Revenge of the Billionaire’s Ex-Lover

01. A New Year’s Welcome

JANUARY 2023

I STOOD BY THE WINDOW with my eyes locked high up into the dark skies. The brightness it had earlier was all gone now and covered with complete darkness. The blinding sun was also replaced by the beautiful moon I never get tired looking at each day. However, the darker it is outside, the brighter it is inside… and I hate it.

A classical kind of music blast around the room with people moving around here and there non stop as if getting tired is not even in their vocabulary. Whenever I look around, I could see people approaching the other with the same look in their eyes—desperation and ingenuine. I can see it so well. None of them are real.

When I was younger, I remember how much my parents told me different things. My father would always say to make sure that I made a good impression towards those elite people in such elegant parties we went to back then. He would force me to get along with the people I don’t really match to or not even close to wanting to be near them. All that was because he claims it is my way of making connections in such a cruel world he wanted me in, but my mothers says the opposite.

Every single time we return back to our home after such a tiring party we attended with my father constantly talking and walking around with people, being all fake. I remember Mom would always come to my room and tell me one thing—you can say no if you want to. She always reminds me of that. However, there is something inside me that always hinders for the word no to come out of my damn mouth. The next thing I knew, I was becoming a puppet with no confidence to say no.

I was becoming a puppet almost to everyone else.

Since I was a kid, I grew up in an environment where I am around people I never knew back then were the fake ones. They would smile at me and talk to my parents, but would end up talking behind their back and almost ruining each others’ reputation. It was sickening! That is why, since then, I swore to myself to never be ingenuine when it comes to business. That I would never be like those people, but… where am I now?

“Don’t you think you had enough sighing for tonight?” A familiar feminine voice says from behind me.

As soon as I turned around, I saw my beloved sister dressed in a burgundy colored long dress with her hair tied up beautifully. With no doubt, it makes her fair skin stand out and her entire beauty be the center of attraction for tonight. She is my sister, but she is indeed a gorgeous one.

“It’s not like you aren’t in the same position.” I pointed out before taking a sip on my glass.

She shrugged her shoulders, leaning to the opposite side of me with her gaze roaming around the room. “Seeing all of them in one crowd makes me want to be next to my patients more.” I let out a short chuckle as she shakes her head with a deep sigh. “Each of them knows that one is just pretending yet there they are pretending that it was all true. What a hypocrite.”

“Well that is how they are!” My gaze immediately went to my father who was busily laughing along with a fellow businessman. I could tell right away how fake his laugh was. “And our father is indeed not an exception.”

“Who said he is an exception anyway? He even organized this damn new year’s welcoming party for some lame reason that I don’t know. That old man just wants to keep disturbing our peaceful life.” She complained, frustration filling her voice.

“You are lucky you get to have your escape. Here I have to keep facing him every single day.” I look at her with dull eyes. “I’m getting sick of it.”

We both let out a deep sigh in unison. If there is one thing that we have so much in common is how much we hated all of these. Indeed, we were born with such privileges and a golden spoon in our mouth, but that was only fun when we were younger. Everything is different now that we are older with both of us having our own dreams we wanted to achieve. However, between the two of us, Dianna Aubrey Moreno is the one who gets to be lucky enough to achieve that dream, leaving me in the shadows.

Dianna is three years younger than me who has since then been dreaming to become a physician like our mother, who is a pediatrician. Maybe it has been fated since we were kids that she is bound to be the luckier one than I am because she has always had her ambition straight and her goal should always be to take action no matter what, which is different than I am.

She is someone who knows exactly what she really wants while me, Kaylie Amber Moreno… I am not really sure about it anymore.

I remember when she was getting ready for her college entrance exams back then, she used to ask me why I took my course, BS in Business Management, out of all the choices I have. She even pointed out that I am just as intelligent as her and capable of going beyond my own limits without any problem. However, I only have one answer to her, and that is because, compared to her, I do indeed have limits. But that limit means a limit to choose my own future.

