Hello again, lovelies!
I had originally planned to make this chapter twice as long, but I decided to cut it into two separate chapters.

Things are starting to really heat up now.

P.S. School started back up today, it may be a few days before I submit an update again, I hope you all understand.

Read & review :)

- xoxo, Crys (01.07.19)

"Picture Perfect"

Chapter 15

Serena was stepping out of the shower when she heard her husband's car enter the garage below, followed by the slamming of their garage door. He was inside the house, and it sounded like he was headed up the stairs. Grabbing a towel, she quickly wrapped it around her soaking wet body.

It was a Friday, and she knew that Darien knew that every other Friday Annabelle spent the night away from home with her best friend, Jade. Serena and Darien had both met the little girl and her parents two years ago, and ever since, the girls had been inseparable. Annabelle enjoyed staying over Jade's house because she had siblings, a big sister and a little brother, whom they could play with.

Darien knew Annabelle wasn't home, and Serena knew that he knew, or else he would've never entered their home in such a manner.

"Serena!" she heard him yell, as he reached the top of their staircase.

She didn't respond. Grabbing her hair brush, she chose to start on her hair instead.

"Don't fucking ignore me, Serena." He was in their bedroom now, headed toward their bathroom, where he would find her. They weren't at the hospital anymore, he didn't have to be civil.

"Can you just not, Darien?" rolling her eyes, she turned to face him, feeling his presence enter their bathroom.

"Did you agree to a double date with Zoicite and Amy?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at her in accusation. "It wasn't bad enough that you showed up to my job without an invitation to piss me off, you had to go and plan shit without my consent too?!"

Darien was angry. The last thing he wanted to do in the near future was go on a double date, or any kind of date for that matter, with his wife. He hadn't agreed to this.

Rolling her eyes, Serena turned her back to him, continuing to brush her long locks. "Calm down," she demanded. "It was mentioned, yes, but nothing has been planned yet."

"Why on earth would you even consider this?" he was agitated. Serena could see the anger in his eyes, even through his reflection in the mirror.

Consider this? As if Serena had really wanted to spend any more time with him than she absolutely had to. "They put me on the spot, Darien. What the fuck was I supposed to say?" Now she was getting annoyed. "Would you have preferred I told them no, that you and I were on some dysfunctional rollercoaster? That you not only got in my face and pinned me to our goddamn refrigerator, but that you slapped me too yesterday?"

He was surprised at her outburst toward him, it was just yesterday the the woman was cowering before him. She was pissed off, he already knew that, but he could also see the tears beginning to form in her eyes, and he knew that she was hurt. Uncomfortable, he avoided her gaze, not wanting to see the pain that was evident in her eyes at that very moment.

His wife was hurting, and he knew that it was his fault. He hadn't meant to put his hands on her during the day prior, he had simply lost his temper. Still, he truly believed he wasn't solely to blame, she played her part in the events leading up to this very moment – she antagonized him, she wasn't innocent.

If she wanted to place blame, he was going to make sure she included herself in it.

"You used vital information against me, Serena," he sneered, "Forget the shit greeting you gave me once I got home after one of the worst shift's I've ever fucking worked, you decided to throw in my face that our miscarried child would've been our first-born son. We agreed as parents, that we didn't want to know the sex, so we could avoid further pain. So that it was easier to fucking move on if we couldn't imagine their stolen future."

Looking at her husband through the mirror, she could now see the pain in his eyes – he couldn't hide it fast enough this time. This was the first real emotion he had shown in months, and it made her stomach turn. He may have said it all through clenched teeth, but she knew how badly he was hurting, because she had been hurting for months, by herself, keeping her secret inside.

"I told you that I never wanted to know. That it was easier to move forward that way. You agreed with me. To know that you've been keeping this secret from me for months?" the hurt in his eyes was turning to anger, an emotion he had no problem showing. "All that says is that you betrayed me, and that you're a fucking liar."

"Don't you DARE try to pin this on me, Darien!" Serena was now equally livid. He didn't understand the depth of what she had to go through, what she had to endure alone. "I hurt your feelings, so you fucking hit me? What a real man you are! You want to talk about this right now? Then lets fucking talk, you piece of shit scumbag!"

Hairbrush forgotten, the pair was now standing in the middle of their bedroom, Serena still clad in only a towel, and Darien still in his suit from work. They were mere inches from one another, both shaking with rage.

"I didn't intentionally seek out the gender of our baby, you egotistical, son of a bitch!" Her blue eyes were filled with tears now, both from her anger and pain. "You were there when we both requested not to know the sex; I stood by my word, Darien! The incompetent nurse," she was choking out words now, "accidentally placed the medical records of the baby in with the paperwork I needed to sign before my discharge." Tears were falling from her eyes now, and she didn't care to stop them.

Darien was just staring at her, taking it all in. She wasn't done yet.

"I was forced to know the sex of our baby, I couldn't fucking un-see what was clear as day on the paper in front of me." He had no idea. "I never told you, because I felt firsthand what it was like to feel my heart break over the knowledge of our son – no, it didn't just break, it fucking shattered into pieces. What should have been our first little boy, was stolen from us, without a solid explanation from the doctors as to why. It fucking hurt to know, Darien. It broke me, emotionally, and physically."

Her husband was now seated at the foot of their bed, with a hand on each knee, staring at the floor, quiet.

"Did really you think my constant vomiting that lasted for weeks afterward was normal?" he didn't even look at her. "Fucking answer me!"

It should have come as a surprise when he heard the resounding clap of her palm against his cheek fill the air, but it didn't. His wife was in shambles in front of him, could he really blame her?

