NEVEA'S P. O. V.
I stand by the resort table at the corner of the hall, casually glancing at the time displayed on my iPhone homes screen, my palms sweaty around my phone and the other fidgeting with the side of my red silk gown.
No doubt I was doing a terrible job hiding the fear and disappointment coursing through me as I glanced out through the entrance door too many times.
Each time I looked, I expected to see Kai walking in through the door, dressed in his black suits with a bouquet of flowers for me, a smile on his face as he kisses me on the lips and tells me that he was just held up by the city's traffic.
But I had a gut feeling he was playing with me, with our important day, again.
Kai Sargent was the rich CEO of the Alpha Med companies where I also worked at as his personal assistant.
Kai and I have been dating for five years and today was our engagement party. The room is already occupied with everyone who is supposed to be here celebrating this day with us.
Everyone except my soon to be fiance, Kai.
The beeping of my phone jerks me and I bring my phone to my face to see a text message from Kai. He was calling off this party because he needed to attend to something. He doesn't tell me anything else.
Seconds later a message came from Claire Colton into our office group.
Kai's angelic, beautiful and drop dead gorgeous crush, Claire has again faked an injury and Kai has gone to the rescue.
And I only know this because of Claire's message to the group.
"Hello everyone. I am so sorry but I have sprained my leg during my yoga training this morning and I won't be able to attend the ceremony. Thanks to our boss Kai who is taking care of me I would recover fast."
I'm caught between rage and pain.
Claire flooded the group chat with pictures, attempting to gather sympathy. There was even one where she was lying on a stretcher while Kai hovered beside her with a look of concern on his face.
I gripped my phone so hard it almost cracked. This had to be a joke, right? That concern was supposed to be for me. Kai couldn't just cancel the party we had planned for a year. And just for Claire faking a damn injury?
Every member of the group showed concern and left messages. And I knew that I was dreaming all this while. Nobody cared about me.
With tears welling in my eyes, I walked out and drove myself home.
In the living room that I shared with Kai in his penthouse, I paced around, a part of me hopeful that Kai would walk through that door, pull me into his arms and tell me that he is mine and nobody else's.
Stupid, but I didn't give up.
When the door rang, I sprint to open it, only to find my monther and father, the supposed white and red ribboned gift box my father had intended to give me at the ceremony in one hand.
"Oh my girl." My mother calls sympathetically, hugging me. "We barely made it to the event when we heard what happened. You deserve much better dear."
" I thought… I thought today would be different. I thought he’d finally choose me over her," I muttered, burying my face deep in her shoulder.
"Kai is a fool because he can't see what he's losing. But I know that Claire isn't as innocent as she seems." My mom says comfortingly as we pull apart.
Everyone in the company adored Claire - the sweet rich man's daughter who always smiled, polite and yet principled, and had always had an eye for Kai.
But I never trusted her. Neither did my mom.
“you know this injury of hers is fake, talk about convenient timing." My mom says.
My heart raced, knowing that it was not only me who thought of this.
“You think… she did this on purpose?”
She scoffs
“Oh, child. Of course, she did. She’s been playing this game for years, pulling Kai closer every chance she gets. You think she’s helpless, but I see right through her.”
My hands clench into fists.
"Then, how come Kai doesn't?"
"Kai is only blinded by his crush for her, Nevea, but I trust you will handle this perfectly."
After staying with me for an hour, I wanted to be alone so I asked if they could leave me alone and they did. I pull out of my dress and laid down on my bed.
Just then, Claire flooded the group chat with pictures of her with Kai, where he is tending to her, spoon feeding her and many other things. The members sent heart and care emojis and this only caused me more heartache. It was like nobody cared that I was supposed to be getting engaged to this man today.
Before I turned my phone down, I texted Kai, asking him to call me.
Deep down I knew he wouldn't call me if I didn't ask him to.
I was nearly sleeping off in the couch in the midst of all the chaos inside my head when I heard the elevator jinxing and Kai stepping out into the living room, his button down shirt sleeves folded up to his elbows, his hair disheveled and what I assume to be anger in his eyes.
"Nevea, we need to talk." He says as he closes in on me.
Flinching off the couch with an even bigger anger, I yell "you're right we need to talk! What the hell, Kai? Standing me up like that just to go tend to Claire!"
He seemed confused by my statement. Oh so he didn't know about the little charade Claire did in our company group.
"Wait, how did you....." He trails off "anyways, I just wanted to ask you if there is a problem with how I handled my business"
"Business? Kain do you not know what today is? What it meant to us?"
"Nevea!" He screams, shaking me off balance "Claire was hurt badly and I needed to be there to take care of her! Because it is my duty as her boss!"
What about his duty to me as my boyfriend? And why was he so pissed, yelling at me when I should be the one doing that?
"You always do this, Kai! Every time! I am done wasting my time with you and your excuses! It's over, Kai! I'm done!" I turn around, attempting to put as much distance between us as much as possible but before I could take two steps, his big hand is spinning me back by the shoulder, his hand over to grab my neck aggressively.
This causes me to stumble back as I gasp for air, falling back on the fur couch behind. But he still didn't let go. Instead, the pressure around my neck Increased.
For the first time since our five years being together, I saw venom in his eyes and the pure hate pulsating through his eyes as they glared down at me.
I tried to keep my eyes open but the pressure on my neck was too much, so I had no choice but to start hitting his hands around my neck.
That did the trick because he quickly pulls away after a while, a new found fear in his eyes as he flinched off me.
Before I could regain myself, he was disappearing from the room and into the elevator. While I remained there sobbing.
