Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

Peering through the glass window of the restaurant where I sat, I looked at the dark sky and well, the half moon that gave a natural illumination to the outer space. I sighed, withdrawing my gaze to look across my table, where my damsel sat in all of her gifted beauty.

"Hmm, lovely evening." I muttered. She smiled at me before taking a sip of her wine. She knew how much she meant to me, and it was no secret that I was too impatient to call her mine in a weak time when we walked the alter together.

Dropping her glass, she fixed her gaze on me and for the first time throughout the evening I noticed something flicker in her eyes.

"Nathan..." She paused, as if contemplating what to say, or how to say it. My eyes narrowed into an almost thin line. My warning instincts were activitated, I knew Ashley too well to tell that something was wrong and that she had been trying to play cool all the while.

"Tell me." I urged, holding her hands in mine. They felt strangely cold and it blended with the look in her eyes. There I got it, she was nervous but why?

She withdrew her hands from me, reaching for something in her bag. I watched closely, a bit worried, but then my eyes widened as I saw her getting a little box that looked very familiar.

"W-what is that?" My hands were shaky and my throat suddenly went dry at the sight. I could see her swallowing hard, almost like her words were choked in.

"This ring..." She started. " This ring signifies the symbol of our love, a-and my acceptance shows how much I believe in your ability to make a good husband and father." She complimented smiling but still all didn't seem right. Her eyes blinked and I could see her grip on the box weaken, her fingers quivering slightly. She sniffed and my gaze pulled back to her eyes. Tears? What was that for?

"You're crying?" I asked not sure if it was good or bad.

"I'm pregnant Nathan." She spilled the tea, but it should make her happy and me too.

I chuckled nervously, looking at her with confusion. "Shouldn't that be goodnews?" I asked unsure. She bit her lip, her fingers weaving together while her eyes flickered with another thing, guilt. I laid back on my seat, I wasn't a fool to understand what that meant.

"Whose child is it?" I could feel a thousand blade through my heart and the pain of betrayal causing my anger to flame.

She passed the box to me, while I stared down at it, my expression blank but my mind and heart at war. I was going silently insane.

" I'm sorry but ... We can't get married." She said simply and Rose up to her feet. I brought my hands together leaning towards the table while letting my head rest on the double fist their proximity created. I pleaded with my shock absorber desperately to help me survive this news and this bomb the woman I loved most in the world had just thrown at me.

"I'm so sorry Nathan." She said amidst her teary voice and with that she left, without closure, leaving me with many unanswered question. I should have been expecting things to turn out badly, for the past one month she had been acting different, it made me question her love but I was too in love with her to heed to the warning sign of disloyalty. I swallowed the tears that welled up in my eyes and decided to follow her.

I wasn't sure if she ran but she was far out of my sight, so I hastened up.

Luckily I caught her exiting the building through the door but a cab was waiting for her and she seemed to be in a haste. I stopped another cab and asked the driver to follow hers. It wasn't so much of a distance as we soon arrived at an open venue. She stepped out of the car and I followed attentively. She reached out for her phone and the caller seemed to have told her something so she moved in the direction to which I believed the caller had asked her to follow.

I stopped when she stopped, she was elated and I was shocked. What was going on here? It seemed like some sort of celebration but I knew it wasn't her birthday yet.

The place was quite spacious and quiet for just her, a party must be involved in this. While I asked a dozen questions in my head I saw a figure appear. The figure of a man, my heart sank and my head spinned. I tripped on the sight of the man I saw.

"Ivan..." I mumbled.

What was my cousin doing here? With flowers for my fiancee who seemed very excited about it. Then I died the moment I saw him leaning in to kiss her. It wasn't just a kiss but a prolonged and passionate one. My whole body vibrated in anger and the tears I fought so hard to keep in came streaming down my cheeks. I was in deep pain, one I never imagined I could experience. Another man it was then, she left me for no other than my privileged cousin whose goal in life was to make my life miserable.

I summoned the courage to continue watching, I needed to get to the root of all this. Then he went on ahead, Ivan that son of hell! What was he doing? I saw Ashley's hand move towards her mouth covering it up and Ivan's, holding out a ring in a box. He was proposing to my fiancee, right there in front of me and she looked the happiest I had seen in the past one month.

She slowly freed her mouth, I guess about to say something, but I couldn't stand it as I launched forward, a heartbroken man and with so much anger.

"Ashley!" I screamed out my throat. Panting heavily. She had startled and Ivan too, but he regained his composure seeing that it was me. A sly smile curving up his lips. Yes that was his mission to take everything I ever had. My inheritance wasn't enough he had to take the love of my life.

"Nathan... What are you doing here?" She asked surprised that I had followed her.

"Is this why you left me?" Scorn engraved in my voice. She didn't seem guilty like before. I guess her reactions were fleeting just like her feelings for me.

"Ashley..." I heard Ivan call her, turning her face back to him. "Will you marry me? He asked again and I felt like a sword was being turned again and again in me. The guts of him. My body vibrated more with anger looking at him and I did what a broken man like me could think of, I charged towards him in a fit of rage but he remained still and if I wasn't mistaken he seemed to have given someone a signal with a simple nod.

And before I could feel my hands on his face someone had beat me to it. I felt a heavy metal come behind me, pushing me to the ground, a chiming sound in my ear and darkness looming over me. Was I dead? A question in my subconscious but the only answer I truly wanted to know was if Ashley had actually agreed to his proposal.