Chapter 2 Calling Off The Engagement!

The words were not so clear since I was still on the staircase but I had heard enough to have me speed walking down the remaining flight of stairs.

I could hear my dad talking in a hushed tone when I got to the bottom of the stairs, he only did that when he had to say something he should not be found saying.

"Whats happening to whose wedding?" I asked, everyone's attention turned to me in no time. My dad looked pale with fear. I have never seen him look this way.

"Sophie, David's parents have instructed him to call off the wedding today. It's tradition for their first son to marry a first daughter and not the second one." My step mother started condescendingly without giving a care in the world.

"Plus, you don't have a mother to even get you through the preparation process. I and David are getting married Sophie," Audrey finished, crossing her leg on the chair.

My ears were ringing, did she just say what I thought she said or am I hearing things.

"You must be mistaken, Audrey. We decided to put a hold on the wedding, it has nothing to do with his parents or my family, right David?" I asked with a small laughter.

"Don't be delusional Sophie, you know that the first daughter was going to marry the only son of the Nelsons Family. I, am the first daughter, I honestly don't know why you bothered bringing yourself so low to try to change David's mind, you tried to seduce him into marrying you. He told me that you even tried getting pregnant just to trap him in the relationship. What a conniving bitch." Audrey spat.

My head was spinning. What was she talking about? I have been dating David for five years, we were engaged now and everybody knew that, and that included all the blogs that my stepmother paid to carry the news.

The headline flashed through my eyes: Daughter of the Woods to be married to the Nelsons' heir. And just like that, it clicked, there was no mention of my name, no pictures of us. "You don't need a swarm of paparazzi everywhere you go, now do you darling?" My step mother had said when I asked her. I had wondered to what use it was since most people knew I and David were a couple, but I didn't question her. She only wants what's best for me.

I spun my head to look at the man I had spent the last 5 years of my life loving but he immediately dragged his eyes to the ground. Air left my lungs, he knew all this while. When he made me have an abortion because his parents would not want pregnancy controversy surrounding their family name, he knew. When I almost lost my life at the island he took me to recover for over two weeks, he knew. When we talked about where we would spend our honeymoon, he knew.

David knew all about this when he watched me almost bleed out after that abortion.

My fiancé knew this whole time that I wasn't the one he was getting married to. The first tear dropped from my eyes. My whole world was falling apart.

My step mother Elise smirked at me, she was not even attempting to hide her content.

I turned to my last hope. Please dad, I beg you. I tried pleading with him through my eyes. For a split, I saw his resolve falter but one look from my step mother had him looking away from me.

"It would be best for you to end the relationship here Sophia, although there's nothing quite left of it anymore. We wouldn't want anything messy getting out to the public. The Woods reputation is not one to be toyed with." My step mother said, the visible puff her chest that appeared whenever she spoke of the family's reputation quickly appeared.

"Mother please, I'm sure I and David would sit to talk an-"

She cut me off by holding a hand up.

"David?" She called his attention, causing him to perk up.

"I'm calling off the engagement Soph" I winced at the nickname he frequently called me. It sounded like poison to my ears now. "I'm getting married to Audrey."

The large sitting room suddenly felt too small to contain the five of us, six if you include David's PA, Robert, he was standing at the corner of where David had previously sat. I had gotten so accustomed to Robert that he was almost family. But right now, I couldn't breathe.

Staring into his eyes, I searched desperately for it. Anything, a flicker of regret, uncertainty, perhaps the love she could always see so glaringly in David's eyes. Anything that would help me fan the flame of hope I was starting.

They were blank, empty, emotionless. It was like I was looking into a completely different pair of green eyes. This can't be my David.

Shaking my head, I took a step back. Then another and another, I was almost toppling over my own feet when I turned around. In a flash, I grabbed my keys from the top of a statue where I had previously dropped them and dashed out.

My car had narrowly escaped getting bashed as I blew through the wide compound to the gate. The men at the gate scrambled to open the gate and get out of the way as I blared my way through.

I took a last look at the mansion through my rear view mirror and kept looking as it reduced in size just before I took a turn into the highway. It disappeared from my view making me let out a breath in relief. I wished more than anything that this was a dream, if it was then I desperately wanted to wake up.

Perhaps if I rammed my car into that truck, I would quickly be snapped out of the dream.

I shook my head bitterly, this was no dream.

What is going on?