Surprise! Didn't think that I'd be posting the next chapter in less than 12 hours, but what do you know? Here it is! I honestly should've just combined the two chapters together, but this chapter honestly just came to me when inspiration poked at me. I didn't have it complete when I posted chapter 12. Plus, I wanted to leave you all with a lot of questions after this chapter. Hehehe...
Enjoy, and as always, leave me a review! I love the feedback from my fans.

-xoxo, Crys. (01.06.19)

"Picture Perfect"

Chapter 13

Sighing, Serena put the last dish away, having just finished cleaning up after breakfast. To her surprise, Darien had waited for Annabelle's school bus to pick her up outside of their front gate before heading to work. Usually he was already gone by the time her bus arrived, so she found it a little odd that he had stuck around and waited with their daughter. They hadn't said a word to each other during breakfast, and she hoped their daughter didn't take much notice.

So, there she stood, alone, leaning against one of the kitchen counters in her now empty, over-sized home. She felt small. Not because of the size of their home, or the fact that her husband and daughter were now gone – Serena had always been okay being alone, it was something she got used to. No, she felt this way because she was beginning to realize that she was no longer on the same level as Darien. They were no longer partners in life, and in love; they were opposites. Different people, wanting different things. True colors were starting to show, and she wasn't sure if she could handle it.

Pacing back and forth, from the living room to the kitchen, she paused at her study. Serena had completely forgotten that she had left her phone there last night. Walking over to the small able beside her reading chair, she grabbed her forgotten cell phone. Hitting the home button, she saw that it still had a charge to it, and not one, but two, unread text messages from Lita.

'Hey, how come you didn't reply?' read the first text.

'Serena? I know you read it, lol.' was the second.

Scrolling up, Serena couldn't find whatever Lita was referring to. There was no text for her to not reply to. In fact, their entire thread had disappeared. 'Stupid iPhone.' She cursed to herself. Technology had never been her friend.

'Hey, sorry Lita. I forgot my phone downstairs last night. I went to bed kind of early. What did you text me? I don't have anything from you. In fact, my stupid phone deleted our entire thread! Remind me again why I let you and Amy convince me to get an iPhone?' with a chuckled, the blonde rolled her eyes, sending the text message to her best friend.

Lita instantly replied, poking at her favorite blonde. 'Hey now, don't try to pull a fast one on me. We convinced you to get an iPhone so that we can see when you read our texts, lol! If you were busy banging Darien, it's okay, I get it. But at least send a small 'thank you, it was good to see you too' reply, Sere!' Attached was a photo of some sort, so Serena clicked on it. It was what looked to be a screenshot of what Lita had evidently sent her, with time stamps and all. It had what time the text was read at, but Serena seriously didn't remember getting anything from Lita. Her phone was away from her all night.

Pulling up her contacts, she dialed Lita's number. She honestly didn't have a clue what happened with her phone. "Hello?" could be heard on the other end.

"Lita," she started, "I swear I didn't get any of your texts until today. My phone was downstairs in my study all night. This stupid phone deleted our entire text conversation."

"Oh man, really?" the emerald-eyed woman questioned. "Serena, don't tell me you let your phone get water damaged?"

"Absolutely not!" she protested. "Mind you, it has a waterproof case on. Just in case Annabelle ever gets ahold of it."

"So," Lita pondered, "all of your previous texts are gone? That's so weird."

"Well, no," Serena explained. "I have all of my other texts. I haven't noticed anything else that's been deleted… It's just yours that I'm missing."

"Okay, that's seriously weird, Serena. Text messages don't just delete themselves."

"I swear I didn't delete them, Lita. I really didn't." She was being honest, she didn't delete anything. She was a cyber-hoarder. She still had texts from when she very first switched over to iPhone, years ago.

Lita smiled through the phone, it was just like Serena to assume she was in trouble or something. It really wasn't that big of a deal. "I'm not saying that you did, Serena. But someone must have."

Serena thought for a minute, but nothing came to mind.

