As Brandon's father stretched his hand out to Brandon and Eva for them to step closer to him, Adam felt as if the air had been knocked out of his lungs, and he stumbled from the full force of its malevolent effect.

Been together for about more than a year? How could that be possible when he and Eva had been together for a week two months ago, having more sex than he could count?

Maybe he'd heard wrong, maybe the man had said one month and his raging mind was playing tricks on him.

Brandon took a ring from his father and held Eva's left hand in his, going down on one knee.

“Eva, I know we've already talked about this and you've said yes, but this is so that all these people around see just how much we want to be together.”

“I've known you since we were kids and I've loved you for more than two years now. You make me the happiest man alive. Now all you need to do to seal my happiness is to accept to be my wife. Will you give me that honour of becoming your husband?”

Adam held his breath as Eva's gaze flickered to his pensively for a second. It was as if she didn't know what to do, or as if she was begging him not to expose her.

It all suddenly made sense. Eva had cheated on Brandon with him. Adam suddenly felt sick. His stomach heaved..

“Yes.” Eva finally answered Brandon's question.

A jag of pain jolted through his chest, twisting him on the inside, but he clenched his fists beside him so Eva wouldn't see how affected he was.

That would make him come off as vulnerable, and vulnerable was the last way he wanted Eva to consider him especially after she'd lied to him without even batting an eye.

Slipping on a mask of stoicism, he watched as Brandon slipped the ring on Eva's finger, stood up and caught her lips with his.

LDespite how brief the kiss was, it intensified the pain in his chest. Plastering on a smile, he went along with it when everyone around broke into an applause.

God why was he feeling so terrible?

“Ladies and gentleman, the date for the wedding remains unchanged." Brandon's father spoke after the applause had died down. “Please enjoy the rest of the party as we now open the dancefloor."

Right after he'd said that, a romantic tune begun to play and people held on to their partners, widening the spaces away from one another.

Smiling, Brandon pecked Eva lightly on the lips and placed his hand at her waist. Adam was damned if he was going to stay here another minute when he knew he would just explode with all the emotions churning inside him.

Spinning on the flat heels of his shoes, he approached a passing waitress and plucked one of the glasses of champagne from her tray, downing it in two gulps and settling it down before walking off briskly, needing to be out of there.

She'd lied to him. What more had she lied about?

He'd just stepped outside into the courtyard of the magnificent mansion when fast clicking heels sounded behind him.

“Adam, please wait!” Eva's voice said pleadingly, stopping him.

He slowly turned to face her, making sure to keep his mask intact. “What?” He asked more calmly than he felt.

“We need to talk, Adam.” She stated, stopping about a metre away from him.

“Let me guess, you don't want me to do a huge exposé about what happened between us, right? Don't worry, I have no intention of doing that.”

He spun around with every intention of storming off when she wrapped her arm around his biceps, causing him to experience anger and desire all rolled into one.

“Let me explain, please.”

He faced her again, holding back his desire to lash out at her. “Explain what? That you were fucking me even though you had a boyfriend or fiance back in LA? I'm sorry, but doesn't that sound pretty clear?"

“I'd called off the wedding then.” She revealed, eyes beseeching, as if she was desperate for him to believe her. “Brandon went to this party, got wasted and ended up sleeping with another woman without even realizing it. When he told me about it, I wanted to call off the wedding, but everyone around me kept on begging me to rethink my decision. I was getting cold feet and just needed to be be sure whether I wanted to marry him.”

“And so you chose me as a test experiment.” He mused without even needing confirmation and chuckled, bitterness streaking through his veins as reality hit him full force.

Eva had used him. He'd just been a pawn she'd used to get over her heartbreak. and she'd left the cabin so suddenly without a goodbye because she'd realized that she wanted to get married to Brandon after all. All he thought she'd felt for him was just his own illusions.

“I'm sorry, Adam. I just needed...”

“You know what?” Grabbing her fingers, he unwrapped her hand from around his arm and stepped away from her.

