A/N 1: This is another one of my inconsequential half angsty, half hopeful drabbles on cheating.
A/N 2: This one and 'The Darkest Dawn' are two drabbles based along similar lines where the tables are turned and hence the resulting consequences are starkly different.
A/N 3: The reason for the cheating in both drabbles have been kept very vague and sketchy on purpose, coz tbh s**t happens and you don't know how it happened, so yeah. But like one Goddess said before "Nothing real can be threatened" but also "Give. But give, until it hurts.". Okay, whuteva treva.
A/N 4: As always, this is un-betaed, so all mistakes are mine. All the shiz about disclaimers too.
"Pull me back together again the way you cut me in half.
Make the woman in doubt disappear.
Pull the sorrow from between my legs like silk, knot after knot after knot."
5:00 a.m.
Master Bedroom
Townhouse
"How could you be so naive, darling Miriam?" her father's voice mocks as his face appears sporting that sinister smile. Miriam struggles against her father's vicious grasp, her arms flailing, her neck snapping from side and side as she tries to scream for help – except they all come out silent while he plows into her forcefully making her bleed, she can smell the stench of cheap country liquor as he viciously attacks her mouth and breasts before whispering into her ear "How could you be so naive, Miriam – to think you deserve anything more than this - you filthy, filthy whore" he stresses on the last word as he comes undone inside his own daughter.
Mascara stained tears streak down Miriam's face as her father smiles, his face turning into something grotesque while his hands grab at Miriam's neck, choking her.
Miranda wakes up gasping, her silver hair matted with the sweat glistening on her forehead as she looks around, her eyes wide in fear, breath coming out in uneven spurts, before the memory of her dream slowly recedes into her subconscious and she begins to calm down.
The first glimmer of day light betrays the stark darkness of the room, lighting it up in a soft hazy glow. Miranda looks to the right side of her bed – the sheets are cold enough to numb her veins, not a single crinkle on them.
She thinks back to the conversation with Andy from only a few hours ago.
There had been a lot of screaming and crying from Andy's side - telling her, time and again it was only a moment of pure logical cessation, a moment of carnal lust – a brief transaction of flesh which had happened between Andy and that woman. Nothing real. Asking Miranda again and again to tell her something atleast, to punish her, hit her, be angry at her, anything.
Miranda hadn't said a word, except that she would want to sleep alone.
Her father's voice haunts her again "How could you be so naive, darling Miriam?" - she immediately looks away willing the voice to go away as her eyes fall on a picture of her and Andy on the bedside table. It's from their last vacation at the Hamptons – oh they were so happy.
So, so happy.
Naive, naive Miriam Princhek. Thinking it would last. As if anything does.
She had tried much harder than any of those other times. Worst part was, she loved Andrea.
No, no, she is in love with Andrea, but of course she doesn't deserve it.
Of course.
Miriam Princhek does not deserve Andy.
Andy Sachs with her million-watt smile and sunshine-y attitude, deserves better - like the young woman Miranda saw her with tonight – resplendent in her beauty and equally sunshine-y.
Much unlike her – old, wrinkled and wrung out. What a fool.
Miriam deserves to be reminded about James Princhek and everything that he did to her, she needs to be reminded of the child she drained down her precious body at 16, the failure of her marriages, her failure as a mother, as a wife and as a lover.
Miriam Princhek has reared her ugly head again and this time Miranda Priestly's icy walls won't work. It's gotten used to Andy Sachs now – saviour supreme.
Every time, Miranda starts to lose herself in the maze of self doubt and loathing Andy comes to the rescue – gently peeling off layer after layer of Miriam until all of it is gone, until the Miranda Andy loves comes back to life again.
Miranda lifts herself up from bed as she thinks of taking a cold shower - scrubbing herself raw, making her skin peel, taking away with it all traces of Miriam, but her steps falter and she sways falling onto the bed gasping, a single strangled sob wracks her entire body.
Then, the floodgates open.
Despair. Grief. . The endless cycle.
Almost on cue, the door creaks revealing the stooping silhouette of the woman who is making Miranda cry. Andy walks in as Miranda looks up, her eyes red, face puffy and tear strained. She recoils at the thought of how ugly she must look.
Their eyes meet and Miranda thinks she's being deceived, yet again.
Andy's rich chocolate brown orbs are filled with love, pure and unconditional as they scream out - pleading with Miranda to forgive her.
Lies. All lies. Andy does not love Miriam.
Miranda starts to hyperventilate and immediately Andy rushes across the room bending down to the foot of the bed in front of a crying Miranda as she takes her shivering hands.
"Hey, hey, hey—breathe with me" she rests her forehead against Miranda's as they look into each other's eyes – both a whirlpool of emotions. Andy takes deep long breathes encouraging Miranda to mimic as she finally calms down, only silent tears leak down her high cheekbones.
Andy sinks to the floor burying her head in Miranda's lap wetting it with her tears.
Miranda stares absently into space – thinking about the woman crying in her lap – a sharp physical pain courses through her heart at the thought of Andrea's betrayal. It makes her entire body burn.
She must release her. They both deserve that. For whatever reasons.
Andrea's betrayal hurts more than anything else ever, more than every memory of her father.
Yet.
Yet Miranda wants to hold her back.
Hold on to Andy who is the only threadbare link to her happiness and sanity. She's never wanted to hold the others back. Never, until 'd let them go because they couldn't make Miriam Princhek disappear.
Now, after all this, after so many years, Andrea had happened, how can she give this up now?
Andy wraps her hands around Miranda's lower back as she mumbles into her nightgown, "I love you Miranda, I do. I promise to fix it all. Please give me another chance."
Enough, enough now.
And then, just like that, Miranda Priestly decides not to let go of Andrea Sachs. They can work this out - because Miranda knows; she knows that Andy loves her, she is the one who loves her best. And that is solace enough.
Miranda's hand falls into the tangle of Andrea's hair as she caresses it, "How can I not, you're my only."
I realize my writing skills in this one is not very noteworthy, but I had to get this out. Nonetheless, you know how much I love me some reviews!