Chapter 3 A Confession

The days following Consuela's encounter with Richie were uneventful. Despite still being shaken up by her experience, she just kept on telling herself that everything that had happened was just a bad dream and that she should forget about it.

And she did that soon enough. It was two weeks post-Richie that she finally decided to meet her long-time crush to admit her feelings for him. She told herself that even if she got rejected, she wouldn't feel regretful. At least she tried, and that was what mattered.

The two were set to meet in a fancy coffee shop.

When the man arrived, his eyes were sparkling. Aside from being beyond handsome, he exuded a nice, approachable aura that made him more attractive. "Consuelo! How are you?" he greeted.

Consuela didn't even bother returning the greeting and went straight to the point. "Harry, I love you-"

Ding!

Harry Xue's phone lit up just before she finished her confession.

As he tended to his sudden notification, his brows furrowed. Then, his eyes widened. Without saying a word, he suddenly stood up, making some utensils on the table drop on the floor. He looked confused, disgusted, and offended. Consuela, who was sitting across him, was incredibly confused.

His facial expression was so hard to read, but the way he was clinging onto his phone made Consuelo think that something was wrong.

'But why?' she thought, lost. A love confession should not elicit this kind of reaction!

Time then began feeling like it had stopped.

Harry Xue was still standing up and looking at his phone. His face was noticeably becoming paler and paler as seconds ticked by.

At this point, it was clear to Consuela that something was amiss. As she raised her head to take a closer look at Harry Xue, she began to feel tension building up inside of her chest. She, too, then stood up, craning her neck in an attempt to see the contents on Harry Xue's phone.

"Uhm...Harry...? What's happening?" she asked.

At that same moment, however, she caught a glimpse of what Harry Xue was gawking at. Her pupils constricted in an instant and her breath became labored. A cold feeling spread from her neck to her back. She became too frightened to even utter a single word.

"That, that is..."

Consuela grabbed the phone from Harry Xue's hand. She was so concentrated on what was on the screen that she didn't even notice that she had knocked down the glass of water on the table. She wanted to see the photos more clearly, and she didn't want Harry Xue to see them.

Her dress became soaked, but she didn't care.

There was a woman and a man in the photos. The man had his back to the camera in some photos, while his handsome profile was shown in some other. And the woman with a red face was none other than Consuela.

The camera was aimed at her. It was as if the whole thing was staged to take pictures of her, as in all the photos, her face was in clear view, while the man's was concealed.

'Why? How could this be possible?'

Consuela felt that it was harder and harder to breathe. Who would have taken these picture? Who would have sent them to Harry? Why would they do this?

"Didn't you say you love me?"

Harry Xue seemed to have already recovered from being shocked by the photos. Though he looked calm and had already sat back down, his voice was still shaky.

"I-I..." Consuela had no idea how to respond. The pictures were of her and a man on a bed!

"What's going on?" Harry Xue asked, a hint of pain and hesitation in his eyes.

He wanted Consuela to tell him everything he just saw was fake.

"I-I... don't know!" Harry Xue's confused and disbelieving tone scared her so much that she was so close to tears. She wondered why... and how these pictures appeared on the social media!

"You just need to tell me," said Harry Xue, who raised his head a little bit and closed his eyes. "Is the person in the photos you?"

Consuela heaved a sigh. She bowed her head, feeling as if all her strength had been drained from her body in an instant. The phone slid down on the floor with a thud. How could she answer such a question in front of the man she had loved for so many years?

Seeing the look on Consuela's face, Harry Xue was sure that she had betrayed him. The disappointment he felt when he saw the photos flooded and filled his chest.

Consuelo didn't know how to answer Harry Xue. As soon as she raised her head, she lowered her head again because of fear. Tears were already rolling down her cheeks.

Many different thoughts were already running inside her head.

With the strength left in her, she clenched her fists. She didn't feel any pain as her fingernails were dug into her palms. Closing her eyes, she nodded.

The room was blanketed with dead silence. Chilly air filled bit at her skin.

Harry Xue didn't know how to react. He had always thought that Consuela was like a white lotus-pure and innocent. Now that he had discovered she was the opposite, he felt angered. He could not accept it. It felt like the person he had trusted for a long, long time had stabbed him in the back.

Through the tears, Consuela tried to decipher what was on Harry Xue's mind, but she couldn't.

'What should I do? What can I do?' she thought. How could she explain it to Harry Xue?

Consuela's mind was a mess. She didn't know what to say. Words were lost on her.

"Harry...believe me... that was an accident!"

"Ha-ha..."

She wanted to tell Harry Xue what had happened that day. But all of a sudden, a sarcastic laugh came through, interrupting what she would say.

Consuela was confused. She tried to continue,

"Harry, I..."

"I'm very disappointed!" Harry Xue raised his head, giving her a meaningful look with disgust and dislike.

Consuela looked at him in a daze, forgetting what to say for a moment. Harry Xue's gentle appearance contorted into a grimace of judgment. It was as if he was a completely different person.

"Harry..." Again, she uttered the name of the man she had been in love for many years.

"Stop. I've always thought you are an exquisite girl. I guess I was wrong." Harry Xue tried his best to sound calm to the point it sounded like he didn't care about Consuela at all, but there was still something in his voice. He focused his eyes on her and kept thinking of the photos he had just seen. For years, Consuela had projected an image of utter grace and innocence. What had happened? Did it mean that any man could touch her when she felt lonely? Disappointment surged in his heart.