Save the Last Dance

There, in the lobby, Norman's smiling face greeted me. We've been in a relationship for seven years but it was the first time I saw him smiling from ear to ear.

And undeniably, he looks more attractive when he smiles. He looked even younger through my eyes. His priceless smile was one of the reasons my heart puffed up and fell in love with him.

I was about to approach him but, all of a sudden, I glued my feet on the tiled floor, my eyes fixed on the heart-wrenching scene in front of me. "No. It can't be." I uttered to myself, trying to understand what was certainly going on.

"Happiest birthday, Malia!" Norman whispered to the woman, his smile extended.

The woman smiled back while caressing my husband's cheeks, her face filled with love and longing. "Thank you, babe" she replied, "But where's my gift?"

"You'll know about it later. Shall we go now?"

Standing next to Norman is a gorgeous and lanky woman, I believed I recognized. Malia - his ex-girlfriend and first love. She extended her smile at my husband, her stares were enticing as if she was flirting with him.

The purse in my hands fell onto the ground when, right in front of my eyes, Norman kissed Malia on her lips.

"No, this can't be true." For the second time, I uttered to myself again, but this time, my arms and legs trembled in unison.

"What about your wife? Have you told her about the divorce agreement?" Malia asked.

Norman nodded, "Don't worry, babe, everything went well according to our plan. She'll sign it sooner."

A part of me desperately wanted to yell at them - confront Norman straight into his face, in front of that woman. However, my mouth and feet refused to respond with what my heart and brain speak combined.

Seeing them happily holding hands before hopping into the nearest elevator shatters my heart into a thousand pieces. A suffocating numbness spread through my limbs, the pain radiating through every fiber of my muscle.

But I thought they had already broken up before he met me and we got married. Since when did they get back? Was it after Noah was born? Or in the middle of the campaign period. And what did I miss to get fooled that easily?

Even after their disappearance, I stood in the same spot, helpless and paralyzed as my world crumbled around me. The love and trust I offered to Norman crumbled like dust in the wind, leaving me nothing but a bitter taste of betrayal.

Tears well up in my eyes, blurring my vision. I tried to choke back a sob, my throat constricting with the weight of unspoken words and unexpressed pain.

Right when I got the courage to hop into the elevator, the phone in my purse rang. I grabbed it and answered the call.

"Mrs. dela Vega, about those I gave you earlier." Elise's worried voice from the other end of the call reverberated in my ears. The sound of her gulp even made it obvious.

"Don't worry, I'll give it to him personally," I replied with confidence, knowing I already knew what she was about to say next. The car keys were for Malia, not mine. "Ms. Elise, please do me a small favor. Don't you dare inform him in advance?"

After the call ended, I left the hells on my spot and walked to the parking lot to search for the car Norman gifted for her ex. Instead of confronting them, I wanted to detonate the boiling rage that inscribed through my veins.

The moment I caught a glimpse at the red Ferrari parked in the corner that chimed the second I pressed the button on the keys, I quickly grabbed a fist-sized stone and smashed it onto the windows, even ignoring the continuous sounds of the car alarm as long as I can lash out my rage and hatred.

My outrage didn't stop there as I hopped into the car and flashed back to the mansion at the speed of light. Everyone, especially the security guards was stunned and dumbfounded upon seeing me riding in an expensive car.

They asked me a lot of questions and concerns about the wrecked car I drive, but I simply ignored them. I went to our room and did what Norman wanted from me - to sign the divorce agreement.

After signing the document, I searched for someone to whom I could leave the papers. I can't just leave it in the room. Don't know when will Norman get back to the mansion. I'm pretty sure Malia will not stop until she makes my husband exhausted.

"Where have you been, you whore?" My mother-in-law blurted the second our eyes met in the dining area. "You were supposed to cook our meals, but you..."

She did not get the chance to finish her sentence when I slammed the divorce agreement onto the surface of the table which startled everyone, including Jennifer and Jennie. Today is my day to lash out everything to them.

"What do you think you're doing, you ungrateful bitch?" Jennie blurted as she moved out of her seat. She was about to slap me, but I preceded her.

I slap her ten times harder than all the slaps I got from her. She screams and seeks help from her mother and twin sister. "Don't you dare move out of your seat if you don't want to get a slap from me?" I called out to Jennifer when she was about to depart from her seat.

Even their ruthless mother couldn't do anything about my boiling rage. "I hope that piece of paper gives you evil people satisfaction."

Out of curiosity, Jennifer grabbed the divorce paper. She unhurriedly paces her smiling glimpse at her mother and twin sister. "Of course." she acknowledges before she slides the paper to her mom. "Now that you are no longer part of this family, you should get back to the trash can where you come from."

The three then burst into laughter in unison while giving me those condemning glances. "You should have done this a long time ago, Yvanna. Guards!" Mother-in-law yelled. "Drag this dirty woman out of this mansion!"

"I know the way out. Let go of me." I gasped and walked out of the mansion voluntarily.

