College sweethearts.

She had been studying architecture. He had been studying finance, already dreaming of building something powerful. She used to tease him for always wearing suits to class, saying he looked like he was about to steal the professor's job from him.

Everyone used to fish over how they were the sweetest couple on the campus. Everyone had known they were going to end up together.

On his twentieth birthday, he had knelt on one knee and proposed to her with a ring he'd been saving for. He'd vowed to buy it for her after she'd said she liked it and it looked beautiful.

She had accepted it with tears in her eyes before he even finished asking.

They married a few months later... young, reckless, completely in love.

He had done everything with her in mind. She was the centre of his world and his reason to keep going to work everyday.

He had loved her with everything inside him. There had never been space for anyone else.

And she loved him too.

Or at least he thought she had.

Unable to bear his weight anymore,his legs finally gave out.

Arturo sank to the cold marble floor, back pressed against the wall she once decorated with framed photos of all the happy moments they had shared.

His hands covered his face.

At first, nothing came.

Then his shoulders began to shake.

The sound that tore out of him was raw and broken... nothing like the brave man he'd pretending to be all along.

He cried until he could cry no more.

And somewhere in the hollow space that grief left behind, something in him hardened.