Both Lee and I were surprised to see the woman in my office. When I glanced at Lee, I couldn’t read or decipher what was inside his head. I wondered what the reason for the tension between them was, but then, I was not raised to be rude.
“Miss Katherine Hamilton,” I acknowledged the woman’s presence since I knew her from kindergarten. We attended the same school, and we also graduated from the same university. “Are you here to inspect our business?” I inquired since the woman has been connected with the Bureau of Customs, and I usually felt insecure towards her beauty. The foreign blood within her helped a lot to make her stand out!
“Selena Montes! Whoa, I didn’t expect to see you here. Who would have expected that I would be in a big surprise?” She replied with a spiteful remark, and I had no idea what was the cause of her sudden visit.
“It’s been several years since I started this business, and you never came to visit even just once. You were also missing in our batch’s gathering,” I pointed out the obvious, but Katherine Hamilton only shrugged off her shoulders.
“I have been busy, Selena. I heard about your previous engagement, so are you married now?”
“It was cancelled. However, I have been engaged again,” I informed her without going further into details.
“Well, congratulations to both of us. I am also engaged, as you can see this,” she said while showing off her finger with a diamond ring.
“Nice ring,” I replied.
“Of course! My fiance has great taste when it comes to jewellery. Am I right, darling?”
For a moment, I was confused and narrowed my eyes at both of them. “Darling? To Lee?” I asked because there was no way I misheard the woman for referring Lee as her darling.
“I heard he worked as your bodyguard,” Katherine said while smiling, but that particular smile didn’t reach her eyes.
I glanced at Lee and waited for him to speak or to explain. I waited for him to deny Katherine’s accusation. When it took him a long time to open his mouth and defend me, I took the courage to step forward. “Yes, he worked for me, but he just submitted his resignation letter this morning. I bet he’s doing it for fun, right?”
“Correct. As you well know that we always love to experience something unusual and challenging,” Katherine agreed. “Liam, are you alright?”
“I need to have a word with you in private,” he declared.
“Go ahead, and both of you can use my office,” I offered. It took a lot of courage for me to say that, but I couldn’t show him how I truly felt. The fact that he’s engaged with someone else kept on bothering me, and I couldn’t take it away from my head.
“Selena,” Lee whispered my name, but I just smiled at him. When Katherine sauntered towards my office, he followed, and I was left alone.
When I looked around, I could see my staff’s sad reaction, and they all felt bad towards me. I wouldn’t say I liked the feeling of being pitied upon. I despised it! So, to salvage my pride, I followed Lee and Katherine, but when I heard their conversation, I stood frozen at the door.
Supposedly, I should walk away, but I didn’t! I stayed and listened to their conversation, and I heard everything!
When he opened the door, it creaked open, and the click sound from the doorknob followed. As soon as possible, I turned around and walked away. Initially, I was indecisive about whether or not to confront him until it was too late, and Katherine Hamilton appeared with a triumphant smile.
“Selena, do you have a minute?”
I looked around and waited for a sign that Lee would stop her, but he was already gone. He just stormed off like he didn’t see me earlier! I was too pissed at the moment that I wanted to scratch Katherine’s face. “Of course,” I replied and agreed to her wishes to have a private talk with me. I brought her back inside my office, so we could talk freely, without being heard by the staff. “What are you doing?” I was surprised when Katherine suddenly kneeled in front of me. I helped her to get up, but she was so stubborn to do so.
“I love him,” she announced in between her sobs.
As I listened to Katherine Hamilton, I was tempted to grab her hair and drag her away from my workplace. “I love him too,” I responded in a monotone which caused her to look up to me.
“I am carrying his child,” she said, and it was the last straw of his betrayal.
He lied about his name, and then he withheld that he was already engaged, and now the woman he was engaged with was pregnant! Damn! Selena cursed under her breath because she was confused about what to do about her situation. “Does he know that you’re pregnant?”
“I told him,” she replied.
“And what did he say?”
“He told me to abort my baby. Selena, I can’t do that! You know my background, and I hate to do this to my unborn child! I didn’t want to become a murderer!”
“A murderer? Why do you say so? As a mother, it’s your responsibility to keep and protect the child regardless of Lee’s sense of responsibility!”
“I can’t raise this child on my own! The opposition will use me to ruin my father’s name, don’t you get it? I have no choice!”
“Of course, you have a choice, Katherine! Be a mother and protect that child,” I told her while staring at her stomach. “Two months?” I referred to her pregnancy, and when she nodded, I felt like a bucket of ice-cold water was thrown into me. I just realized that he’s been sleeping with another woman while being with me.
“He’s choosing you over us,” Katherine said.
“Really? Wow, that’s quite unexpected, but please be the one to tell him that I’m not going to be a side chick,” I replied with the remaining strength I could muster. “You can have him if you want,” I added, and Katherine’s eyes flinched for a second. Why? Didn’t she like my offer? It was too good to be true, but it was real!
“You’re going to give him to me?”
For a second, I was amazed at Katherine’s ability to treat every person as an object. “My business is earning from shipping used personal effects, but I don’t use second hand, Katherine, and you were aware of that.”
“Are you trying to insult me right now?” Katherine screamed, and I was not surprised when she stared daggers at me. After all, the woman always got what she wanted.
“You did it first when you came here unannounced, Miss Hamilton. Do I have to remind you that being the President’s illegitimate daughter doesn’t make you better than me?”
“I despise you!”
