Ruby's Revenge

Chapter Four

Two days to the wedding

Ruby

We were at a family event to celebrate my upcoming nuptials or rather, Henry’s upcoming nuptials. My stomach was tied in knots and I hadn’t been able to keep any food down. My head hurt and I was this close to just passing out.

The cherry on top of the cake was the dress Elizabeth had ordered me to wear. A gold wrap dress that was about too sizes too small. The corset I had had to lace on to make the dress fit was cutting off all my circulation.

My hair had been done up too tight and one of the hairpins securing it was digging painfully into my scalp. I was counting down the hours till I could go home and get out of this dress.

“you look beautiful. I don’t know if I’ve said that yet.” Henry whispered into my ear.

I forced a grateful smile for him. “thank you.”

“mum did a good job dressing you up.” He continued. “you should let her dress you up more often.”

As if I was a child or some kind of plastic Barbie doll. He could go f**k himself, disrespectfully. I was a full grown woman and I could dress myself up.

“of course.” I replied dutifully, resisting the urge to stab him in the eye with my fork. As the days went by, my dislike for Henry was slowly turning into hatred. I couldn’t believe I’d let his charm and wealth get to me. I should have seen him and his family for what they really were from the beginning.

I was the quintessential rags to riches story and they were going to milk it in their favor for a long time.

Contrary to the narrative they kept pushing, I could have been something without them. I didn’t almost kill myself to get a degree only to discard it. That was what a man like Henry would want. For me to stay small and under his thumb, entirely dependent on him.

I could-

“what is that bastard doing here?” Henry’s low growl brought me out of my reverie.

I suddenly realized that a lot of necks were straining towards the front of the hall. I tried to see what was happening above the mass of people but couldn’t.

“Get him out of here.” Henry hissed. I had never heard my fiancé sound so furious in the whole time we had known each other. I was definitely curious about this new comer.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“it’s none of your business.” Elizabeth snapped from my other side. “But you had better stay away from that vile man.”

Henry jumped out of his seat and hurried towards the front of the hall. I looked around in confusion. How could one man be causing all this ruckus? Especially to a family like this that liked to feel and act as if they were untouchable. Their feathers were definitely ruffled right now and I couldn’t say I wasn’t amused by the whole thing.

Anybody who could make the Meyers worried was my goddamn hero and whoever he was, he had just gotten a fan.

The crowd before me suddenly parted, revealing a tall man in their very center. All the way across the hall, I could feel when his eyes met mine. I shivered, goosebumps lining my exposed arms.

“He’s headed towards us.” Elizabeth gasped.

And true to her words, he was moving towards the table where I sat in long, measures strides. When he had crossed half of the hall, I could finally see all of him.

My breath caught in my throat.

If I had ever said Henry was the most handsome man on earth, I had just been proven wrong. The stranger headed towards me looked like he had just stepped out of a GQ catalog. Dark brown hair swept back away from his face, revealing a face plane that must have been carved by a master sculptor, high cheekbones, strong jaw, thick eyebrows over piercing blue eyes.

The man was tall, over six feet tall with wide shoulders straining the jacket of the dark suit he had on. His outfit was completely black. Black pants, black shirt with the first three buttons undone. He looked like a rogue. A very striking rogue.

He walked around the table till he was at my side, then he took my hand in his and kissed the back of it, all while his eyes held mine captive.

“You must be Ruby, the lucky soon to be bride.” I couldn’t help but feel that his words were mocking. “I’m Aiden Villarreal and it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

I was stunned into silence.

“Get your hands off her.” Henry roared before tearing my hands away from Aiden’s. The man in question simply looked cool and amused while my fiancé looked pissed as hell, he shot me an accusing look as if I had been the one to invite this Aiden of a man over here. I didn’t even know who the f**k he was or why the Meyers hated him so much.

“What are you doing here?” Kingston, Henry’s father asked.

“Isn’t this a celebration? I’m here to congratulate the happy couple.” He replied without missing a beat.

“cut the bullshit.” Henry snapped. “you’re not welcome here.”

“But aren’t I family?” he smirked. “what happened to the famous Meyer family loyalty.”

I watched in fascination. Who was this man? It was times like this that I wanted Ana close by giving me the full details but she was nowhere to be seen.

“You can either leave on your own or you’ll be thrown out. Your choice.” Henry said.

Aiden c****d his head. “How inhospitable of you.” He said. “no need to cause a scene. I just had to meet your beautiful bride, brother.”

Henry tensed.

Aiden smiled. “Well then, until the wedding.”

“You are not invited.”

But Aiden was already walking away, hundreds of eyes trained on him, commanding attention and awe as he left, as calmly as he had come.

Mental note, interrogate Charlie about this little piece of family drama.

Henry dropped down into his chair.

“What was that?” I asked.

“shut the f**k up.” He replied. “how could you let him touch you in front of everybody. They told me you’re a w***e, but I never believed them.”

My mouth dropped open in shock. “I- I didn’t do anything wrong. He was the one that-“

“Control your woman, son.” Kingston cut in.

“After everything this family has done for you, you so openly cavort with the enemy and embarrass us.” Elizabeth sneered, eyes flashing at me.

I bowed my head as tears sprung to my eyes.

“I’m sorry.” I said in a small voice.

The rest of the party flew by, but no matter how much everybody tried to make it seem like nothing had happened, it was obvious that the initial vibe was lost. The Meyers were fidgety and they were trying to hard to give off the picture of normalcy. They were also failing badly.

My mind was stuck on Aiden. Curiosity, and something else. Something that I didn’t want to examine too closely.

For once in my life, I wanted to be in a position where I could put the Meyers in their place. Show them that I was worth more than their charity case. I wanted the power Aiden had. The power to make these pompous people afraid. To get under their skins and make them panic.

“I love you.” Henry said as we got into his car at the end of the night to go home.

I couldn’t even bring myself to say the words back. Henry didn’t love me. Maybe he thought he did, but he really didn’t . I had seen love. My parents loved each other. What Henry and I had was rotten and could never be described as love.

I just s

miled at him, Aiden at the forefront of my thoughts.