The Writer's Romance 63 If Only

"How pathetic, you shouldn't leave his side. You're just a kitten inside a lions' den, missy. Leaving your master's lap is your death."

Sheen has dealt with women like this.

Those who have nothing else to do but to create fights.

She took a deep breath and looked at the woman.

"I am sorry, but I don't have time to have this kind of talk. Clark's waiting for me," Sheen walks pa.s.s the woman but she grabbed Sheen's arm.

"Wow, you have the nerve to walk past me? Do you even know who I am? How disrespectful," the woman looks at Sheen with a straight face.

"Sorry, I do not know who you are and I don't think I care. After saying those words to me, to someone you do not know other than I am Clark's fiancee, I don't think I have to know who you are," Sheen pulls her hand away and turned around.

"Drop the engagement and I'll give you no matter how much you ask," the woman offered.

Sheen sighed, "No matter how much?" she repeated what the woman said, and tried to sound as if she's interested.

"Yes."

Sheen turns around and walks close to the woman, "I don't care about your money or anyone else's money or Clark's money. Why do rich people only think about money, huh? It's irritating. And do you think I will be shooed away with that? Try harder, but I think no matter what you offer or tell me, I won't back out."

The woman stared at Sheen for a long time until a small smile form on her lips, "Then, should I remind everyone about your engagement to Prescott Guandemo?"

Sheen's eyes grew wide as she suddenly felt nervous.

How did this woman know about the engagement?

The woman pulls Sheen closer to her and whispered into her ear, "Now, give me the ring and the little secret will not be spilled."

Sheen's heartbeat grew faster as her mind went blank.

She knew this will happen somehow in this banquet, but not from someone who she doesn't know unless...

"Are you a Guandemo?" Sheen asks while her hand grew cold.

"Why, of course. How do you think I will know about this? I am his sister, and by the way, you met him already and Clark knows him, as well as the little Cj."

Sheen pulls herself away from the woman.

Her wrist is hurting a bit due to the tight grip she was is.

"Who? I don't know any Prescott," Sheen answered with fierceness in her eyes as she ma.s.sages her red wrist.

"Oh, yeah, of course. You wouldn't know any Prescott, he's known as Luke. Clark and Cj's doctor... Remember?"

Sheen frowns as she tries to remember any Luke until it hit her.

She met him when Clark was suffering from indigestion.

He even gave his card number.

"But why did he introduced himself as Luke and even uses a fake name?"

The woman laughs and rolled her eyes, "It's not a fake name, darling. It's his real name. Let's just say that Prescott is an alias because, you know, if you're a well-known person, you really can't escape people's judgments and so on. He used our mother's middle name as his surname and there we have it. Luke is his real name, Luke A.K.A Prescott Guandemo, anyways, why do I have to explain it to a social climber like you?"

Sheen looks at her with a straight face as she tries to process what the woman just said, "Uh, okay. I get it and who are you?"

The woman looks at Sheen in disbelief, "You don't know me? How stupid are you? I am Allegra Guandemo, an actress?" She put her hand under her chin to show her face to Sheen.

"No, sorry," Sheen shakes her head.

She doesn't know a lot of actresses since she's more of a book type of person.

Allegra sighs and rolls her eyes again, "Okay, give me the ring."

"If you want a ring, go buy one. Don't go around stealing other people's rings, how childish," Sheen furrowed her brows at Allegra as footsteps echoed around the hallway.

Sheen looks at who is walking as Allegra turns around with a smirk, "You're late."

Three women, all dressed in s.e.xy dresses with their eyebrows on fleek and red lipsticks, are coming their way with b*tchy smiles.

"Sorry, we were having fun with men but we still can't catch Clark's attention. Is this her?" A woman in a magenta gown said as she looks at Sheen from head to toe.

"Yes, this is her. Aren't you frustrated, she's so simple," Allegra answered as she throws a glare at Sheen.

"Well, where's the ring? You said it's the Queen's ring, right?" The curly haired woman looks at Sheen's hand.

"Yes, but this girl here... Doesn't want to give up the ring nor the engagement," Allegra put her hand on her hips, "Felicia, why don't you spread the news about her engagement with Luke."

The short-haired woman turns around with a smirk and went back to the banquet.

Sheen just stands frozen, she can't think straight of what to do.

It's her past again that's knocking on her life.

When everything seemed to be alright.

When she's already happy with Clark.

When she thought she's free, here come's her devils.

"What are you doing here?"

Everyone looks at the woman with long black hair and emerald eyes that reminded Sheen of Clark.

They both have the same eyes.

The elegant and strict eyes.

Sheen takes a deep breath as she held her hand tight to stop her trembling.

The woman looks at Sheen with concerned eyes.

"Is this Clark's fiancee?" She asks and walks toward Sheen.

