Chapter 1: Runaway

Disclaimer: Square Enix owns Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, its predecessor and all their characters.

The letter stood out because of its pink floral perfumed envelope.

Tifa hesitated, then shrugged and opened it. As Cloud Strife's confidential secretary she had permission to open all mail which came to the office unless it was clearly marked 'Private and Personal'. In fact, Cloud himself insisted upon it. He also insisted she decide and deal with everything not requiring his individual attention. The head of Zenogais Agency was clearly someone who did not want to be bothered with trivia.

Tifa knew, however, from the first few words, that this was one letter she shouldn't have opened. But the damage had been done and there was no going back. She scanned the brief note all the way through, her chest becoming tighter and tighter as she read each and every carefully hand scripted word.

Dear Cloud,

By the time you read this I will have left you. Don't try to find me. You won't succeed. Even if you do, I won't come back to you, no matter what. Believe me when I say I never 

want to see you again. I overheard what you said to Vincent last Sunday regarding your attitude to love and marriage. And wives.

May God forgive you for what you've done to me, because I never will.

Aeris

"Dear God," Tifa muttered, staring at the letter in disbelief.

She closed her eyes for a second, swiveled round her chair and stood up. There was no use trying to hide her mistake in judgment. Cloud could not really blame her for opening the darned thing, though he might criticize her lack of feminine intuition. He would really be furious, however, at any delay in acquainting him with such a letter.

Gathering herself, she stepped up to the door which separated her office from her employer's and gave it her usual precise tap.

"Yes," came the curt reply.

Tifa straightened her spine and marshaled a confident expression.

Cloud was a difficult and demanding boss at the best of times, a workaholic with a perfectionist personality. Failure was anathema to him; success his God. The man who would be king of Gold Saucer's entertainment industry was ruthless when crossed and given to caustic comments whenever anyone didn't come up to his impossibly high standards.

Fortunately, Tifa was a top secretary, totally competent, cool in a crisis and unflappable under fire. During the four years she'd held this job which was a lifetime in comparison to the secretaries before her; it had been rare for her to provoke her boss into criticizing her work performance.

On the one occasion when she had been on the end of Cloud's cutting sarcasm, Tifa had been sorely tempted to quit on the spot. She had married young and had a husband once with a nasty tongue and not to mention abusive temperament and did not relish being on the other end of anyone's temper these days.

But she was twenty years old, and did not fancy her chances as a young divorcee to be on the open and very competitive job market. Her qualifications were impeccable, so 

were those of older women who had over the years more going on for them than their secretarial skills.

Seduction had never been Tifa's strong hand; or rather it was something she didn't believe in to get to the top. So she'd bitten her tongue at the time, while reminding herself that not only had Cloud paid her well enough, he was the one who gave her a chance at this job so she had to put up with the occasional blast.

But she didn't like the man. Not one bit.

Steeling herself against what was to come; she opened the door and stepped into the holy of holies.

He didn't look up, his attention all on some photographs he was studying. No doubt some struggling actors, actresses or singers who wanted to make it big in this industry but never could. If Cloud could be respected for something, it was his keen eye for talent, when he found someone that he believed had the potential, that individual would be besieged by offers that they couldn't refuse, and more often enough, after which, their quiet lives took a turn for the better and would never be the same again.

"What is it Tifa?" he said brusquely, still without looking up.

Tifa almost relished giving him the damned thing.

"This letter came in the morning mail, Cloud," she said coolly. "I thought you would want to read it straight away." Now she had his attention, his golden head snapping up, a frown not marring his disgustingly handsome face.

"Who's it from?"

"Your wife."

"Aeris?" He could not have been more startled.

"I'm sorry, Cloud. It wasn't marked 'Private', and there was no reason for me not to open it." She came forward and handed the note across to him, thanking her lucky stars that the simple white paper it was written on was not as fancy as the pink envelope.

Butterflies crowded in Tifa's stomach as her boss's piercing blue eyes immediately dropped to the note. She watched him read the 'Dear John' letter, watched as he tried to absorb his wife's rejection of him as a man and a husband. A small shred of sympathy twisted Tifa's heart. For she knew this had to be killing him. Cloud so hated to fail in anything.

Losing in a business deal was bad enough…

Losing his wife was something else…

Who would have believed it of Aeris? To all appearances she was such a soft, trusting soul, a mere child when compared to her cynical and streetwise husband which was unusual as she was just twenty two to his very sophisticated twenty one. A babe in the woods. A lovely yet naïve girl whom Cloud had clearly thought he could mould and train to be the sort of wife who could never give him any trouble: the type that stayed at home and filled the roles of mother, lover and hostess to perfection, who never complained when he was late for dinner or had to fly away on business at a moment's notice, the 

type who loved her husband to distraction and blindly believed he loved her back, simply because he told her so.

Tifa had cynically watched her employer play his own roles to perfection so far. He'd been the perfect courtier, the perfect fiancé, the perfect new husband. Nothing had been too good for his bride. He'd showered her with every luxury money could provide. He'd seemingly showered her with his personal attention as well… Up to a point.

Not that they had been married long. Just over nine months.

Tifa had been waiting for the rot to set in, for Cloud to show his true colours. And it seemed he had. For ages he just sat there and stared at the paper. When his hands started shaking, he crumpled the note into a crushed ball and leapt to his feet, his face flushing angrily. "You read this?" he growled, glaring at Tifa.

She nodded.

He swore, and then whirled to stalk over to the far window which overlooked the river. But he didn't look at the view. With hands still shaking, he unfolded the crushed note and read it again. Suddenly he spun back to Tifa, his blue eyes glittering as they did when he got the bit between his teeth over something and was about to run with it.

"Do you have the envelope this came in?"

Tifa nodded again, but she was quaking in her sensible shoes. One look at that envelop and he might question her discretion in opening it.

"Get it for me," he snapped. "And get Reno on the phone."

Tifa's eyes rounded. Reno was a private investigator Cloud used sometimes when he needed to do background checks on the people he represented as well as the clients of his competitors. The man was thorough and usually came through with the goods.

"Well, don't just stand there gawking at me," Cloud snarled. "That won't bring Aeris back, will it?"

"But… She said she didn't want to come back." Tifa was driven to protest for a fellow female.

"The only thing Aeris wants," Cloud ground out with his usual one-eyed stubbornness, "is to be my wife. Unfortunately, he has totally misunderstood some things I said to a man who was distressed over his divorce at that time. When Reno finds her I'll make her see that. Now hop to it, woman. Time is a-wasting. I have an important business dinner this coming Saturday night and my wife is going to be there, by my side, as usual!"

Tifa had no choice but to do as she was told, but she did so resentfully, hoping all the while that Reno would be unsuccessful. Aeris was a sweet girl and deserved better than to be hoodwinked by the likes of Cloud Strife.

Handsome he might be. And intelligent. And rich. But there wasn't a soft-hearted sell in his entire body. He was a ruthless predator who was incapable of really loving a woman. He was a user and a manipulator. A conscienceless cynic. Unfortunately, Aeris 

loved him. Even Tifa had seen that. She fairly glowed whenever he looked at her. In all likelihood she still loved him, despite that letter.

Tifa prayed Cloud would never find his runaway bride. For God knows what would happen to her, if and when he did.