Chap.1*The Cursed Wedding Night*

When Ryker married Kathleen for the sake of his unborn child, they both had not only fallen out of love with each other but had lost respect for each other as well.

The first night of Kathleen after her marriage in Ryker's apartment was going to be hard after Ryker lashed out on her for the littlest things.

She picked up the bottles and the dirty dishes to trash them in the sink and clean the couch in the lounge to have a place to flop down onto.

She was tired: mentally and physically. She couldn't believe she once wanted to marry this man and now even the sight of him was heart-rending.

Kathleen leaned back on the couch to rest a bit when the whole apartment slowly began to consume the darkness. She could still remember the very first day she was brought here by Scarlet.

Ryker's first impression was still engraved in her mind to this day. After that, her whole life was a roller-coaster ride, running from home to home to protect herself from Irvin and then getting abducted by Cain, getting pregnant, and then leaving Ryker's apartment.

She recalled her brother's last text to Scarlet where he predicted a possible attempt of a murder attempt by Ryker. She thought Ryker would ask for her forgiveness, she thought after hearing the baby was his, he would change. The only thing that changed was Ryker wanting the baby, his attitude towards Kathleen had only gotten worse. She wasn't even given the chance to take her brother's revenge from him.

"Ehm!" she opened her eyes instantly when a bothersome cough caught her attention. She lifted her head and stared at Ryker, who it seemed like was ready to head out of the house.

"You should eat something!" he murmured while doing his sleeves and mending his coat.

"I'll when I want to, don't act as you care," Kathleen didn't want to see her so-called husband's face, who had left her on the road the day they got married, only to come back after days to take her back to his apartment.

"I don't!" his words made her tilt her face and stare at him, "I only care about my baby inside you, so don't act smart with me." his tone, the way he looked at her had completely changed. From a guy who was ready to take a bullet for her to a guy, who didn't even want to look at her, he truly had revamped into an entire stranger.

"I'll ask Monica to cook something for you, she will be here in a few minutes," Ryker announced and after passing one good look at how charming he looked, he walked out of the apartment with his car keys in his hand.

And just like that, he was gone.

Kathleen leaned back and gently ran her hand over her stomach," It's fine, your mother's luck had always been like that." a warm tear made its way down her eye as she remembered how bad her pregnancy had been.

Hearing Monica's name from Ryker reminded her of the first night they had met. She was a nice lady, the woman, who complimented her when everybody was making fun of her.

Kathleen kept waiting for Monica's arrival, it wasn't like she couldn't cook but she had immense back pain and was not in good energy to do anything. As she was tiredly leaning back, her eyes began to feel heavy and soon she dozed off in a sitting position.

While Kathleen was asleep on the couch: restless and starving, the girls from the boutique had heard of her arrival.

"I want to meet her," Nichole uttered to Lacy, who too wanted to see a glimpse of Kathleen.

"I want to meet her too, but isn't it weird that---," Lacy suddenly stopped talking as Nicole's eyebrows furrowed upon Lacy's proceeding words.

"What?" Nichole had to ask Lacy to continue when she zipped her mouth into silence.

"Do you think Kathleen is innocent? I mean, don't get me wrong, but she knew what she was doing when she was sleeping with her boss's boyfriend. She picked the famous celebrity to sleep with and then got pregnant, I don't understand how she is the victim in this whole situation!" Lacy didn't understand why everybody was siding with Kathleen, completely disregarding how she trapped the famous model Ryker Malarkey by making her body available for him every second of the day and night.

"Lacy, ma'am Scarlet literally hired us to divert her boyfriend's attention from her so that she could sleep around. Their relationship was doomed to die when Scarlet forced Sir Ryker to be in an open relationship." Nichole shook her head in disapproval at Lacy accusing the poor girl like the guy didn't take any part in sleeping with her, she hated the typical mentality of blaming the girl when Ryker and Scarlet were already over way before Kathleen slept with Ryker.

"I don't know; she is just not so innocent." Lacy had to finally express her despise for Kathleen for stealing Ryker from everyone.

Kathleen had been asleep for hours; she didn't even realize when the daylight had brightened up the apartment.

She jolted awake when the door to the apartment shut close with a bang. She tried to straighten her back but the soreness had made it impossible for her.

Kathleen fought to stretch her neck and watched the intruder who had broken her sleep.

Ryker!

He strolled inside the apartment, crazily drunk and all messed up. Kathleen staggered up on her feet and watched him reaching for his bedroom, entirely ignoring Kathleen.

"Are you drunk?" Kathleen spoke through her raspy voice, taking a moment to clear her throat, she continued, "Monica didn't come last night." She noticed his receding steps and immediately knew, he didn't like her questioning his state.

"She---," he turned around and squeezed his eyes close, "I forgot to give her a call," he sighed after realizing he didn't make a call to her and that's why Kathleen probably didn't get to eat anything.

"Y---," even though Kathleen wanted to tell him how bad her first night after marriage went by, he totally dismissed her by showing her his palm.

"We can talk later, I'm tired." He opened the door to his room and then halted once more, "Oh! Since you get to sleep, I'll occupy the room now. Don't come in while I'm resting." he didn't even spare her one glance and disappeared into the room.

Kathleen was surprised at his behavior; this wasn't the Ryker she once knew. Even though they both had their reasons to part ways from each other, Kathleen had even more reasons to hate him but she could still feel her heart falling ill to his ignorance, but it seemed as he didn't even bother her existence.