Chapter 1

He stood there, heart pounding, instincts full-throttle with desire, and his brain contradicting everything he desired. He had become a president of a large corporation. Just having her here would be a complete scandal. His eyes gazed over his ex-wife, her reddened eyes blinking at him as he attempted to wipe her eyes, she was babbling words that he couldn't quite understand.

She had remarried for money, but Shimon was almost positive that it wasn't a decision that she should've been making. Mayura had remarried to keep her family from going into debt after they had left the exorcism business.

It wasn't a necessary decision, Shimon found himself arguing with her over her reasons. She didn't listen to him.

It wasn't his problem after all.

He wasn't her fiance, anymore.

His fist tightened, they had divorced for the same reasons her parents did. But he wasn't ready to that decision. Neither was she. But she had convinced herself she was. Sure, she wasn't the best exorcist on the block, but there wasn't anyone else's body heat that he wanted pressed against his back in battle. The feeling of her shoulder blades against his when they were in a pinch had become second nature. He found himself looking for her presence whenever he was called upon, it felt as though he couldn't stand no matter how hard he tried.

He ducked, a projectile launching through the air as she wiped her eyes, one of his empty wine bottles shattering against his front door. "You prick!" She stumbled several steps before attempting to support herself on his couch and slipping to the floor. He watched as she sobbed, basically destroying his brand new couch.

He found himself kneeling next to her, moving her hair out of her face, "Hey, Mayura, I think it's time you go home." He whispered receiving a punch with as much force as she could muster to his shoulder.

"Stupid Amos, stupid Amos. I told you I wanted to go back to Shimon. But! No! You can only bother with me when you're about to lose me! Stupid cheater!" She slurred.

His heart was threatening him, it was taking everything in him not to scoop her up and carry her back to his room. He would sleep on the couch sure, but returning her? To a marriage she was unhappy with?

He cringed. Neither of these marriages were ones that marriages that made her happy. "I was so much happier with Shimon." She sobbed, clinging onto his vest as if he was going to disappear any minute. Or she was going to strangle him, which seemed like a more likely outcome.

Shimon took another well-controlled breath. She wouldn't remember even half of these ramblings. He waited until she cried herself to sleep before moving her to the bed where she used to sleep. He shut the door, heading back into the living room. On the couch, he began dialing Mayura's household number. He backspaced and stared at the blank screen for several minutes. Before punching in Seigen's number.

"I'm surprised, you haven't called in over a year."

Shimon glanced towards the door where Mayura was sleeping. Those weren't the first words he expected Seigen to say. He half-expected to be ranted out for ruining the life of the daughter of the man he looked up to. On the other half, he expected Seigen to not pick up the phone at all.

"Mayura's at my place."
"Well, you were married at one point."

"Seigen. I don't-marriages don't always work out like your's did. Especially divorces. She's married."

"It doesn't look like it to me." Seigen's voice seemed to allude to all of the words he was suppressing in the back of his mind.

Shimon glanced towards the broken wine bottle on the floor. They had never been that violent with each other. Even when Mayura had been drunken she had never been like that. She had never thrown things when they argued, drank until she forgot who she was, or become as violent as the traces that were left around his house.

He glanced towards the coach something breaking inside of him as he glanced towards the claw marks of her destroying the coach from attempting to support herself. Who would expect to win an argument when they couldn't even support themselves?

Shimon took a glance towards the clock, it was slightly after eleven o'clock. He drug the laptop that laid on the coffee table closer to him, slightly relieved that she had decided to throw the wine glass instead of his laptop.

He hypothesized if he was feeling the amount of rage she was feeling, he wouldn't have gotten drunk, he would've talked himself out of whatever situation he was about to throw himself into-no, that was a lie.

"Can't you come get her?" He whispered.

Seigen took a breath. Seigen knew that wasn't what he really wanted. Seigen also knew that Shimon felt a need to fix everything.

Shimon knew that Seigen didn't like Amos. He wanted him gone. It wasn't like he had known him from childhood. It wasn't like Amos didn't have extra girls in his arms every weekend. He didn't even attempt to hide the situation knowing that it would upset Mayura. The man must've been reasoning with the fact that Mayura married him for money and he married her for connections.

Shimon shook his head knowing that he was pushing the-deserved-but-unnecessary blame onto Amos. That's how they wound up here in the first place. He was determined, but he wasn't patient. Maybe, if he had tried harder or not let his temper get the best of him they would've still been on their way to being married.

Instead, here he was: ex-fiance in his bed, in the next room researching her husband to the point it qualified as stalking. His intentions had been met as he dug up information on where Amos was.

Seigen sounded like he was browsing through the collection of wine that he and Mayura bought him for his birthday. "It'll be mighty hard to carry her home. With only having one hand and her being drunk to the point she can't tell the difference between both you and Amos. Which bottle was it?"

Shimon cringed taking a glance at the glass at the door, the man was intuitive. He had to give him that. He picked up the broom beginning to sweep the pieces into a pile. "Don't worry about it."

"Can she stay there for tonight?"

Shimon felt the temptation stir in his chest, "She's married. I'm her ex-fiance. I don't think staying over drunk at your ex-fiance's place fixes your marriage too well."

Seigen sighed, "Good. Let their marriage crumble. Get yourselves back together."

"It wasn't like we dropped it the way you would drop a curse, we were considering this situation for a while." Shimon stated, attempting to sound as though breaking the engagement off was something he seriously wanted to do.

"Doesn't sound that way to me." Seigen grumbled. "I still think you're a better match than that child."

Shimon glanced back to the computer, ideas circling in his mind that an average, decent human being wouldn't bother playing with. "I'm not as good of a person as you think."

Seigen let out a dark laugh, "About time." before ending the conversation with a single click.

Shimon took a breath, his hands shaking at the idea. He was going to get Mayura to divorce Amos.