CHAPTER 1

Zoey Hall sat in front of her mirror fixing her makeup up. The thought of what that day is, brought a smile on her lips.

She applied some lipgloss and looked at her reflection in the mirror. "I look so ready."

It was a happy day for her as she would be celebrating her birthday with the man she loves. Her birthday is the next day but spending the night at his place would be splendid. 

She examined herself one more time before she left the room. 

"Omg, you look so beautiful. I bet Philip would be so lost staring at you." her roommate, Elena giggled.

"You think so?"

"I know so. Go get him girl."

With a bright smile plastered on her lips, Zoey left the house, the studio apartment she shares with her friend who is like the sister she never had.

Coming out of the cab in front of his apartment, Zoey checked herself one more time. Satisfied with how she looked, she proceeded further.

It is the eve of her birthday and she wanted to spend the night with him. That would be the best start of her nineteenth birthday.

She got to the door and knocked on it. There was no reply but the door was opened. With a raised brow, she slowly opened the door and went in.

"Hello?" She took a few steps towards his room but stopped halfway when she stepped on something. She looked down and her eyes widened, almost popping out of its socket.

It was a woman's bra.

She bent and picked it up. Realizing what might be going on, her heart skipped a bit. It can't be that her boyfriend is cheating on her. Maybe, her mind is just telling her something that isn't true.

Philip wouldn't betray her. They love each other so much and have been in love with each other for five years.

It could belong to his sister. She tried to convince herself but deep down, she knew it wasn't what she was trying to believe.

The door to the room opened and Philip walked out with a towel, tied around his waist. Seeing Zoey standing right in front of his room, he moved back with his eyes widened.

"What are you doing?" he suddenly asked.

Philip would never ask why she was there. Well, she always comes to visit whenever he tells her to and not when she decides.

She raised the bra to his face. "What is this? Who owns this? What the hell is going on here?" she asked at once.

He stared at it for a while before he faced her and sighed heavily. "Why are you going through my stuff? That is none of your business."

"None of my business. I came into the house of my boyfriend and found this bra here. All you tell me is, it is none of my business?" 

"You shouldn't have come without me calling you?" he said remorselessly. 

Zoey could only open her mouth with no words coming out from it. She couldn't believe her ears. 

A half naked lady came out of the room and when she saw Zoey, she frowned deeply. Zoey's heart stopped beating for a while seeing who she was. 

She did know her. Her colleague at work.

"Rina?"

Rina stood beside Philip and held his hand. "What is she doing here? I thought you told me it's being settled." she whispered to him but loud enough for Zoey to hear.

He looked at her and smiled brightly. "I wanted to do it right in front of you and I think this time is the best."

Zoey couldn't do anything nor could she move her body because of how shocked she was. She stood on the same spot, watching the two people in front of her acting all lovely. She watched as her boyfriend was all loving towards her colleague.

Philip faced her and the smile he had was replaced with a frown. He took in a deep breath and released it afterward.

"Let's breakup." he suddenly said.

Zoey couldn't believe her ears. Breakup? Just like that? They both had a great chemistry so what was going on?

"Is it something I did? Tell me...... Did I do something wrong?" she asked with a rather calm voice, still trying to understand everything that was going on.

Philip, not feeling a bit sorry for her, walked closer standing at arm's length. He smirked and shook his head. "Did you ever think we would end up together? I mean you?" he scrutinized her from head to toe. "You have nothing to offer."

"What are you saying? We both had great chemistry together. You love me and I do love you a lot. I can forget about all these and we continue our lives together."

"So desperate." Rina said and walked forward, standing beside Philip. "You are so desperate, girl. You have nothing to offer so why should he stick with you? You have no money. Your family is wretched and you have a sick, dying mother. Like they say, like a mother, like a daughter. Your father left her and so is Philip. You are all bad luck."

Zoey smacked her hard on her face. "Don't you dare involve my mother in this. If you want to insult me then do that to me alone."

She charged to hit her again, but Philip held her back, overpowering. He pushed her towards the wall and she hit her badly on the wall, falling to the ground.

"Don't you dare touch her."

Zoey closed her eyes for a while and took in a deep breath. Her father's family have a special gift of immunity. They are all immune to a lot of diseases and sicknesses. Many years ago, her family were used as experiments because of their blood.

Having that immunity too, she can only survive disease within but not when punched or hit, they tend to feel much pain then. Her back hurt a lot from the way she had fallen to the ground.

She struggled to stand up and caught Philip being all worried about Rina. Her heart broke into a thousand pieces. She was only used all these years, never relevant to Philip. The man she had fallen in love with, is a beast.

Seeing she was up, Philip rushed to her and held her arms tightly, hurting her. Tears dropped down her eyes as she tried to escape from his inhumane act but she couldn't.

"Let go of me!" she cried but it only fell on deaf ears.

"Who do you think you are huh? How dare you smack her?" he shook her arm vigorously. "I wonder how I was able to survive all those years with a woman like you." he spat, his eyes burning with hatred and anger.

Zoey felt the world crushing around her. What went wrong?

He let go of her roughly and that caused her to hit her back again. Before she could recover from the hit, her phone rang.

Seeing who was calling, she quickly answered the call, not minding what the two duos were up to.

"Hello....."

"Zoey, your mother is......"

The phone fell from her hand as she slowly went on her knees. "Mother?"