Chapter 6

Laura

I was crying like never before. I was devastated and broke. Seeing Jason with his new wife in that restaurant broke me completely. He was taking his life, living his dream next to that woman, while I only sank even deeper into my pain.

I was in the bathroom of the employee restaurant, throwing out everything I had eaten that day, remembering Jason and his new wife. The things they said to me and the way they treated me made me feel so disgusted. Which made me vomit even more. I sat right there on the floor of the bathroom stall and cried some more. Everything was going so wrong in my life, and on top of that, I had this baby on the way. A child.

I had wanted to tell Jason that I was expecting his child when I saw him exuding so much happiness with Kendall, but what good would that do? I couldn't use this child to get revenge on that man who did me so wrong, I had to regain my strength, get up, and keep fighting until the end.

I went in front of the bathroom mirror and looked at my appearance. I looked bad, my hair was messy and wet, the wine and my tears were smeared on my face, and my clothes were all stained with wine. Furthermore, I sighed and washed my face with tap water. I tried to clean my clothes off the sticky wine that Kendall had spilled on me, but that would only wash off with a washing machine, so I gave up and left the bathroom.

As soon as I came out, I saw that the restaurant boss was waiting for me outside the bathroom, and he didn't look good. "You distracted my most important client and his wife, Laura? Have you lost your mind?" He said that, shouting those words at me.

"What? No, I didn't do anything like that. They were the ones who humiliated me and treated me like an animal. Look what that ordinary woman did to me!" I said I was showing my hair and clothes all dirty with wine.

"So what, Laura? Do you think I care about what they did to you? Mr. Davies and his wife stormed out of there, saying they're never going back to this place again. I just lost the most important customer of all my VIP clients. Do you know what negative impact this will have on this place? If people find out that billionaire Jason Davies disapproves of this place, no one will come to eat here anymore, and this place will go bankrupt because of you! And you want me to worry about your shitty appearance?" The man was so furious.

I knew that my ex-husband had great power over the local media, but that wasn't my fault either. "Sir, I…" I tried to speak, but the man harshly shut me up.

"Get out of here, you're fired!"

"What? But I need this job!" I was almost in a panic. What would I do now to support myself?

"Securities! Come and get this incompetent woman out of here!" He shouted at the security guards, who approached me, wanting to drag me out.

"No, it's okay. I know where the exit is," I said and then sighed. If somebody had told me that the day would end like that, I would have laughed skeptically. So there was nothing left to do, I collected my pride and left that restaurant.

Since Jason wanted me to disappear from his life so badly, I did not doubt that he had given the restaurant that negative review just to make the owner fire me, he didn't even care whether he was going to destroy the reputation of that establishment with his negative opinion of that place.

Jason Davies, the man I had loved for five years, was now my worst enemy. I hated him so much, by God, but there was nothing I could do. There was simply no place for me in Manhattan since Jason Davies was like the owner of the city. I needed to get away from that place to a quiet place where I could gather my strength, have my baby, and start over from scratch, away from that man and the world he dominated.

*****

A few days later, I was finishing packing my bags for the trip, and a few minutes later, the doorbell rang, announcing that Ava was outside. I went to open the door, and after a brief hug with her, she smiled at me and asked.

"Everything is ready?" I nodded with a little smile.

"Yes, it is. I've already packed everything I need to take to move," I replied to her, who was holding my hands.

"Okay, Lau, are you sure you want to do this?" She was worried about me.

Ava was the only one who knew I was expecting Jason's child. She advised me to tell Jason, and maybe then he would leave his new wife to come back to me if he found out that a baby was on the way, but things shouldn't be done like that, Jason shouldn't get back with me just because I was expecting his child. He didn't love me and never loved me, so I would never be happy with him, and that would only harm this baby in my belly. Besides, the way he had treated me at the restaurant, I didn't believe he would want to take on this child.

"I admit I'm scared, but this is the best decision I can make," I told her with weakened firmness.

"But Jason can help you, Laura," she asked, and I shook my head.

"No, he can't. I can't go back; I don't want this child to suffer like I suffered; I don't want this child to be rejected by his father like I was." There was so much grief in my heart.

Ava was already crying with sadness. "I'm so sorry, Laura," she said, sobbing.

"You just have to promise me you'll never tell anyone I'm pregnant, least of all Jason," I reminded her. We had already talked about it, I was going to move to Staten Island to a quiet, little-known neighborhood where no one could find me, and then I was going to start my life over there.

"You can trust me, your secret will be well-kept," my friend replied as she was nodding sadly, and we hugged once again. I cried in her arms once again, and then we grabbed my things and went to the taxi rank, where I would leave for my new life.