She took Sheen's hand and, with her warmth, she tries to calm Sheen.

"Yes, that's her. She's irritating to look at, right, Aria?" Allegra asks with the same insulting look at Sheen.

"Do you know who this lady is?" The woman with emerald eyes, Aria, asks with a smile at Sheen while her back is turned to Allegra, she sounds like she's trying to play around with the annoying Guandemo lady.

"Yes, she's... uh... Sierra Haley Eu.. I won't bother you with her name, but she's just a writer. A plain writer. She just won some boring awards and such. She's poor, I am telling you, that dress she's wearing is from that model b*tch, I saw her wearing that on a fas.h.i.+on show."

Arian held Sheen's hands tightly as if she's saying that everything will be alright and she turns around to Allegra, "You're wrong," she said, making Allegra and the woman in a magenta dress look at her in confusion, "She's my future sister-in-law."

Allegra, as well as Sheen, froze as they look at Aria, "What the h.e.l.l are you talking about?" Allegra yelled as she tries to force a laugh, "Is that a joke?"

Aria turned to Sheen and looks at the tainted dress, "No, I am not. And do you know that you can pay for this dress since you purposely threw your d.i.n.k in it?"

Allegra laughs hysterically, "What the h.e.l.l are you talking about? Sister-in-law? What is this? Are you taking this bookworm's side? You're too good for that."

"First of all, Allegra, you're destroying my marriage with Luke. Secondly, yes, Sheen's my future sister-in-law since Clark is my half-brother, remember?"

Aria smiled at Sheen's shocked face that is staring at her.

"And anyone who disrespects my marriage and tries to make a scandal out of the past, will surely... end up in jail."

Allegra snorted and stomps away with her friend.

"I'm Aria Guandemo, Luke's wife, a police officer and Clark's half-sister."

Aria took Sheen's hand and shakes it since Sheen's still frozen while staring at her.

"Clark's sister?" Sheen's face is full of question.

How?

Which side?

What happened?

Why did Clark say that he has no other relatives?

"Well, let's talks about this somewhere else. I have dresses upstairs that you can wear," Aria smiled sweetly.

She really looks like Clark's sister with her eyes and hair even though Aria's smile is much beautiful than Clark's.

Sheen followed Aria where they went upstairs without having to enter the banquet hall.

They can hear the music being played as well as the voices of the guests.

Sheen looks from where the music is coming from, thinking whether everyone's talking about her now.

Aria took a glance of Sheen and sighs, "Don't mind anyone else other than you and the important people in your life, Sheen. If you get affected by simple gossips, you will destroy yourself."

Sheen looks at Aria who's clenching her dress tightly.

'She's been through something, didn't she?' Sheen thought.

"By the way, since you seem to not know about my existence since my little brother seemed to not tell anything about me," Aria opens the door in her room with a wide excited smile and wait for Sheen to go inside, "I'll tell you more about me."

The room is wide with flowery wallpaper and the pieces of furniture inside are very feminine in pink color.

There's also a wide painting of Luke and Aria hanged by the wall.

"Just sit at the couch, Sheen, I'll get the dress," Aria pointed at her couch as she hurriedly went and opened her walk-in closet.

"Oh, yeah... As I was saying, I'm his older half-sister. Our mom had me before meeting Clark's dad but I grew up in my Aunt's family because, you know Clark's dad, he's not really nice. So yeah," Aria suddenly sounded sad as she looks through her dresses.

But she shakes her head as Sheen just looks at her from the outside.

"Uh, so... He doesn't like us, his relatives from Mom, because we didn't do anything after Mom died. We didn't visit him even once, we didn't call him, we did nothing. Mostly, because of his dad again. But, yeah, he can hate us. And I grew up feeling envious of him because Mom's with him but as I learn about how he is treated by his dad, I felt sad especially when Mom died. I want to see him but his dad won't let me."

Aria took a royal blue princess halter dress and showed it to Sheen.

She's smiling but Sheen can clearly see that she's down.

"So, don't tell him that I talked to you, okay? He'll get angry," Aira smiled with a frown and hugged the dress, "I'm happy that he found someone who loves him at last, so please, don't hurt him okay?"

Sheen stands up and held Aria's shoulders, "You should talk to him. I'm sure he'll understand if you tell him," she eagerly suggested.

Aira got shocked but she just smiled, "No, I tried that before. But, yeah, he just gave me a cold shoulder. Well, that was before Cj was born. So I asked Luke to be his doctor so he can at least look after him. Go on, change your dress."

Aria gave Sheen the dress with a soft smile.

"Should I call you big sis?" Sheen asks as she looks at the mirror with the royal blue dress.

It perfectly fits her and the color is perfect with her fair complexion.

