AN: for my good friend and great author. SugarOo.
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Chapter 3
Free.
"And let's go over your work ethics performance.." Kagome grabbed the piece of paper in front of her. As she was about to speak her office door swung open and slammed hard against the wall.
"Kagome what the fuck is this?!" Naraku bellowed, waving a stack of papers in the air.
Kagome offered her employee a smile of apology. "Excuse me, Suka." She said as she rose from her chair. "Naraku, please I'm in the middle of an employee assessment conference."
Naraku glared at the young man sitting in front of his wife. "You're fired. Get the fuck out." He dismissed. The young man's eyes widen in horror as he darted his head over towards Kagome.
"Naraku!" She screamed. She looked at Suka in an empathetic manner. "Suka, why don't we continue this another time? I will call for you when I'm ready." She nodded at her employee.
"I…I'm…not fired?' He asked meekly.
"No Suka. Now go back to your usual routines and we'll do the assessment another time. I'll have Human Resources contact you." Kagome instructed in a soft voice.
"Than…Thank you.." Suka stuttered as he got up from his seat and left the office.
Naraku slammed the door behind the young man with the back of his heels. Kagome settled back into her chair. Her heart thumped loudly at the sudden confrontation. She knew he'd be upset but she hadn't anticipated for him to cause a scene – especially at her work. She sighed heavily of the conversation that was to come.
"You want to tell me what the fuck this is about or you're just going to sit there Kagome?" Naraku questioned irritably.
"Well, it is what it says Naraku. What happened? You're illiterate now?" Kagome got up from her seat and moved to pour herself a cup of coffee.
"Don't take that tone with me Kagome! I know what it is, I want to know what the fuck you think you're doing?" Naraku questioned, affronted by her condescending tone.
"I'm divorcing you. Again, if you'd only read, you would know!" She said over her shoulder. Naraku moved to her side and grabbed her by the arm. The coffee sloshed around. She looked down, pleased that it hadn't spilled on her cream-colored Chanel suit.
"Kagome, this is foolish. A mistake. You're not serious." Naraku's voice softened.
She yanked her arm from his grasp. "No Naraku, it's serious. As a matter of fact, I've never been more sure and serious in my entire life." Kagome stated firmly.
"Why are you doing this to us?" his voice almost pleading.
She nearly spit the coffee in her mouth. Kagome was a loss for words but not surprised by this asinine question. She glared at her soon to be ex-husband. "You're joking aren't you Naraku?" Her thought came aloud.
"What? No, I mean it! I don't know what you think you're doing filing for divorce. But I can tell you it's not going to happen!" Naraku said with certain affirmation.
"Naraku!" Kagome turned her head. Her ponytail swayed with the hard thrust.
"Kagome, I love you." He cradled her face, assuaging her coldness toward him. She felt her heart fluttered and her body weakened. Only realizing that it was his way of getting what he wanted did she recompose herself. She brushed his hands off her.
"You love me huh? Love me so much that it wasn't enough for you to whore around, but you had to bring them into our home! Our home Naraku!" She bit back the tears. She wasn't going to cry in front of him. No, not this time! She reaffirmed herself.
"I know. I know, I was wrong." Naraku soothed, he brushed his body along the length of hers. "I'm sorry. It won't happen again. Kagome," He slid his hand around her waist. "I can't live without you, darling."
She felt the tears prickling hard behind her eyes, but she refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing her break again. His voice was soft, tender, and so loving. She wanted this. She wanted him to hold her, kiss her, and tell her that he loved her, will always love her. Like when they first got married. No matter how many times he'd wrong her, whenever he spoke to her like that, she melted. Pulling back, she stared into his deep black eyes, forcing herself to see through his pretty mask he showed her. He was gorgeous like always, and so 'affectionate'. But also a complete lie. Never again, Nararku. She willed herself and with her hands, she unwound his arms from her body and gently set him away from her. She settled back into her seat behind the desk and sighed.
"Naraku, please sign the papers as soon as you can. That way we can both move on…" She requested softly, amicably. She picked up her pen and began to scribbled some notes of her assessment of Suka.
"Who is he?" Naraku questioned, narrowing his eyes with suspicion.
"Huh?" She returned his gaze with a confused one of her own.
"Who have you been fucking Kagome? Isn't that it? Isn't that why you did this? Was it him who've convinced you to leave me?" he accused.