The only other people in the house were her daughter and Darien. Annabelle didn't know how to use an iPhone; much less did she know her password to unlock it. Her fingerprint wasn't enabled on the phone either. Only she and Darien had access to her cell phone.

Why would he delete text messages from Lita, though? She saw the screenshot, they weren't bad messages, just simple 'thanks' for visiting.

It had to have been him, there wasn't any other option. She didn't know why he had been in her phone, or why he felt the need to delete messages from Lita, but she was certainly annoyed that he had.

Serena was a faithful wife, she had no reason to hide anything from Darien, but she couldn't understand why he would feel the need to invade her privacy anyway? It wasn't like she had a secret life or anything. Her days were spent dedicated to her family, him included.

"Good afternoon, welcome to the Surgical Department of Juuban Hospital, how may I assist you?"

This wasn't what she had planned, but here she was. It was a safe place, after all. "Hello, I'm looking for Dr. Shields' office."

"Oh," the front desk woman began, "I'm sorry, but Dr. Shields doesn't normally accept walk-in appointments."

She smirked, unbothered. "I'm not here for an appointment."

"Well, I'm sorry Miss, but I can't just let you through. Dr. Shields is a very busy man. People wait months to see him - his visits are by appointment only. I'd be happy to schedule one for you, Miss…?" the woman trailed off, waiting for her to fill in the blanks for her, anticipation evident in her ruby eyes.

Wow. Was this girl new? She had to be. "It's Mrs.," she politely corrected the woman. "Mrs. Serena Shields."

There it was – the look of sudden realization plastered across the receptionists' face. "Oh gosh, Mrs. Shields, I'm so sorry." Clearly embarrassed, the petite woman continued, "I didn't know it was you."

"Oh, it's quite all right." She smiled. "I don't often come here to see my husband. Are you new?" Serena knew the girl hadn't meant any harm, her curiosity was genuine.

This question caused a blush to break out across the woman's cheeks, involuntarily depicting her evident shame. "Oh my, is it that obvious?" sighing, the receptionist bashfully tucked a strand of loose, raven hair, behind her ear.

When the light hit the woman's head, her dark locks seemed to have a beautiful emerald tint to them. It was unique, and so beautiful. Not to mention the length of her hair was impressive - it had to be down to her buttocks, if not passed them. 'Gorgeous.' the blue-eyed beauty mused in appreciation.

Serena wasn't the type to compete with other women – she knew when to admit when another female was beautiful, and this one certainly was.

"I'm the new front desk administrator," she explained, bringing Serena out of her revere. "it's my first week. My name is Trista… Trista Meioh."

"Pleasure to meet you, Trista." Extending a hand, Serena hoped to ease the girl's apparent anxiety.

Trista reciprocated the gesture, grateful to be accepted by her. This seemed to break the ice for the two women; mainly for Trista. She wasn't so sure she could handle not being liked by Dr. Shields' wife. After all, she was going to be working very closely with him, seeing as she was now in charge of making all of his appointments.

"If you'll follow me right this way," Trista began, entering a quick 4-digit code into a keypad beside the corridor entrance, commanding the doors to open. "I can show you to Dr. Shields' office, Mrs. Shields."

Smiling, Serena followed suit. "You can call me Serena, Ms. Meioh." She liked this woman. She was sweet, yet professional; Serena could sense the good nature behind the woman.

"Oh," the raven-haired woman chimed sweetly, "Well, in that case, you can call me Trista."

"Christina," Darien called, after his retreating secretary. She had just handed him the papers for his next appointment, but it wasn't for another hour.

"Yes, Dr. Shields?" There it was again – that nonchalant attitude his secretary had been sporting all day.

He needed to be put at ease – his thoughts were running wild. Her calm demeanor had been worrying him all morning long, and he was suspicious of her sudden change in attitude. Calm and collected wasn't really Christina's thing.

"Christina, I've been meaning to talk to-"

A sudden knock at his door caused him to pause for a moment. "Dr. Shields," he heard a woman call from the other side of the door. "You have a visitor." He recognized the voice as the woman who worked the front desk. But he wasn't expecting any visitors today.

