Chapter Six

Daniela's POV

Mike will pick you up at nine.

I didn’t know how long I had been staring at the message, but whatever time had elapsed, still wasn’t enough to help me understand that yesterday wasn’t a dream in the least bit. And as if this wasn’t enough, a notification popped up with a message from Justin.

You’ve ignored me enough. Please, let me see you.

I watched as the notification slid off the screen. I couldn’t open his message. For a while I had even forgotten that he existed and that we still needed to talk about what was going to become of our relationship.

Obviously, we had to end it. And this left a sour taste in my mouth as I thought about it, because I couldn’t be certain if I would’ve stood by the same decision had Alexander not been in the picture.

I read over the text again and again. I missed him. So much, as embarrassing as it was to admit it, it was what I felt.

I turned off my phone and buried my face in my hands. That same moment a knock sounded on my door.

“Ela, Charlene’s here to see you.”

I lifted my head and turned sharply in the direction of my door. “Who?”

Truly, Charlene was there, sitting in the living room, playing with a loose thread in her skirt. Her presence unveiled the pain of her betrayal all over again, and highlighted the reminder of how stupid I had been. My fists balled at my side.

“Why are you here?”

She startled at the sound of my voice and rose to her feet, giving me a pleading look with her glossy eyes.

“Ela,” she whispered and then went quiet, as though she wasn’t sure what to say. “How are you doing?”

“Please get to the point Charlene.”

She pursed her lips and continued staring earnestly at me. “I’m sorry Ela. I’m really sorry. I know I don’t have any idea how you’re feeling, but I truly am sorry.”

“Of course, you have no idea how I’m feeling. If you did, you wouldn’t have betrayed me like this in the first place.” I tightened my fists. It was hard to look at her without imagining how everything happened. Did she seduce him, or he moved on to her? How many times did they do it? Were they still seeing each other? Or worse, was she in love with him?

“I know-”

“What exactly are you sorry for? Hurting me, or wanting to be with him?”

She opened her mouth and then stopped as if she was now realising what I had asked her.

Tears prickled my eyes and I scoffed. “I can’t believe this.”

“Ela-”

“Get out of my house Charlene,” I spat out through gritted teeth.

She took a step toward me and that’s when the door bell rang. I startled, realising where I was. I looked around and calmed when I realised the were no signs of my aunt downstairs. I glanced back at Charlene briefly before walking to the door.

I opened it to find a tall, quite burly and extremely handsome man at the doorstep. He was in an all-black suit with a wire on his ear.

“Mrs Jackson.”

I blinked. “Mrs Jackson?”

He only smiled. “I’m Mike, from Mr Jackson’s security team, and I’ll be your personal driver from now. I was asked to take you to get some new clothes, and then drop you off at the office.”

Mike will pick you up at nine.

Alexander’s message replayed in my mind.

Mrs Jackson? So he was really going along with the farce that we were already married? Blood drained from my face. This was all becoming too much to handle.

“Uh…” I tried to find the words. “Can we make it tomorrow instead?”

He shook his head. “There’s someone he wants you to meet, so I’m afraid that not possible.”

Someone he wants me to meet? Yeah… the whole reason we were getting married in the first place. That was probably why he wanted me in new clothes. If I was meeting someone that important, couldn’t he have given me a heads up?

Goodness, I hated this man so much.

“Erm, you can wait inside while I get ready.”

“Don’t worry, ma’am. I’ll just wait out here.”

I nodded and dashed inside. After taking my bag from my room, I met my aunt downstairs talking to Charlene. At that point I couldn’t think about both issues at once, and with Alexander being the current pressure on my neck, it was easy to ignore my best friend.

“I’m going out to see Alexander,” I told my aunt and then turned to Charlene, “Don’t let me be the bad person here. Leave this place and don’t ever come back.”

“Daniela?” My aunt looked so lost.

“I’ll explain everything later, right now just make sure she leaves.” And just to spite Charlene and Justin in the process, I added, “My husband is waiting.”

I walked out of the house without getting both their reactions. It was so out of place for me to use Alexander against her, when I was the one suffering in this situation, but she didn’t know that, no one was going to know. So, if I was going to suffer silently, I might as well leverage my status where I could.

As he promised, Mike was waiting outside and as soon as I was out, he led me to a black SUV.

“Thanks,” I told him when he opened the door for me. “And it’s just Daniela by the way.”