Maxine flailed her arms over the six colleagues sitting in front of me to get my attention to send her the Google analytics while my boss blew my eardrum over the phone, demanding I attend to Palion Inc’s account with urgency and handle it with care.
“Yes, sir. I’ll get on it right away. I’ll correct the mistakes I made, and everything will be fine and dandy, just the way you like it.”
He continued the lecture, and Maxine’s arm flailing became more dramatic than an aeroplane controller’s on a runway. My phone beeped. Something in my gut told me that I should check it. I know it didn’t make sense for me to look at my phone at that moment, but something was drawing me to it. I just had to look. It’s like it was a life-and-death situation.
I drew the pattern on the home screen and then checked my phone. Abruptly, my boss’s yelling muted, and everything in the background became still. My heartbeat slowed, and a lump in my throat formed, increasing in size until it felt like oxygen struggled to squeeze past it into my lungs.
Blinking was out of the question while I gaped at the phone. I thought this day would never come. But it had, and I had no idea how to handle it. The one person I thought would always be by my side was gone. My chest expanded and contracted rapidly as I struggled to fill it with oxygen. My mouth dried after a few seconds of me opening it, trying to catch my breath.
Tears pooled in my eyes, so I placed my hand on my eyebrows, covering my eyes so that my colleagues wouldn’t notice my pain. I was supposed to be the strongest lady in the office. Nobody could bring me down. Criticism bounced off me like a ball off a wall. Berating me made me smile because it had no effect on me whatsoever. But looking at my phone sucked all the oxygen out of me, leaving me with no energy and feeling like my world had ended.
My hand shook. I wanted to press the home button to exit, but I couldn’t look away. It’s as if I thought that something would change if I kept looking at my phone, like I hadn’t seen correctly and that the last few minutes were just a mistake because my eyes were playing a trick on me.
I wanted to pretend like nothing had happened. There was no way I just found out that I had lost the most important person in the world to me.
I bowed my head and closed my eyes. Staring at my phone was just too painful. I couldn’t take it anymore. I wanted to fall apart, but the office wasn’t the place to do it. Getting up was risky as I didn’t feel that my legs would hold me up. I was certain that I would fall over as soon as I raised myself off the chair. But I had to make a quick exit.
I used the armrest for support to lift myself up. My legs felt like they would give in at any moment, so I scuttled away from my desk, hoping that the momentum would carry me out.
The elevator door opened, and I stumbled inside, grabbing onto the steel bar and quickly turning my back to it. My back slid down the glass, and the steel bar prevented me from sliding all the way to the floor as my bum pressed on it.
I grabbed the bar with both hands to make sure that I didn’t fall off as my legs stretched in front of me. They were about to give out at any moment. I wasn’t even sure that I could make it to my car. I watched the light on the number pad light up a lower floor number every three seconds, which felt like an hour.
The P1 button lit up. I panted as I pushed myself off the bar to straighten my back. As the elevator door opened, I stumbled out of it, drifting from side to side as I felt my frail legs lose more strength.
I eventually reached my car. Thank God. I didn’t think I was going to make it. It felt like it was kilometres away. I opened the door, and my bum plunked into the seat. I grabbed the steering wheel with both hands and rested my forehead on it, tears pouring out of my eyes as I squeezed them and my shoulders trembled as I gritted my teeth, suppressing a growl that would let out all of my pain.
Screaming, shouting, bashing my fist on the steering wheel—all of that would help—but nothing would change what happened.
A few minutes later, as I caught my breath, I reclined in the seat and looked out of the window. Tears still slipped out of my eyes. There was no way I could control them. I looked at the cars to my side and wondered about my next move.
I had to catch a flight to see my family. There was no other time in my life that I needed to be with them more than now. But can I even drive to the airport in this state? I might cause an accident. Who cares? If I die on the way there, so what? It feels like my life is over anyway.
I can’t even recall the drive to the airport. It felt like it took me two minutes to get there. All I could think about was what I found out.
Luckily for me, the next flight home was in an hour’s time.
Four hours later, a taxi drove me from the airport to home. I rang the bell, and Mom answered. She saw pain on my face and then immediately threw her arms around me, pulling me to her. She squeezed me, the way she had when I was a little girl and had fallen on the ground while running. Everything was okay when I was in my Mommy’s arms.