Serena had hit her breaking point, she was done.

"I never told you, because I wanted to protect you. I wanted to make sure that you never felt what I was forced to feel." Her voice was quiet as she spoke. "I endured it all on my own, all by myself, because I loved you too much to ever hurt you, even if it internally destroyed me to keep such crucial information from you." Sniffling, she continued, "I shouldered the burden to protect you. I knew how badly you wanted it to be a boy, Darien, and I couldn't bear the thought of breaking your heart if it was something I could avoid - I felt the pain for the both of us."

Serena was on her knees now, needing the support from their floor to hold her weight for her. Her face was flushed from each of her cheeks, across to her nose, visibly wet from all the tears.

It was a lot of information for him to process, all that she had just said. Last night he thought she had thrown her secret in his face to purposely hurt him. Because of that, he snapped and put his hands on her. Whether it was shock, or denial, Darien didn't move a muscle.

For months, Serena had kept this secret from him, and endured what he was currently going through, all on her own. His heart was re-breaking, now that he was sober and entirely coherent. His mind kept playing flashbacks of his wife bent over their toilet, puking and dry-heaving her brains out for weeks after their loss. He hadn't thought much of it – slight depression was a common occurrence after the loss of a baby, upset stomach being a symptom - but now it all made sense. She was left alone to cope with her pain, and her broken heart had physically made her sick.

He was there for her, but not in the ways that she evidently needed, because he didn't know what she herself knew. He didn't know what she was going through. Had he known back then, when things between them were okay, he would've done his best to relieve her hidden pain.

"I didn't know…" It barely came out as a whisper, and Serena wasn't sure she heard him right; the only indication that she had heard him right, was the eye contact he now made with her after finally raising his head.

Wiping away the remaining tears from her eyes, she searched his for something, anything – but they were glazed over, hiding whatever he was feeling.

After pouring her heart out to him, and still feeling alone due to his apparent inability to allow her to see what exactly he was feeling, the blonde began to cry again.

"Please, just leave." She said in between sobs. Her voice was low, slightly raspy from her previous yelling. "Get out, Darien."

Opening his mouth, in an attempt to say something, Darien instead decided it better not to. Standing up from their bed, he made his way out the door, closing it behind him.

As far as Serena was concerned, he could leave their house and never come back for all she cared.

Sitting alone in his car, still in their garage, Darien didn't know what to do or where to go. Any one of his friends would've taken him in, but he had no desire to see any of them right now. He didn't want to be questioned about what had happened, or why he was there and not at his own home.

Reputation was a hard thing to keep clean, and he knew the recent events with his wife would destroy his. Over, and over again, all he could do was replay the last confrontation he had with his wife in his head. When she smacked him, he didn't care; it stung a little, but that was it. It didn't make him angry, because a part of him was man enough to admit that it was deserved.

Out of Serena's entire tangent, there was one thing she said that really stood out to him. She had said that she had kept the truth from him, because she had loved him too much to hurt him. He wasn't an idiot, he picked up on the past tense she used. Loved.

Did this mean his wife didn't love him anymore? Not that it would surprise him, considering how hostile they had been to each other as of late, but damn, had she really grown to hate him entirely?

With this new-found discovery, Darien wasn't sure how to feel about it. Could Andrew have been right? Was Serena getting ready to leave him without even knowing the awful truth about his infidelity?

Sighing loudly, he took a deep breath. He was certain now that if Serena ever found out that he cheated on her, she would leave. She wouldn't make an exception for him, not even just this once. She wouldn't care about why he did what he did – having sex with someone other than your wife was unforgivable, no matter the reason behind it. It was only one time, but one time was more than enough.

He could've, and should've, found comfort in his wife that night, and deep down he knew that, whether he would admit it to himself or not. Sex was different for girls – most needed an emotional connection to give their body to someone. Men, however, could have sex with multiple women and feel no emotional connection to them whatsoever. This was the case with his secretary – he didn't like, nor care for the woman – not even at work.

Something had come over him that night when he lost his patient, and he needed to feel like a man again. No strings, no emotions, just fucking. He felt like a failure, being unable to save the woman's life – she was, after all, so young and supposed to be able to enjoy becoming a new mother. Her life was stolen from her, just as his sons had been.

But he couldn't blame it all on that night, Darien had become distant only a few months after their miscarriage, which was months before his infidelity. There was a void he just didn't know how to fill, so he kept to himself.

Staring blankly into the garage wall in front of him, panic began to set in. He realized the reality of his current situation.

Darien was at risk of losing his daughter. There was no doubt in his mind that Serena would try to take her from him had she ever found out what he had done, if everything that had happened recently wasn't reason enough for her to do so already.

He had seen it plenty of times before, the courts typically ruled in favor of the mother, it was extremely difficult for a father to gain custody over the mother, unless she was unfit to parent. Serena was the perfect mother, he knew that.

Frustrated, and having no idea what to do next, he grabbed a hold of his steering wheel and screamed out loud, not caring who heard. "FUCK!" He was so angry – angry at himself, angry at Serena, angry at everyone and everything.

End Chapter 15

Whew, so much emotion in one chapter!
The beginning of the end is near, and there's no telling how things are going to end up.

Oh, I'd also like to clarify something: Darien had sex with Christina once, it wasn't an ongoing or multiple occasion thing.
Multiple readers have asked about it, so I needed to set the record straight.
Just a one time fling, that's all.

Review, review, review.
Your thoughts and opinions are welcome.

- xoxo, Crys (01.07.19)