A Wife for the Billionaire
Chapter 145: EPILOGUE

Chapter 145: EPILOGUE

SOFIA

My head swarmed with images and spoken words. They flashed and rang through my mind as I was led away in cuffs.

"I’m sorry, but he never intended to grant you the brand"

Vera’s eyes as she pronounced those words. I could tell she wasn’t lying. She hated me, that was a fact, but she wouldn’t lie about something like that just to spite me.

"Search her, I’m sure she stole it. After all, it’s in her blood..."

I couldn’t even make myself complete that statement or my mind simply couldn’t. Perhaps it still found it hard to believe that the woman I called my stepmother would hate me enough to out me in front of New City’s most influential crowd and even beyond. What did I expect, I had stood up to her for like the very first time since I came to live with her and look where that got me.

The look of rage on her face as she pointed at me when she spoke those words. The hush that fell over the crowd, the stares, the fingers pointing, the disbelief on his face, my own disbelief even though a part of me knew that Alicia wouldn’t dare utter those claims if she wasn’t sure.

"Why do you hate me so much? Am I really that despicable to you?"

That moment of complete vulnerability. He had let all his defenses down. It didn’t help that he had had too much to drink. I just wished his actions afterwards hadn’t put me in such a puzzled state of mind. Like waking up to see him gone, it made me wonder if any of it had been real. If he knew what he was doing when he was doing it, or was it just the alcohol.

"I don’t know, okay!" I had yelled, before finishing in a softer tone "I really don’t know"

That was the night I made the biggest mistake of my life. I really shouldn’t have said those words, I shouldn’t have hinted to him my vulnerability. I really shouldn’t have pulled him closer when he began to kiss me with so much force that I lost all sense of self for ten seconds.

Ten seconds.

That was all it took for me to surrender. For me to hook my arms around his neck and kiss back, just as fierce. Like his lips sent my whole body aflame and those same lips were the only thing that could quench me. Pathetic, right? Believe me, I know.

The way he pushed me to the wall and ran his fingers all over me like he couldn’t get them to stay still. Like lingering in one place wasn’t enough. Like he couldn’t get enough.

His lips had followed, trailing hot kisses all over me, from my neck down to my exposed tits, hard as hell just for him. The way he sucked on each of them, biting them as if he was angry I held such power over him.

Then he had trailed down my tanned stomach to my center. He had gone on his fucking knees and worshipped me with his tongue, his lips and his squeezes.

I hated that I had been so fucking wet for him. So horny that I couldn’t even keep my hands away from his body. I hated wanting that hard length of him inside me. I hated wanting him so bad that each orgasm led to another and even after three rounds of hot intense sex, I still wanted him. Even though my body was tired and weak, I still wanted him.

I hated that he made me feel wanted. That he took me to a cloud Cole couldn’t take me to. That I hated him and yet still want him as much as I did. I hated that he played me. That he didn’t change down to the last minute, that he remained the best actor and sweet tongued liar until he had gotten what he wanted. Until he had subdued me.

He led me to believe that he wanted me just as much. That he burned for me just as I did him. That he couldn’t get enough. That I drove him crazy. He had even used those exact words, his eyes burning with so much desire that I stupidly allowed myself to think he felt the same. But they were all lies, an act, just to get him, my heart.

I hated that he had won. That I had lost. That in spite of his cruel words early this morning, I had still wanted to confront him some minutes ago, that was before the jewelry he had gifted me to wear, "The Queen Maker" went missing. That was before I raised alarm and the entire facility was shut down. That was before the search began and before Alicia’s claims which unfortunately turned out to be true.

The man on my right shoved my head back down to the door of the car as I tried to get another look at the faces of all gathered to watch me led away.

As the car pulled away, I saw him standing there, a far away look on his face. I saw Alicia and her daughters smiling deviously. I regretted telling Charlie about Mira’s feelings towards him and the fact that he could grow to live such a twisted person, and that was my fault.

I saw Vera, she was talking to the girls. The gang. I’m not much of a lip reader, but I could guess her words,

"I told you there was something off about her. That she’s not as good as you think she is. I know it’s not what you want to hear, but it turns out, I was right all along"

The girl just stood there, their faces pale, even Felicity who was black, and their expressions like that of someone who just saw a ghost.

There were too many faces. Even the aged Dame, I had attended her stepping down ceremony. She looked sorrowful though. Of course, she did, it was a pity that someone with potential like mine could end like this. The same way I had spent most of my life running away from, the same way my parents ended, criminals. Good-for-nothings hauled away to make the world a better place.

The car turned on a bend, and I couldn’t see any of their faces anymore, but the place I had come to love working at, the Wellington Fashion Headquarters, was still visible. And yet, I couldn’t look at it. I turned away, down to my new reality, the cold cuffs binding my hands.

I guess some things are just inevitable and there are fates that are hereditary.

RICHARD

The whole day, my heart had been killing me for the words I had written on that note I left her by the bedside drawer before quietly leaving.

That wasn’t the first time I had pulled such a stunt, but staring at her as she slept after our third round of sex, the truth was too much for me to bear. The realization of what I had done and what might follow made me do it.

But I never expected it to hurt as much as it did when I broke up with Mel. And to make matters worse, she didn’t even react in the way I expected her to. She didn’t come barging into my office to yell or demand an explanation. She just went dark.

I stayed watching my office door waiting for her to rush in, but that never happened. She didn’t even come to the office. And then I get to the party and I see her. She looked radiant like a star, especially with Queen Maker, around her neck and dangling on her ears.

I still waited for her to approach me. To come to me and beat my chest calling me a monster whilst she demands for an apology. But she didn’t do any of that. She had always been different, not like other girls who would react exactly as I expected. She was more like Mel, perhaps better, at least Mel had cried and begged before moving on like the next day. Sofia didn’t cry, her face didn’t look like someone who did, she only looked pissed when she saw me, and then she wasn’t as Cole came over and led her away.

I was planning to use my influence as her boss, even though I wasn’t anymore after this morning, to order her to come to me, but then the crisis began.

She had screamed when the ’Queen Maker’ disappeared from her neck. The earrings remained though. But everyone knew the necklace was the most important piece of the rare jewelry.

I had ordered a total lockdown and the cops were alerted. They arrived a few minutes later and joined our security guards in the search. It wasn’t how anyone envisioned the celebration to go, most certainly not to come to a party and have yourself searched for a stolen necklace. But everyone had to comply especially after they saw what they did to the guest who had refused to.

I was shocked when Sofia’s stepmother accused her, even more shocked when she declared her the daughter of Simon Reed, the criminal mastermind behind the global heist of 99 and the man Claire cheated on my father with.

I was most shocked when Sofia just stood there, not defending herself or abetting the claims, she just stood still while they retrieved the stolen necklace from her purse.

She didn’t even make a sound or resist when the cops roughly cuffed her and hauled her towards the exit. People stared, they murmured and whispered questions I really wanted to know their answers.

I made myself walk to the exit just in time to see her get shoved into the car like a criminal, just as her dad was if Alicia was to be believed. Though I feel it’s true, the girl’s silence had made it clear.

And even if it wasn’t true, she did steal something. Something I might never recover... my heart. My weak failing heart.