Bound by Vows of Revenge

CHAPTER TWO; BETRAYAL IN BED

I usually held the second key to Zeke’s apartment so there was no need to knock. I only unlocked the door quietly and gained entrance. The television in the living room was blaring loudly. Pizza boxes with half eaten slices of pizza was strewn everywhere.

Zeke was a clinically clean person. It was unnatural for him to leave his sitting room untidy like this. I heard some grunts and thuds in the kitchen, and my heartrate doubled. I flicked on the pen-knife. Was Zeke and Ella in trouble?

I heard some loud slaps of skin on the marble surface. I was contemplating between intercepting the killer and calling 911. The police usually took their time to arrive at a scene, and my best friend and fiancée could both be dead before that time. With my heart in my mouth, I took the baseball bat by the corner with shaky hands. I was so terrified.

I looked around for a second killer. No one. There was even no sign of break-in and entering. I crept towards the kitchen area, the bat high above my head. I rounded the corner, ready to charge as the grunts became more agonized and desperate.

My chest tightened.

God, no. He’s killing them.

But then my eyes landed on the sight in front of me. There was no blood as I expected. No violence. Not a body crumpled on the floor.

Instead, I was staring at the bare nudity of my best friend and fiancé. Their bodies were entangled together. He was on top of her. He was the one making the grunting sounds as he thrust his c**k in and out of her. Her head was thrown back, her buttocks ramming into the kitchen cabinets, making the thud-thud sound that had terrified me earlier.

The horrendous sight in front of me was going to be burned into my retinas forever.

Zeke, my fiancé, the one I trusted with my life. And Ella, my best friend since college. Someone that would be my maid of honour. Both of them going at their selves like animals, like they have being deprived of s*x, grunting like he-goats. His lips teased her n*****s, the same lips that worshipped my body and called me sweet names.

The bat clattered from my hands to the floor and they both jumped in fright. They looked shocked as they stared at me, wide-eyed.

I leaned on the doorway for support, because my legs were suddenly weak.

“Eva, what are you doing here?” Zeke snapped, not an ounce of remorse in his angry expression. Ella hid behind his back. I tried my best to breathe. “Daddy is dead, Zeke.”

He only quipped his eyebrows. The news did not shock him. They all expected daddy to die. At that, the tears came crashing down.

I was blubbering like a baby. “He said that I should come and meet you. That you would tell me about the contract proposition. He said that we had to win, that we must win. He died this night.”

The hardened expression on his face did not melt, it tightened the more. He pulled out a drawer closer to him and ransacked it.

Through my blurry eyes, I saw Ella standing with her hands folded. Her lips were pursed in annoyance, like I had come to disturb something very important to her. She didn’t bother throwing clothes on her body. No shame. Just glared at my sobbing state with her nudity.

“Ella,” I called, my voice breaking. “How long has this been going on?”

“Oh please,” she hissed, waving me off dismissively. Zeke finally found what he was looking for, and tossed a heavy, brown envelope at me. “Inside there contains all that I have prepared for the contract proposition.” I hesitated to pick it up.

“Take it and leave.” He snapped at me.

“How long?” The words scraped against my throat sore from crying. I honestly never saw this coming. “Zeke, we had a future together. Ella, I can’t believe that you would do this to me.”

Zeke’s eyes shone with anger. “We never had a future together. Marrying someone like you would only bring me down. You know next to nothing about the business world. Your inheritance is dead, your father is dead. What do you bring to the table?”

Each sentence was like a death stab. I held onto the envelope – my father’s last hope- with trembling fingers.

“I’m actually glad you saw us.” He ran his hand through his disheveled hair. “I planned to divorce you soon after your father died. He forcefully set me up to this.” He was still standing there naked, his barer chest gleaming with sweat, as his hard c**k swung in the air. “Does it matter? Your family is finished any way. I am not about to chain myself to a sinking ship.”

My gaze swept to the victorious smile on Ella’s face. “Oh honey,” she laughed. “You didn’t really think he would he’d stay with you through bankruptcy, did you? Some of us prefer winners.”

I didn’t want to hear anymore. I took the last shred of my dignity and turned to go. But then the engagement ring on my finger glinted on my finger. I yanked it off and hurled it at the wall. It bounced off a cabinet and skittered on the marble floor.

“You deserve each other,” I yelled at them as Ella laughed at me. I hated that they saw me shatter. But I couldn’t have helped it. Father’s death demoralized me and their betrayal only sunk it in further.

I slammed the car door close, and sitting in the car seat, I stared angrily at their house.

I was going to cram everything this night and deliver a wonderful presentation tomorrow with or without Zeke.

I would redeem my father’s company. I was not a sinking ship. Zeke would regret everything that he had said to me. With that locked in my mind, I put the engine into gear and drove away.

The next morning, I called Zeke a million times. It was seven in the morning. By eight, the presentation would start. Asi scrolled through the stories on m i********:, I stumbled on Ella’s, posted about three minutes ago, a short clip of her ruffling Zeke’s hair and giving him an early morning kiss. Soon after, he sent me a text. ‘Carry your cross, Eva, and stop calling me.’

Heat scorched my veins. So he was really leaving me all to myself. I stared at my reflection in the mirror and smoothed my black power suit. Today would change everything. The Henderson’s contract was worth fifty million dollars. It was enough to resurrect my family’s empire from the ashes that my father left behind.

All I had to do was to prove that we were better than our competition.