"Her parents." Maria deduced. Parents? Why does Maria think that? And she answered me. "Getting married is a big deal and walking down the aisle with daddy dears is something every girl looks forward to. The moment the father places her hand in that of the groom, his heart is full of emotions that his princess is going to be someone else's queen now and that moment further strengthens their bond. You should understand the rest." Maria concluded.
I did. It can be one of the reasons, but I know the main reason for her grief and it's me. But what Maria just said reminds me of something else, Cheryll never talks about her parents. Whenever someone asks her about them, she refuses by saying that it hurts to talk about them.
A couple months ago, I'd asked Daniel to do some research on Cheryll's background, but he came back empty handed saying that they'd to use her last name to track down her background, but because her last name's Smith, he couldn't connect the dots.
And I agree, Smith is a very common last name. One could find so many with the name in many countries like the US, UK, Canada, Australia and even Germany, so it's hard and our research couldn't progress further.
"Maybe, you're right." I said to Maria.
We walked out of the room so as to not disturb Cheryll and went to sit in the living room.
"Look Trevor, I know you two married out of love, but I need to say this to you." She paused. If only we'd married out of love. "You're aloof and indifferent, no offence, but that's the truth. So you're like that and she's yet to get comfortable around you. So please be patient with her, she's been alone for years now and you're the first person she feels something for, it'll take time, but she'll eventually come around and it's in your hands as to how long it takes her to feel safe with you. Work on it, buddy." Maria stood up to leave. She stopped at the door abruptly and turned to face me again. "Happy birthday." And she was off.
Wait, it's today!? I forgot to wish Taylor and he forgot to wish me too!
That makes this the first year we forgot to wish each other. I guess we we're both caught up with Cheryll and the after events of the wedding that we forgot our day.
I took my phone to give Taylor a call, but remembered that he'd still be in the flight, so decided to send him a voice note.
"Happy twenty two, Tay. Big T loves you." I sent.
And I was lost in thoughts. Maria had said so much just now about Cheryll and I'd never perceived Cheryll's feelings from this side. If I'm to see through Maria's advice, then it makes me nothing, but an arrogant; actually not arrogant, but a ruthless beast.
And I'm going to make Cheryll forgive me. I decided at the moment.
Whether this marriage lasts, or not after a year, I'd still have to seek her forgiveness as a human being, because she doesn't deserve what I did with her. She doesn't deserve to be deceived like this.
If anything, she deserves a lot more better life than this. She deserves to be happy and not weep over her fate. Her kindness and honesty needs to be honoured and not taken advantage of like how I did.
It was already 1 pm, I prepared something for me to eat and also saved some for Cheryll. It was around 11 when she took the pill and fell asleep, the effect must last for 8 hours, so she won't be waking up until 7 in the evening.
After lunch, I went to work in my study and skimmed through some documents. I was hardly concentrating, my mind wandered off to Cheryll every now and then and I found myself going through the same passage twice, or even thrice.
Frustrated, I closed the files and cleared the table. I brought my hands to my temples and gently rubbed them to ease my headache. My phone buzzed and the screen lit up.