Mom and I spoke about the loss the entire weekend. We both wished that it hadn’t happened and that things could’ve been different. But that’s life. Just when you think everything is going according to plan, something crops up that turns your world upside down.
Before I left on Sunday night, I asked Mom, “What about the wedding? It just doesn’t feel right for me to celebrate.”
“Your heart will tell you what to do, my angel. If you go through with it, I and the rest of the family will be there to support you. We love you so much.”
On the flight back, I wondered how Nick would feel if I told him that the timing wasn’t right. He proposed to me on a beach, as the sun was setting. It was a complete surprise to me and one of the most amazing moments in my entire life. I’ll never forget it.
I knew since the moment I met him that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. He was perfect in every way. Mom had helped with the wedding preparations. The two of us had spent so much time to ensure that every detail wasn’t overlooked. She, just as much as I did, wanted it to be the best day of my life.
I decided not to suggest to Nick to make any changes to the wedding. After all, he paid for the entire event. I didn’t want to ruin anything.
On the day of my wedding, I felt some movement in my stomach. It’s like my gut was telling me that it just wasn’t the right thing to do. Of course I felt that way. It was normal after everything that had happened. But I decided to suck it up and pull myself together.
At the altar, the priest said, “Olivia, you have something to say.”
I looked at my husband-to-be. “Nick, you know that I fell in love with you from the beginning. I thought about giving an entire speech, but words can’t express how I feel. Instead of me telling everyone how we got to this point, I’d like to show them.”
He smiled. I pressed the remote in my hand, and a video played on the projector behind the priest. The guests watched a woman walk into our house after Nick opened the door for her. She jumped on him, wrapping her legs around him.
She put her hands on his shoulders, and he grabbed her ass before they smooched. Some of the guests gasped. The priest grunted and then looked down.
I watched Nick’s smile dwindle, and his gaze intensified. He just kept looking at the projector, and I wondered what he was thinking.
The video played, showing Nick carrying a woman to the lounge. She placed her feet on the floor and immediately went for his zipper. She was eager to get his pants off. Whispers traversed throughout the hall. I could only imagine what the guests were saying.
The woman got on her knees and pulled out Nick’s dick. She shoved it into her mouth and sucked it aggressively. He raised his chin and looked at the ceiling. It was obvious that he was enjoying the blow job.
After a few minutes, she leapt to her feet and then got on the couch, digging her knees into it and resting her forearms on the backrest while smiling at Nick over her shoulder. He lifted her skirt and pulled down her g-string. The hall was dead silent. It felt like the guests anticipated his next move, wondering if he would stick his dick inside her to commit the ultimate betrayal, as if he hadn’t done enough damage already.
He stuck his dick into her pussy and grabbed her shoulders, then proceeded to pound her hard from behind. As he watched the video, Nick closed his eyes and bowed his head. He deserved to feel humiliated after he shattered my heart.
Some of the guests grunted as the video played. I knew that they were uncomfortable, but how did they think I felt? I wanted everybody to know who Nick Evans really was.
As he continued to bang her from behind, my eyes were on him. I thought about the time he told me that he’d never lie to me and that I was the only woman he could ever be with. He sounded sincere, so I believed him.
Before the end of the video, the woman turned around and got on her knees in front of him, sticking out her tongue. He came on her face, tongue and even inside her mouth. The guests gasped and some coughed.
The message I got on my phone at the office was a notification from an app, which recorded the camera I had set up at home. Nick had acted strange for the last few weeks, and I saw that he was hiding something from me. That was unlike him.
I didn’t want to set up the cameras, but my heart told me to. As I watched the recording, I felt like the most important person in the world to me had died. I knew Nick and I couldn’t be together after his cheating. I lost him, and everything we had built together meant nothing.
How could I think of him as the most important person in the world and not Mom? It’s because she told me to feel that way. When Dad passed away five years ago, she and I became even closer. My Mom and Dad were the most important people in the world, but after I got engaged, Mom told me to consider Nick as my priority.
I couldn’t believe she said that. Of course she was my number one, but she said that Nick would be my husband soon and that I had to follow his lead because we would start our own family. How unselfish of her to tell me to put Nick ahead of her.
I struggled to come to grips with her request, but I tried really hard because that was what she wanted. Even after I told her about Nick’s cheating, she supported me in the way I planned to handle the wedding. Nick had paid for her plane ticket and the rest of my family’s, so it was an opportunity for me to see them and embarrass Nick in front of them and the other two hundred guests.
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