Chapter 5 : Oh my God

Liliana Miller:

The hotel lobby was quiet when I stepped out of the elevator. The woman at the front desk smiled politely as I crossed the marble floor, and I found myself smiling back automatically, the way people do when they're running on habit instead of thought. The expression felt wrong on my face. Everything felt wrong.

Outside, the morning sunlight greeted me with far more enthusiasm than I appreciated, immediately worsening the headache pounding behind my eyes. Between the alcohol, the lack of sleep, the emotional breakdown, and the fact that my entire life had imploded in less than twenty-four hours, I was honestly surprised I was still standing. I paused on the sidewalk and closed my eyes for a moment, inhaling the salty Mediterranean air. Yesterday morning I had been a woman planning a wedding. I had been someone's fiancée. Someone's best friend. Someone desperately trying to build a family. Today, I wasn't entirely sure who I was anymore, and somehow that realization hurt more than Alex's betrayal itself.

The streets were already alive with tourists and locals beginning their day. Couples sat outside cafés drinking coffee. Families wandered along the waterfront. People laughed. People smiled. Life continued moving forward as if the world hadn't ended. I watched them for a few moments and felt strangely disconnected from all of it. It was like standing behind a sheet of glass, observing a life I no longer belonged to. Eventually I forced myself to start walking. There was no real destination in mind at first. I simply knew I couldn't go wherever Alex wanted me to go looking like this.

My clothes were still yesterday's clothes. The clothes I'd worn when I walked into that villa believing I had a future. The clothes I'd worn while discovering that my fiancé had been sleeping with my best friend. Even thinking about it made my stomach twist. A few blocks later I found myself wandering into a shopping district near the waterfront. Elegant boutiques lined the streets, their displays filled with summer dresses, handbags, and jewelry. Under normal circumstances I would have walked right past them. For the last three years every spare dollar, every spare thought, every spare piece of energy had been dedicated to fertility treatments, wedding plans, or helping the people I loved. Spending money on myself had somehow become a luxury I rarely allowed.

The realization struck me harder than expected.

I entered one of the boutiques and spent several minutes drifting aimlessly between the racks. A saleswoman offered assistance, but I politely declined. I wasn't shopping because I wanted something beautiful. I was shopping because I needed armor. Eventually I gathered a few dresses and disappeared into a fitting room. The silence behind the closed door settled around me immediately. Slowly, I changed clothes and turned toward the mirror.

For a long moment I simply stared.

The woman looking back at me seemed familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. Her eyes were swollen from crying. Her expression looked exhausted. There was a sadness sitting behind her gaze that couldn't be hidden by better clothing or fresh makeup. Yet beneath the exhaustion, there was something else. Something I hadn't seen in a very long time.

Freedom.

The thought frightened me.

Almost immediately my mind began doing what hearts always seem to do after betrayal. It started searching for reasons. Searching for mistakes. Searching for places where everything had gone wrong. Maybe I had been too focused on becoming a mother. Maybe I had stopped paying enough attention to Alex. Maybe I talked about fertility treatments too much. Maybe I became boring. Maybe I stopped being fun. Maybe there had been signs I missed. Maybe there had been moments when he needed me and I had been too consumed by my own pain to notice.

I knew none of those thoughts excused what he'd done.

I knew they didn't justify years of lies.

I knew they certainly didn't justify sleeping with my best friend.

Yet heartbreak wasn't logical. It was cruel. It took every insecurity you had ever buried and dragged it into the light.

With a frustrated sigh, I finally forced those thoughts aside. Alex had made his choices. Mia had made hers. Whatever happened next belonged to them, not me. I had spent years carrying guilt that was never mine to begin with, apologizing for problems I hadn't created and taking responsibility for things I couldn't control. I was exhausted. Exhausted from loving too hard, from trying too hard, from constantly bending myself into whatever shape other people needed me to be. If yesterday had taught me anything, it was that no amount of sacrifice could stop people from betraying you if that was what they wanted to do.

After paying for the dress and touching up my appearance as best as I could, I stepped back onto the street feeling slightly more presentable, though nowhere near healed. The sadness was still there. The anger was still there. The humiliation was definitely still there. A new dress and fresh makeup couldn't erase the fact that my entire future had collapsed overnight. My phone buzzed inside my purse before I had even reached the end of the block. Pulling it out, I saw a message from Alex containing an address and a short sentence beneath it.

My stepfather is waiting.

I stared at the message for several seconds before locking the screen. Something about those words made my stomach tighten. Perhaps it was the urgency in his voice earlier. Perhaps it was the fact that this mysterious stepfather seemed to have everyone on edge. Whatever the reason, I suddenly felt less eager to get this over with.

