It happened over whiskey

Chapter 3

Ryan’s POV :

It was 2:00 in the morning and there was still no sign of Khloe being present at home. I tried calling her a million times but it was sending me straight away to voicemail.

I called Lucas and he informed me that Khloe gave him a day-off once they reached her office in the morning. I even called at her office just to find out from her receptionist that she left two hours back.

At this statement, worry took the best of me. I remembered what happened a few days back and it shook me from my very core.

I internally hoped that she was fine. I was pacing back and forth in my room, checking my phone every now and then in a desperate attempt to see her name pop up on the screen.

I wanted to call her mother to ask her if she came there to visit her but I decided against it. I was in no mood to hear her mother giving me lectures regarding how irresponsible I can be and how bad a decision it was to get her daughter married to me.

I was done waiting for her to return on her own. I took the car keys and left my house to search for my darling wife who is no less than a kid on her own.

I checked all the places where her meetings are usually held but there was no sight of her. I called all her friends on my way to her designer’s home as I thought that maybe she would be there to fix some last minute outfit details.

Just when I was about to take a right turn, I flashed her shiny white car parked on the opposite side of the road. I looked around to find a bar just at the corner of the street.

I stopped the ignition and got out from my car hurriedly. I jogged to the other side of the road and almost frantically opened the metal door of the bar to be greeted with loud thumping music and the smell of cheap beer.

I scrunched my nose and passed through the sweaty bodies making my way around. I then finally caught sight of her sitting in the corner of the room with a beer bottle in her hand.

She was laughing with her head tilting back and I saw her wiping a tear from the corner of her eye. I had never seen Khloe so happy, atleast not in the last one year.

It definitely must be something funny that made her clutch her stomach every now and then. She was wearing a scarf that covered her head and her eyes were hidden behind those Gucci sunglasses.

She was talking to someone whom I couldn’t figure out as his back was facing me. I went towards them and stood in front of Khloe with my arms crossed over my chest.

I then looked at the man with whom she was talking to and the sight caused me to tighten my knuckles. It was Charlie Holmes the son of Mr. Steve who had just passed his business to his heir.

He was definitely a newbie in the business line but he was doing a fantastic job, better than his father I must say. The Holmes were my business rival from a very long time as we have always looked forward to sealing the same deals with foreign clients and so the competition has been intense.

On seeing me Charlie got up from his seat and engulfed me in a hug. I hugged him awkwardly as it was definitely strange for me to receive such kindness from him.

He was good with business no doubt but that didn’t make him a better person at heart. He was a man who didn’t know what kindness was.

He has fired his employees even for the slightest of mistakes and I have always despised him for that. “Hey Ryan. Long time no see!”, he said while patting me on the arm.

“Busy with work, that’s it”, I said while passing him the fakest smile I could muster. I always found it quite useless to pretend to like a person when you really hate them and the only interest you have in them is to see them getting destroyed.