CHAPTER 001: A DOSE OF BETRAYAL

SONIA’S POV

“I don't know how I feel about your boyfriend, Sonia,” Jessica, my best friend says from inside the apartment while I work on my laptop in the balcony of Shaun's apartment.

I playfully roll my eyes, “Yeah?” I say, encouraging my friend to go on without looking away from my laptop screen. It isn't news anymore that Jessica hates, and that's using capital letters to emphasize it, my boyfriend, Shaun. It has been evident in the way she always schools me about him. In her words, I wasn't supposed to end up with someone like Shaun after years of being single.

“It's just that I think he's a sketchy human being. Who leaves their girlfriend in their apartment for days while they go away to another city? Who knows what he's doing as we speak. Who knows who he's with?!”

I sigh and get up on my feet, going back inside. “Don't put images in my head, Jess. He's away on a business trip.” I say to her for the umpteenth time in three days.

“That's what you keep saying, my friend.” Jess walks up to me and guides me to the couch so we're now sitting on it. “You know I love you and I only want the best for you, right?”

I nod while keeping my face neutral.

“Leave Shaun. He will break your heart and leave you ruined for your soul mate. I don't want that. You're way too good for him. You know I know a guy who knows a guy, I could hook you up with someone better. And richer too.”

“Jessica?” I stare intently at my best friend who is as beautiful as they come, her Brunette curly hair a perfect contrast to my ginger, wavy one.

“Yes, honey?”

“I'm not interested.” I deadpan and with that, we both start laughing. The conversation switches to something lighter from there.

In all honesty, Jessica's comments about Shaun hasn't escaped the rational part of me. Each time she fly’s in from the UK, she always tries to change my mind about him and when that is done not once or twice but past five times, it only leaves me to wonder if Jessica is seeing something in Shaun that I'm not.

Whereas Shaun isn’t necessarily my first boyfriend ever, Jessica has had so many experiences in the dating field so if she says Shaun isn't genuine, then maybe she could most definitely be speaking from experience.

My mind immediately goes to that night two weeks ago when I saw that small black box in the jacket of his suit after our dinner. Sitting pretty and all shiny inside the box was a diamond ring. I had thought he didn't find the perfect time during our date to pop the question but up until now, he hasn't either.

Long after Jessica leaves to catch her evening flight back to the UK, I lay in Shaun's bedroom, enveloped in the warmth of his bed that emanates his oud perfumed scent. Like a bee drawn to honey, I pick up my phone from beside me and break the one promise I made to myself when I had installed a tracker into Shaun's phone. I know I initially said it would be only for emergencies but in case you haven't noticed, there's an internal crisis going on inside me which is in fact an emergency.

Finding the tracking app connected to my phone, I input Shaun's phone’s IP address and hold my breath as a green circle rolls on the screen, indicating that it’s loading. By the time it’s done loading, my breath still remains hitched in my throat and a million thoughts races through my head.

Maybe, Jess was right after all.

I can hear my consciousness say, but I push her voice far away. Now's not the time.

The red dot on my screen indicates that Shaun is here in New Orleans. Specifically at the New Orientals Hotel, the largest hotel chain in North America.

He's supposed to be in Japan on a research trip with his colleagues. Just this morning he said he wouldn't be back until Friday night and today was just… Wednesday.

Before I can think better of it, I grab my jacket and car keys and in two minutes, I'm driving down to Shaun's location. There's no doubt he's cheating, exactly as Jessica had suspected.

Less than twenty minutes later, I'm parked in the hotel's parking lot and despite my inner turmoil, I will myself to look unbothered as I walk into the hotel, clad in a black satin skirt and matching bodysuit. Colors that match how I feel inside.

I don't stop to speak with any of the receptionists, neither do I use the elevator. I climb the stairs one at a time, until my green dot is directly aligned with Shaun's red dot. I look up and find myself in front of Room 213.

My heart begins to thunder. Not from my walk on the stairs but from what lays behind the doors. Today I have decided to make peace with myself. The life I live isn't truly the one which has been destined for me since birth and Shaun's actions has just given me a reality check, reminding me that we were probably never meant to be.

Probably?

Oh, who am I kidding? My family’s affiliation with the mafia world would always be a barrier stopping me from having or creating anything meaningful with the real world.

My knuckles connect with the cold surface of the door, sending two series of raps against it. I can hear muffled sounds behind the door but because I've had years of experience in overhearing conversations that I shouldn’t have been listening to outside the doors of my father's office, I'm able to make out the words.

“Who is there?” I know for sure that that is Shaun's voice.

Clearing my voice to make it sound as unrecognizable as I can muster, I reply, “Room Service.”

“Babe, I think your meal is here.”

“Finally! I'm famished.”

That voice… If my listening wasn't as skilled as it was, I would have missed it. But…

The door flies open and I'm not the only one who stands frozen in their stance. My mouth is slightly agape and it's not from the shock of seeing Shaun's equally shocked and shirtless form behind the brunette that answered the door.

I'm shocked because the woman holding the door open and looking at me with a flustered face while wearing a thin material of nightwear that leaves nothing to the imagination … is Jessica.