BETRAYED BY FATE

The smell of Taylor's perfume wafted through my nostrils as I opened the door of the hotel room Tristan and I booked for after our wedding in an hour.

I got an anonymous text from a private number reading “hurry up to Royal Gardens hotel in twenty minutes or you'll regret it forever” and a video note of Taylor and Tristan heading into the hotel together after I had looked everywhere for my fiance and my chief bridesmaid and called repeatedly.

I opened the door to the hotel and that was when I heard strange noises coming from the inner section of the hotel room.

Muffled moans, then a low laugh.

The rhythmic creak of the bedframe that didn’t belong to anyone who was sleeping.

My heart stalled and I froze mid-step. My grip tightened around my phone until my knuckles turned white.

No. It can't be.

I took cautious, almost reluctant steps closer. My breath shallow, and my mind trying to explain it away.

Maybe it's the TV. A dream. Maybe he was sick. Maybe they're playing or joking around. Maybe…. Just maybe.

The moment I pushed open the bedroom door, every excuse died in my mind.

They didn’t see me at first.

Tristan's back was to me. He was sweating profusely as his groin was fixated in-between Taylor's legs, pounding in and out of her like his life depended on it. Taylor’s legs were wrapped around his waist, with her hand roaming up and down her mounds and her free hand digging into his shoulders, her head thrown back in ecstasy on the pillow, loudly moaning his name with every thrust like her life would end if she didn't scream his name at the top of her voice.

I stood there dumbfounded as the sound of wet flesh pounding against each other filled my ears. Taylor's hands moved to the pillow again, vibrating from the overwhelming pleasure.

I stared in disbelief, unable to scream. I just couldn’t. They were too caught up in their lustful act to notice me standing there in my wedding gown.

Tristan’s suit was thrown carelessly on the floor.

In an hour, we are to get married and my future husband and my best friend were both in my honeymoon hotel room fucking the living daylight out of each other?

My mouth was dry, and my lungs wouldn’t work.

Then she saw me first. Eyes going wide before narrowing into something smug. Almost satisfied. Like she wanted me to see her. Then almost instantly after our eyes locked, she moved up to Dylan's mouth and kissed him, moaning in his mouth loudly, urging him to go faster which he gladly did.

I stared at the both of them in horror as they drove each other to ecstacy. It looked like a p**n sight and it felt almost like my legs were rooted in place. I just couldn't even move my legs from the scene.

“Oh.” Her voice was breathy, like I’d interrupted her in the middle of a yoga session. “What are you doing here Elara?”

Tristan finally turned. He flinched a bit but not from guilt. It looked like he was disappointed I had caught them a little too soon. He gave just a slow, careless shrug.

“Guess the secret’s out.”

I stood there in my wedding gown with every part of me splintering inside, while my two favorite people destroyed the world I’d built without a single care in the world.

Then, as if that wasn’t enough, he added with a blank stare, “Taylor’s pregnant. We didn't want you to find out this way but it is what it is”.

My legs gave out beneath me. I caught myself on the doorframe before dropping face first on the floor in shock.

“You’re lying,” I choked on my words.

Taylor smirked, stretching like a cat. “Why would we lie now? It’s not like you didn’t feel us pulling away.”

“Why”? I asked. Why would they go to this extent just to hurt me? Of all days? I had been the bread winner for years and I took care of most, if not all of the bills but I didn't care. I thought Tristan was my happily ever after. Why would they do me like this especially on my wedding day?

She was in my hotel bed. Wearing my soon to be husband’s marks on her neck and entire body. And she had the audacity to speak like I had been the delusional one.

On top of it all, she was pregnant?.

I backed away slowly. My ears were ringing. I couldn't be here. I turned towards the door and hurried out of the hotel room.

“Wait,” Tristan called after me. “You can’t just leave like that. Don’t be dramatic.”

But I was already gone.

I headed out and hailed the next taxi I saw back to our apartment that I paid for.

I always knew not to trust anybody from a very young age especially since my birth parents abandoned me with nothing but only a necklace. At least one positive thing about growing up in an orphanage is the knowledge that you're all alone in the world and you always know not to depend on anybody.

Tristan was there for me when I left the orphanage at 18. All I had was him and Taylor. Despite the horrors I faced in the orphanage when I was little, Dylan was always my balance and the fact that despite knowing about my trauma, he still decided to cheat on me with my best friend on our wedding day.

Shortly after I heard the driver's voice. “We're here ma”.

I thanked him and hurried out and walked into the apartment with my miserable wedding outfit.

I rushed in and locked the door behind me, shutting the world outside out. I crashed on my chair and let out all the heart ache I was feeling.

All my life, I've had to fend for myself and not depend on anybody but Dylan and Taylor changed my perspective about life for a while only to crush my heart in ten folds.

I barely had anytime to bawl my eyes out when I saw another text from the same anonymous number.

“Westfield grand hotel. Two hours”. That was all the text said.

Who the hell is this person that keeps texting me suspiciously and how am I even sure I can trust them.