Chapter 1: The First Betrayal

"Trust is earned, respect is given and loyalty is demonstrated. Betrayal of any one of those is to lose all three."

-Ziad Abdelnour-

***

Sofia was laying down in a deckchair of the pool. The warm sun touched her rosy cheek and she had to put on her shade since it was getting brighter as the minutes passed by.

“Here you go, a glass of cherry cocktail for you.” Her husband, Christian walked over to her and placed the drink on the table beside them. Sofia smiled and removed her sunglasses before turning to him.

“Thank you so much, my love. You’re very attentive.” She complimented him as she took a sip of the drink. Christian smiled back at her and responded with a sweet voice.

“Anything for you, my love.” He took her hand and kissed the back of it.

“This evening, we’re going to the yacht ride. I can’t wait to have some alone time with you in the middle of the ocean, it’s going to be an amazing experience.” He kissed her and she chuckled.

“Yes, I can’t wait for it as well. It’s going to be so romantic. Goodness, what time is it? I think I have spent too much time sunbathing. Let’s get inside the villa, my love. I feel like having a spa treatment before our yacht trip this evening.” Sofia walked into the villa without waiting for Christian.

The man was watching her from behind and the smile disappeared from his face.

At this point, Sofia didn’t know that her husband was actually planning something behind the scene, something she never expected him to ever do.

The two of them were newlywed couple. They were initially living in UK, Sofia De Laurent was a Parisian beauty and heiress to De Laurent fashion business in Paris who met Christian during her trip to the UK.

The two of them had an intense chemistry in the beginning and started doing long distance relationship where she would go back and forth between Paris and London just to meet him.

Then, after two years of dating, they finally got married and Christian decided to settle in Paris along with her. They already purchased their own home in advance and was currently on their honeymoon trip.

Initially Sofia wanted to have their honeymoon in Cape Town but after discussing it with her husband, Santorini was closer to both Paris and London compared to Cape Town so they went there and booked a villa for a whole week and one night at a yacht.

So far everything seemed perfect, until it was no longer.

That evening, Sofia dressed herself in a beautiful ruby mermaid evening grown that complimented her skin tone really well.

She was also wearing her favorite pair of ruby earrings and matching ring, a pair of Louboutin and sprayed herself with intoxicating amber and vanilla perfume.

“We are going to go on a private yacht, my dear, no one is going to see you there except for me, what are you getting so dressed up for?” Christian asked, seemingly displeased with her choice of attire.

“Hm, we are going to have dinner over there, no? Let me do what I want, Christian. Besides, I have brought some change of clothes, I can always get changed after I am done with the dinner.”

One thing about Sofia, as the daughter of a fashion mogul and the heiress to Paris upcoming fashion business, she always paid meticulous attention to the way she was dressed.

This flamboyant style of hers sometimes clashed with Christian who had a more casual approach in life. Sometimes when he was walking alongside with her, he felt more like her employee or a guard compared to her husband.

The disparity of status between the two of them were quite clear. People could easily tell which one of them actually had taste.

Christian was not poor, actually. He was a successful engineer who had worked for some of the biggest tech companies, so he had quite a bit of fortune of his own, but it was still incomparable to Sofia who was wealthy since she was born.

Yes, Sofia was one of those lucky soul who was born with a silver spoon in her mouth while he had to make his way from the bottom.

“Okay, anything you want.” He placed both of his hands on her shoulder and went to kiss her neck. Sofia smiled and turned around before giving him a proper kiss.

“I wish we can continue this kiss all night long but it’s time to head out, my love.” Sofia reminded him.

“Well, I couldn’t agree more.” He replied and the two of them headed out of the room, got into the car and headed for the yacht.

“Wow, this is probably the nicest private yacht I have been to. I mean me and my family had gone to a cruise ship before, but it didn’t count since it wasn’t a yacht.” She said as she slowly climbed up the stairs and he followed her from behind.

“Look at this place, it’s unbelievable, can you believe we are going to spend an entire night in this place? My goodness.” Sofia was excited. She was like a child being brought to a candy shop.

“Yes, it’s nice indeed.” He replied back.

One of the staff welcomed them at the entry and gave them a brief tour of the yacht. It wasn’t the biggest yacht ever but since they had it all to themselves, it was still quite spacious.

The place had two master bedroom, a lounge, a dining room, kitchen and bathroom for each of the room as well as an external bathroom.

“Looks like we are going to have a lot of fun tonight.” She said as she put down her bag on the bedroom and looked outside of the window.

The view of the ocean was absolutely breath taking. She had always liked being around the water since it calmed her down and made her realize that all of her problems were insignificant compared to the vast wonder of the universe.

“I’m going to go and get myself some welcome drink, do you want to come along?” She asked him.

“No, I am good. I’ll just stay in the room and rest for a bit before dinner.” Christian told her. Sofia didn’t think much of it, but during this time, he was actually preparing something for later.

“Okay, suit yourself.”

Around an hour later, the two of them were having candlelit dinner. Everything was absolutely perfect. Soft, classical music was playing in the background.

The ambience was warm and perfect. Sofia was sipping a glass of wine before slicing her steak and placed it gently in her mouth.

“Delicious, I absolutely love this place, we should do it again sometimes.” She delightfully told him. Christian was smiling as her response, but his eyes weren’t smiling along. Sofia was too drowned in the moment to notice it.

However, after fifteen minutes, she started to notice how quiet he had been since they got on the yacht and started to get curious.

 “Christian, are you okay? Do you feel seasick or something?” The question brought his attention back and he shook his head.

“No, why would you think that?” He asked as he gulped down a glass of water.

“It’s just, you aren’t as talkative as usual. Is there anything wrong?” She repeated her question just to make sure.

“I’m fine, my love, just wondering if this is real.” He replied as he forced a smile. Sofia was not entirely convinced, but she didn’t want to seem nosy by asking him more question.

“I’ll give you some medicine later in case you feel sick.”

 Oh, little did she know it would be a different type of sickness.

After they had their dinner, both of them was walking back toward their room. In order to reach their room from the dining room, they had to pass by the deck and the moment the two of them were in the deck, Christian suddenly stopped her and made a strange request.

“Sofia, I have this idea, why don’t we recreate that scene from Titanic?” Sofia wondered why he would do that since he wasn’t always the biggest fan of movies, but she thought it was pretty interesting so she agreed to it.

“Sure, let’s do that, let me remove these heels for a moment.” She removed her shoes and climbed to the deck, with her front facing the ocean.

She waited for him to come from behind her and placed his arm around her waist like the man did in Titanic.

However, when Sofia wasn’t watching, Christian pulled a gun from the back of his suit and shot her right in the shoulder. Sofia who was shot quickly turned around in disbelief as she placed her hand on her bleeding shoulder.

“Christian, why?” She asked amid the shock and with a stoic face, he replied.

“I’m sorry, Sofia, but I have never loved you.” With that, he climbed on top of the deck and looked at her one last time.

“Goodbye, Sofia, you must die so I can live forward, a life I have always wanted.” With that, he pushed her off the deck and she fell straight to the ocean.