Chapter 20: The Brother

What the hell am I still doing here?

Luna paced the empty compound behind the hall moments later as the question pounded in her head.

All through the party, ninety-five percent of the people she’d met had hurt her in one way or the other. There was the woman who had made her life a living hell and humiliated her family multiple times, the man who had pretended to be her friend but had actually been a spy for the same woman. The ‘friend’ who had been nothing but a manipulator who demeaned her with her cleverly constructed words presented as compliments.

Luna let out a breath, she continued pacing. Or was it the man whom she had loved, whose child she carried in her and felt the life they’d both created, and who all he’d ever done was to repay her with hatred?

What the hell was she doing here? What the hell was she doing at all, getting mixed up with Justin again? Hadn’t the past taught her anything at all? Was the humiliation she went through in her marriage to Justin not enough? Was there something in her that just loved the torture Justin put her through.

There she goes again, Luna thought bitterly to herself as she realized the direction her thoughts were heading. There she goes again, blaming herself for the things Justin did to her. It was a pattern in her relationship with Justin, she was always putting the blame on herself and never letting Justin be accountable for his own actions.

She had had to come back, she had had to show Justin and Moira what she’d made of herself. It was part of her healing process. If she didn’t do it, she would never truly heal from the hurt he caused her.

She had to not only show him what she’d made of herself, but she also had to prove to him that she’d worked hard at getting to where she was. That was what she planned to prove through her company being the sponsor of Lake Entertainment’s catering. She was going to work her ass off, and do the best damn job she’s ever done in her entire career, at the gala. She was going to blow Justin away with her skills, and she was going to show Moira that she wasn’t just a trophy wife who she had been able to demean and make less of at every opportunity.

More importantly, she was going to prove all those things to herself too.

Luna closed her eyes, lifting her face up to the sky. She took in a deep breath and let it out. Her little spar with Lily Davis had gotten to her more than she had been willing to admit, she admitted silently to herself now.

Lily and her husband, Mac Davis, were cousins to the Lake family. Mac Davis was also a business tycoon like the Lakes, and the two families had gotten together often. Mac and Justin were age mates, and cousins, so it had made sense for Luna and Lily to be friends. Or so she had thought.

Luna sighed now as she remembered how badly she had wanted to have a friend, and how hard she had worked to make Lily be that friend. When it had finally dawned on her that her fairytale wasn’t so much a fairytale as much as it was a living nightmare, Luna had just wanted a friend. Just one friend in the cacophony of vipers and manipulators surrounding her.

But soon enough, she found out Lily was not so different from the people around her. And once again, she had been let down.

A moaning sound coming from the bushes a few feet away from where Luna was standing, distracted her. She turned to look towards the direction of where the sound was coming from. She heard giggling, and then more meaning again as she made her way towards the sound.

Luna came upon a small clearing in the middle of the garden, and there she saw Justin’s younger brother, with a blond female server wrapped around him.

They were kissing, passionately too, as the lady’s head was thrown backward and Justin’s brother was feasting on her neck. He rained kissed there and the woman wiggled against him, obviously having the time of her life.

Luna turned away, disgust rolling through her. That was the same person who had been in an altercation with a server in that same night, and now what was he doing? He was making out with yet another one. All because his family was a powerful and rich one.

There was nothing that spoilt brat would do that would ever get him into trouble. Even if it got him into trouble, he would just wriggle out of it soon enough. Because his family had the power.

Reckless abandon is plastered right all over his young face and Luna was sure he didn’t even know the meaning of consequences.

That frustrated feeling rolled through her again as she made her way back to the spot she’d been standing in before. What was happening to the ones that were just coming up while she was busy teaching the one that had hurt her a lesson?

What was happening to the other spoiled rich boy who felt he was entitled to anything and everything in the whole world because he had an influential family? What if another young naïve girl found herself falling in love with a spoiled manchild like Justin’s brother? What would happen when she believed she was in love, true love, and she found out he was just playing a game with her all along? What would happen to that young naive girl’s heart then? Would she become another vengeful and heartbroken woman like she currently was?