Mr. Billionaire **ReVamped**

Chapter Two

Eight months have passed since the disaster that was my failed wedding. I still remember the looks of pity on the faces of Kayleen and Martia as they had helped me out of my wedding dress. Kayleen had apologized so profusely for what her sister had done, looking like she was beating herself up about it the entire time, like it had been her fault or something. Levi had come storming into the room with my brother and father right on his heels. Levi looked, in that moment, like some kind of avenging angel; his green eyes shadowed with fury and his newly dyed white hair glimmering in the sun that streamed through the windows. My brother—a usually silent, calm, and collected guy—stood on Levi's right side. When he saw the look on my face—I wondered what exactly that look was—his face changed into pure fury. And my Dad...

If Simon had still been in the room, he would have been dead.

Mom had hugged me tightly while I cried, stroking my hair and murmuring that everything would be okay. It was strange how even at thirty years old being held by my mother bought me a familiar comfort. If I had believed that the guy who had left me in college because of his father's political career had been my greatest heartbreak, it was because I didn't know heartbreak could feel like this. All I could see in my mind's eye was Kate's smug face as she looked at me. All I could hear was Simon telling me he and Kate had fallen in love; they had been seeing each other behind my back.

To be completely honest, all the signs had been there I had just been too trusting to notice them. I assumed that they went to work together every morning because they both worked at Hawke Enterprises. I assumed that when Simon said he was going to hang out with Kate for a bit, that they were just hanging out. How was I supposed to assume that they were sleeping together? We had all been friends forever and the prospect of the two of them screwing behind my back had never even occurred to me.

Along with the pain and the heavy lash of betrayal, there was embarrassment. I looked like a fucking fool. Returning the wedding gifts, having to look into the eyes of family—mine and his—and say that the wedding was no longer on was a torturous as it could get. The embarrassment I felt gave way to anger. I was angry at myself for not having noticed sooner. I was angry at Simon for cheating on me. I was angry at Kate for hurting me when I trusted her more than I trusted myself. I was angry at both of them for tossing me away like thirty years of friendship meant nothing to either of them.

Going back to the apartment was almost as bad as the embarrassment of having to tell everyone the wedding was off. Everywhere that I went seemed to be a reminder of us. It seemed like his ghost was everywhere even though all of his belongings were gone. That had surprised me when I first walked in and found that everything that belonged to him had been moved out. Had he been preparing for this for a long time? Is that what he was doing while I was putting on my dress and veil, getting prepared to marry him?

You're so fucking pathetic, Yvonne.

That was all I thought as I slouched down on the couch that was once ours and cried myself to sleep. I couldn't even sleep in our bedroom, the idea of going back in there gave me a mild form of anxiety. No, I slept on the couch, watching the Korean dramas Simon's mother had gotten me into and eating the baked goods Kayleen had made for me. I was acting in a way that was stereotypical for a rom-com. Girl gets dumped, watches romances, eats cookies or chocolates or whatever and shouts at how the perfect male protagonist is a liar. I was aware of how stereotypical I was but I couldn't stop myself. I was in a deep depression.

For the next eight months, I developed a routine. Wake up, take care of my hygiene, feed myself, go to work, come home, eat, lay on the couch, eat the fresh batch of cookies Kayleen left on my counter every evening, watch Korean dramas, go to sleep, do it all over again. The only thing of true importance that happened during that time was Levi leaving. It was about a month of The Disaster and Levi had gotten an opportunity to fly overseas to London to get the scoop on some political situation that was rocketing through the United Kingdom. He almost hadn't gone but this article would be huge for his career, so I all but forced him onto the plane. He called every day to check up on me, though.