Chapter 18

Gwen and a mysterious man are walking outside of the building and into the car that was parked in front of it, across from the convenience store that they were in. Kevin’s jealousy suddenly shot from his spine, and he clenched his fist so hard that he wanted to punch someone in the face. He was about to get up when James jumped from the fence of the store and crossed the street, catching the attention of the amused Gwen and the man she was holding the arm to.

The smile on his fiancé’s lips disappeared when she saw the enraged CEO approaching them. Her grip on the man’s arms tightened, and the old man automatically stepped forward, acting like he is protecting her from him.

James and Bethany looked at each other and hurriedly followed their friend, but as they closed the distance to him, the secretary noticed the mysterious man and had her eyes widened.

They then stopped behind Kevin as he also stopped himself from advancing further, only shooting daggers with the confidently looking man and startled Gwen.

“Kevin,” the man nodded in front of him and traveled his eyes to see Bethany, flashing a small smile at her. “I see that you also have friends with you. The idol and… my former secretary.”

“Sir Stewart,” Bethany still greeted him, not recognizing the same, grumpy superior to whom she last saw him. She is sensing a different aura within him lately, putting an intense amount of intimidation towards her. “You seem… recovered from being sacked at our company.”

“But, of course,” the former boss replied with a dry chuckle. “That third-rate company is not going to put my morale down and I will have my work going to be done in another institution that will take care of me. You should come here.”

Even though she is feeling disgusted and angry towards her former boss, Bethany managed to fake a sympathetic smile, shaking her head. “Sorry, but I am contented with where I am now.”

“Really now,” Stewart ended their small conversation and looked to the still-enraged Kevin looking at Gwen with anger and full of questions. “Now, on to the main questions. What is the leader of my former company doing here?”

“What are you two doing?”

“Oh, but this is my darling, Gwen,” the man said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. It was evident that Kevin’s face softened and pained, his knees looked like they impact her, and intense grief from looking at the two of them, but he also noticed the uncomfortable, yet pleasured face of Gwen when the old man called her “darling”. She wanted to do something, but she could only watch, and see that her former boss was enjoying every second of it.

“Is that… true, Gwen?” He asked, turning to the woman that was the center of their conversation. “Since when?”

She did not answer. Bethany, being a witness and observer of people around her, thought that she was not answering the question of whether it was out of guilt, or she was just finding an excuse that she got caught.

In the end, she did not utter one word, frustrating Kevin even more, and stepping forward. Before he could even advance, a hand from James behind him halted him in his tracks and at the same time, a hand on his chest by Stewart looked like it was threatening him to stop from advancing already.

Instead of getting mad at Stewart, he turned to James, eyes already at the edge of pouring huge beads of tears.

“What the hell are you doing?”

He did not respond right away, but James only gripped his shoulder harder, then uttered the words that he intended to say. “I am only preventing you from committing another mistake.”

“Your friend is right, Mr. Williams,” Stewart responded and finally fixed his coat in a confident manner, then leaning to his ear, whispering to Kevin. “You don’t want to commit the very mistake that is eating you up until today.”

James heard it as well, and both of them looked at Stewart’s face with his tongue out on them as if he knew something more than what is already known by the media to Kevin. He then grabbed Gwen’s hand and guided him inside his car.

“It looks like our time is limited, and we are very busy for the day… and tonight that is. See you soon, or never, Mr. Williams.”

The car then hummed a smooth engine sound and zoomed away from where they were, leaving the three of them frozen and building a crowd from the inside of the building, taking pictures of them.

Kevin knew what this scene was. If only he had not been stopped by James, he could probably create another scene that he cannot forget, completely destroying the reputation he built for himself all these years.

The ground is somehow eating him up, making him unable to even move a limb or think of a word to say. The events that happened in his day were too eventful that he is overrun by the confrontation earlier, completely forgetting the good of today.

His focus and being frozen on the spot were halted when he heard Bethany’s voice mixed with James shaking him a little from his shoulder. He turned around to see the concerned friend, wanting to get him out of there already.

“Let’s get out of here,” he invited and soon, the three of them ran away from the place and into Kevin’s car. He was about to open the door to the driver’s seat when James opened his hand beside him, looking at the keys.

“Sit down, I will drive.”

He could not argue with that. Kevin gave up his keys and dragged his feet to the other side and finally sat beside Bethany at the back. The conversation between the two of them was muffled to his ear, making him unable to understand a thing that they were saying. He is too overwhelmed by what happened and has a lot of questions in mind, but all of them were eliminated when a warm hand found its way to his cold one.

He looked to see Bethany with a worried expression to him, tilting her head to one side.

“I… I am fine, I suppose,” he answered, but a tear already fell down from his left ear down to his cheek. His vision quickly became blurred, and his other tears raced down until Kevin found himself crying like a child inside his own car in front of his two friends. Bethany was quick to comfort him by tapping him on his back and holding his hand while James focused on the road, wanting to help Kevin, but he could not.

Because this battle, from here on, is on Kevin alone.