Chapter 4

“Just please... please answer me!” Kean blurted out.

Ashley then took a deep breath, closed her eyes for a few seconds to compose herself, and finally spoke, “Yes... yes, it’s true; we were in a relationship... but... but that was two years ago! Our... our relationship did not even last five months!”

“No... why... why the hell are you lying, Ash?! Why are you doing this to me?!” Zayden covered his face out of frustration. His hands then turned into fists.

People around them started capturing what was happening using their phones. All of them kept watching— some people were even gossiping and trying to figure out what was happening, even if all of them did not really have any idea. Besides, they could not clearly hear Zayden, Ashley, and Kean because they were far, and the room was too big. They could only hear the words that were being screamed.

“You are the one who’s lying, Zayden!” Ashley pointed her finger at Zayden and glared at him. “Why are you so obsessed with me?! Was... was using me to get into Dé Ford Builds not enough? Did taking advantage of everything I have worked for before not satisfy you?!” She started crying. Her hands were shaking, and her breathing started to become rapid. Zayden noticed, too, that Ashley still kept on rubbing her palms with her fingers.

All the things Ashley just said felt like a dagger to his heart. A dagger that was put in and out of his heart repeatedly... a dagger that made his heart bleed like there was no tomorrow.

“So... this freaking man...” Kean then picked up his phone and focused its camera on Zayden’s crying face. “This freaking man took advantage of my girl... let the world knows about that. Make this guy trending!” Kean exclaimed. All the people around them clearly heard what he said.

“Why... why are you telling everyone these lies, Ash? Why?” Zayden was about to walk toward Ashley, but then Kean stopped him right away by pushing him to the ground.

“Just lay there... it’s the place where you fit in...” Kean pointed at the ground. He then stepped on Zayden’s arms forcefully, and he even instructed his guards not to let Zayden stand up.

“Kean, babe... don’t... don’t stoop to his level... just... just let him go, and let’s stop this...” Ashley rubbed Kean’s back, trying to convince him, but Kean did not listen to her. “Please... let’s... let’s just continue celebrating our engagement inside the auditorium. We... we should not let him ruin our happiness...” Kean still did not listen and continued what he was doing to Zayden.

With his phone camera still focused on Zayden, Kean scrolled through the comments on the live stream and read all those for Zayden.

“An anonymous commenter said, ‘I know Zayden. How could he do that to Ashley? I really thought he was a good guy!’” Kean burst out a laugh before reading another comment from a viewer of the stream. “‘I knew it! Zayden was never a good guy! It’s too bad that he’s such a smart and talented person, and he has the capability to do something like this. So disappointing!’”

“Want more comments, huh?!” Kean raised a brow, but Zayden did not respond. He just kept on crying as he could not even move because the guards were all surrounding him, and Kean’s right foot was stepping on his body.

“Babe, please... stop it... please?” Ashley rubbed Kean’s back once more. Her voice broke.

When Kean saw that Ashley was already crying, probably because of embarrassment, he hugged her really tight and whispered to her, “Babe, I’ll never let anyone hurt you like this again, okay? Shhh...Let’s... let’s go back and celebrate our engagement, shall we?” Kean touched Ashley’s chin with her thumb and then planted a soft kiss on her lips. As their lips met, tears could not help but escape Zayden’s eyes. That should have been me... Zayden thought.

As Kean and Ashley walked back inside the auditorium, Kean instructed one of the guards to let go of Zayden.

Because of too much angriness that Zayden was feeling, he immediately ran toward Kean and gave him a strong punch in the face as he was set free by the guards.

The guards immediately cornered and hit him. Kean just acted like nothing happened, as if Zayden’s punch did not give him any kind of pain, and went inside the auditorium with Ashley in his arms. Zayden could see Ashley being concerned about Kean as she was checking out Kean’s face.

As Zayden was being forced to leave the premises, he stared at Ashley. He asked for a sign... which he rarely did. He said to himself that if Ashley would look back and check on him for the last time, then that meant that all the things that she did tonight were all just lies... that the only thing that was true for her was their love for each other... and if she would not look back, then that meant that their love was just a lie.

He slowly counted from one to ten in his mind while silently praying that she would look back, but after counting up to ten, she did not look back at him... and that made his heart and soul break even more.

As he walked out of Dé Ford Hotel, heavy rain suddenly poured. He did not have an umbrella with him, so he decided to just let himself soak in the rain as he felt like he deserved it too; he thought that this was the way of nature telling him that it was with him... that it was feeling what he was feeling. Besides, he also thought that maybe if he got sick and was hospitalized, Ashley would be worried about him and come back to him, so it was just right for him to walk and let himself soak in the rain.

With a little bit of hope in his heart, he decided to stay for a few more minutes and sit on the bench near the parking lot of the hotel. He figured that maybe... just maybe, Ashley would see him, get worried, and would eventually tell him that all she said and did earlier was a lie. But then, after a few seconds, a security guard approached him and told him to leave the premises.

Because he was too tired to put up a fight, he just followed what the guard said and left.