FRAGRANCE OF REVENGE

Venice POV.

The pictures flashed itself in my face. This couldn't happen. Not in this life.

'Kael! Never! it can't be Kael...' I laughed inwardly. 'My Kael, never... I can bet it with all my...'

I thought to myself. I couldn't complete the statement in my head. When my phone suddenly buzzed.

I picked with pace. With so much desperation. Like the last call I will ever answer before I give up the ghost.

"Ma'am, are you in the lounge now?" The voice erupted from the other end.

"Yes.." I answered with so much desperation.

"You will see the elevator when you walk down the hallway. Meet me on the fourteenth floor."

In a matter of time, I was on the fourteenth floor. I had hardly stepped out of the elevator when I had a tap on my back.

I turned, a strange hand that held my wrist and dragged me to a corner. I turned.

It was Beatrice. One of my maids. My former maid. The most trusted.

"I am sorry ma'am." Her voice barely rose above a whisper, like a secret carried on the wind . Soft and calming. But that didn't have an effect on how I was feeling. "A camera is over there..."

She pointed to the corner with her well manicured fingers.

"Ma'am and I don't want the people in the technical room to see us. You know what it will lead to..."

"Beatrice I can't thank you enough for, but..."

She quickly cut-in, "I owe you more than this, ma'am, without you, I wouldn't be where I am today. You literally picked me up from the slump, brushed me up, sent me to school, and look at my life today." Emotions clouded my thinking. " I owe everything to you... this is just a fraction of what I can repay you with."

"Don't mention it Bea... you are a good girl and also intelligent as well. I can't take my eyes off a talent like you to waste away." I quickly countered.

She looked around hurriedly to hear footsteps approaching us.

"Please ma'am, I sneaked out of my station, I will be going back to my station before they will begin to ask for me."

She brought a key card from her inner wears. Place it in my hand.

"Ma'am I will have to go now. that is room 202 over there. I hope you muster the courage to confront this demon once and for all."

Beatrice turned as I watched her walk down the hallway, thumbs up, before entering the elevator.

Check. Check.

Looked around. Room 202. Here I am.

I breathed down. I knew I had to do this. Sweat trickled down my forehead. My fingers bore into my palm as I grasp my bag with my other hand.

I breathed down again.

'You have to do this, Venice.' I told myself.

I opened the door. Embraced by this solemn music of Westlife emanating from the background. Loud enough to cover one's voice except the person is shouting above his voice.

I walked silently into the room. Exclusivity embraces me. Of course Casa Valeria in Madrid. One of the top 5 star hotels in Spain. It will take a fortune to stay here for a week, not to talk of a whole month to me. Though Kael worked in my company, I pay him handsomely. But for kael affording this luxury is questionable.

Though Kael and I have not seen each other for a month now. He said he would be away on a business trip to meet some of our investors and business partners based on our perfume brand that we were planning to launch to help us with seed money.

Prior to that, I had proposed to him last month. He was the perfect boyfriend after two years of dating and watching him closely. If he would act like others in the past.

I am not a kid anymore. I will be thirty-three by July. The money is there. I can't deny that. No companion. No children. Pressures of friends and family are mounting high.

I peeked into the room after finding it empty. I took the courage and walked into the bedroom. My heart at the top of my nostril.

I had a muffling sound at the door. It became clearer when I moved closer. I opened the curtain and I saw him.

Kael.

I was wrong all along.

"I can't believe that she can be that stupid and naive like that... how could she think I will settle with a thirty-three years old woman."

"A fucking thirty-three years old..." he yelled.

I could hear the distant laughter of a lady in the bathroom showering. The shower noise had suppressed it but still the voice sounded like someone very familiar.

"I kael," he boasted, swirling around his finger around a glass cup of wine," An handsome and enigmatic man. The dream of every hot and rich lady in Hollywood..." Karl uttered in mockery as moved around "...Settling for that use and dump of a thing, nah."

"Venice..." He let out a demonic laughter "you can be very delusional sometimes."

I watched him say all these things. Can this be my kael? Or is it the effect of the drink in his hand?

'Calm down Venice' a voice warned me.

The lady in the distant bathroom voiced out, "That means you are leaving her very soon."

"You are still asking? What business do I have with that old hag again?"

"She played herself into your trap and you have to suck her dry like honey." The words emanated from the bathroom piercing my heart like a samurai sword.

Venice went to the music player to increase the sound.

"What choice do I have, my dear. She offered herself to be used. Now, I own 5 percent of Winklevoss co-operation as joint partner, and becoming one of the youngest CEOs at 26 years is worth celebrating." He let out a demonic laughter.

My eyeballs almost popped out of my socket. I couldn't bear it again. Neither could I stand straight. I could not withstand the fact that I had been used again. The same man who claimed to love and also claimed to be my own. I thought I had finally nailed it this time around upon all the disappointment and rejection in the past.

It was next month we are having it. Our wedding. Everything had been set in stone. I.V had been printed. The hall was booked in Florence, Italy. Our clothes on the way.

I thought I had everything. Every damn thing set in stone ... but I was damn wrong.

I couldn't bear it again. Until moved closer into the bedroom and I bellowed,

"You bloody bastard!"