He scanned her from hair to toe, knowing his gaze was filled with disgust. “Coming here was a mistake in the first place. Goodbye, Eva.”

“Goodbye.” He heard her whisper just before he walked away from her, heading pass cars down the winding path that led to the security gates.

He didn't even know which was worse: that she'd cheated on her fiance so shamelessly or the fact that she'd used him.

When he finally got to his car which he'd parked outside the gargantuan mansion, he banged the door shut as he entered the driver's seat.

A guttural sound tore out from his throat as he gripped the steering wheel tightly, his knuckles turning white from the ferocious grip.

Keep your head in the game, Adam! She's just a woman, another one of the billions in the world. You just have to start a real relationship with one of them and put in more effort than you've ever done with your past lovers. That should be enough to get Eva the hell out of your mind.

The thought made him snort, knowing his plan was a failure even before he could execute it.

Inserting the key and turning the ignition, he started the car down the road, striving for control over his emotions.

The loneliness the silence in the car made him feel irritated him, so he turned on the radio, and a slow tune R and B song begun blasting from the speakers.

🎶You tell me hi
     And you took me high
     Then you left me with the bye.🎶

Vexed, Adam punched it off immediately. How was it that a few lines of a song could define someone's story so perfectly?

≿━━━━༺❀༻━━━━≾

“Ladies and gentleman, its extremely appalling that every project I don't supervise turns out to be a disaster. What are your worths as employees? Please do tell me if you've grown tired of working in this company and I'll gladly hire new and competent people to work for me. You're dismissed.”

Sitting by the floor to ceiling window that overlooked the rest of LA, Adam watched as one by one, the men and women who worked for Lucas's family company marched out of the boardroom, all with surly expressions on their faces.

Lucas's father who'd been standing in a corner and watching everything that was going waited till all the employees had left, then crossed over to where his son stood in front of the boss's chair.

Lucas turned to him with frustrated eyes. “Is this how it was when you were the CEO, dad? I'm surprised you would even entertain them. It's like it's better to do everything on your own.” He shot at his father rather flippantly.

“You know, I'm going to forgive that disrespectful tone because I know how frustrating this can get.”

Alejandro calmly sat on the seat that lead the others on the right side of the boardroom table. “I already told you that you can't expect to go on vacations and take day offs on a whim and still expect to thrive as a businessman.”

“Oh please, father.” Lucas's voice was filled with irritation. “I took over this company a year ago and I've only gone on two vacations to do what I love, both of which barely lasted two weeks. And I take Saturdays and Sundays off, so what? If I'm going to be forced to do this, the least I deserve are weekends breaks, don't you think?”

In a move that Adam didn't anticipate, Alejandro shot to his feet and delivered a hot slap that sent Lucas's head tossing violently to the side. Then he grabbed his son by the chin, forcing him to look at him and glaring into his eyes, rage radiating off him.

“I am your father and you don't talk to me in that tone. You're here and taking over this company because you are my son and you need to take over my legacy.”

He moved his hands up, digging his fingers into Lucas's cheeks. “How do you think your grandfather was able to build all this, huh? How do you think I've been able to keep this business on its feet for over thirty years? How do you think we make billions every year? You think we achieved that by going on whimsical vacations and taking the weekends off doing useless, frivolous things? Well then, think again!”

His eyes slipped over to Adam briefly, and he let go of Lucas's cheeks as if seeing him for the first time, then straightened, back rigid. “My father; your grandfather made me work for every single penny until I finally took over the company. I guess my mistake was giving you everything right from the very start. You're going to sit up and start becoming more productive as the CEO, son, and that's an order.”

He brought his face closer to Lucas's and muttered some things Adam didn't catch before storming out of the room.

Lucas's zygomaticus had been ticking all this time, an indication that he was furious. It was so obvious that he wanted to hurl many words at the retreating man's back, but he managed to hold on to control.

Right after his father had closed the door behind him, exhaustion washed over Lucas's features, and he slumped into his magnificent swivel chair with a loud sigh.

“Well, that was some interesting family history lesson.” Adam mused, trying to lighten the mood.

