CHAPTER TWO: OUT OF SIGHT, NOT OUT OF MIND

Aidan stared at the invitation card in front of his desk for a long time. It had arrived in the mailbox of his mother’s house. And his mother had asked him to empty the mailbox when he dropped in for dinner that afternoon. Unaware of the shocker it had brought, he had carried inside the letters and had stood frozen when he had seen the address on the envelope.

Manhattan. He knew only one person who lived down Park Avenue. And he felt his heart increase its pace at the unexpected turn of event.

Impatiently, he ripped off the envelope and found his doubts being confirmed. It was a letter from her. Katherine Iris Thornton. Caressing the name with his thumb, a bout of sadness engulfed him so overwhelming it was that he had to close his eyes under the force of the emotion.

How he missed her. Even after all that time. Kate and him had been inseparable; a pair of a kind. During his years at Brooklyn University, she had been his best friend, confidant and even alter ego. His little Katie. So close to his heart. There was never a time that he thought of her without a fond memory. Like now. In spite of himself, a smile formed on his lips as he remembered the good times they had together. And how he had been so attached to her that he had worried about how he would have gone on with life after university.

Even his mother had teased him about his growing attachment with Kate and had more than once teased him about bringing her to their house when university was over. Of course Meredith Waldorf had also predicted that they would end of together since they could not leave each other’s side. Both he and Kate had laughed at that fact at that time and neither had made anything out of it since Ryce had been part of their threesome.

Ryce Connor. His other best friend. The one he had considered to be his brother. The one who had betrayed him by stabbing a knife in his back.

At the memory, he crushed the card in his fist with rage and opened his eyes with determination. He would never forget what had happened to him on that famous night. It had broken his heart and trust and had helped him become the hard man he was now.

Gone was the happy carefree boy he had been. The betrayal had cut too deep and he knew he would never be able to erase the memory of the past. Not ever.

“Aidan!” his mother shouted from behind and he whirled back in a guilty reaction trying to hide the invitation card but it was too late. “What have you got here?”

“Nothing!” he replied. “You wanted something mother?” he asked trying to change the subject not letting on how affected he was.

“Yes dinner is ready,” she announced looked as if she wanted to say something. Aidan tried not to squirm under her gaze. Damn! If she knew about the letter, she would throw a fit and force him to go. But he had still not decided yet if he wanted to go or not.

“I’ll join you in a minute. I have something to finish here,” he told her in a tone that required no argument turning his back on her hoping she would take the hint.

“Okay,” she said knowing that it was time to back out and leave him alone.

Swallowing hard when his mother left, he opened the invitation card once again and read it properly. And felt the blow directly to his heart. Katie was getting married. To some loser named Bigfoot. And he hated the idea. He wondered why she had sent him the invitation after all. They had not contacted each other since the last five or so years. In fact, they had not spoken to each other since their graduation party.

Even now after all those years, he did not know whom to blame; but there was really no point in determining who was at fault. It did not matter anyway. He was done with them and never wanted to meet any of them again in his entire life.

If that made him cruel, so be it. Life had taught him so many things on that day and that had changed completely to a harsh businessman losing himself in the monetary world. Some months after his degree, he had attended the same university to continue his MBA and it had been the worst moments of his life. For two years, he had relived those moments living some kind of hell and still angry at each of them.

Even if he had fond memories of them, he would never have any of them back in his life now. Never. But the fact that Katie was getting married bothered him; more than he was ready to admit. What had she become? Was she a successful business magnate like him? Aidan was intrigued despite himself. It was weird that Katie had finally found someone to love.

Not that she had been a cynic or something. On the contrary, Aidan remembered how she had been a real sucker for love and romance back in those days. But she had been too idealistic about that whole love thing and had never really found anyone to date. They had always teased her that she would remain a bitter spinster and would end up leaving alone with her cat. Not that she had one. But it had fitted the picture.

And she had always been so angry at them whenever they had tried to hook her up with someone. He could still remember the day they had taken to the disco and had tried to fix her up with a guy called John Greene.

“Hey Katie, hurry up,” he had shouted outside her room. She had been taking too long to get ready and he had been impatient to get to the disco where Ryce had been waiting with the John but Kate had no idea about it.

“Coming right away!” she had shouted sounding near and she had opened the door almost immediately. Aidan had stared impolitely realizing for the first time how gorgeous she was; seeing her for the beautiful woman she was.

“How do I look?” she had asked coquettishly which had stunned Aidan even more. He had known her for more than one and a half years and never had he seen her behaving like the other girls. Kate had been a tomboy and had never wanted to dress up for anyone. Hell, he could not even remember when he had seen her in a dress. Until now.

