Hello my beautiful, wonderful fans!
I know that it has been awhile since I've updated this story, and for that I apologize. I was... directionally challenged, if you will. Couldn't quite decide if I wanted to stick to my original plan for this or not. Luckily, it is all figured out! So again, I apologize for the wait, enjoy chapter 8!
- xoxo, Crys (08.28.17)

"Picture Perfect"

Chapter 8

"Dr. Grey, would you be able to tell me where Mrs. Dr. Grey is at the moment?"

The blonde haired, green-eyed gentleman that had been addressed, reluctantly looked up from behind his desk, away from the patient file he was reading, and raised an eyebrow at the unexpected visitor now standing in his office doorway. "Uhm, I'm not too sure, Miss Thompson," he paused briefly, "I believe she may be helping out in the ER at the moment."

The auburn haired woman nodded, a mischievous smirk covering her lips. 'So that's where she is'; the one place she failed to check.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" he pondered, knowing his wife was probably too busy at the moment. "Or is it specifically Amy that you need?"

"Oh, no, no don't worry about it." her eyes danced, as she turned to leave. "It's not that important, just wanted to talk to her is all. Thank you, Dr. Grey."

"You're very welcome." he said after her retreating form. 'What does Darien's assistant want with Amy?' he thought to himself. As far as he knew, Amy had never even spoken to her. Naturally, Zoicite found it odd that Christina was in search of her, considering Amy and Darien worked in completely different areas of the hospital. 'What a weird woman.' the doctor thought to himself.

"Darien, I almost forgot to tell you," Serena called into their bedroom, brushing her blonde locks in front of their bathroom mirror. If he was going to act indifferent, then she was too. She would act like their shower together had never happened. She was going to beat him at his own game.

Darien was pulling a simple black v-neck tee over his head from their closet, when he heard her address him from the bathroom. "What is it, Serena?" he rolled his eyes, annoyance evident in his tone.

"I spent some time with Nephrite this afternoon," she explained, purposely leaving out the fact that Lita had also been in their presence. Sensing her husbands irritation, she continued nonchalantly, leaving him to wonder. "Anyway, he just told me to tell you to call him, he said he hasn't heard from you in awhile."

Darien froze at the mention of his old friend, Nephrite. He had been so busy lately with work and this pestering Christina woman, that he hadn't taken into account the fact that he had unintentionally isolated himself from his friends. Living a double life had the tendency to do that.

He knew that Serena and Nephrite had developed a special bond after Annabelle was born, and Darien used to be grateful that a man other than himself had appreciated the person his wife was, but at this moment in time, the only emotion that came to his mind was unease, and a slight territorial pang of possessiveness over Serena.

Darien wasn't going to back down from this one. Not a chance in hell. "Don't you think it's a little inappropriate to be spending time with a married man, Serena?" Darien shot back at her. "Especially dressed the way you were? Jesus Christ, Serena, he is one of my best friends, or have you forgotten that?" he asked, slamming their closet door behind him.

Serena glared daggers into the mirror in front of her, and purposely dropped the hairbrush that she was using so that Darien would hear the loud clatter from its impact with the bathroom sink. She knew she would provoke some kind of response from him by making it seem as though she and Nephrite were alone, but it was evident that she wasn't quite as ready for his smartass retort as she had originally thought.

"He's my friend too, Darien. As a matter of fact, he's married to one of my best friends, as you well know. I don't know what you're trying to insinuate, but I'll stop you right there." she quickly snapped back. This was the second time today that he had implied she was a less than respectable woman.

Darien heard the loud clank when the brush made contact with their sink, and he had clearly heard her response, but he didn't care to respond any further. He would let that comment weigh on her. In fact, he ignored her, as he finished getting dressed into his night clothes. He was aggravated, pissed even.

Serena had come around the corner by this time, still clad in her damp towel, and had brushed passed him to reopen their closet door so that she could grab a nightgown. She was visibly flustered, he could tell by the look on her face and the rosy hue of her cheeks. The woman wore her emotions on her face, she could never hide anything she was feeling from him.

Growing up, Darien had always thought to himself that he would never be the man to cheat, no matter how bad the relationship had gotten. It was unacceptable, no excuses. Nothing could justify potentially hurting the person you love. Cheaters were weak, pathetic people. And going against everything he believed, he evidently ended up becoming one of those people - the ones he saw as weak, pathetic excuses for a spouse. Was it right? Was it wrong? At this point in time, he wasn't sure. But if he himself had become something he never thought he would have, the same could go for Serena. For all he knew, she could've cheated on him multiple times throughout their marriage - he was never home enough to ever find out about it if she did. Granted, Darien knew deep down, that Nephrite would never betray him or Lita in that way, he still did feel that all too familiar feeling of jealousy at the thought of Serena spending time with another man; friend or not.

Serena Shields was a beautiful woman, and he knew that. Her beauty had been one of the many reasons he had given her his last name. She could still have any man that she wanted, whenever she wanted. And if she wanted to, she could replace Darien in a heartbeat. He knew that, and she knew that. And vice-versa. He was chiseled and sculpted to perfection, built much like that of a God, and she had the curvy figure of a Goddess, and the face of an angel to match. Neither one of them would have a problem finding other people, if need be.

"I'll be in my office," he called over his shoulder as he turned to leave their bedroom, unmoved by the fact that Serena had now dropped her towel to the floor, and was slipping into a silky black nightgown, just outside of their closet. Whatever sexual curiosity seeing her naked body in the shower had sparked in him, was now gone. A mere fleeting lustful attraction.

