Prologue
A/AN: Here's the first chapter to my newest cover bunny story, "The Dark One's Family". This story will be set in the real world AU. Things will be rather angst centric at first but will get better with time, I promise.
Isabelle Gold tapped her foot impatiently when she heard the old grandfather clock in the foyer strike midnight. She settled in the plush arm chair, her eyes strangled of sleep, but she would not slumber until she heard his metal key unlock the door. She almost dozed off around twelve-thirty when she heard the lock click. She jumped up, smoothing out her expensive navy Gucci dress.
A man with wispy brown hair wearing a pristine pinstripe suit opened the door, surprised to see his wife staring at him angrily, wisps of chestnut hair falling in her eyes. Raymond Gold could tell that his wife, twenty years younger than him looked like he only had about ten years on her tonight.
"Belle what are you doing up so late?" he inquired to the beauty with burning blue eyes boring into his.
"Just to tell you how disappointed I am that you forgot our son's piano concerto tonight." she fumed.
"That was tonight?" Raymond stammered, completely oblivious to their child's leisurely activity schedule.
"Yes! I reminded you three times before you left for the office this morning, but you were too busy talking to one of your clients on the phone. You're always on that thing! You never have time for us because you're always too busy making a deal with someone!" she confronted, drawing closer to him.
"Belle I'm sorry, but you know I can't turn down a client. I'm doing all of this for you and the children." he excused himself, gesturing towards the large mansion they resided in.
"Ray we don't need all this! What our children need is for their father to be home to spend time with them. They need to know that you care about them by taking an interest in their lives. You can't buy their love! They just want to spend time with their father. In fact that's all I want is to spend time with you!" she pleaded, her voice lowering an octave.
"I would love to be home more sweetheart, but you know I can't do that right now. Gold Enterprises just signed a contract with Mill's Products. That was the deal of a lifetime, and I can't screw it up." he replied, taking off his jacket, hanging it on the coat rack. He was now standing in his slacks, white collared shirt, and tie.
"So are you telling me that your own family has to be penciled into your schedule if they want to spend time with you?" Belle asked sharply, her voice rising again.
"No of course not…I promise you that things will slow down eventually." he supplied, a distinct hollowness in his voice. Belle shook her head firmly having none of it.
"You've been saying that for over three years now Ray, and I don't believe things are going to slow down unless you have a heart attack. I'm so tired of making excuses for you and having to constantly lie to our children about why their daddy isn't at this ballgame or that dance rehearsal." she sighed, a weary woman tired of running in circles over the same dispute again and again.
"So what do you want me to do?" he inquired, ready to retire to his room for the night and turn in.
"I want a divorce…" she spoke so softly that he almost didn't hear her, her heart breaking with every syllable, "I can't live like this anymore Ray and neither can our children. They deserve better than what you're giving them." she finished tears running down her ruddy cheeks. He watched her run up the stairs, his breath hitching in response to her request.
"I want a divorce…" the words resonated in his mind like a broken record. He made his way up the stairs to his private chamber. They'd stopped sleeping in the same bed six months ago. Why couldn't he notice that his Belle was unhappy? He'd showered her with the finest things money could buy, but she was never satisfied. She wanted the intangible things that money couldn't buy, she'd often told him.
He loosened his tie, draping it across the chair. He unbuttoned his shirt and undid his slacks until he was wearing nothing but a pair of boxers. He climbed into his empty bed, recounting the last ten years of their marriage.
He'd met Isabelle Lacey French when she'd applied for an internship at Gold Enterprises. He was instantly attracted to the spunky twenty something year old brunette. They married just six short months after their first meeting. He was twenty years her senior and everyone was firmly against their union. They said it wouldn't last and that it was a foolish decision on his part. She was a gold digger, just marrying him for his millions, but they couldn't have been further from the truth.
Belle always chastised him for buying her expensive gifts, humbly telling him that he shouldn't feel like he needed to buy her love, but he was an insecure man. He'd been married previously to a woman in his late twenties named Milah who thought of herself as his eye candy. She demanded the expensive gifts and the pampered life but it had never been enough. She never truly loved him, and he'd caught her in an affair, four years into their marriage to man more successful and handsome than him. His insecurity reared its ugly head after she took a fourth of what he owned. He buried himself in his work, refusing to even make eyes at another woman. They were all the same after all, but Belle wasn't.
She genuinely seemed to love him for him, and he'd pushed her away when she'd gotten to close. He could blame his busy work schedule all he wanted but the truth was that Raymond Gold was afraid of being loved, even after ten years of marriage. Anything good in his life was always swept away, so he thought a little distance would lessen the pain he felt when she decided to leave him. That day had finally come so why did he feel so hollow inside? He longed to rush to her bedroom and tell her that he was a foolish man, to give him a second chance, but he flipped on the late night news instead. Raymond Gold was a coward.
A/AN: Yes sorry for all the angst but I promise that it will get better! Will Raymond try to win his wife back or will he let the one person who loves him most go for good? Please review!