BETROTHED TO THE BILLIONAIRE

Ryan’s POV

Celina has been blowing my phone up with calls for days. She never had a reason to call me all this while but seeing me again after so many years with a woman I call wife must be so bothersome for her.

Valerie does not need to know who she is. Her topic annoys the shit out of me.

I wonder how she got my number. She never called me once and then all of a sudden, she starts to call.

When she first called and I heard her voice even before she introduced herself, I quickly hung up and I haven’t been picking ever since then.

This morning when she called, I blocked her from reaching me. She is too annoying and I blame her for Valerie’s recent coldness.

I have no one to blame. I don’t want to believe that my offer is what is making her so cold.

So Celina is at fault.

It’s been days already since I took her to the garden and she has been ignoring me on purpose.

She has been spending the night at the hospital with her dad but last night, she came home and slept in her room.

I heard her dad will be discharged today and I plan to visit him before heading home.

As I park some files into my briefcase so I can work on them when I get home since I barely get some sleep nowadays, the intercom rings.ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

I ignore it for a while as I continue to put the files inside and take the ones there from yesterday out. I am working myself to sleep now. This way, I don’t have to dwell much on how silly Valerie took my decision.

I summoned a whole lot of courage to tell her how I felt but she made it seem like the dumbest thing ever.

I don’t plan to raise that topic ever again.

The intercom rings again and I slump back onto the swivel chair to pick it up. I already asked my secretary to go home and I wonder if she is the one calling.

We are done for today.

“Good day, sir. A lady is here to see you but she has no appointment with you”, a male voice says from the other end.

It must be the receptionist at the lobby, I figure.

“Identity?” I demand.

“No identity, sir”, he replies sharply.

“Don’t let her in, then”, I reply and place the receiver back in its position.

I am done with all my appointments for today. It can’t be Valerie nor can it be my Mother. Those are the only women I have in my life as well as Anita but she is back in college.

Before I can clear my desk, it rings again. I pick it up with a groan. “What is it?”

“She said she is an old friend of yours and it’s important that she sees you”, he replies quickly and I rub my index finger on my forehead, trying to figure out who this is.

“Why isn’t she revealing her identity, then?” I question immediately. Before he can reply, I tell him. “If she can’t tell you her name, then don’t let her in, and don’t call me again. We are done for the day, ok?”

“Ok, sir”, he answers shakily and I hang up.

Quickly, I rise from the chair and clear the table hastily before grabbing my briefcase and phone to take the exit out.

When I get to my secretary’s desk, I see it is already empty. I walk past it to the elevator.

Within two minutes, the elevator door dings open and I get out, walking towards the lobby and not sparing the receptionist a glance.

I take the moving door out and walk towards the parking lot where my driver is waiting for me.

Before I can get in, I hear a familiar voice that sends a familiar feeling of coldness down my spine.

“Hello, Ryan Lorenzo”, she mutters, making me feel the smile on her tone.

Slowly, I turn back to see her, standing as elegant as ever with bold red lipstick on as usual. She is wearing high-pointed heels and an extremely short gown.

Celina Sebastian.

The same woman Valerie is curious about. The same woman who she is ignoring me for.

“I called, but you won’t pick up. I wanted to come to see you but you won’t allow me too. Are we still not on speaking terms?” She smiles at me.

“What are you doing here?” I ask promptly, not bothering myself with the revelation that she was the one who refused to reveal her identity to the receptionist a few minutes ago.

“I came to see you”, she mutters softly, trying to touch me but I move away in irritation.

“What the hell are you doing?!” I yell at her with blazing red eyes.

“Hey, what’s with the attitude? Aren’t you glad to see me?” She scrunches her face up in frustration.

“As you can see, I am going home now”, I say and turn to leave when she holds me back by grabbing a hold of my shirt.

I turn back and wrench myself away from her hold. “What is the meaning of this?”

She does not look remorseful. She has a light graceful smile on her face, then she folds her arms and asks. “Are you truly married?”

I am not supposed to answer her but I feel answering her is needed so she can get the hell out of my company.

“Isn’t that obvious?” I ask her, with a raised brow.

She nods. “I never knew but are you sure…”

“Now you know. Can I leave now?”

“Not so fast, baby boy. I have a gift for you and I’m sure you would love it.”

“I am not interested in your gift so get out of here!” I find myself shouting at the top of my voice at her.

Why the sudden appearance, calls, and gifts? She never cared, why now?

Clenching my jaw in annoyance. “Leave now before I ask the securities to throw you out.”

She becomes threatened because she suddenly goes silent, examining me carefully before producing an envelope from nowhere and swinging it in front of me.

“Aren’t you curious to know what’s in here?” She questions me with a little smile.

I shake my head. I have no business with her so why should I be curious about what is inside the envelope?

“This is about your little bride and I’m sure you want to know what she has been up to recently”, she smirks as she gets to me. She gets my attention, my eyes are wide open in surprise.

Valerie. What has she been up to?

“I heard from Fred that you two are not in love. I didn’t believe him at first but from the look of things, it is obvious Fred was right and I was wrong”, she pretends to frown in concern. “It turns out she is still in love with her ex-boyfriend.”

“Why are you telling me all this? I didn’t ask you anything, did I?” I ball my fist to refrain from either pushing her away so she can vanish into thin air like she once did or to stop me from grabbing the damn envelope from her and tearing it into pieces after checking out what exactly is inside.

Apparently, this is about Valerie. I can’t deny the fact that I am curious about her and what this is about but I don’t want to be used by Celina.

“Because I am looking out for you. You don’t even know why they broke up, yet you went ahead to get married to her and…”

“Will you shut the f***k up?!” I raise my voice at her, pointing my index finger at her accusingly. “You have no right to be here and no right to tell me what to do and what not to do. If you ever set your legs in my company again or anywhere around my wife, I am going to tag you as a stalker and get a refraining order. For the last time, get out now before I do something rash.”

I don’t make empty threats. She knows this.

Throwing me an extremely cold glare, she turns back slowly as though she wants to leave but suddenly halts again.

Realizing that she might come back to say more, I move towards the car. John is waiting by the car door and he quickly opens it for me.

When I flop inside, giving John instructions to drive me to Mr. Adams’s home, I see Celina from my peripheral view, standing by the car door and waving the envelope at me.

Out of intense curiosity, I wind the glass down but before I can say anything, she throws the envelope at me and twirls back abruptly to walk to a waiting car.

I watch her get in and the car drives out of the parking lot. Then, I shift my attention to the envelope on my lap.

The movement of the car jerks me out of my thoughts. I have been staring at the envelope without attempting to tear it open like I wanted to do earlier.

A sudden fear grips me for no reason. I can’t even think of what must be inside the envelope but the fact that this is about Valerie. I pick it up immediately and tear it open.

Two pictures fall out.

I drop the envelope and pick up the two pictures. I hold the two with both hands to reveal the most shocking expectation ever.

My heart clenches tightly as I stare more at the first picture in my right hand.

It is the picture of Valerie and Fred kissing and it happened the same day I kissed her at the hospital.