"Oh, if it's okay with you. then, yes, please. I'm dying to hear Clark call me big sis, but I guess he'll never do."

Sheen sighs, "Thank you for saving me from Allegra and I'm sorry about the engagement with Prescott, I don't want to ruin your marriage or anything. It happened a long time ago and I don--"

"Don't worry. You know, I knew about it. And Luke, he didn't even know about it till we got married. So when he met you, he was a bit weirded out about how young you are to be engaged to him. He might not look like it, but he's 37 already, just like me," Aria smiled as she fixes Sheen's hair while they are in front of the mirror.

"How long have you been married?" Sheen asks.

"Hm, let's see..." Aira put her fingers on her chin, "10 years and counting. We do have a little girl, she's three years old. She's with my Aunt because you know this banquet, all they do is gossip and if they see my little Quinne Terrice."

After fixing Sheen's look, they went out and before they enter the banquet hall, Aria gave Sheen her calling card, "Call me when you need me but please, don't tell Clark about this nor about meeting me. Let's pretend we don't know each other," Aria kissed Sheen's cheeks and smiled.

"Okay... but, you know, I want you to have a good relations.h.i.+p with him. You look so similar," Sheen said as she put Aria's card in her pouch.

"I know, I can see it, you're so sweet. But... maybe not now, Sheen," Aria took a deep breath and hugged Sheen, "Don't be bothered by things that can't make you smile, Sheen."

Sheen hugs Aira back, "I will take that into mind. Thank you for the dress, big sis."

Aria went inside the hall first.

Sheen saw Bea and Elgeen looking like they are looking for her so she went inside after a minute.

Clark's still talking to some men with Kady while Blue and Dan drink some wine on the side.

Cj's following Bea and Elgeen around as Sheen arrives.

No one seems to be looking at her unlike earlier.

Allegra and her friends are minding their own business and seem like they don't care about Sheen anymore.

She giggles as she remembers that Clark and Aria are alike, they both enjoy sending people to jail.

"Where were you?" Bea asked irritatedly.

Cj ran to her and hugs her, "I missed you, Mommy!"

Elgeen smiled but as she notices that Sheen's wearing a different gown, she covered her open mouth from surprise.

"Is that... oh goodness, that... where did you find that? What happened to your dress?" Elgeen asks as she goes around Sheen to look at the dress.

"That's Aria's Gown, she's Prescott Guandemo's wife, a famous fas.h.i.+on icon!"

Sheen looks at Aria who winks at her while her arms are intertwined with Lukes, "Well, a long story," Sheen smiles.

"Do you know her? Can you introduce me to her, please? I'm a fan!" Elgeen begged with her puppy eyes.

"Well, maybe... I'll tell you later, just pretend like this is not hers."

"Don't worry, only a few models and fas.h.i.+on enthusiasts know about this dress," Elgeen smiled as she continues on looking at the dress.

Sheen looks at Clark.

He's busy as always.

He looks so far as if she can't reach him.

For some reason, Sheen felt insecure.

Allegra's right, she's just a writer.

She's just a friend and an a.s.sistant.

How can she accept such a proposal from a man- from her boss and childhood friend?

How did she lost her mind and said yes?

Clark glances over where Sheen is, and the moment he saw the same sad look, he excused himself and went to them.

Cj knew that Sheen's feeling and he is about to call her but his Dad appeared and held Sheen's cold trembling hands.

"Sheen, are you okay?" Clark asks with a frown, 'What is making you sad? I already talked with Luke to stop everyone from talking about you after you excused yourself earlier, what happened?' he thought as his warm hands hold Sheen tightly.

Sheen looks at him with a fake smile that Clark can clearly see through, "Nothing," she said and held Clark's hand tight.

Why didn't I think of that before, that I am nothing compared to you?

That you will someday get tired of me.

Someday you'll see that you can't handle this mess like I can't handle myself.

Why did I say yes?

Is what we're feeling now enough for tomorrow?

But as she ponder more to her insecurities, she didn't notice what is happening around her as a pair of soft lips are pressed against her cheeks.

Cj kissed her right cheek while he's in Clark's arm.

Clark kissed her left cheeks with a smile.

Bea immediately took a picture while Elgeen just watch in awe.

Sheen's aching heart suddenly burned with warmth.

Her insecurities vanished with just a simple kiss from the people she loves.

She smiled as the two giggles with their moves to brighten up her mood.

"Don't be sad, Mommy. Daddy loves you so much!" Cj said and hugged her.

Clark smiles at her, "Are you tired? Do you want to go home? I'm done here."

Bea went to tell Dan what happened while Elgeen followed her with jealousy from the sweetness she just witnessed.

If only Sheen can stop worrying.

If only she can control her mind.

If only she can be happy without having to rely on Clark.