As she stood in front of him wearing a blue dress which landed on her knees with matching jewelry, she looked cute with her unruly hair framing her heart-shaped face. Like an angel. And Aidan had found his heart beating fast at the sight in front of him and had felt an inexplicable urge to draw her in his arms. Which he had done.

Surprised, Kate had looked at him her cheeks a rosy hue and Aidan had never found anyone more beautiful. She had smiled shyly and asked the reason for the hug.

Trying to keep a nonchalant stance, he had winked at her and shrugged off the unwanted feelings, not making much of them. Kate would always be close to his heart and he would never question his feelings for her. Right at that moment, he had wanted to tell her how pretty she looked and how different from what she used to.

“You look so pretty Katie.”

At his compliment, she had gone beetroot red and had hidden her face in his jacket. “Thank you,” she had replied in a muffled voice which had made him chuckle. That was what he loved about her. Kate could always make him smile even when he was in his worst moods.

Whoa! Loved? Had he thought about love? Then he smiled. She was his little Katie and of course he loved her. But not in the way that he loved his girlfriend. He loved Kate more than he loved the others. She was more special than anyone else in his life.

“Come, let’s go. Ryce is waiting,” he had said instead mentally scorning himself for harboring such kind of feelings for little Katie. He must be going out of him mind. And he was fixing her up with someone else.

“Sure, let’s go,” she had replied in a cheerful tone.

And hand in hand they had reached the disco where John and Ryce had been already flirting with some other girls and Aidan had been furious with him. How was they supposed to convince Kate that John was the ideal guy for him if he was gallivanting around with the others? The man who would end up with Kate had to be even more special than she was.

“Connor! What the hell?” he had hissed angrily taking him into a corner.

“Oh come on, Aidan. We were only fooling around you know John fancies our little Kate since forever. Look at them already kicking it off.”

Aidan had sobered as he had watched Kate laughing at something John was saying and taking Ryce from the collar, he had left them alone not wanting to disturb them. But he had felt a sense of something being wrong; a sense of foreboding which he had not been able to explain. Instead, he had moved to the bar where he found someone to flirt with.

“Aidan!” he had heard his name and surprised to find Kate right behind him.

“Kate? What happened?”

“Are you trying to fix me up with John?” she had asked her face flushed with fury and hurt.

Oh-oh! What now? The problem with Kate was that she was too smart for her own good. “Who John?” he had tried and had realized that it had been the wrong thing to say at the expression on her face. She had become angrier.

“Don’t play me for a fool Wolf,” she had threatened. “And where is that Connor?”

Spotting him in a corner with some girl, she marched towards him and punched him in the ribs. Hard. That must have hurt.

“Ouuuchh!!” Connor cried in pain. “Why did you do that for?” he asked in indignation rubbing his ribs while his current girlfriend looked at Kate like she wanted to murder her.

“You’re trying to fix me up with John?”

“What’s wrong with him?” Ryce had defied instead of cowering and Aidan had to suppress the smile from forming on his lips. Connor was going to have his hide.

“I’ll tell you what’s wrong with him,” she had shouted over the loud music picking up a glass and throwing the content his way. Thankfully Ryce ducked and she missed her target.

“Watch out! You could have hurt me,” Ryce grinned and winked at Aidan. “Go find your cat before it’s too late.”

Letting out a cry of indignation, Kate had turned to Aidan for support but he had been too busy trying to mask his glee and had not been doing a good job out of it. Even more exasperated, Kate had left the discotheque and both Aidan and Ryce had run after her girlfriends forgotten.

“Hey Thorn! Wait up!” they had cried after her using her pet name knowing it would infuriate her even more. And it had.

“You two are so mean to me,” she had scolded. “I’m so going to get back at you for what you have done!”

That was the thing they had most liked about her. She had never been on to whimper or complain but had taken every challenge and every taunt head on. They had grinned widely and hugged her in a threesome embrace knowing that her words were not mere threat.

She would get back at them in her own special way but instead of fearing what she would do, Aidan had found himself anticipating her next trick with impatience. Sometimes, she paired up with Ryce to get back at him and sometimes the two of them pulled a prank on Connor.

Whatever they did to each other, it was based on only one emotion. Love. The love and respect they had for each other meant the world to him. It had always been like that. The three of them in their own world.

“Aidan!” his mother shouted from the bottom of the staircase. Jerking back to reality, he realized that he had lost trace of time so engrossed had he been in remembering the good old times. And now Kate was getting married. He had some difficulty in accepting that fact. Hell, her fiancé must be someone really special.

“Your dinner is getting cold honey!” his mother cried again impatiently.

Sighing, he folded the card inside his jacket pocket and made his way downstairs. “I’m coming mother.” As he sat down for dinner, her mother kept throwing stealthy looks his way and finally fed up he shouted. “Okay out with it!”

His mother instead of feeling intimidated stood her ground. “What’s wrong?” she asked directly not one to beat around the bush.

