Chapter 5 Betrayed

VICTORIA

“Ma'am?"

I coughed, grasping my side which was throbbing with so much pain.

Mrs Rachel grabbed my arm and wrapped her hand around me before leading me into the house.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't stop the tears from flowing.

“Calm down, calm down," Mrs Rachel kept whispering as she lay me down on the couch.

“I will be back," she said and brushed my hair away from my face before slipping away. I wanted to tell her to stay back, but I was too weak to speak or move my body.

My heart kept twitching in pain and there seemed to be a hollow in the bottom of my belly. My breath was slowly ceasing, and my head wouldn't stop swirling.

How did I fall into this sham called marriage? Why did I let his fake love take control of my senses? It was all a lie, everything was a freaking lie.

His smile, his laughter, his words, his behavior, it was all fake. A facade over the cruel, cunning monster.

Mrs Rachel rushed back to the couch where I lay like a log of wood. She leaned forward and helped me to sit up on the bed. I was barely looking alive. My skin was as white as that of a ghost and my lips were thin and dark.

“Everything will be okay, Mrs Armstrong, it is not the end of the world," she said as she extended a cup of water to me.

“Don't call me that name, Mrs Rachel," I finally moved my lips and whispered.

She didn't seem surprised or upset. Instead, she smiled and moved the cup further.

“Drink," she whispered.

I slowly lowered my face and drank the water, feeling a little burst of life in me.

My breath was restored and my knotted throat loosened.

“Thank you," I muttered.

Mrs Rachel sighed and dropped the cup of water then stood up and began to comb my disarrayed hair back.

“How long have you known?" I asked

She stopped combing through my hair for a few seconds, perhaps thinking of how to answer such a sensitive question.

“For a month," she muttered and I stiffened in shock. She had known for such a long time, yet she didn't tell me? I was baffled at her response.

“Why? Why didn't you tell me?" I snapped, my chest tightening in anger.

“I didn't want to be the reason for the break-up in your marriage,” she said, and I scoffed loudly.

I moved away from her and spun around, glaring at her.

“What use was it keeping it from me, huh? The marriage is already broken!" I growled. I trusted her as well, it felt painful finding out that she hid such an affair from me for a month.

“With how you blindly trust him, I doubted you would believe me," she replied.

I screamed and spun around, rushing into my room. I slammed the door shut and slid down to the floor, tearing up.

This was what she had been trying to tell me? When she talked about leaving him, this was why?

This was the cruelest betrayal I had ever faced in my life. I worked up myself, sacrificed my happiness and family for a man whom I thought would become my family and happiness, a man whom I thought would bring me peace.

Instead, he ruined the little peace and happiness I had left, leaving me with nothing but an ugly scar of betrayal.

As I sat there, I slowly realized that he had deceived me into signing off my properties to him. He had walked up to me some weeks ago and made me sign a document while I was working on an important case.

I was so foolish to believe and trust him enough not to take a glance at whatever was written in that document. He knew how foolish I was and used my blinded love against me.

The bastard didn't just break my heart and betray my trust, but also stole everything I had. My happiness, my idea of a family, and my money. They were all gone. They now belonged to him and Erica.

“I hate you, Simon, I hate you," I kept whispering those words with a heart full of pain until my eyes closed in deep sleep.

A loud bang on the door was what woke me up after two hours of a dreamless sleep full of pain and darkness.

I wiped the tears rolling down my cheeks and staggered up to my feet then turned around and twisted the knob.

My head jerked up when I bumped into Mrs Rachel who stood before my door, waiting for me to come out.

"What do you want?" I snapped, glaring at her.

She sighed loudly and dropped her head, her hand clenching at her side.

"Forgive me, if I had spoken up earlier—"

"It wouldn't stop the feeling. My heart would still be broken," I muttered.

"It would have happened earlier," she said.

"It would still hurt the same way," I whispered a response and stepped back, craving to slam the door shut and bury myself in tears again.

"Crying will not make any difference, Miss Victoria, you are just wasting your precious tears for an unrepentant dickhead."

I looked up, my brows narrowing in surprise at her outburst.

I never expected her to talk about Simon that way.

"I..." I trailed off and gulped hard before stepping aside.

"Come in," I said and waved my hand.

She jerked back, her eyes widening. She reluctantly walked into the room, her lips trembling and tears lurking in her eyes.

I shuffled to the bed and slumped into it, then patted the space next to me.

"Sit," I muttered.

She sat down and gripped her hand, staring at everything in the room aside from my face.

"Did he... ever bring her to this bed?" I asked. She finally stopped gazing at a room she had been in a hundred times and faced me.

"No, never. I only found out through phone calls and his conversations with his mother. If I had known that the woman was Miss Erica, I would have opened up a long time ago," she said.

I sighed, my throat burning at the mention of her name.

"He has his hands on my properties now. I thought he was saying the truth when he talked about signing some paper for a scan he wanted to run. He... He is a criminal," I muttered in a trembling voice.

Mrs Rachel grabbed my hand and forced me to look at her.

"You are not letting this go, are you?" She questioned.

I looked at the paper on top of the bedstand drawer and smiled lightly, the tears still dropping.

"What should I do, Mrs Rachel, I can't go back to my father," I muttered.

Mrs Rachel held my hand tighter while brushing my hair with her fingers.

She stopped brushing through my hair and stared into my eyes without blinking.

"I don't know what you're planning to do, but if you're walking out of this place. You must be walking out with your shoulders held high..." She paused and took a deep breath before continuing.

"You will walk out as who you are, Victoria Alexander."

I craned my head back and stared at our wedding photo hanging on the wall.

Maybe she was right. Yes, she was right. I would walk out with my shoulders held high, and I would destroy his happiness and ruin his newfound family.