I wasn’t sure if it is supposed to be good luck, because it is what the elders say, that being the oldest child is a good thing. When I was younger, I was adored but I know well that I was being restricted to explore more as a kid. I can play, but not too much. I can run around with other kids, but limited only to those who are properly and overly dressed by their parents. I couldn’t understand a single thing about it when I was younger, not until I reached adolescence and it hit me.

It wasn’t a good luck… but a f*****g nightmare!

As I grow older, the more it becomes clearer. The limits I had back then were nothing with the ones I had now. It is too much to the point that I had to live a double life and become a rebel. A perfect daughter inside the office, but a rebellious woman outside. I’m pretty sure my father is clearly aware of that side, yet he is just turning a blind eye so that his elite friends wouldn’t even have a single idea that he has a rebellious daughter as his successor.

“He is looking for you,” Dianna simply said, immediately standing up straight this time before giving me a knowing look.

Without wasting more time, I gave her a single nod before leaving our spot as we went separate ways. She went to her invited friends while I went to meet my father and his business partners whom I am familiar with but not really close with. I immediately fake a smile when I am just a few meters away like what Dad wants me to do all the time. I wasn’t informed that what he wanted was a two faced daughter. If only I knew, I would have worked on both properly so I wouldn’t struggle this much.

“I have seen Ms. Moreno several times now, but I still can’t get enough how beautiful your daughter is, Salvador! She really came after your wife, Felisa.” Mrs. Manahan, the wife of Dad’s business partner, says with a soft tone and adoring gaze on me.

“She got her mother’s look, but I’m pretty sure she got her father’s business skills. Right, Kaylie?” Uncle Alvin, my father’s best friend, speaks on our behalf.

It wasn't shocking when I heard no response from Dad. That is because he was never satisfied with me anyway. One right was nothing to him, but one small mistake is a big thing as if I even committed a crime. His voice saying how useless I am is already natural and doesn’t affect me anymore because I am used to it now.

I wasn’t sure why, but most people actually viewed me as someone who is overly confident and rude because of my wealth. They said that I look at myself higher than everyone else because I was born with such privileges and a rich family. That I look down to those who are not at the same level as me without knowing that it was all my doing, and that it was my father’s.

In order to impress that old man, I had to go lengths just to prove myself to him. Academically, I used to always make sure to reach for the top spot no matter what because I used to think that it was what would make him think I wasn’t completely useless. Personally, I had to distance myself from the people he didn’t want me to be even an inch closer to because I still wanted to become good in his eyes even if it is in his immature state. I had to take all the blame and accusations about me, even if it is wrong, because of him… but I still get nothing from him.

That is why I stopped trying to impress him since then.

For him, I might be just a humiliation. A useless daughter who doesn’t deserve to be her successor. A useless woman who is not worthy of her position and her standing in her career. For him, I am just nothing but a failure. Just someone who doesn’t deserve not even a single bit of his attention unless he needs something from me.

“You are not to leave this room until I make an announcement, okay?” He whispered in an authoritative tone before following his business partners along.

I really am just a show off for him. The daughter he could show just so that those elite people will view him as such a good man and a great father. If only they knew how terrible and sickening that man is. If only they knew.

The entire evening felt even longer the more I waited for my cue to leave. It was like my father was doing it on purpose that I had to keep waiting for an announcement I don’t even know about. At this point, being nervous about what he will say is not even in my worry anymore. Once he humiliated me, then it is a backfire for him as well.

My eyes roam around the hall to find my friends who are my only escape from this hell now. I immediately caught my best friend, who is busily not paying attention to the clingy date that our male friends have with him. I excused myself from the person I was talking with before walking towards their table. And just as I expected, they are just in the same situation as me.

“Can you ask your Dad when this lame party will end?” Jordan says while looking all bored. Her tone is not even an excuse.

We all just want to leave!

I stood next to my best friend, Kiana April Roxas, with my arms crossed to my chest. Her gaze suddenly went to our other friend and the woman he is with made her shake her head right away. A small chuckle in my lips as I know that this woman is close to her limits. She might look like one of the softest women in front of other people, but she isn’t.

“Can you do me a favor and kick that woman out of here now? I am starting to lose my patience here.” Kiana whispered to me, obviously not having fun with the sight in front of me.

