5

Chapter 5

Leilani Moore

The day I've been waiting for was finally here. It was Derek's birthday.

The villa was already filled with prestigious people Derek had invited. Most of them were his business partners.

Derek invited his mistress to the birthday party, and she dared showed her face. The audacity!

"Hi!" I heard an unfamiliar voice behind me, and I turned around. Speak of the devil. It was his mistress.

"Hi! My husband's friend, right?"

Anger flickered on her face when I addressed her that way. That was what I wanted. She was nothing but a friend. At least, that was how he introduced her to me.

"Hmm," She hummed, faking a smile.

"Enjoy the party. Excuse me," I walked away from her and went to join Derek.

"Honey, you are here..." He wrapped an arm around my waist, holding a glass of wine with the other one.

"Mrs Grant... It's been a while," Mr. James, one of Derek's business partners smiled at me.

"You look gorgeous tonight... As always," Derek's friend, Desmond, smiled at me, and I returned his smile.

"Thank you,"

"Hi!" Derek quickly removed his hand from my waist as soon as his mistress walked up to us. I guess he loved her too much and was afraid of hurting her.

"Hi, everyone," She grinned from ear to ear.

"My name is Evelyn," She extended her hand to Desmond for a handshake as she continued. "Derek has told me a lot about you. It's nice to finally meet you in person,"

"Eve, what are you doing?" Derek asked uncomfortably.

"Who is she, Derek?" Desmond ask, turning to Derek and ignoring her hand which she dropped, embarrassed.

"Oh... She?" Derek paused, glancing at me.

"She... She's my friend. Yes, she's just a friend," He stuttered, smiling nervously.

Evelyn's face went sour with sadness as she bit her lip. What was she expecting? That Derek will introduce her as his wife or what?

"Hey, everyone," Our attention was drawn to the stage where the MC was standing and holding a microphone close to his mouth.

"Let's begin the celebration. Mr. Derek Grant, please come up to the stage," He invited Derek.

Everyone applauded Derek as he mounted to the stage and took the mic from the MC and began his speech.

"Thank you everyone for being here tonight. Your presence is appreciated..." He paused, his grip around the mic becoming firm as he smiled.

"This wouldn't have been possible without my wife. Thank you for being in my life, sweetheart. I will forever cherish you " He didn't call my name, so maybe I wasn't the one he was appreciating. Not that I wanted the fake appreciation though.

After his speech, the MC invited me to the stage to give a speech.

"Good evening everyone, and you are welcome to this honourable party. I'm grateful to everyone of you for taking out your time to be present here today..." I paused, turning to Derek who was still on the stage with me.

"Happiest birthday to you, Derek. I'm happy to be here with you tonight..." I paused, then signaled the disc jockey to play my gift for Derek.

"I have prepared a beautiful gift for you on this special day, because you deserve all the beautiful things of life, Derek,"

He smiled at me excitedly. That smile that made my skin crawl with disgust.

The light went off, revealing a better view of the video slides playing on the led wall. It was pictures of myself and Derek, from when we started dating, the day we got married, and many more moments.

'This is beautiful'

'This brought tears to my eyes. I love this'

'They are perfect together'

Hearing those comments made me scoff. Beautiful indeed.

Derek walked over to me, pulling me in for a warm embrace as he sobbed. A fake sob, actually.

"Thank you for everything, Leilani. I love you so much," He whispered to me. Can someone please tell him to be patient until the end, please?

"Of course, you do," My lips curled up in a smirk.

'Wh...what is this?'

'What is going on?'

'Isn't that Mr. Grant?'

'What the hell is happening?'

I haven't been so satisfied in my entire life, hearing those murmurs from the audience as they all gazed at the led wall, displaying pictures of Derek with his mistress.

'I missed you, Evelyn. The sex was so good. That bitch Leilani could never satisfy me like that' Derek pulled away immediately he heard his own voice from the video, his eyes narrowing as he turned to face the led wall.

"Wh... what is this?" His voice quivered as he looked at me and back to the led wall, his eyes narrowed.

"Wh...what is this?" I blinked my eyes, staring at the led wall.

"De... Derek... Wh... what is this?" my voice quivered, my lips trembling, tears brimming in my eyes as I looked at him. "This is not true, right? Th...that is photoshopped, right? You are not cheating on me, right?" I shook my head, pointing my trembling hand forward.

The video had pictures of him kissing the Evelyn lady, moments of them inside a pool, when they went on vacation together, videos of them making out, and pictures of their kids which I made sure I had their faces blurred out. The kids were innocent. I wasn't that heartless to expose them to the world. I had no idea how the anonymous source got everything, or who he or she was, but I was grateful for this. What mattered to me was the evidence.

He shook his head as he said. "It's not what you think, babe. I can explain. This...this... this is not true," how he could still look into my eyes and lie to me even in front of everyone here proved how much of a scum he was. What was he thinking? That I'm stupid?

"What? You are going to deny it? Are you going to deny that?" I yelled at him, breaking down in tears.

My body trembled as I turned to face the crowd, my eyes landed on Evelyn. Why the fuck shouldn't I disgrace her along with him? They did it together.

I pointed my shaky hand toward Evelyn who was already covering her face shamefully. "Yo...you told me there was nothing between you two, Derek... You told me she was just your friend! You denied it when your secretary told me that you were married to her!" I yelled, sinking my fingers into my hair and ruffling it like I'd lost it.

Everyone turned their attention to Evelyn.

"She is the bitch?"

"She had the effrontery to show up here. How shameless of her,"

"The audacity!"

"Ruining another woman's home. You must really be proud of being shameless,"

"I wonder how she is going to explain to her kids that they were illegitimate kids,"

This was so satisfying.

I turned to Derek, tears streaming down my cheeks as I spoke. "Why, Derek? I loved you with everything in me. You told me you loved me. Why did you do this to us?" I sobbed.

"He is so shameless!"

"He don't deserve your tears. Don't cry because of that bastard,"

"Men like this should be trashed. This is disgusting,"

"Poor woman. She didn't deserve this,"

"Gosh! This is why I don't like men. They'll always disgrace you,"

Seeing the shame on Derek's face gave me this satisfaction.

"Ba... babe... I can explain this. You need to listen to me, please..." His voice shook, his body trembling as he reached his hand to touch me, but I took a step back.

"Should I still believe you after you looked into my eyes and told me there was nothing between you two? Would you believe me if the table was turned around?" I snarled at him, more tears streaming down my cheeks, and he went silent, lowering his gaze. I think I should consider acting because everything looked so real. From pretending not to know that he was cheating on me, to

I turned to the crowd and said. "As of today henceforth, Moore's corporation will cease partnership with Grant's corporation. Every ongoing business between the two corporation has hence been stopped..." I paused, taking my attention to Derek. "I also want to announce the termination of my marriage with Derek Grant. Today, I, Leilani Moore, cease to be Derek Grant's wife," I let my hand down beside me.

'Yes! He deserves that'

'How could he cheat on such a beautiful woman?'

'Gosh! This is why I hate men'

'Look at that bastard. So stupid'

I took out the signed divorce papers I had folded under my dress, and threw it on his face as I stated boldly. "Sign the damn divorce papers and let's end this, Derek," I sniffled back my tears, wiping my face with the back of my palm.

"Ba...babe... You can't do this, please. We can sort this out," He pleaded with me like his life depended on it. He wasn't pleading because he loved me. He was doing this because my company has stopped cooperating with him. My wealth, my influence... Those were what he always cared about. He never loved nor respected me but what I had to offer him...