Risen To The Top

CHAPTER 3

Alex struggled to his feet blindly as he tried to see where the voice came from, everyone around the scene had immediately become quiet, he struggled to his feet and turned around.

It was Bruce.

Alex clenched his fist and gritted his teeth angrily. Bruce stood there, staring at him with a wry smile spread across his face, he looked like he was mocking him. Alex wondered if Bruce knew about him and Sarah all along.

On one hand he was holding a phone, Alex could see that Bruce was truly filming a live video on Dukduk, everything was true. Sarah was truly leaving him

He was holding Sarah with his other hand, holding her romantically against his shoulders.

She was wearing the dress he got for her,the new expensive dress she had cried to him about and he had gone ahead to spend his two months salary on the dress just to make her happy. He had gone by months without buying anything for himself all because she had said she wanted it and now here she was, this was the first time she was wearing it, or maybe the first time he was seeing her wearing it.

He couldn't help feeling that she had been disturbing him for the dress all because she wanted to wear it here.

She wanted to wear it to meet Bruce and everything was behind his back, he wondered when she was planning on telling him.

He wondered how long she was planning on keeping it from him, he wondered if she even ever loved him.

"What are you doing here?" Bruce asked gruffly, as he eyed him suspiciously, he recognized him as one of his employees.

Alex hadn't come here for Bruce, all he wanted was to see Sarah and here he was trying to look into her eye, she kept looking away,  her eyes darting away from him, he knew she was avoiding his eyes.

"What are you doing here?" Bruce asked again, this time he was louder.

Alex was doing his best holding his composure, all the years of them being together, all the investments and plans for the future were all thrown down the drain.

"Why?" Alex asked, he had finally found his voice, even though it was breaking and he was sure everyone could see the pain in it.

"Why are you leaving me? Why are you doing this?" He asked again, maybe he had done something wrong, maybe that was why she was leaving him.

She looked embarrassed, from her face Alex could tell a lot of things, she had been hiding this from him, she didn't look at him with anger of him being a bad partner for all those years, she looked at him with guilt! she knew what she was all along.

All those years they had been together, all the promises, memories and sacrifices were all a joke to her… Or maybe he was the one overreacting, maybe he was the one reading everything wrong, maybe she was being threatened, maybe this wasn't her wish.

"Did he threaten you, babe?" Alex asked, trying to soften his voice as much as he could.

The look in Sarah's eyes changed immediately, she looked at him with anger,

"You!" She screamed facing the people present.

"You have been the one threatening me!" She screamed again, pointing at Alex.

She walked over to where she could be visible to the live video.

"You made my life hell! You treated me like trash. You took advantage of me every time. You abused me… you used me to get to this company. You have been using me all my life!" She screamed maniacally, the phone filming the live had shifted, videoing only she and Alex now.

"Dating you was hell, Alex. Yes, we dated in the past— I'm sure you heard I was getting married, and you came to use this to your advantage like you always do! you came to use me again!" She screamed again.

Alex looked at her, hot tears streaming down his face. It all made sense to him now, she had never loved him, he was just a tool to her. One she had used for years, he had given her his all, he had made sure she never lacked as far as he had, he had given her his time, affection, money and soul.

Yet this was what she was giving back in return.

She knew he couldn't compete with Bruce in any way.

Bruce was better by far and it killed him just by thinking of that.

He knew Bruce didn't know about him and Sarah, all this while she had been seeing Bruce behind his back.

Alex blamed himself for not noticing the obvious.

Bruce had turned the phone towards him alone, he could see himself, his tear stricken and dirty face.

He could see the comments on the live show, some of them were saying how they always knew he was a bad person, a few were saying they couldn't believe he could do something like that.

Alex stared at them intensely, Sarah was standing behind Bruce using him as a shield while pretending to be scared, this was all an act and he knew it, she had no use for him again and now she was dumping him in the hardest way she could.

Bruce turned around, holding Sarah protectively and whispering things in her ears while trying to calm her down.

Alex lost all his composure, he knew he had nothing against Bruce, he was sure the man didn't even know about him and Sarah but he couldn't bear to see another man holding Sarah like that, he let his fist go to work.

The first punch went hard and fast, knocking Bruce to the floor, the phone in his hands flying to the hard concrete, the second one made him stay down.

On impulse the security guards immediately pounced on Alex before he could do more harm to Bruce, they took him to the hard ground and mercilessly pinned him down.