Chapter 3 The boss

KAITLYN

"Is he truly your father? You are Jesse's brother?" I question him, but he refuses to respond; instead, he fixes his cold grey eyes on the road ahead.

"Why did you marry me knowing that I am your brother's fiance?" I fire at him.

He mutters an inaudible reply and I snap my head back in question.

"What?"

"Was!" He snaps, and I flinch.

He looks at me with eyes cold enough to freeze my blood.

I shriek out as his hand reaches out and grabs my chin, forcing me to look into his chilling eyes.

My heart sinks into my belly, and my throat knot at how close he is to me. I feel like I am losing my breath.

"Don't forget that he is your past, and I am your present…" he pauses and runs his eyes around my body.

"And your future."

I want to scoff at his absurd words but the fear clenching my heart won't let me.

I can't seem to understand why his eyes are making me feel so weak and intimidated.

No, Kaitlyn, this isn't you. You have to wake up and push this man away.

He is not your husband, he is not the man that you love.

Jesse is the one I will spend my future with, but for that to be successful, I have to get rid of this man in my present.

"You are scaring me," I manage to whisper out.

A smirk tugs at the corner of his lips, and he straightens up, moving away from me.

"Get used to being my bride, Mrs. Rider," he mutters, and I turn up my lips in disgust.

If it is Jesse who said those words, then I will probably have butterflies fluttering in my belly.

I can't stop thinking of Jesse and all that happened on the day that is supposed to be the happiest day of my life.

Jesse and I have been more than close friends since we met in college during a party hosted for fishermen.

The moment our eyes met for the first time, we felt a spark. A spark that none of us could describe, a spark that drew us closer to each other and made us inseparable.

We burned together, just like a twin flame.

We started dating a few months later, and it was obvious that we would end up together. I loved Jesse to the point that I was ready to sacrifice everything for him, and I knew he loved me the same way.

No one was surprised when he asked me to marry him after we graduated. He was my pillar; he was the only one who stood by my side when my father died.

Sometimes, he would leave his work at the company for my sake, just to make me happy once more.

Jesse was ready to sacrifice even more than I could sacrifice.

He was abs will remain the one my heart beats for, and I will always love him. I will do anything to get back to him and fulfill all the promises we made to each other and all the plans we drafted.

Our kids, our dream home, our family, our love, and our marriage.

I will fulfill everything with him, just him.

But will it ever be possible? Will Jesse ever heal from this betrayal? Will he ever accept back?

I wonder how he is feeling right now. I wonder if he will survive this tragedy.

I do hope Jesse will finally be happy. He sacrificed our love for my safety, he left the altar to protect me and my father's reputation.

Now I understand what it means to say that the hottest love has the coldest end.

But… is this the end for Jesse and I? Is this the end of my happiness?

A chilling sensation on my left cheek jolts me back to my senses.

I slap his hand, which was on my cheek, away and look away, avoiding his questioning gaze.

Like the asshole he is, he didn't even bother finding out the reason for the tears.

"Have you ever thought of how I feel living with you? Are you even aware that I've slept with your brother multiple times? Imagine…" I pause and take a deep breath.

Damn it! The rest of the words are too heavy to say.

Something cold touches my neck and I flinch back, my heart racing.

"We haven't even gotten home, and you are already thinking about that part," he mutters, making shivers rush down my spine.

He sinks his hand into my hair and strokes it, smirking sinisterly.

"I will make you feel what Jesse never made you feel. You will scream until you lose that tiny voice of yours," he mutters.

I wrinkle my face in disgust but to my dismay, that words are having some effect on me.

He chuckles and faces the road again, leaning into the leather seat, ignoring my lingering gaze and discomfort as he lights a cigarette.

The silence lingers in the car till the cars drives into an estate, the biggest and most expensive estate in Spain.

I gasp and roll the window down, staring at the beautiful environment.

The estate will always make you feel Ike you are in heaven.

I have always wished that my father would give me a villa on this estate during one of my birthdays, but that wish will never come true since my father is dead and the company has gone bankrupt.