Who would when our playboy friend, Deven Carlos Wang, keeps flirting with this clingy woman right in front of us? It actually makes me wonder how he even gets enough time to flirt around and play with several women like a casanova he is. Maybe it is because he got more time as a CEO of Wang Entertainment, but how come it feels like all of his time is dedicated to entertaining those girls? I can’t even count how many there are now!

However, with Deven’s attitude, the most affected person to it is my best friend, Kianna. Those two used to have a relationship they never even disclose what it really is all about. They would say that it is nothing, but it isn’t nothing if each of them invests so much attention whenever the other brings someone with them along our trips or these kinds of parties. I could never understand those two! But who would? After all, they have a different personality as well.

“Do you want me to pull her away by her hair? I wouldn’t mind if we make a scene here tonight just to take that leech away from Deven.” Jordan says this time.

If there is a playboy, a rebellious woman, and a soft looking yet devilish woman in our circle, then there will always be someone who is the most mysterious and serious one. I wasn’t sure if it is because of her profession, but Iliana Jordan Yao has always shown her serious side most of the time. We rarely see her being all playful just now. But I can’t blame her as she stands like a mother figure in our circle after all. I guess it is in her as well to be that calm because just imagining the fact that I have to cut a patients’ body then blood will spill everywhere afterwards, I would have faint right away.

“Feel free to ruin the night. I wanna go home too anyway.” I told her, not even bothered whether anyone would hear me.

We talked and tried not to pay so much attention to the woman Deven is with no matter how much she hinders him to talk to us because she is all around him. Just when our conversation was actually meeting its exciting part, my eyes caught my father’s secretary coming closer to our side, and that only meant one thing. An announcement is about to happen soon.

I was told by Dad’s secretary that I am needed on the stage so I have no choice but to comply. I may be a rebel in front of my Dad, but his secretary is a different question now. After all, he has been such a concerned adult whom I could mistake as Dad instead. I stood by the platform as Dad stood in front of the podium with a small smile plastered on his lips as if it was so real.

“Everyone, I would like to thank everyone for being here tonight with us…”

Dad continued his personal speech with ease. I wish there was a chair near the stage because my foot is already killing me! It took my father at least ten minutes or more before he concluded his personal speech. However, as soon as he was done, the attention was all turned to me afterwards because of one single thing.

Another nightmare.

“Besides all the business talk, there is actually another thing that our family wanted to share with everyone in here.” Dad started, that made me immediately look at Dianna, communicating through our gazes but none of us know the answer. “Recently, Grand Moreno Group of Hotels has been planning on expanding their scope of business to serve more customers in the market. However, in order to do this, a partnership should be made and an agreement comes along with it.”

Dad suddenly glances at me, and that moment, I already know it wasn’t up for something good. My heart was beating so fast and I could feel my pulse almost wanting to just leave my whole body no matter how much it beats. I could feel myself breaking out into cold sweat all of a sudden because of a sudden announcement. Much worse, an announcement I wasn’t aware of.

“My daughter, Kaylie Amber Moreno, the successor of Grand Moreno Group of Hotels, and Darryl Ray Marquez of Oak Valley Group of Hospitals are set to be engaged soon.”

There was no time for me to process it all. The cheers surrounded me immediately and countless congratulations followed afterwards as if it was a very good thing for my part. Maybe for my father, it is, but not me. I feel so lost and dumbfounded. I should have known that this day would actually come. The day when he forced me to my limit further, and this time… it has gotten worse.

As soon as I raised my head, my gaze met with the pair of eyes that was looking at me worriedly. Darryl Ray Marquez, my childhood friend, is now soon to be my fiance. How in the world can our relationship turn like this?

“Did you know?” I asked in a small, weak voice like all of my voice had left me already.

When he suddenly nodded his head, I immediately felt betrayed and just left the hall despite the nonstop calls of my friends, my sister, and Darryl. Another nightmare has formed. But this nightmare… I probably wouldn’t have an escape anymore. There is no chance anymore to accept my path, but… I can’t… because it is not what I want.

“What a f*****g nightmare.” I whispered to myself as I sat into the bench with nothing in mind anymore.