Only After I Lost Her

Chapter 6 The Confession

In the past, Xavier would not have let her lift a single finger. If a single drop of water had stained her shoes back then, he would have dropped to his knees and wiped it away before she even noticed it was there.

Now, as Nina looked up at him from the floor, his frosty expression showed absolutely no trace of the love that had once burned for her. His heart belonged entirely to Kelsey now.

"Speed it up, Nina," Kelsey taunted, tapping her foot impatiently against the marble. "If you are going to play maid, then lose the princess attitude. The Nelson family's glory days are long over."

The Nelson family had fallen from grace years ago, and with their fall, Xavier's love had vanished like morning mist burning off in harsh sunlight.

When Nina did not move fast enough to suit her, Kelsey's foot lashed out. Her stiletto heel caught Nina across the cheek, leaving an angry red mark on her porcelain skin. "God, your goody-two-shoes act makes me sick to my stomach," she spat down at her. "After all the pain you caused Xavier, how dare you even show your face anywhere near him?"

Never in her twenty-three years had Nina endured such humiliation. Her nails dug crescent moons into her palms as she choked back the fury scorching her throat. Only thoughts of her son waiting for her overseas kept her from lashing out at this woman.

Kelsey snorted at her silent rage before turning to Xavier with saccharine sweetness. "Xavier, should you not be at the office by now? Go on ahead. I will just take a nap in your room for a while. Those early morning meetings really take it out of me."

When Xavier hesitated instead of leaving immediately, Kelsey smirked at him. "What? Do you think I am going to bite her? Making her clean my shoes is poetic justice after everything she did to you. Relax, I will kick her out once she finishes the job."

"Do not be ridiculous," he said smoothly. "I just do not want her spoiling your mood, that is all." His gaze turned glacial as it fell upon Nina still kneeling on the floor. "Do not test my patience today."

He lingered just long enough to dote on Kelsey a beat too long. Then, with the croissants she had brought him in hand, he finally walked out the door. The moment it clicked shut behind him, Kelsey's mask slipped completely away.

"Show your face near Xavier again," she purred, "and you will join his parents six feet underground."

At Nina's shocked expression, Kelsey lounged back in the chair like a satisfied cat who had just finished off a mouse. "That is right. I paid off the family driver to make them disappear. It served them right for always trying to shove you down Xavier's throat."

"Anyone who gets between me and Xavier gets removed permanently." Her crimson lips curled into a smile. "Funny thing is, even after I framed your family for it, he still pined away for you. Thank God you broke his heart when you did. It left him wide open for me to step right in."

The Sullivan family deaths had remained unsolved for years. The driver had disappeared without a trace.

Everyone whispered that the Nelson family had cooked up an elaborate plot to swallow the Sullivan family's fortune, and that they had cold-bloodedly eliminated the driver afterward to cover their tracks.

The deaths of Xavier's parents had become the explosive trigger that torpedoed his relationship with Nina forever.

Nina had never dreamed that Kelsey had been the puppet master pulling all the strings from behind the curtain.

"Kelsey, have you completely lost your mind?" she whispered, her voice shaking. "Those were two living, breathing human beings."

Kelsey shrugged, utterly unfazed by the accusation. "You can blame yourself for that, Nina. If you had not clung to Xavier like a leech all those years, his parents would still be alive right now."

"If you do not want to go keep them company down there, you will disappear right now. Or do not disappear. I would not mind adding another corpse to my count at this point."

Human life meant nothing to her, less than dirt beneath her designer heels.

Ice water flooded Nina's veins as the truth settled over her. All these years, Xavier had kept this venomous viper coiled at his side, completely unaware of what she truly was.

"If Xavier ever finds out that you killed his parents, he will skin you alive for it."

Kelsey bared her teeth in a fearless grin. "Go ahead and try telling him. See who he believes. You or me."

"Wake up and face reality, Nina. You have no idea how completely he belongs to me now."

Nina went white as a sheet. She knew, with sickening certainty, that Kelsey was right.

Xavier worshipped the ground Kelsey walked on every single day. He would not piss on Nina if she were on fire right in front of him.

Even if she told him the truth about everything, he would not believe her if she had video evidence playing right before his eyes.