"As if I would ever expect to find you anywhere else." he thought he had heard her mumble under her breath, as he exited the room.

Darien shuffled through some old papers on his desk, not looking for anything in particular, but for something that would keep his mind busy; he hadn't had the time to organize his home office in ages, so that's what his goal was. Just a small task to keep him busy and away from his wife.

Serena had gone back downstairs, probably to continue reading the book she was engrossed in before he put Annabelle down to nap, or to do something else; he didn't care to imagine what. She had irritated him too many times in one day, so he found solace in his own private space.

While fumbling through some loose papers, he accidentally knocked over one of the two picture frames he had perched on his desk. The raven-haired man couldn't help but take notice of the picture in the frame he had placed on the corner of his desk, next to his telephone. He hadn't really, really looked at the photo the frame had held for so long in awhile. It was a matte black frame that encased a candid photo of himself, Serena, and Annabelle just after she was first born. Serena had tears in her eyes, and Darien was looking down at his two girls in complete awe. They both had been so happy when she was born; that baby girl had become the center of Darien's world the second she came into the world. Back then he had wanted nothing more than to be the perfect father and husband to those innocent blue-eyed girls in the picture. That one photograph had captured his entire heart, and his entire world, in just one snap of a lens.

Before he realized the subconscious movement, he found himself absent-mindedly brushing his thumb over his daughter in the picture, smiling.

Annabelle Shields had become such a well-mannered little girl, and he was so proud of her for becoming just like her mother. Despite their differences, Serena was a damn good person, he couldn't deny that; and that sweet, carefree, loving little girl she gave birth to had made him want to have another child with her seemingly perfect mother.

It emotionally and physically pained him that Serena had experienced a miscarriage with what would have been their second born child in the year prior. At the time they both were very distraught, and at first Darien was supportive and he was there for Serena emotionally, but that pain he felt eventually turned into something else - it turned him into something else. Something very dark, and very malicious. But he wouldn't allow himself to think about that right now. He couldn't.

Without even realizing it, Darien had already leaned back in his chair to grab a bottle of whiskey that he had on a nearby shelf. Next to the bottle, were small rocks glasses, and so he grabbed one. He wouldn't be needing the ice at this point, just the whiskey. He liked it straight up anyway.

Interrupting his now troubling thoughts, Darien heard the faint buzz of his cell phone vibrating on his desk, bringing him out of his revere. Setting his glass of whiskey down, he reached for the device, noting that he had received a text message from an unknown number. Curious, he clicked to open it.

'Darkness will always come to light; nothing stays hidden forever.' he read the message to himself twice over, puzzled.

'Who is this?' he wrote back. 'What the hell?' he thought to himself. That was an odd text message to receive out of the blue.

Less than a minute later he had already received a reply. Peering over the brightly lit screen, he furrowed his brow. 'Just your conscious saying hello.' the second text read. He had never received random text messages on his personal cell phone prior to this; himself and Serena both had their phone numbers unlisted for privacy purposes. His business phone was listed, and he received random calls and text messages all the time, but never on his personal cell phone. Very few people had his number, and the ones that did were either family or close friends.

Not in the mood to deal with what was probably some high school student texting the wrong number by accident, he sent a ccurt reply, 'You have the wrong number, sorry. Please do not text me again.' and set the phone back down, reaching out for his glass of whiskey once more.

Buzz buzz. Another text message, from the same unknown number. Sighing in aggravation, he picked up the cell phone and opened his inbox to read what it said. 'Maybe I'll text your wife instead.'

"What the fuck?" he found himself saying aloud. 'What are you talking about-' before he had the chance to send his reply, the phone vibrated and lit up once more, with yet another text message.

'I'm sure she would love to know what you've been up to lately.' it read.

The dark blue-eyed man just sat there, staring at his phone, incredulous.

What was happening? Who was this random person texting him? And did they know about his infidelity? Christina had spread the rumor, but then retracted it hours earlier - could someone have really believed her? Or was the person on the other side of these text messages just bluffing?

At twenty-nine years old, Darien Shields was not about to play some anonymous text message game with some stranger that could possibly not even know for sure what he had done; if they even knew anything at all. And if it was Christina toying with him, he would find out sooner or later.

'Have a good night.' was his last reply, before blocking all contact with the anonymous texter. He was already on his third glass of whiskey - at this point he had a good buzz going - and he knew better than to keep replying. Darien was already annoyed with the day, this person didn't know what they were at risk of provoking.

It was quiet for several minutes before he heard the familiar sound of his wife's phone chime from an incoming text message downstairs, breaking through the silence. 'You've got to be kidding me!…' he thought to himself, while hastily getting up from behind his desk, quickly heading in the direction of the soft chime.

Serena could either be a) away from her phone, b) ignoring her phone, or c) opening her text messages right now to read them. His heart began to pound at the thought of the last scenario. If that crazy anonymous texter had really been serious and reached out to Serena, God only knows what she could be reading right now.

Did Darien Shields just dig his own grave?

End Chapter 8

Now, as I'm sure you can tell, this story is about to heat up and things are about to get really bad, really quickly.
What did Christina want with Amy? And who was this anonymous texter? What does that text on Serena's phone say?
Leave your guesses/ideas in your review and we'll see who has the best idea of what just happened.
Questions? Concerns? Suggestions? Voice them in your review!

- xoxo, Crys (08.28.17)