The ownership of this estate is hidden. No matter how hard I have tried, I still haven't been able to figure out the owner of the estate. Not just me, but every other person in the country.

Everyone believes that the estate was bought with dirty money from an assassin who died years ago.

But I don't believe that. I think that is just a story they made up from the story of Judas, the betrayer of Jesus in the bible.

The only people privileged to live here are extremely wealthy men, investors, top government officials, top celebrities, and prominent politicians.

It is not like my father can't afford to live in such a place, it is just that he prefers to live in the mansion he inherited from his tycoon father, my stepfather.

I do wonder how this Nikolai Rider can live in such a place. Is he that wealthy?

He doesn't seem to look like a hardworking man, and I have never heard of his name in the news or at some gatherings.

It is obvious that he is living off his father's wealth in secrecy.

Gosh, he is such an ungrateful, illegitimate leech.

I roll my eyes and sigh out, staring out of the window.

To my surprise, we have driven past the first part of the estate, and the second part, we are heading into the third part.

The estate is divided into three parts.

The first part, known as part A or the lower town, is meant for wealthy people who have a net worth of at least fifty million dollars.

The second part, known as Middletown, is meant for wealthier, and more influential figures like my father, whose net worth is at least one billion dollars and above.

The third part, which is the highest part and also rumored to be the part where the owner of the white house lives, is meant for the wealthiest people whose net worth is from ten billion dollars.

I'm pretty sure that Jesse's father's net worth should be around 2 billion dollars which puts him in the Middletown area.

Even if he is living off of Mr Benedict, he wouldn't dare buy a house here in the Upper-town of this estate.

"You live here?" I ask, feeling partly thankful for opening the windows to let out the toxic smoke from the cigarette.

He looks at me blankly and blows out thick dark smoke before looking away.

The smoke hit my face, and I coughed out loud, feeling breath getting choked out of my lungs.

I felt bad some minutes ago for calling him a leech but now I don't feel bad anymore. He is truly a leech, an annoying one.

I parted my lips to say to his face, but my lips clam shut as a large gate opened before us.

The car drives in and I glance at him again. I hiss loudly and get down from the car, slamming the door shut so hard that he turns to glare at me.

I glare back at him and turn around to enter his so-called house, but what my eyes meet makes my jaws drop.

Fuck! I feel like I am dreaming! Of course, I am dreaming!

How can this be real? Isn't this the white house?

"Have you suddenly gone paralyzed?" His voice makes me jolt back to my senses.

"Is this…" I trail, the rest of the words dying in my mouth as I point at the huge, tall building standing some distance away from me.

"Go in," he nods his head toward the building, and I scoff.

"Are you sure your boss won't get upset?" I ask, a hint of mockery in my voice.

His brows shoot up, and amusement dances in his eyes.

"Boss?" He narrows his eyes and grins.

"Do you know the boss here, mi amor?" He asks, and I square my shoulders, knowing fully well that he isn't the boss, nor the owner of the white house.

"Take me back to my house. I don't want to be embarrassed by your boss," I mutter and flip my hair, tilting my head to the side as I stare proudly into his eyes.

"My level is far above that," I add and smile lightly.

He cackles cynically and takes a long drag of the half-burnt cigar before throwing it on the ground, still silent.

The footsteps that echoed from behind caused me to turn around.

I watch a woman who seems to be in her middle 70s approach us, accompanied by five girls in uniforms and a man who seems to be in his late forties.

The woman stops when she gets to where I am standing and flashes a warm smile at me before turning to face Nikolai.

"Welcome back, boss," the woman mutters and the others chorused the same words, bowing slightly in respect to him.

My blood freezes, and my heart drops in guilt and the realization of failure.

"Mi amor!"

Even though I don't like the name, I still turn around slowly to face him.

He stuffs his hands into his pant pocket and covers up the spaces between us, leaning closer till our faces are just a hair's breadth away.

"Now you know who the boss is, hmm?"