Zayn and Rina had gotten over their little awkward conversation by choosing unconsciously not to talk about it anymore. It never came up in any conversation of theirs as the days went by, but neither did any discussion surrounding their contract marriage, or the five years they would spend together. It felt like life was happening around them, while they remained unaffected by it.
But at the same time, Zayn increased the security he put around Rina. He was certain Kayla would try to do something funny again, and he would rather be prepared than let it catch him off guard. Since Rina had refused to take her car with her to work, and Zayn wouldn’t let her stay in the same car with Joel, he had William get her everyday from work.
At first, Rina put up a huge fight against it, not wanting to draw attention to herself especially because of her models. But it was a deal breaker for Zayn, as he couldn’t stay calm and go about his day knowing that Rina could be put in harm’s way at any moment. Although he didn’t exactly tell her that, she had to agree to it at the end of the day, especially after making sure that William was cool with it.
Like he would say anything contrary to what Zayn wanted.
Her day became so much of a routine ingrained into her being that it never went a hair out of place. With the international fashion show around the corner, Rina didn’t have time for anything else. She was at the fashion house every day, working with Joel and giving him her input the minute he was done with the rest of the team who had no idea she had been working with them right from the inception of the fashion house.
She spent late nights in Joel’s office, listening to the rundown of the plans, and helping to send emails to the international brands they were expecting. Sometimes, she went down to the factory, when everyone had retired for the day, to check through the designs and see which one would need a peculiar walking pattern for the models. Rina took notes, ate late, and most times, worked through the night fashion house with the rest of the models, returning home the following day for a quick nap only to return to the same routine.
As much as Zayn tried to be there for her, it irked him watching Rina with Joel. Although, he knew nothing was going on between them, he hated that they had to work together in such close proximity. Rina was his, and the fact that he had to share her with someone else, even for a micro second, didn’t sit well with him.
Left to Zayn, he would establish Rina as a movie producer and let her work on her own terms instead. His conglomerate would be her greatest sponsor and she would be able to select who worked for her and who didn’t. But Zayn didn’t even bother pitching the idea to Rina because he knew what her response would be. Although he loved her independence and her thirst for success, he wasn’t used to just staying on the sidelines, doing nothing.
Zayn wanted to be actively involved. He wished he could be actively involved.
On the night before the fashion show, Joel had given everyone that day off, to reconvene early the next day at the venue. Still, because Rina didn’t want anything to go bad, she went over the arrangement in her head over and over again, even though they were still going to do a test run on the stage before the guests started arriving the next day.
Rina got off her bed in the evening, and got on her stiletto heels, walking the length of her hallway. She was going to have to smile at some point, since it was her grand reveal, but it made her stomach churn. She rushed to the kitchen to grab a glass of cold water, and leaned on the countertops, taking deep breaths.
Rina wasn’t scared. It was the day she had been waiting for all this while. But at the same time, she didn’t know what to do with all her nerves. Her heart thudded erratically against her chest, so hard that she thought it was going to end up breaking her ribs. She didn’t want to take nerve relaxers because Rina had never, not even once, had to depend on them.
But she had a lot of whats and ifs running through her mind, and unless she got that sorted, she would continue to feel that way. Although, there were ravishing and beautiful comments about the country’s sensation everywhere, with shows and podcasts being held in her honor, and a million of turned down interviews, Rina still couldn’t gauge the reaction of the audience when they discovered she was the one.
Even though the hate had died down with the world moving on to something more interesting, Rina knew the internet very well. All it took was a tiny spark to get them talking again, but she wanted to be hopeful, that this time, they would all realize she’d been telling the truth all this while, that she was lied against, and that all the allegations against her were not true. It would birth the question of who plotted all those things, and pointing fingers at Kayla wasn’t going to do her any good at the first revelation.
But Rina wasn’t going to back down. Her revenge had only just begun. She was going to climb to the top, higher than Kayla, all on her own, and make her beg for her mercy.
The doorbell rang, pulling Rina out of her thoughts. She sauntered to the door without bothering to check who it was. If it was Kayla or Smith, the person Zayn had put out there to watch over her would have alerted her immediately.
Zayn pushed the door wider as he leaned on the frame, his hands in his pocket. She hadn’t seen him in forever.
“What?” Rina questioned a certain lightness in her voice that was always associated with Zayn.
“Get dressed,” he muttered. “We’re going out.”