King of Pride (Price of Regret #4)

Chapter 1 The Slap That Ended It All

Thud.

The sound of the slap echoed inside the luxury apartment, so loud that, for a moment, it seemed as though every other sound had been swallowed by it.

Everything fell into complete stillness.

Rose's body went rigid.

Her face burned where her boyfriend, Ivan Carrington, had slapped her, the heat spreading from her cheek across her entire face and down her neck. It was as if she had been filled with fire, the flames spreading from that single point of contact until her entire body felt unbearably hot.

Her cheek was burning.

Her chest burned too.

And suddenly, it felt as though her heart had stopped along with the slap that had fallen across her face.

Rose remained completely still, her eyes slowly lifting toward Ivan as tears immediately welled in them. She hadn't wanted them to come. She didn't want to cry in front of him, not after what he had just done.

But the burning sensation on her cheek and the sudden, overwhelming pain of betrayal made it impossible to hold everything back.

Anger flashed through her so violently that she couldn't even fathom how to express what she was feeling anymore.

Her fingers slowly curled at her sides. Her eyes burned with the tears threatening to spill over, while her heart began pounding faster and faster inside her chest.

Ivan stood in front of her in complete silence.

His hand slowly lowered from where it had struck her, but the rest of his body remained completely still. His face was filled with a stunned, almost disbelieving expression, as if he himself were shocked by what he had just done.

The entire room was perfectly still.

Everything in the luxury apartment was exactly where it belonged—clean, bright, expensive.

The only thing out of place in the otherwise perfectly luxurious apartment was the broken snow globe.

Glass had shattered across the perfectly polished, expensive Italian marble floor, the liquid from inside the globe spreading across the surface. Tiny stars that had once floated inside the snow globe were scattered all over the ground, along with the little figures that had been inside it.

There was a perfect wooden shelf in the middle of the apartment, completely open and clearly visible to anyone who visited.

And that snow globe had once been sitting right there, directly in front of Rose's eyes.

Every time she visited Ivan's apartment, she saw it.

It wasn't expensive.

In fact, it was a cheap copy compared to the other gifts carefully placed on that shelf. But it had been given to Ivan by his ex-girlfriend, Jessica, and that was what made it different.

Throughout their five years of relationship, Jessica had given Ivan various gifts, and nine slabs on that shelf were completely reserved for those things. Ivan had arranged and placed every one of them there very carefully.

The snow globe had been purchased during one of their trips, and Jessica had gifted it to him on his birthday.

Rose had always known that.

She had seen it every time she came into the apartment.

And now, moments ago, she had accidentally knocked it over.

It happened when Rose was moving.

Her shoulder had accidentally hit the wooden shelf, making the glass and everything else on it shake.

The snow globe, which had been placed perfectly in the middle, had immediately begun to fall.

Rose had instinctively reached out to grab it. Her fingers had closed around it, but the globe slipped through them. She had tried to adjust her grip and place it back where it belonged after rubbing off the dirt that had gotten onto the snow globe.

But she hadn't managed to save it.

It had fallen.

And shattered.

That was when Rose had turned around, only to see Ivan standing in front of her.

His eyes were burning with rage, his face filled with anger and emotions she had never seen before. The fury spreading across his features made Rose's body instinctively stiffen.

She knew how much he cherished all these things—all the gifts he had received from Jessica.

The hurt flashing across his face immediately made her feel terrible. Her heart sank, and she quickly tried to apologize.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to—"

She had barely started when his hand struck her face so hard that everything else became completely silent in her world.

Except for the ringing in her ears.

Rose stood frozen in front of the man she was supposed to marry in a few months. Her heart could barely seem to move inside her chest as she stared at him in complete silence.

Everything suddenly became completely still.

Rose slowly lifted her eyes to him.

This was the man she was going to marry.

Then her gaze shifted toward the snow globe.

And suddenly, everything became so much sharper that she could barely process what had happened.

