Chapter three

Shock had a chokehold on me, rooting me to the spot as my ears rang.

Alecia Kiss hit me.

The bitch.

When Alexis rose from the bed and cupped her face, softly murmuring “Are you okay?” I felt my blood heat.

Bloody hell!

I was the one who was just slapped.

I averted my burning gaze and it landed on the champagne bottle that’d slipped from my hands earlier.

As if urged by an unseen force, my hands picked up the bottle and I rushed towards them with adrenaline surging through my veins.

The blow was meant for that bitch.

But Alexis’s eyes widened and the first thing he did was shove Alecia behind him in a protective gesture that incensed me even more.

Swinging back my hands with all the anger and strength building up in me, I jumped in the air, baring my teeth as I smashed the bottle into Alexis’s head, screaming, “You fucking bitch!”

Shrill screams filled the room and my chest heaved as realization dawned on me, the broken shards of glass slipping from my hands.

My eyes enlarged at the blood that trickled down a huge gash in his head. My hands shook and so did my entire body.

Alexis stumbled back a few steps and slumped on the bed, his hands on his head.

“See what you’ve done!” Alecia howled—still naked I should add—as she cast a scowl at me from cloudy eyes, pressing a hand to Alexis’s shoulder.

Sweat pooled between my brows and I could feel myself growing sick. Heart racing in my chest, I took two steps back.

“He—he cheated on-on us,” was all I could stammer.

Shock numbing a vital part of my brain, I spun on my heels and blindly raced out of the penthouse.

~***~

I perched on the edge of my seat, my heart in my chest as I drummed my fingers on the desk, my feet tapping against the floor.

After I ran out of my fiancé’s penthouse, I walked back home and didn’t show up at RainCloud Works for a whole week until this morning.

God, was I going to be fired?

I read on F******k that Alexis was hospitalized and would soon undergo surgery to fix the scar that would inevitably form on his million-dollar face.

I raked my hand through my black hair, anxiously waiting for a call, text, or a summon to the HR’s office for assaulting their star actor.

My eyes darted across the room, landing on the clock.

The hand that ran in seconds moved like a slug.

The door to my office opened with a low creak and I snapped my eyes up to meet the panic-struck hazel orbs of Kira.

Did I mention she worked at RainCloud Works as a scriptwriter?

“Jesus in a fucking bikini!” She yelled and my heart skipped a beat as I sprang up from my chair.

“What happened? Are the cops here?”

“That’d have been better.” She groaned.

I arched a brow, silently urging her to spill.

“Alecia is here.” She said and then added, “But this morning, in an interview she granted earlier, she may or may not have mentioned that a psycho employee of RainCloud who was obsessed with Alexis snuck into his penthouse and slammed a vase on his head in a fit of obsessive anger.”

“Shit.” I rubbed my clammy palms against my black knee-length skirt. Kira was right. It’d have been better if I‘d been arrested. Now the world has been told a distorted version of the story and Alexis’s fans are bound to go batshit and take justice into their hands.

I was in deep shit.

Dejectedly, I plopped down on my chair and massaged my temples.

“I’m sorry my love. Just don’t go online. Especially Reddit.” Kira strode into my office and sat one butt on my desk, “How do you feel though?”

I met her gaze and my lips quivered as tears clouded my vision.

“Bad, very bad. I can’t believe I was a fool for three years…he was supposed to announce our engagement today.” The words left a bitter taste in my mouth.

“I’m so sorry,” Kira took my hand and gave it a light squeeze, “Men are scum.”

“They are,” I nodded in agreement as I held my tears back in.

The door abruptly slammed open and Kira jumped off my desk. I rose to my feet with a thumping heart as the Head of HR of RainCloud Works walked in followed closely by Alecia Kiss.

“You!” Kira stormed into the room with blazing eyes, “You are fired. You should be thanking your lucky stars my baby refused to press charges. Take your things and get the fuck out of here.”

Knowing there was no way to reason with Miss Kiss, I turned to the Head of HR, “Ma’am, please I—”

The usually kind elderly woman gave me a pitiful look and shook her head. I understood immediately. RainCloud had a reputation to protect. Stuntwoman and replacement actress Saratan Credi wasn’t worth fighting for. Her hands were tied and I couldn’t even hate her for it.

“Shut your trap and get out.” Alecia cut me short, pointing her French-tipped nails at me, “Do you know what you did to my fiancé?”

“Ma’am…”

“Security!” Alecia exclaimed.

“He cheated on the both of us, don’t you get it?” My voice caught on an irate sob but it didn’t stop her from calling security.

Alecia crossed her arms over her chest while I shoved my things into a box, shame eating at my insides like raw acid.

“Do you want to be next?” Alecia shot at Kira who was glaring daggers at the side of her face.

Kira shook her head and slid out of the office, after flashing an apologetic look at me.

At the entrance of RainCloud Works where I stood with my arms around the box waiting for my Uber, I was approached by two strange women.

“What do you want--?” I was cut short by a stinging blow to my sides.

What the--?

“We know where you’re staying,” one of them with short dirt blonde hair spat at me, “The day you hurt our Stan Lexis was the day you signed your death certificate.”

~***~

Alecia was right. She had the power to ruin me and that, she did.

I was back to minus Zero with death threats hanging all around me.

I’ve had to move out of two apartments after it was broken into and trashed three times.

I haven’t even built up the courage to turn on my phone’s data and log into social media for fear that my location would be tracked by crazy fans. You might be wondering why I didn’t involve the police.

Well, for one I didn’t have much evidence for it to be taken seriously.

But it wasn’t really a matter of having the texts or threat notes as proof. It wasn’t a matter of the police believing me. The cops were punishing me for a crime I had committed years ago.

A crime I was indeed guilty of committing.

So there was no way I was going back to the police station, I refuse to be humiliated that way again.

My savings were exhausted and with the smudge around my name, no production company was willing to take the risk of hiring me.

Wrapped in a blanket, I blew my nose into a piece of tissue paper. My eyes burned from crying too much and a throbbing pain kept pricking at the back of my skull.

My doorbell went off and I dropped from the couch to the floor, crawling my pitiful self to the door.

“Who’s there?” my voice had a slight tremor as I got up and looked through the peephole, finding it empty.

With every second I waited, my anxiety grew.

“Hello…” I tried again, pressing my small frame against the door.

No response.

Was it a prank knock?

But there are no kids or teenagers in this complex. My subconscious argued.

I promise I wasn’t that stupid girl in horror movies but I have to know who rang that bell so I’d know if it was still safe to continue hiding out here.

Biting my lips hard, I ran for the kitchen and grabbed a rolling pin before coming back for the door. If anything, I wasn’t going down without a fight.

Here goes nothing. I creaked the door open.

There was only the wind rushing through the corridor. It was empty.

My heart sank as terror gripped me. What if someone was watching me right now, calculating the exact moment they would strike?

With shaky hands, I moved to shut the door but caught sight of a tiny brown box by the doorway.

Eyes narrowed and head thumping, I leaned forward and dragged it in, slamming the door shut right after.

I jumped up, racing to the kitchen to grab a letter opener.

A few moments later, I sat by the box staring at a tiny slip of paper that had golden ink scribbled on it.

My brows knotted as I ran my fingers over the cursive lettering, squinting to read the note.

BloodVessel.com