And I was supposed to be pleased for lashing out at them for the first time but I found myself traveling to my uncertainties in tears. My weeping resounded in every corner of the car Norman gifted for Malia.

Desperately, I step onto the accelerator as soon as I reach the main road and speed up the car with my eyes closed.

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"Are you alright? Can you hear me?"

A man's indistinct voice reverberated in my ears, trying to surpass the continuous beeping sounds that kept ringing all over me. I slowly opened my eyes and found myself upside down, perhaps it had something to do with my head that kept spinning.

I can see dense black smoke, surging flames, and drops of blood - my blood coming out of my head, nose, and mouth. Shattered pieces of glass and car parts were also scattered all over the place.

The man added, "Please, keep your eyes open, Yvanna. The rescuers are on their way."

So I follow his advice and look into his face even if the blood from my head passes through my eyes, down to my cheeks, and flood the ground. But no matter how hard I tried to keep my eyes open, my body gave up and after what felt like an eternity, I woke up in a four-sided room.

Then I slowly lifted half of my body and found a man crouching in the corner of the bed, his eyes were closed, used his hands as his pillows."Justine, is that you?" I softly breathed out his name, trying to wake him up.

He moaned softly before he adjusted his body and lifted his head at me, the balls of his eyes widened, "Yes, it's me, Justine, your boyfriend. Thank goodness!" he heaved an abrupt sigh of relief. "I was scared that you might not recognize me after the accident."

Boyfriend, not best friend? And what, an accident? The last thing I remember was that Justine and I were about to meet someone important right after school. But I couldn't remember who or anything after that.

"Right," he added. "You might be wondering how long have you been lying here." I nodded as I needed answers to my questions and concerns.

"How long I have been here?" I could not help but ask with several long curved lines engraved on my forehead.

"Two months, Yvanna." Justine reached out to my hands and kissed them before he leaned them on his chest. "I'll call the doctor to explain to you what exactly happened, okay?"

Justine went out and brought a female doctor who he claimed was the one in charge of taking good care of me for the past two months.

She carefully used the right words to explain that it was normal for me to feel a void of my memories when I was in a coma for two months after getting into a car accident two months ago.

It turned out that Justine was there when the incident happened and immediately reached out for help. I was rushed to the hospital before my body could give up.

Some of my good and worst memories, either as a child or an adult, might temporarily or permanently disappear. And I might find it hard to access them no matter how hard I try.

She highly advised me to stay in the hospital for another month or until I get better to make sure they can keep an eye on me. But Justine knew I hated the smell of the hospital.

So I advised him to get me discharged as soon as possible. And my questions started as soon as we traveled back to the countryside - to his house.

Luckily, Justine answered all my questions to the best of his knowledge, filling the emptiness inside me since the accident. A part of me still felt skeptical about us being a couple when the last thing I remember was us, being best friends seven years ago.

One month later, the province where Justine and I are living in peace, was celebrating their annual fiesta. Part of the celebration was having a coronation for the most beautiful woman in the countryside.

I joined as one of the candidates. To get crowned, all the participants must have their respective flowers. And there were three of us standing in the middle of the podium dressed up well.

Each of us was given five-minute dance music. Men and women are going to buy your flowers, at any amount, in exchange for a slow dance.

The higher the amount you gathered, the higher the chance to get crowned as the most beautiful woman in the countryside. Even though the coronation was simply a celebration to honor their elders, not a competition, I still felt anxious.

"Don't get nervous, Yvanna," Justine said, his ear-to-ear smile teasing me, knowing I hadn't joined such kind of event my whole life, including those seven years that I had been missing.

He was currently dancing with me and bought a thousand dollars for one flower. And I only have a minute left before my five-minute music ends.

In the middle of our slow dance, while we exchanged a heart-to-heart conversation about getting married, the music stopped all of a sudden.

A man, probably in his thirties, wearing an expensive suit walked passed through us, smiled at me wholeheartedly, and snatched the microphone from the host of the event.

"Ten million dollars in cash to save the last dance for Yvanna Summer." His unexpected announcements caused everyone's eyes and jaws to drop to the ground, including mine and Justine's.

I frown while looking at his face despite the dim ambiance of the podium, trying to recognize him. "Do you know him?" I was left with no other choice but to ask Justine.

No matter how hard I try to remember a thing about the man, I got nothing. Even made my head spin for a few seconds.

"Of course, not. I barely know the guy. Perhaps he's a foreign who wanted to witness our annual fiesta." Justine defensively replied, but his actions and expressions spoke the other way around as the man walked toward us.

"It's nice to see you, Justine." He said calmly. "I paid ten million dollars to find her. Can I dance with my wife now?"

"Excuse me?" I blurted in disbelief, then I sharpened my stare toward the man. "What are you talking about? Do I even know you?"

"What?" the man threw the question back at me before he unhurriedly fixed his eyes on Justine. "What did you do to her?" To my surprise, the man grabbed Justine's collar and blew a hard punch straight into his face.