𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝

Chapter 7- Theo

"Bad night?"

Judging the half empty bruichladdich quadrupled whisky bottle in Lydia's hand- a very bold choice for a woman- and her tear streaked face with trails of black mascara on her cheeks, she must've had a rough night.

She avoids eye contact, head down, staring ahead at the city view from the rooftop, the chilly breeze blows her loose strands over the side of her face, "I'm sure you feel the same about tonight."

She has no idea.

Darryl indeed was going to hand the position to Sean Torres as I've thought, he talked me into it, using reverse psychology by praising the fucker, but when he sensed it wasn't working with me, he praised me instead, it didn't work either, but what did work was him saying he would never find anyone better than me to be fit as CEO, which is true, it's not narcissism, only that I have the mental capacity to be an executive, I've studied the position, I made my thesis on managing a corporation, additionally, Kingsley corp may have been founded by Darryl, but it is me who manages everything from behind the curtains, the corp is thriving on my ideas, it's basically mine, and a nice bonus that he told me he would completely step out of my life and will stop breathing down my neck if I agreed to hold the position.

If I'd rejected, it would've seemed like I'm punishing myself, not Darryl.

As much as I've wanted to be self-made, it's easier to take over a business then build another than establishing one from scratch.

Sure, earning such a position has it's disadvantages and drawbacks in several life aspects but after all, a win is a win.

I made sure to be completely sober when taking such a decision, so I chose power, I may dislike Darryl, but him offering up his position for me was in my best interest, so I seized it from Sean's hands, and this knowledge gives me sufficient satisfaction, especially that me being CEO means that I'll be Sean's boss, and he'll be working under my mercy, and I'll make sure he pays with all the energy he's got for sticking his nose in my personal affairs.

Plus, Kingsley corporation needs a break from Darryl's corrupt management.

"True, not my best night but it seems like you're having it way worse than I am."

She shivers, cold breath vapor comes out of her mouth when she sighs, on instinct, I push my jacket off my shoulder and wrap it around her, she twitches, trying to shake the jacket off, but I press it firmly to her body, "quit resisting, you're freezing."

I'm not used to her like that, she looks absolutely stricken, like something horrendous happened to her while I was away.

Concern washes over me, that I find myself asking her, "what happened?"

"I can't find the words," she murmurs, "there's something suppressed in me that I want to share so badly but I can't, but there's another thing that happened tonight I need to talk about."

"Take your time."

So she does, refraining herself from speaking for a moment before her lips part, "I saw my ex tonight... with his fiancée, and I know it shouldn't have happened but it opened up wounds I thought were healed, I just..." her lips quivers, "remembered everything he's done to me, at first he was nice, loving, sweet, caring for half a decade, I thought we had something special, I thought we were building something that would last. I thought he understood me in a way no one else did, I thought..." she pauses, "I thought he loved me, but I thought wrong; it was all an act to get into my pants, and he did," her voice breaks, "he took advantage of me then dropped me shortly after like I meant nothing to him when he was my everything." She covers her face with her hands.

I want to touch her, rub her back or something as a comforting gesture, but I clench my hands, preventing myself.

I get how she feels, at some point of my life I've felt used by a woman I've loved too but for different reasons, when I found out, I was crushed, and the betrayal felt like a dagger stab to my heart, it ultimately changed me to a whole different person.