Chapter 1

• “Hell! I am late,”
• Karina murmured as she ran down the stairs, she had an appointment by ten am and right now it was already nine-thirty. She only had thirty minutes to get to the hotel where she would be meeting a client. She should have been on her way already but her wedding planner had not arrived as scheduled and only called her a minute ago to cancel at the last minute.
• “You are always running, one would think someone is chasing you,”
• Karina paused when her stepmom spoke. She turned to her and flashed a smile at her that she knew wasn’t going to be returned.
• “Hi, Mom, I have a meeting and I am late,”
• She said, her stepmom glared at her in disgust. Karina didn’t even know why she still tried to get her stepmom to like her when for the past twenty years since her dad married her and she and her daughter moved in, she had never liked Karina and only pretended to like her when her Dad and grandmother were around. If not, she always has the meanest words to say to her and like always she just had to be mean.
• “You look terrible, little wonder how you were able to get a man to look at you and think of marrying you.”
• She let out in a very demeaning tone. Her words no longer hurt Karina as they used to when she was younger, back then, she would cry herself to sleep when her stepmom told her something hurtful but now, it was as if she was immune to her insults and only just let her say whatever she wanted. Only a couple of days more until she never has to deal with her stepmom or her step-sister, Ava. Ava was just as mean as her mom.
• When they were younger, she would deliberately do something bad and frame Karina for it and even when Karina would try to defend herself, her mom would take her side and they would both gang up on her. She couldn’t even count on her father to come to her defense because he just didn’t care enough about her to say anything. If anything, he would blame her for it.
• “Do you have something to say? why are you just standing there,”
• Her stepmom asked, Karina shook her head and walked away.
• “They are going to be sorry for what they have been doing to me when I cut them off after I get married,”
• Karina whispered to herself as she ran towards the car park to get her car. In three days, she was going to become Mrs. Nick Sinclair and honestly, she couldn’t wait to marry Nick and be gone from the house. meeting Nick and falling in love with him had happened when she was so close to giving up on ever finding someone.
• She met him at one of those high-class parties that her parents hosted. She never used to attend the parties because she always felt out of place but that day, two years ago, she had decided to just go see what all the fuss was about and ran into Nick. It was love at first sight for the both of them and Nick has been her escape from the hell that was her home. He was the second man she had ever been with. Her first was nothing to write home about because he had been a cheat. She caught him in bed with someone she thought was her friend and because of that, she refused to see another man for over five years until Nick came and changed, and in three days, she would be his wife and move out of her family home where she never felt welcomed.
• “Where the fuck is my car?”
• Karina let out. There were about thirteen cars in the huge family car park but hers was somehow missing when she parked it right at the spot that she used to park her car yesterday after she got back from meeting with a client. Yeah, she was working so hard even though it was only three days to her wedding because that was the only way to get a one-month-long vacation from the company.
• She worked as a business development representative sometimes known as a rainmaker under the designing department of her family company. In other words, she was responsible for making sure they had new clients.
• Of course, she wasn’t the only one in the team, she had a team and an assistant team leader with about eight other people on her team. The fact that she was the president’s daughter didn’t mean she was let off. She had to work a hundred times more to prove her worth yet her father never seemed to notice no matter how many clients she brought in.
• “Well, that’s about to change,”
• Karina said as she continued looking around for her missing car. Yes, if she managed to get this client, it would seal her place as a top staff member and her father would be forced to acknowledge her role in the company.
• “That’s not going to happen if I don’t get there soon,”
• Karina let out. She gave up looking for her car and waved over to the security man she saw.
• “Did you see my car, James?”
• Karina asked him.
• “Yes, Ms. Ava drove it out a while ago,”
• Karina bit hard on her bottom lips to prevent herself from saying the words that formed in her head. Of course, Ava. That girl, she always finds a man to take what belongs to Karina even though she always gets the best of everything.
• She was never content with what she got. She almost got her claws on Nick too but thank God Nick wasn’t a weak man. The first few months after they started dating, Ava had shamelessly thrown herself at Nick and Karina had thought she would lose Nick to her but Nick somehow stuck with her which was why she said yes immediately he asked her to marry him. Nick was the ray of sunshine in her dark world and she couldn’t wait to be his forever.