Chapter 1
-Mary
"I can explain"
He looks at me with an eyebrow raised, putting a stop to his pacing and suddenly becomes calm which was weird as he was furious seconds ago,
This is the man I'm supposed to get married to
I silently watch him walk over to a nearby chair and sit down, facing me with unreadable eyes
"Please proceed with your explanation"
I refrain from rolling my eyes as that would only make the situation worse and gather up the courage to tell him what happened that day
"I was assaulted, I wa.." I get interrupted by a cold snort,
"That explains nothing, you being roughed up doesn't explain why my soon to be wife tells me she's pregnant and it might not be mine?"
"I was raped"
I watched different emotions flash through his eyes, shock being the most prominent one of all,
"How exactly did it happen and why is it now you're telling me this?"
This... this was a question I expected but still the answer remained unknown
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1 month earlier
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"It's going to be fun, don't be boring"
But I am
I sigh at my over enthusiastic best friend whose smile got wider at the sight of my unwilling agreement.
"It's not like I have the choice of declining seeing as we're already here"
I say to the woman who had already left the car and was looking at me, eyes filled with amusement,
"It's nice you know, let's go in and have fun Mar"
It's Mary
"What about Sebastian, he'll worry if I accidentally stay too long"
"Which you won't" she cuts in, pulling open the car door and gently dragging me out as she didn't want to ruin the 'masterpiece' on my face.
"And if I'm with you that will certainly happen"
"Plus, what if he needs me for something? I might..." she hovers a finger on my lips which shuts me up.
"I know you won't listen, but that dude is a control freak and gets ridiculously jealous for the smallest things"
"I find it cute"
"Which is weird, you need a break from him, even if it's only for a night"
"Just have fun"
I groan and refrain from dragging my hands across my face "Fine"
"Yay"
She drags me by the hand and my eyes linger on the ridiculously long line "Don't tell me you pulled me out of my warm and comfy apartment to stand out here in the cold right?" she ignores me, still pulling my arm and we pass the line and come face to face with an intimidating man wearing a black shirt and blue jeans, I watched his arms which were littered with scary tattoos.
His eyes which were fixed on the people in front of him snapped to us once Clare makes him aware of her presence
"Hey" he looks at her and raises one of his eyebrows at her as if asking for something, she must have understood as she flashed him an unfamiliar black card.
I didn't ignore how the noisy line quieted at the sight
He merely grunts and gives way for her to pass,
As I make an attempt to follow the man stretches his arm and blocks my way,
"I can't get in?" I must have sounded to excited as he raised an eyebrow at me, I ignore him and start turning away
"Well I guess I'll have to go..."
"Not so fast, she's with me" the man only hums roughly as he makes way for her to pass.
"Nice try"
I huff out a breath and scan the room; the room was huge and dimly lit so I couldn't see the faces of the people in the room, the men looked intimidating and the women who flocked around them were dressed beautifully and seductively.
I look down at the dress Clare prepared for me, suddenly feeling shy and self-conscious.
I don't think I can pull of this dress the way they can
I mindlessly follow Clare to wherever she was leading me and a bar came into view, I take a seat in one of the bar stools and look at the woman who was attending to the people before us, she too had tattoos but she wasn't buff like the guys nor skinny like most of the girls I had noticed.
Clare drew her attention and the lady nodded at her before wrapping up with the men.
"Hi"
"Hey"
"Hello, what can I get you?"
I run my eyes across the menu for any non-alcoholic drink I could take and luckily there was a variety, Clare tells the lady her order as I choose "A glass of Seabreeze for me please" the lady nods and turns to me and I tell her my choice,
"A glass of The Virgin wine spritzer for me please"
"Is that all?"
"Yes"
"Yes"
"Well then, they'll be ready in a few minutes"
"Thanks "
"Thank you"
She nods and leaves the both of us alone, as soon as she disappears Clare sends me a playful shove that nearly sends me over the edge
"What...is wrong with you" I say after my heart calms from the small shock, she chuckles and supports her face with her fist.
"Why didn't you order something alcoholic?"
"Because I'm the designated driver and someone has to be responsible"
"You need to live a little, a little alcohol wouldn't kill you"
"You and I have very definitions of 'little'"
"Whatever, anyways I need to tell you what happened at work last week"
"Go on" she started talking and I tried to pay attention, but my eyes couldn't help but wonder to the corner clustered with men and women.
I could feel some one's eyes on me and it came from that direction.
I watch a buff man walk away from the crowd, I nearly dismissed him but my gut told me to keep my eye on him and I did.
I watch him approach the corner of the bar, where the bartender prepared the drinks. Her face went blank at the sight of him and says some sort of greeting.
I can't hear the conversation due to the distance, but I watch as he nods and tells her something to which she plainly nods as a response, he nods and walks back to the group.
A loud but short cheer sounds at his arrival which I found peculiar, the other customers didn't flinch so I assumed it was a normal occurrence, my eyes leave the crowd and drift back to Clare who I had tuned out.
"So then I.."
"You come here often right?"
She smirks and replies with "Occasionally, why?"
I discreetly jerk my head in the direction of the crowd and she turns her head in a not so discreet way, when she notices the group I'm talking about she turns back so fast I think I heard a crack and lowers her head a bit, we stay silent for a while till she speaks up,
"What's up with them?"
"What do you want to know?"
"What's to know?"
"Its just the friends of the heir of the bar, they're a pretty big deal around here"
I felt like she was leaving some details out and was about to question some more when the bar tender arrived with our orders
"Sorry for the delay, here's your order"
I simply smile reassuringly and take my drink but of course Clare wouldn't leave it at that
"Why the delay?"
"There was a bit of a hitch in the preparation, once again I apologize"
"Its cool, I understand" the woman nods and walks away to tend to other customers,
I take sips of my virgin wine spritzer and watch as Clare drink hers like its going to take of if she doesn't hurry, as I'm nearly done with my drink I start taking note of the taste difference from the others I'd drank before,
And I've had a lot of these. The change is faint but its there, if its a flavor change then shouldn't the taste change be apparent?
"Uh Clare?"
"Yeah?"
"Maybe it's just me and my lovely paranoia but this drink tastes weird"
"Rate the weirdness from 1 to 10"
"Uh 3 but may..."
"Its your paranoia, stop worr..."
"Hello ladies" Clare and I turn around in shock and I watch as her eyes widen at the sight of the unfamiliar man.
He was handsome, lean and a bit buff with a face of a gentleman yet something about him made me want to run for the hills.
I also noticed how he had no visible tattoos and wore a thin golden chain on his neck, it stood out against his black shirt.
"May I have a word with you?"
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Thank you for Reading
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