She wanted to vomit. Of course he would think of such an accusation. Kagome slammed her palm on the desk and stood up. The audacity of the hanyou!
"Don't you belittle me like that Naraku! It's one thing for you to have disrespected me in the ways you have, but don't you…don't you EVER degrade my self-respect in such a disgraceful manner!" Kagome fired.
"Fine, I take it back. But I'm not signing anything for you. You are my mate, my wife and no one will have you! I'm not letting you go!" Naraku decreed.
With barely controlled fury she shrieked . "Your mate?!! Your mate that you've disgraced and ignored! Your mate, that you've tossed aside like nothing, for any pussy that pranced your way! Don't you stand there Naraku, and talk to me about 'your mate, your wife'! I am no long either of those!!" Kagome's miko powers rose from her anger with a pink flare.
"Doesn't matter, Kagome, you're marked by me, you'll always and forever be my mate, and I'm not letting you go! I love you! And hell will freeze over before I sign your divorce papers." Naraku reaffirmed. I went too far this time...he regretted.
"I can't believe you! After all I've put up with and all the things I've endured, you're going to stand there and talk to me like that?" Her voice began to quiver from the heartache.
"Kagome, listen, I'm sorry darling, I made my mistakes, but if you think for one second that I'm going to give you up like that," he snapped his fingers for emphasis "you've got another thing coming. Now, when you come to your senses we can talk about this and forget that this whole thing ever happened." His nonchalant attitude and tone of voice was more than enough to tip her over the brim of anger. Forget this thing ever happened...His words stabbed her in the guts over and over. And now that they were alone and he'd miffed her to no end, she didn't want to control her voice or her anger anymore. She didn't have to play the 'polite personna'. Her voice lost all pretense of civility as she spoke.
"Just like that as always huh Naraku? Brushing it off like nothing. As if I'm nothing! Like you've never done anything wrong. But you know what?" Kagome grabbed her cup of coffee and walked around her desk "I've finally come to my senses. I am thinking quite clearly, and I do want those papers signed. And you will sign those damn papers for me. Or help me Kami, I'm going to purify like the scum you are! Like, I should have years ago!! Now get the fuck out of my office and I don't ever want to see your hanyou ass ever again!!!" She tossed her cup of coffee at him. He dodged it and it shattered against her door, the black liquid sliding down like some mascara smeared tears. She was furious and her miko powers flaring at full peak behind her. It scared the shit out of him, knowing her powers were more than strong enough to come through on her threat. But he remained calm and swallowed as he flung the door open and stepped out of her office. She was panting so hard, she thought her lungs would explode. With her powers, Kagome flung the door closed, collapsed into her chair and cried her eyes red again.
Naraku sent flowers and tried to call her to reconcile but she refused to speak to him. It was the hardest thing she ever had to go through. Nevertheless, she made sure that his attempts to get her back was futile. It was too little, too late.
For the next month, she was afraid to leave her apartment, other than to go to and from work. She was afraid to run into him and feel her heart jerked in pain by his tactic to seduce her again. She was not motivated to go see her friends. At times she thought her life was over from the insufferable pain in her soul. Her dying heart made it hard for her to breathe and she felt like her life was deteriorating from the inside out. Somehow pictures of her and him filled her mind and she cried aloud, wailing in the empty apartment. She willed herself to be strong. She was going to be just fine - if she could only make it through this rough point. But each day proved to be difficult for her. He was her everything, she gave her heart to only him, had given him everything he wanted, needed and more, but somewhere down their marriage, he had moved on without her.
Sitting on top of the roof of her apartment, she closed her eyes and kissed the wind - for his love had been long gone. He was no longer hers. And because of his perpetual infidelity that their love and marriage had fallen apart.
She cried in her bed. She cried in her shower. She cried at work during lunch break.
But time made her stronger and soon her was just a faint memory of what they used to be. The sleepless night and weak heartache faded away. All the pain he'd put her through - he was no longer her world. She didn't miss him anymore. She enjoyed the jazz club when she did make time to go and visit. She didn't let the disappointment of the absence of a certain Yokai bother her. She started seeing her friends again. She enjoyed their movie and dinner nights together while they laughed and reminisce on 'old times' over a glass of wine. In fact, she was doing better than fine. She was finally doing great. She declined Kagura's offer to set her up with some of her friends. She wanted time to herself. Time to adjust. Time without a man. She had finally managed to get along happily, peacefully without him.