“Why do you have the impression that something is wrong?” he asked in a defensive mode but knew it wouldn’t last long.

“Oh, come on! I’m your mother. I know every of your moods.”

“Okay,” he finally resigned. What was the point in hiding the wedding anyway? His mother was a great fan of Kate and had a right to know as well. “Kate is getting married and she has invited me over.”

“Kate?!! The Kate? Katherine Thornton?” her mother asked astounded.

“The very one.”

“To whom?”

Aidan shrugged. “To a man, mother. Here see the card for yourself.”

Stunned, her mother took the card from him and read the invitation. Twice. It was as if he had not been the only one shocked by the news. Of course he had expected her to get married but he had never expected to be invited for the wedding. Had in fact believed that she was already happily married with a few kids of her own.

“Wait a second,” his mother exclaimed. “The wedding is in October, two months from now. And she has invited you from September itself. It’s one month before the wedding, honey.”

Too numb to bother about the details, Aidan had missed that fact and he snatched the invitation from his mother’s hand to confirm her observation. Hell, she was right. Why would Kate do that? Why invite him one month before the wedding? It was not as if he had never visited the Thorntons before. He and Connor had spent two of their holidays there semester breaks and Kate had a wonderful family. Maybe she wanted some get together before her wedding. And that meant that Ryce and Jennifer would be there too.

“So are you going?” his mother asked him question he still did not know the answer.

Was he going? He did not want to face Ryce again. Neither Jennifer. That last day of college, he had decided that he would never meet them again but six years was a long time. Even if the betrayal still affected him in a deep way, he had nothing to blame himself. His three so-called best friends had each an important role in the betrayal and he would never forget that.

“I don’t think so,” he muttered roughly.

“Why not honey?” his mother asked him sitting next to him on the dinner table. Hell, there it was. The lecture he had seen coming the minute his mother would get to know the news. It was inevitable.

“Mother, you know I don’t like talking about them anymore,” he barked in his businessman accent and her mother flinched at his tone. There you go. Aggressive meant getting what you want. But he was wrong. Meredith Waldorf was made of tougher stuff than that.

“I think you should go, Aidan,” she said seriously. “Meet them. Find out why they did what they did to you. Although I have no idea what it was, I know it changed my son to the brutal machine he is now. Who knows maybe I can get my son back,” she whispered in a low tone full of so much sadness that Aidan felt some reproof. He had no right talking to his own mother in that harsh tone; he’d better reserved it for his employees. Or his so-called friends.

His mother was right. It was time for him to face his past. For how long would he remain that bitter person he had become. Of course facing the past might make him become worse. But he had to find some reprieve why they had done that to him. It would be his release; there was so much anger still buried inside him after what they had done that he had to find some kind of explanation. Hell, was there eve an explanation?

Suddenly, after all those years, the anger and pain was back and he could feel the betrayal fresh in his mind. He had convinced himself he had buried the feelings deep but it was all a lie. It was only dormant and needed no prompting to resurface. Except that he was venting it out on the wrong persons and in the wrong way. Being a harsh businessman was not going to help him get what he had lost. The real culprits who deserved his wrath were Jennifer and Connor.

The decision was made for him by his thoughts and he felt excited at the prospect of meeting with the two ex-friends. Of course he would go! To get back his lost pride. And to settle the scores. He would avenge the humiliation which his so-called best friends had inflicted on him. Especially Connor. Even if he had loved Jennifer back then, he had the betrayal of his friend cut deeper; he had never expected his brother to betray him in such a way.

But the worst part was that for all those years he had suffered, no one had even bothered contacted him. Not even Kate. The one who had claimed never to leave his side. Even if she got married someday she had assured him that they would remain the best of friends. Of course he had changed his mobile number and address but she knew the address of his mother’s residence. If she had really wanted to get in touch, it would have been an easy task for her. Like she had done now; she had found him out to invite him for the wedding.

It had been clear to him that she had never cared enough about him to bother. And that had hurt. Too damn much for his own sake. He had to admit that he had been expecting some kind of apology. From Connor. And Jen. And of course Kate as well. What she had done was also a mistake which had started everything.

But instead he had received a cold six years silence. And now it was time for them to suffer. All three. Well, he wouldn’t break off the marriage; he wasn’t as vile as that. But he would make sure they knew where they stood with him and that as far as he was concerned, there was never going to be hope for a reunion. Miss Katherine Iris Thornton was in for a surprise if she was expecting a happy reunion after her damn behavior.

No, he was going to attend the wedding to get back his due. He was going to punish them for what they had inflicted on him. And of course making them realize what they had done. The betrayal. The humiliation. The stab in the back. The indifference. He was going to have the apology he had never received even if it meant hurting himself all over in the process.