Still, I had agreed.

A few minutes later I flagged down a cab and climbed into the back seat. The driver greeted me politely before pulling away from the curb, and I spent the journey staring silently out the window as the city passed by in a blur of sunlight, expensive storefronts, and endless traffic. My headache had dulled into a persistent ache behind my eyes, but it was nothing compared to the heaviness sitting inside my chest. Every now and then my thoughts drifted back to Alex. Then to Mia. Then to the stranger from last night. My emotions were so tangled together that I couldn't separate one from another anymore.

The drive took less than thirty minutes.

When the car finally stopped, I looked up and immediately understood why Alex had sounded nervous. The building towering above me was breathtaking. Glass and steel stretched toward the sky, reflecting sunlight in dazzling waves. It wasn't simply a hotel. It was the kind of place where powerful people stayed. The kind of place that quietly reminded everyone entering exactly how much money and influence existed behind its doors.

After paying the driver, I stepped out onto the sidewalk and adjusted my purse on my shoulder. The closer I got to the entrance, the more uncomfortable I felt. Not because of the building itself, but because of what waited inside. I had no interest in seeing Alex. No interest in hearing another apology. No interest in pretending we still had a future together.

Inside the lobby, I pulled out my phone and called him.

"I'm here," I said the moment he answered.

"Good. Stay where you are. I'll come down."

The line disconnected before I could respond.

A few minutes later, Alex emerged from one of the elevators.

The sight of him immediately soured my mood.

His hair was messy. Dark circles sat beneath his eyes. His expression carried the strained look of a man who hadn't slept all night. Under different circumstances I might have felt sorry for him.

Now I felt nothing.

Relief flashed across his face when he spotted me, but it vanished almost immediately.

"Where were you?" he demanded as soon as he reached me. "Do you have any idea how worried I've been? I called you all night. You disappeared completely. I didn't know where you were or who you were with."

I stared at him in disbelief.

For a moment I genuinely thought he was joking.

Then I realized he wasn't.

A hollow laugh escaped me.

"You cheated on me with my best friend and somehow you've decided that my whereabouts are the problem?"

His jaw tightened.

"Lila—"

"No." I cut him off immediately. "Don't. We've already had this conversation. We are not together anymore. We are not fixing anything. We are not getting married. Today is literally the last day you'll ever have the right to ask where I was, who I was with, or what I was doing."

Something flashed across his face then. Anger. Hurt. Possessiveness. I honestly couldn't tell.

Before he could respond, I walked past him toward the elevators.

The ride up felt endless.

Standing beside him in the enclosed space made me painfully aware of how little I wanted to be near him. Just twenty-four hours ago I had imagined spending the rest of my life with this man. Now the sound of him breathing irritated me.

Neither of us spoke.

When the elevator doors finally opened, I released a breath I hadn't realized I was holding.

Alex led the way down an elegant hallway before stopping outside a private suite. My stomach twisted unexpectedly as he opened the door and gestured for me to enter.

The first thing I noticed was Mia.

She was sitting in the front lounge area as if she belonged there.

The sight of her immediately made my mood darken.

I stopped walking.

"What is she doing here?" I asked coldly. "Isn't today supposed to be your wedding?"

Mia stood slowly.

There wasn't an ounce of guilt on her face.

Not anymore.

Instead, she looked strangely confident.

Almost smug.

"I cancelled it," she said calmly.

I blinked.

"What?"

"I cancelled the wedding." Her eyes flickered briefly toward Alex before returning to me. "I love Alex. I've loved him for a long time. We deserve to be together."

For several seconds I simply stared at her.

The audacity was almost impressive.

I waited for Alex to say something.

To deny it.

To correct her.

To tell her she was insane.

Instead, he remained silent.

Standing there like a complete fool.

A laugh nearly escaped me.

Not because anything was funny.

Because it was ridiculous.

Absolutely ridiculous.

Three years of my life.

Three years.

And somehow these were the people I had planned to spend my future with.

Before I could say anything else, a familiar deep voice echoed from somewhere inside the suite.

"Alex."

The single word instantly froze me in place.

My pulse stumbled.

Something inside me tightened.

Alex straightened immediately.

"Father," he called. "Please come join us. My girlfriend is here."

Footsteps approached.

Slow.

Steady.

Confident.

Then the man stepped into the room.

The world stopped.

My breath caught violently in my throat.

Silver-white hair.

The scar beside his eye.

The broad shoulders.

The same piercing eyes that had looked down at me only hours ago.

The same man whose bed I had woken up in that morning.

The same man I had been convinced I would never see again.

My eyes widened.

A sharp gasp escaped me before I could stop it.

Oh.

My.

God.