Chapter 3

• “Nick?’
• She couldn’t believe what she had just seen. No, it had to be a dream. A very bad dream. Nick would never cheat on her. She lifted her hands to her face slowly and slapped herself to wake up from the dream but she only felt pain where her hand landed. She got herself back, picked up her bag that fell from her hand, and ran towards the elevator, she got in the other elevator and entered the floor she knew Nick always booked whenever they used the hotel.
• Nick doesn’t leave close by but sometimes when he is in town, he stays at this hotel because it is part of the family-owned hotel. Yes, Nick’s family owned a chain of hotels, he was the second child of the family. He had an older stepbrother that Karina only heard of but had never met because he was like a black sheep and didn't like to get involved in the family business.
• “Please let me be mistaken, please let me be mistaken,”
• She prayed as the elevator started moving up. She prayed that it should be someone who looked like Nick and not him. She couldn’t bear the thought of Nick cheating on her and with her step-sister. It would only mean everything that he told him since they met had been a lie. All the times he told her that he told her sister off when she tried to get on him would be a lie. It just didn’t make any sense. Why would Nick cheat on her in broad daylight, in a hotel close to her family house, and three days before their wedding?
• He wouldn’t do that to her, right? She must have made a mistake. The elevator came to a stop and it opened. She walked out of the elevator pretty fast and stopped dead as soon as she turned the corner, there they were kissing again, they couldn’t even wait to be inside the hotel room to start kissing. Karina was still in disbelief. She still hoped she was seeing things but it wasn’t hard to know that it was indeed Nick and he was indeed kissing. No! making out with her sister in the hallway of a hotel they used to share. The same suite she has slept in with him.
• Karina couldn’t just stand there and watch them. She had to do something, she started walking towards them but then they entered the room and closed the door. She increased her pace and wasn’t looking properly because she was almost blinded with tears. Her heart was breaking into a thousand pieces. Watching where she was going was the last thing on her mind. She bumped into someone and heard the person yell but she didn’t even look at the man or stop to apologize. She was pulled to a stop by a strong hand.
• “What the fuck is wrong with you and why aren’t you looking? Look what you did to my suit,”
• The man yelled. Karina finally realized what she had done. She blinked back tears and turned to apologize to the man but she couldn’t get any words out because her throat was blocked by unshared tears.
• “You have to pay for this. You are going to pay for ruining my suit.”
• The man yelled at her which triggered the tears she had been trying to keep away. She started sobbing and that made the man madder.
• “Why the fuck are you crying like I hit you or something. You were the one that wasn’t watching where you were going. You are the one that bumped into me and sipped my coffee all over me. Crying will not save you so wipe those tears and fix what you did,”
• the man yelled which drew the attention of other people walking around the hallway. He was still grabbing at her arms. Karina turned in the direction of the suite, Nick had entered with Ava just as the door flew open and they both stepped out. the noise must have made them come out.
• The first thing that Karina noticed was Ava was no longer wearing the dress she had on but was now wearing the hotel robe. The same robe that Karina has worn countless times when she spent time with Nick and Nick? He was only wearing shorts. They saw her. they had to have seen her. She saw when Nick had recognized her.
• There was a moment of shock before he shrugged his shoulders and just kept watching her. Ava on the other hand had a triumphant smile on her face. Like she finally got what she wanted. As if to make it more obvious, she linked arms with Nick who looked at her and smiled.
• Meanwhile, the man she bumped into was still screaming at her. Karina could barely hear what the man was saying because all her focus was on Nick and Ava. She managed to shake the man’s hand off and started walking towards them.
• She needed to know what they thought they were doing. She needed to ask them why they decided to do this to her. what her offense was and why now? How long has it been going on? She had a lot of questions. She was almost reaching them when the man she bumped into grabbed her again and started pulling her back to the elevator while yelling at her.
• “Let me go, I need to ask them something, please,”
• Karina pleaded when she got her voice back but the man refused to listen. Karina turned around one last time and saw Nick and Ava kissing again. they didn’t care that she just caught them. They were acting like they didn’t know her. The pain in her heart intensified as she struggled to be free from the man who was way stronger than her.
• “I don’t know what you think you are going to achieve from struggling against me but just so you know, I am not going to let you go until you buy me a replacement for the suit you damaged. You owe me because this suit is fucking expensive,”
• He yelled at her.