“Tell me about it.” Lucas said wryly, running his hand through his hair and ruining his normally impeccably combed hair.

“Uh, what did Alejandro tell you just before leaving?”

Lucas scoffed, shrugging, “Said he didn't like the fact that you were present while we were having a boardroom meeting.”

“Hmm.” Adam hummed, unsurprised.

“So why did you come here, buddy? It's not often you come to the company.” It was so obvious he was trying to sound normal, but judging from his sigh a second later, he was having a hard time with it.

“You know what? Forget it. Don't want to add my shit to yours.”

“So how did the engagement go?” Lucas was obviously trying to distract himself. “Did you convince her to not get married at least if not stopped the engagement? Are you two together now?"

“She was fake, Lucas. Everything was a fake.” The thought of it still spiked him with the bitterness he couldn't seem to get rid of. “Our theory that she's probably being forced into an arranged marriage was bullshit. She's been with Brandon for a year, not a month as we thought.”

“What? You're joking.” Lucas arched his brows as if to enquire whether he was being serious. “But that will mean that she...”

“Cheated on Brandon with me? Probably.” He snorted. “Apparently, Brandon went to this party one day, had too much to drink and ended up sleeping with another woman, seemingly without realizing it. When Eva found out, she wanted to call off the wedding but the people around her advised her to reconsider. So she needed a break to sort out her emotions, to see whether she still wanted to get married. I just conveniently offered to be her test experiment.”

“Or my theory could've been right and she really is being forced to get married to a man she doesn't love. She actually fell for you, but she's afraid of what the people around her will say.”

The possibility of that theory proving true filled his chest with bittersweetness, and he shook it off before it could give birth to any sort of hope.

“You know what? I think we've been stuck on my...” He was about to say love life, but the thought made him scowl. “...sex life for too long now. What about you, brother?”

Leaning his weight against the backrest of the swivel chair in which he sat, Adam pushed his shoe against the tiled floor, wheeling the chair until he was beside Lucas.

“What happened to that girl you met on Christmas? The one whose ass you ditched because she wanted more than just no strings attached and you were beginning to get too attached?”

Groaning, Lucas scooted back in the swivel chair and got to his feet. “I already told you that it ended there and that's just it. You know how I feel about relationships.”

“Lucas,” Adam begun, not caring that his friend wasn't going to like what he was about to say. “I've probably said this a million times already, but I'll say it again. Abigail died three years ago and nothing's bringing her back. You need to stop closing yourself off to the possibility of love.”

“Yeah, right. Coming from the hardcore bachelor who wants nothing to do with that emotion.” His voice dripped with sarcasm as he walked over to the floor to ceiling window, gazing at the city view. “Great qualities to make someone take your advice.”

“Yes, I think love is just an absurd emotion. You know about my parents, Lucas. They fought a lot, and my mum left all of a sudden. And they were supposed to be in love.” Adam swiveled to look at him from where he stood. “But you do believe in it, Lucas. I don't think Abigail would be happy wherever she is that her demise has made you refuse to be happy again. And for the record, I think you are in love with Monica.”

Lucas quickly turned to face him, glowering. “I am not in love with Monica. No woman can ever make me feel what Abigail made me feel and I have no intention of loving again. I thought I've made that clear to you a thousand times. Besides, Monica has given up.”

“Fine.” Adam finally surrendered to Lucas's consistent adamancy.

People reacted differently to similar situations. Losing his mother had shattered his father, destroying him and their children's lives in the process.

Lucas had lost his fiance to colon cancer three years ago, just a week before their wedding, and the loss had devastated him so much that he'd decided not to love again. At least, his woman didn't betray him.

Adam knew how it would affect him if he gave every part of himself to Eva and she ended up doing to him what his mother had done to his father.

He'd been there, given his all to Akua, his first ever girlfriend even though he'd only been a teenager and had still been dealing with the consequences of his mother's leaving.

When she'd left like he didn't even matter, it'd shattered him and he'd decided to never subject himself to that kind of situation ever again.

He wasn't going to allow Eva to change that.