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Sesshoumaru looked out from his office view. Reminiscing about the night he'd ushered Abi Himme home. She had conveniently 'forgotten' much of her things at his place and it seemed that they've been spending a lot of nights together.
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Flashback….
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They entered the house and she shed her fur coat on the floor. He waved the servant off and picked up the coat instead. He knew the servants did not like her much for her diva-listic attitude and the way she treated them – they were below her in statue and breed. She made her way upstairs to his master bedroom and made herself a bubble bath. As he reached the top of the stairs, the floral scent of her bath soap swarmed his senses and it was overwhelming. He rolled his eyes in irritation. This isn't going to go well…he thought to himself of what he was about to do.
He sat rotating his chair around in his study dismissing work altogether as he sipped on his drink and reminisced once again of the miko - of her scent. He felt his budge throb.
Gentle hands in luxurious silk wrapped themselves around his shoulders. Abi leaned in to kiss his cheek, making her way down his neck.
"Stop." He commanded. She merely giggled assuming he was playing hard to get.
"Mmm….Come Sesshoumaru," she coaxed while tugging at his arm, "'let's get to bed early…" He knew she had no intention of going to sleep.
"Abi," he began
"Hmmm?' She shed her robe and revealed a sexy black negligee underneath.
On any given day he would have pounced her hot sexy body, but it was over for them and there was no enthusiasm within him to be intimate toward her anymore. She noticed the unusual indifferent attitude from him and narrowed her eyebrows in confusion.
"This is not a good idea anymore.." He ended.
"What do you mean? Are you not feeling good babe?" She queried while trailing kisses on his face. How he hated all the pet names she gave him. He pulled her arms off him and looked into her eyes, letting her know how serious he was.
"No, you and I are not a good idea." He stated flatly. Like it was something she should have known ages ago.
Shocked she took a few steps back. She fought within herself, denying that it could ever be true. It was she who usually broke off a relationship. After all, she was 'the' super model at $15,000/day rate and her own clothing line! She was recognized and praised everywhere! Every woman, demoness wanted to be her and every man, hanyous and demons wanted to be with her. This isn't happening, she thought to herself as she narrowed her beautiful green eyes at him in shock.
Her shrill laughter echoed off the pristine white walls, "You're kidding, Sesshoumaru." Abi tried to brush the incident off as a bad April Fool's joke. It wasn't April.
"No." He, once again answered her matter-of-fact.
Angry she grabbed whatever she could and tossed it at him. She missed every time as his demonic speed was more than fast enough to dodge her attempts to hurt him.
"Get out!!! Get the fuck out!!!" She screamed as she continued to pick up various objects and flung it his way. It was his house, but he could care less. He just wanted it to be over. Not to have to deal with her whatsoever. So he did. He left her there, in his large estate. He slipped into his brand new Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster and drove off. The engines roaring drowning the sounds of her screams. He would have smiled at the irony of it all, if he didn't feel so damn bad about just breaking it off like that!
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It had been months since that incident with Abi and he had not run into the miko. He was quite disappointed at the fact, but life moved on. Abi removed the rest of her things from his place. Refusing to speak to him again. He expected as much from her. She had always been arrogant that way. Shaking the memories away, he returned to his work and started replying to the long ignored E-mails.
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Kagome flipped through her mail and saw the large manila envelope. She knew what it was even before opening.
It was her divorce papers.
She thought about it for a second before opening. Finally her shaky fingers pressed the metal tabs together and opened the flap. She pulled out the white pages and scanned through the lines. He'd signed and dated everything. Her divorce was final. She was a free woman. Then why was it that she didn't feel 'free'? Why was it that she felt the sardonic, sadistic, pain in her gut, her heart?
She had hoped that somehow her marriage didn't have to come to this. Somehow it was still upon saving. But as she stared at the paper she realized without a doubt that what's done was done and finally over. There was no question, no doubt about it. Naraku and her were over. She clenched the papers to her chest and sobbed. She had set her heart and soul free. Breathe. She told herself. Everything's going to be fine.
She had to admit to herself though, that she still thought of him and missed him – from time to time. The longing for the days when he belonged to her slowly diminished, and life wasn't so empty anymore. Her heart didn't belong to him anymore. It belonged to her, and only hers.
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