Rose's mind filled with memories of their time together—all the times she had stood in front of him and given him expensive gifts, only for him to place them carelessly somewhere and even forget about them the next day.

But this snow globe, something that wasn't worth even ten dollars, had enraged him this much that he had slapped her over it.

Rose took one step back.

Her hand slowly lifted toward her burning cheek, her fingertips hovering over the place where his palm had struck her before she finally touched it.

She looked at Ivan.

Her eyes weren't filled with anger. Or betrayal. Or even pain.

Instead, she simply stared at him in complete silence.

Ivan looked at her.

She looked back at him.

Realization flashed across his face for a moment, a startled expression appearing as though he had only just understood what he had done.

But that realization disappeared just as quickly.

His face hardened again as he looked at her.

"Why would you break something important to me? I had told you a hundred times not to get closer to the shelf and not to touch my things. But you just have to move around my apartment like—"

He looked at Rose with anger burning in his eyes, but at the same time, there was a look of startled disbelief in them, as if he himself were shocked by what he had done.

At the same time, he looked at her.

"You shouldn't have touched my things without my permission."

He said it while looking at Rose with a hard, displeased expression.

Rose didn't say anything.

She kept staring at her fingers.

Her hands had fallen back to her sides, but her fingers were slightly curled, her body still unnaturally rigid from the shock.

Ivan's fingers tightened.

Rose still didn't say anything.

She simply turned around, grabbed her purse from the couch, her movements quick and stiff as she swung the purse onto her shoulder, and headed toward the door without giving him another look.

But just as she took one step forward, Ivan shot after her and grabbed her.

Rose immediately stopped and turned around to look at him.

Ivan looked at her, his jaw tight, his expression still hard.

“You know this was your fault. You shouldn’t have done something that deserved getting slapped for.”

In that moment, the rage that filled Rose was so intense that she feared she would grab a knife and stab Ivan with it.

But she didn’t want to go to jail for murder at such a young age, so she thought better of it and roughly freed herself from his grasp, jerking her arm out of his hand.

“We are over,” she said in a deathly low voice.

Then she stormed out of the apartment.

Every step she took suddenly flashed her entire history with him through her mind—the memories of everything she had been doing in his life for the past one year.

It was true that she had liked him first. The crush she had on him had initially been because he was good-looking, but then she had found out he was hardworking. She saw that he had a business. He was doing well. He had his goals.

She had seen the man that everyone else didn’t see except for the power of money that he spread for his friends. She had seen him for the man he was.

And that was what had made her attracted to him in the first place.

Rose wiped away the tear that had filled her eyes with the back of her hand, quickly blinking to stop more from falling.

But even though she tried to suppress them, it was difficult.

Her throat tightened as she stepped into the elevator, and she pressed the button for the lobby with a trembling finger.

Just then, her phone started ringing.

She pulled it from her purse and picked up the call, the name flashing across the screen.

Zoe.

Rose placed the phone to her ear.

“Rose, where are you?” Zoe Bishop’s enthusiastic, loud voice came through at once, accompanied by the background noise of the party.

“I thought you were going to be here already. The party has already started, and I’m getting bored.

I thought you were really going to skip it just because Ivan wants to stay home.

Come on, the party is hosted by my family.

At least help me, okay? I’m getting bored. Please come over. Can you?”

Rose was silent for a brief moment.

Then she swallowed and said, “I’m coming over in a minute. I will be there in half an hour.”

“Yay!” Zoe exploded with happiness, her excitement practically burning through her voice as she continued, “I’m waiting for you.”

Rose managed a faint smile despite the ache in her chest.

The call ended.

She went down the elevator and into the car that was waiting outside. As she got inside, she slammed the door and immediately told the driver to head toward the Aurelia Palace, where a very popular party for the richest people in the city was being held by Zoe Bishop’s family.

The party was mainly for business reasons—to mingle and have an excuse to meet. The main reason stated on the invitation was that the party was being held for the upcoming product launch of one of their fragrances, which was going to be one of the most expensive ones on the market in recent years.