Chapter 1

OLIVIA CABELLO

Thunder clouds hang low, the threat of heavy rain looms in the sky, my stomach churns, tears prick my eyes and I hold them back asking the cab driver if he can drive a little fast than the pace we are going at.

Once the cab stops, I pay the driver, getting out of the car with my six-inch Gucci heels that are the only things holding me up.

My cheek burns from my mother’s slap.

My head aches from moving up and about.

My eyes hurt more due to crying.

But all this will be worth it once I get the money.

Winchester Industries stands in front of me in form of a fifty-five-story high building.

I pull out my phone and dial Ryat’s number but it still goes to voicemail.

I know he’s working. I have seen the news articles of Ryat Winchester that call him the shrewd ice-cold workaholic.

He works all day. He works all night. When he is not working, he is with me. Only me.

Ryat is not getting married. He likes me.

The security guards let me in without asking questions, I take the lift to the executive floor with high hopes that all this nightmare will just be that. A nightmare.

The top floor is owned solely by Ryat.

Which is why I am not surprised when I spot a woman who I assume to be Ryat’s secretary seated right in front of the office I’m trying to get into.

In a nude red lipstick and a sneer on her face, Ryat’s secretary sizes me up and down when I ask her,

“Can I speak to your boss? I know he’s in there so if I could please have a minute of his time.”

“Visiting hours are over and even then, you still need an appointment to see Mr. Winchester. It’s almost midnight too in case you haven’t noticed”, her words come out with ire yet I still beg.

“You don’t understand… I need to see Ryat. Tell him I’m here… he’ll want to see me. I need to see Mr. Winchester! Please! My father is dying I need-.”

“The world knows you are his mistress but Mr. Winchester does not entertain mistresses when he is working. Have some dignity and leave.”

A mistress?

Her eyes look at me like she’s disgusted that I’m breathing the same air as her. As if I’ll corrupt her with my whorish ways.

I sniff back tears, my back stands ramrod straight as the last bit of my dignity tells me to be strong.

You have to be strong for dad, Liv.

“I’m not leaving without seeing your boss. I don’t give a fuck about an appointment or visiting hours. Tell him I’m here, tell him Olivia Cabello is here to see him.”

She clicks her tongue at me. Seconds later, her acrylic nails reach for the telephone on the desk and she dials Ryat’s number.

“Boss, I’m sorry to disturb you like this. I know. I’m really sorry, Sir but your…this woman won’t leave until I… Olivia Cabello is her name, sir. Of course, sir.”

She pulls the telephone away from ear handing it to me with an agitated gaze.

I take the phone in my shaking hands, pressing it to my ear.

“Ryat, Ryat, I’m sorry for coming in like this but my fa-.”

“You really don’t know when to quit, do you curvy? Go home. Right now. I have no time for you.”

“Ryat-.”

The line goes dead.

“Ryat? Ryat please… please I need your-.”

“He hung up and he authorized me to tell security to kick you out if you cause any trouble. Seriously, did you just think you would barge in here and the boss would spare a minute to see you? You are not even his fiancé; you are the whore he fucks when he wants something cheap and available. I’m saying this because I pity you, leave for your own sake.”

I’m not a whore.

I wanted to shout but wasn’t it true what she said?

Ryat Winchester wanted me for one thing and thing only. Sex.

If he loved me, he would have listened to what I had to say tonight, he would have wanted to see me.

The truth constricts my air and eats away every single reality I had built for two years.

I turn around and leave.

When I get to the elevator and the elevator doors close, I fall to the floor sobbing.

“Don’t cry and try to console yourself that you were better than me. You were no match for me when it came to winning over Ryat’s heart”, a feminine voice hits me from above and I raise my head noticing I’m not the only in the lift.

In a crisscross halter cut-out dress that shows her stomach and showcases her cleavage, wearing a perfume that fogs the air and chokes me, the blonde woman who smells and looks like sophistication at its finest looks down at me with a sly smile.

I know her.

I saw her on my phone while I was riding the cab to here.

She’s Ryat’s fiancé. Irina Buchanon, daughter to business tycoon Bono Buchanon, a model, a socialite and the object of every man’s desires according to news outlets.

“He is all yours”, I mutter, gritting my teeth.

“Really? Then why you are here in the middle of the night begging like a dog for his love?”

“I came here for my father! I only came here… because my father… my father is dying and I needed his help.”

“How much? How much do you need?”

“Two hundred grand”, I mutter because that’s how desperate I am to get the money.

She chuckles and her eyes narrow into slits.

“Show me how bad you want the money. Kneel, kiss my heels and say the words ‘I’m nothing but a whore, that’s all I’ll ever amount to. I don’t deserve a man like Ryat Winchester because whores like me don’t get men like him’. Say it!”

I kneel.

I kiss her thousand-dollar heels.

All that for my father.

I look her in the eyes, my dignity already in the mud.

“I’m nothing but a whore, that’s all I’ll ever amount to. I don’t deserve a man like Ryat Winchester because whores like me don’t get men like him.”

Irina Buchanon drops to meet me, then she grips my chin, taking a few wads of cash from her purse and hitting my face with them.

---

The rain pours over me heavily as I run inside the hospital.

It doesn’t matter whether I’m soaking wet, it doesn’t matter whether my body is so weak, I feel like I’ll die on the spot.

Dad is going to be okay.

I have the money.

Getting to the waiting room has me feeling hopeful that tomorrow things will be better but when I get there, my mother is on the couch holding a coffee cup but her eyes are hollow and her cheeks are pale.

“Mom, I got the money. Dad is going to have that surgery; he is going to be okay.”

She doesn’t hear me. She doesn’t look like she’s really in this world.

Jules, who’s seated next to her stands up walking to me with a look that has my heart sinking.

“Liv-.”

“I got the money, Jules. My dad is going to live. I have to pay the bills before they perform the surgery, right?”

“Liv-.”

“Why does mom look like that? I said I have the money; she should be happy dad’s going to live!”

“Liv, the doctors came… they said they tried to keep your father as stable as they could but without performing the surgery asap, Liv, your father-.”

“No!” I sob, covering my mouth.

“Your father is dead, Olivia.”