“I know, and the feeling is mutual, darling. Hate me if you want, but you can’t bring me down just because of Lee. Since he’s not here to defend me or to rebut my statement, then perhaps, it’s only right to consider that whatever we had in the past didn’t mean anything. Otherwise, he would explain to me, right? So, you can have him,” I said without adding more details that I would never be a sucker of someone who was a loser. If Liam Salcedo would advise her fiancée to abort their baby because of some issues, then I wasn’t naïve or stupid enough to take him back.
I believe I deserve better!
It’s just a shame since he was great in bed. However, being melodramatic was never my cup of tea, and I was positive I could move on…just like the last time!
When Katherine and her entourage of men in a black suit departed from the office, I waited for Lee to return. I waited for him to explain his side. For several hours, I kept myself busy checking the manifest. When it was already five in the afternoon, and he failed to show up, I decided to go home to mend my broken heart… alone.
It took so much of my strength not to cry behind the wheel, but I managed to get home in one piece. As always, I smiled at my aunt, who had a conversation with our gardener, but she probably noticed my mood.
“What’s with the long face, darling?”
“Nothing, Aunt, I am just tired from work,” I lied about being tired and not heartbroken.
“I see, but where is Lee?”
“He’s not coming back here anymore, and please inform the staff not to let him in,” I commanded my aunt to do the needful.
“Selena, are you having a lover’s quarrel with Lee?”
“A lover’s quarrel? No, definitely not,” I continued to lie and sighed with relief as Aunt Jenny chose to drop the topic.
“You must be so tired, dear. Go on now,” she said.
She probably said something else, but I was not listening to her anymore. I focused on every step that I took in going upstairs and until I reached my bedroom. Like someone who won a lottery draw but has lost the ticket, I opened my door while feeling dazed and absent-minded.
Without changing my clothes, I climbed onto the king-sized bed and lay there with my eyes wide open, staring up at the ceiling and counting the total number of light bulbs in the chandelier. For the second time, my life had come tumbling down around me, and I was at a loss as to how to get things back to normal. How could I forget the memories I shared with him? How could I possibly forget everything and just move on to another guy?
It’s challenging to deal with my heart again! After the most painful heartbreak I have experienced, I did my best to recover and to be able to love again. However, someone just broke it again, and I was so confused on how to comfort myself…again! Surely, the things I did in the past to forget about the pain wouldn’t work anymore!
However, I had to let him go. It would be selfish on my part to keep him even when he didn’t want to be kept! I gave him enough time to explain to me or ask for forgiveness, but he missed that opportunity! After Katherine Hamilton showed up in the office and claimed Lee as her fiance, he just vanished without saying goodbye, and it was the most painful thing he had ever done to me!
I would never be able to forgive him!
Perhaps, it’s time that I should no longer put my happiness in the hands of another person. Were my emotions one-sided? If that was the case, I couldn’t see any reason to hold on to him when he easily abandoned me!
I tossed and turned in bed, and I realized one thing; I could be mourning and sobbing over my loss, but life had to go on, and I had to do my best in the future! Sooner or later, I would be able to forget that someone whose name was Liam Salcedo managed to break my heart into a million pieces! Sooner or later, he would regret not choosing me! When I had enough of my drama, I got up from my bed and walked towards the vanity mirror.
It only lasted for a couple of minutes! The strength to accept the truth and manage my expectations or handle my emotions well only lasted for a few seconds! In front of the vanity mirror, I saw the weaker side of Selena Montes! Like any other girl who was dumped and replaced, I cried in front of my mirror, and I looked so pathetic!
I immediately wiped the tears and tried to compose myself; however, it was hard to stop them from rolling down my cheeks. To stop them forcefully, I walked towards the bathroom and took a cold shower.
Day after day, night after night, I waited for him to return, but he never showed up. Even his shadow failed to appear, so I concluded it was probably the best that we would never see each other again.
As the days passed by, my aunt noticed the changes in my mood. My father also voiced his concern, and he was also worried. I tried to find happiness again, but it was just hard, so I allowed myself some time to withstand the pain.
“Hey, dear. Why are you doing this to yourself?” My aunt asked when she caught me daydreaming again.
“He’s gone… and he may be gone for good,” I whispered, and she furrowed her brows.
“I thought he didn’t mean that much to you,” she stated.
“Yes, but things happened, and I fell in love with him,” I replied, and she just shrugged off her shoulders. I was accustomed to being blunt, but with the latest happening, I gradually turned into a bumbling idiot, and I hated myself for the transformation.
“Didn’t you tell him to leave you?”
“No, Aunt! I would never say such a thing when he meant the world to me!”
“I’m sorry, Selena darling, but that’s a little perplexing!”
“It is perplexing,” I echoed with her recent remark. When I had enough food to last me a day inside my safety sanctuary, I bid goodbye from my aunt.
“Try to join me here during lunch, dear. It’s lonely to eat alone,” she said.
“I will try to do that, Aunt,” I replied, but it was never a promise.
With heavy footsteps, I returned to my room and changed into sleeping pyjamas. I had no problems with my enormous bed before I met him, but my room felt so empty since he was gone, and I was lonely. Every day, I missed him, and I longed desperately for his presence.
When my eyes saw the phone lying on the side table, I was almost tempted to contact him through a phone call. However, I realized that it would only embarrass me during the process, so I decided to turn off my phone. It was the only way to protect myself from being humiliated and dragging my father’s name into the mud.
“Lee…,” I called his name as soon as I woke up, and when I recalled how tragic my dream was, I took the courage to smile and beat the day as usual. After all, I was not Selena Montes for nothing!