Darien looked over to his secretary, confused. Was something left off of his itinerary for this hour?

Christina merely shrugged, no clue as to who it may be. Uncaring, she headed to her own office, adjacent to his. Before one would exit his office, her door could be found off to the left of the room. Of course, she had her own entrance door that led into the hallway, but she also had a door that connected her office directly to his. This made it easy to reach him. It was a much smaller office, possibly a fourth the size of his, but it was her space nonetheless.

Usually the door was left open, but today they had both decided it was better off closed. Neither party seemed to want to be around the other. However, before she could reach her door, the front desk woman had already opened Darien's door, meaning she would have to fake nice with whomever walked through his door at that moment.

Briefly, she caught the faint sound of whomever was now inside of his office now thanking the front desk woman for showing them the way. The voice definitely belonged to a female.

"Take care, Serena" She heard the woman say. "It was very nice meeting you."

'Serena? As in Serena Shields? Mrs. Shields?' Christina thought to herself, feeling her eyes widen to the size of orbs. Darien's wife was here? Oh, this was too good to be true!

Christina was finally going to see the old hag that Darien Shields had married, the twat who she believed evidently couldn't please her own husband anymore. What could make this day any better?!

Quickly turning around to face the mystery woman, satisfaction written all over her features, Christina stopped short, her smile faltering.

Before Darien's desk stood a petite, slender but curvy, blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman. The woman was clad in a black high-waisted pencil skirt, with a sexy but modest slit accentuating her long legs in the back. Her blouse was a baby blue shade, with subtle, but catching, glitter that sparkled in the light every time she shifted her weight; all neatly tucked into her skirt. The harder she looked, the more she began to think the outfit may have been a one piece. A dress, perhaps. Her red-bottom, black stiletto heels didn't go unnoticed by the auburn-haired woman, either.

Internally, Christina was fuming, and she seemed to have caught the eye of Darien because of her now disgusted expression.

"Christina?" he called out to her, interrupting her not-so-nice thoughts of this Mrs. Shields. "Would you leave us for a moment? I'd like some privacy."

To say that Darien Shields was surprised to see his wife walk though his office door was an understatement. Serena never visited Darien at work anymore. In their earlier years, Serena had come up to the hospital on his lunch hour, always bringing him something to eat for lunch, but that had ended a long time ago. By the looks of it, Serena hadn't anything other than her purse on her person, so that was definitely not what she was there for.

"Thank you, Ms. Meioh," he called to his associate, as she left them alone. "Serena." He noticeably looked her up and down, aggravation, yet appreciation, evident on his features.

At that very moment, he noticed Christina eyeing his wife, clearly sizing her up. The expression on her face wasn't a pleasant one, and he was suddenly beginning to panic internally. Christina and Serena had never met before, and he had never intended for them to meet.

Christina looked as if she was planning what to say to the woman, and Darien knew it was time for him to act, or all hell was about to break loose in his office. Playing it cool, he called out to his secretary, requesting privacy. The tone of his voice may have sounded normal to Serena, but Christina knew it was meant more as a warning than as a request to be alone with his wife.

Serena hadn't even noticed the auburn-haired woman until then. Turning to face her, Serena gave her a polite smile, and Darien's heart began to pound against his chest.

Luckily, Christina was evidently still intimidated by Darien and their last encounter, or she had apparently thought it better than to cause a scene right then and there. Her fake, nonchalant façade was gone. He could see the loathing in her eyes for both himself and his wife. He knew that look – she was jealous of Serena.

As if to avoid his now penetrating gaze, Christina obeyed and left his office, granting him the privacy he so wished to obtain. She would play her cards right, and wait for the right moment to strike. Today was not the day.

End Chapter 13

Yikes! Darien is getting deeper into his self-dug hole as the hours pass.
What did you guys think? Tell me what's on your mind.

Review, review, review!
Honestly your reviews give me inspiration for new chapters.

-xoxo, Crys. (01.06.19)