Chapter 2 Billionaire's Betrayal: A Love Lost

A casually dressed woman was sitting on a balcony, staring straight ahead at the tall illuminated buildings amidst the darkness of the night.

In one hand, she held a cigarette wedged between her fingers, with wisps of smoke occasionally emanating from her mouth and nose. She seemed to thoroughly enjoy the hazardous object she leisurely inhaled.

"I won't give up on getting you, Daniel," the woman murmured with a smirk playing on her lips.

One of her hands reached for the cellphone on the small table beside her. Without hesitation, she gazed at a photo displayed on the phone.

Still smirking, the woman chuckled softly, her laughter sounding mocking as she looked at the photo on her phone.

"Just wait for your turn, Bella, and after that, you'll be thrown aside by Daniel, then I'll replace you as Daniel's lover," the woman muttered again before bursting into laughter, her laughter tinged with an eerie vibe. Her gaze was equally chilling as she stared at the photo on her phone like a predator eyeing its prey.

Crash!

The distinctive sound of a glass object shattering made the woman, who had been relaxedly smoking while looking at the photo on her phone, rise from her seat.

"Ugh! Noisy!" the woman exclaimed before getting up from the balcony and leaving the room she occupied.

Her steps slowly descended the stairs to check the source of the breaking sound. Upon reaching the ground floor, the woman was immediately greeted by the loud yelling of a couple arguing back and forth after the sound of another object breaking resurfaced.

Crash!

"Watch your words! I'm not cheating! How many times do I have to tell you, Lucy!"

The woman who had to discard her cigarette lazily sighed at the sight of the argument before her, but she still stood near the stairs, watching the middle-aged couple argue near the living room sofa.

"Don't keep denying it, Andrew! I saw with my own eyes that you were with another woman at the nightclub! Your mistress must be a whore, isn't she?"

"Stop it!" the woman who had smoked earlier yelled loudly when she saw the middle-aged man, who happened to be her father, about to slap her mother.

So, the middle-aged married couple were none other than Angel's parents. Angel, that's the woman's name.

Angel's father, named Andrew, stopped his hand that was about to slap his wife, but luckily Angel managed to prevent the violence her mother was about to receive.

With a blank expression, Angel stared at her parents, who looked at her with complicated expressions. "Enough! Can't you two go a single day without arguing and breaking things in this house? Is that too much to ask? I'm tired of hearing you constantly arguing and making a scene in this house!" she said bluntly and boldly.

Before hearing any response from her parents, Angel left the living room abruptly. Instead of returning to her room, she walked confidently towards the front door of the house, leaving with casual attire and flip-flops.

"This is all because of you! All these problems stem from you, Andrew!" Angel's mother, Lucy, spoke up again with a firm tone upon seeing Angel leave. She blamed her husband who had almost slapped her earlier.

"Don't just spout nonsense, Lucy! You're the one who always starts trouble with me! And you're the one who always tries to find fault with me! Yet what you say is always wrong and untrue!" Andrew retorted with an increasingly high tone, his shouts directed at Lucy.

And their argument continued, who knows for how long. It had become Angel's daily fare, making her sick of being at home when her parents were having a heated argument like now.

*****

"How do I ensure my own feelings? I'm confused myself," Bella muttered as she stared at the photo frame of herself with Daniel, purposely placed on her vanity table.

She gazed at the photo frame for a long time until the notification sound of a message from her phone broke the silence. Bella immediately checked it, hoping it was a message from Daniel, as since their argument this morning at the restaurant, Daniel hadn't sent her any messages.

Yes, Bella felt a bit worried because she hadn't received any messages from Daniel. She felt that her boyfriend was truly angry with her, and the uneasiness she felt Bella interpreted as her lingering love for Daniel, but Bella still doubted.

"Ugh!" Bella sighed, giving up on thinking too hard about her feelings. She might find another excuse not to answer Edward's question, the one he had asked her earlier this morning.

Knock, knock, knock.

Bella immediately put down the photo frame she had been staring at and got up from her chair, then walked towards her bedroom door, which was being knocked from the outside.

"What?" Bella asked when she saw her younger brother standing in front of her bedroom door.

"Let's have dinner, sis," came the reply from the teenage boy who was Bella's younger brother, just call him Kelvin. He was a teenager who had just entered high school.

"Oh right, I completely forgot about dinner," Bella replied, patting her forehead lightly, making Kelvin, who saw it, furrow his brows in confusion.

"Why did you forget? Is something bothering you, sis?" Kelvin seemed to be a very perceptive younger brother.

Bella smiled and shook her head, she couldn't possibly be honest with her brother about the problems she faced, because those problems were of her own making. "No, Kelvin, I was just too engrossed in the movie I was watching, come on, we should go to the dining table before Mommy starts nagging," Bella replied, immediately changing the subject by inviting Kelvin to leave.

Don't forget, Bella closed her bedroom door before gently pulling Kelvin's sleeve to lead him downstairs to the first floor.

"Are you lying, sis?" Kelvin asked again, the teenager seemed not easily deceived and Bella had forgotten that.

Bella tried to avert her gaze elsewhere to avoid looking at her brother. "No, Kelvin, why would I lie to you," she replied, trying to sound casual.

After that, Kelvin didn't respond to his sister's words, he just remained silent and glanced briefly at Bella with a puzzled look.

"What's wrong, Bella? You rarely come late to the dining table that your brother has to fetch you," the statement came from a middle-aged woman who was Bella and Kelvin's biological mother.

Bella was the firstborn, and she only had one sibling, Kelvin.

Bella grinned when she received the question from her mother. "Hehe, I got carried away watching a movie, Mom," she replied, lying again. In reality, she got lost in thought while staring at her photo with Daniel.