The-Wrong-Bride-Ares--Raven’s-story-(Maura,-Catharina)_bibis

Chapter Thirty-Three
ARES
I scroll through my camera feed, the feeling bittersweet. Hannah always hated taking photos together,
so most of them are of her alone. There aren’t many of us together, and I can’t find a single one of the
both of us in which I’m smiling. All of these images look forced, as though I knew she was humoring
me by taking a photo with me.
I sigh as I upload all my photos with family and friends to the cloud before navigating to my
settings and pausing on the factory reset button. I hesitate for a split second before clicking on it. A
fresh start is what I want. It’s what Raven and I both need, and in real life, we can’t have it. We don’t
have the luxury of giving each other an honest chance without our baggage weighing us down. I
thought it’d be painful to erase a part of my life, but the thought of hurting Raven is more painful. I
should’ve done this long ago.
Things between us have been somewhat odd. We’ve been pretending that Hannah isn’t a factor,
and it worked for us, until it didn’t. I’ve hurt her enough. I can’t risk anything on my phone upsetting
her. Being reminded of my past with Hannah is difficult enough for both of us.
I watch as my phone resets and smile to myself as I type in a new password, choosing a
combination of Raven’s birthday and our wedding date. Had I known erasing everything would feel
so good, I’d have done it long ago.
Raven walks in to find me grinning at my phone, and her expression falls before she forces a
smile onto her face. I watch her carefully as I put my phone down.
“You’re home earlier than I expected.”
She nods and rubs her shoulder. “I fell on set. My back has been hurting all day, so I figured I’d
just work on my designs from home.”
I jump to feet and rush up to her. “You’re hurt? How did that happen?”
She smiles and shakes her head. “I was just being clumsy. I’ve been absentminded all day. This
honestly really was all my own fault.”
I sigh and place my hands on her shoulders, massaging her gently. I don’t even need to guess to
know what she’s been thinking about. I suppose we couldn’t avoid this situation. At some point, we
were going to have to face Hannah and the past I share with her. I just didn’t expect myself to have so
much clarity when it finally came round to it.