CHAPTER 5: THE GALA & THE THREAT

ATHENA'S POV

“You can glare at me all you want,” Xander says while he fastens the final button of his tuxedo.

“You’re still coming.”

I fold my arms, planting my feet firmly on the expensively tiled floor.

“You forced me to move into your house. Now you’re parading me around like a trophy? Not happening.”

His eyes move toward me, “You’re carrying my child, Athena. You’re already part of my world, whether you like it or not.”

I scoff. “Your world of entitled billionaires and gold-digging socialites? No thanks.”

He can keep repeating the 'you are carrying my child' phrase all he likes.

Xander’s lips twitch as if he has read my mind then he says, “You might want to work on that attitude before we get there.”

I roll my eyes. “And you might want to work on not being a controlling bastard.”

Surprisingly the man smirks “Charming.”

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By the time we arrive at the Sterling Foundation Charity Gala, I already regret every decision that led me here.

The venue is dazzling, beautiful, wonderous like it came out of a person's fairytale dream of luxury.

There are glass chandeliers, marble floors, and waiters walking rather professionally across the room with trays of champagne.

There's even a buffet table with all sorts of snacks and let me not even talk about how everyone here looks like.

This place smells of wealth and power, the kind I have no business being around and somehow... everyone here knows it.

Women in their designer gowns send me wild glares and dismissively one overs; they don't even bother hiding their expressions at all.

Frankly, they're all looking at me like I'm the one that should go find somewhere and hide.

And even the men here, in all sorts of two piece and three piece suits, give me assessing looks, though I can't figure out what it is exactly that they think about me.

I shift uncomfortably in my floor-length gown, feeling the silk hugging my body.

I had looked at myself in the mirror before coming out so I know that the dress fitted me,... too perfectly that I almost didn't recognise my own body.

Xander, of course was the one that had insisted that I wear the dress, along with the diamond bracelet around my wrist.

I hate how effortlessly I almost look like I belong here— when I absolutely do not.

I say almost because I don't think I fully look the part of 'the rich' especially with the kind of looks I've been getting since we arrived.

Xander’s grip on my waist tightens and he leans down. “Smile, sweetheart.”

My jaw clenches and I hold myself from giving him a glare. “I hate you.”

He chuckles under his breath, “You’ll live.” he says like he's very sure about what he said but I'm not so sure about that.

Just then I start to hear the murmurs start around me almost immediately.

“Is she his mistress?”

“I heard she trapped him with a baby.”

“Gold digger. Typical.”

The insults felt like hot iron and yet like an operating knife I used in the hospital and I honestly wonder why they won't just come to me and say all that to my face.

Xander, remains calm, quiet and not disturbed at all, like he is immune to the stares around.

I, on the other hand, feel like I’m suffocating.

I need air.

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I slip away the moment Xander is distracted with a 'business interest', and I walk through the crowd until I find an empty corridor somewhere some feet away from the main hall room where the Gala is being held.

I know I could get lost if I go any further away so I just stand, brace my hands against the wall and breathe in as deeply as I can, trying to get myself together.

Coming here was a mistake, I never should have agreed to this.

Why did he even bring me here? We're not a couple, we're not business partners and we're not related by blood.

Ooooh, of course, how can I forget the main part here... We're related by SPERM.

SPERM for goodness sake!

I take in a breath; if I'm going to be with him and attend parties such as this throughout my pregnancy term then I might just die.

A part of me suddenly remembers that I'll give birth eventually... So what on earth is going to happen to my child.

I heave, wrapping my left hand around my flat stomach.

I may not have planned for things to happen this way but this child is mine, I will not let go of my baby.

My head keep on swimming with thoughts, changing from one gear to the other and after a while of breathing in and out like I once learnt some years back in yoga class, I finally get myself.

Then just as I’m about to turn back, a voice catches my attention and because I think I know the voice from somewhere, I glance around the corner, and then spot Veronica.

Her perfectly styled blonde hair is glistening under the shining lights from the very high... ceiling.

Her hands are raised up and when I look closely, I realise that she's just on the phone with someone.

Deciding it's none of my business what goes on on her life, I turn to go but end up catching her last words and almost stumble.

“I don’t care what you have to do,” she hisses.

“Get rid of her and the baby.”

All that air I managed to get into my system to calm myself down just leaves my lungs in a rush like I was just punched in the gut.

I must’ve heard that wrong... right?

Right?????

She couldn't possibly be talking about me.

But then her next words make my entire body go numb.

“Make it look like an accident, she works in a hospital anyway, there's plenty of opportunities there to kill her.”

"Either way," she continues.

“I don’t want it traced back to me.”