Chapter 22
C H A P T E R2 2
The Betrayal
Ella
The past - 3 months ago
T here were two reasons why I was running late to Josh’s party.
The first was a penis-shaped pi?ata. A perfect present for my future brother-in-law. Hauling it into the trunk of my orange Porsche Cayenne—an early birthday gift from papá and mamá —was a pain in the ass, since the monstrosity was five feet tall and took multiple tries before I managed to stuff it in a way where it wouldn’t block my rearview mirror. I reminded myself that watching Josh beat a cardboard dick with a stick in front of two hundred people would not only be entertaining…but the highlight of tonight’s celebration. So alas, totally worth the extra effort.
The second reason why I was running late?
I found out I was five weeks pregnant.
With my boyfriend’s baby.
At eighteen going on nineteen.
To say the news shocked the living daylights out of me would be an understatement.
I was still wrapping my head around it.
My periods were late this month and I’d been experiencing some mild spotting, fatigue, random food cravings, and a bit of vomiting for a handful of days. In the beginning, I told myself it was just a bug. But then a few hours ago, I forced myself to go to the pharmacy and buy a pregnancy test.
When two pink lines popped up on the stick, the only thoughts swimming in my mind as I stared at my reflection in my bathroom mirror were: oh my God, I’m pregnant. I’m pregnant and papá and mamá are going to have a heart attack and possibly—figuratively—kill me for getting pregnant outside of wedlock.
After inhaling some calming breaths and reassuring myself that everything would be okay, happiness began to pierce the veil of my shock.
Oh my God, Ella. You’re going to be a mom. Cade’s going to be a dad. You’re going to be a family. Just like you always wanted.
One thing was for certain: I was not getting rid of this baby.
I wanted to keep it.
While I was extremely happy, I was also nervous. Being a mom was one of my dreams, but something I’d hoped for later in life. Not before I even had the chance to complete university or start a career. Shit, Cade hadn’t planned on being a dad so young either. But we weren’t careful on prom night and now had to deal with the outcome.
Montardor’s high society was going to have a field day when they found out the heirs of the Remington and Cordova empires were expecting a bundle of joy in less than eight months.
However, I didn’t give a hoot about their opinions. The only ones that mattered were mine, Cade’s, and our families. Sure, our parents may express some disappointment in us not being careful, but a surprise pregnancy wasn’t grounds for disownment.
I knew we were young and the road ahead would be tough… but we could make it work, right? Cade was already like a father figure to Olivia. He would love his own child with everything he was worth. We’d be the best family ever and give this baby our all, parental and society judgements be damned.
With that pep talk, I’d driven to the grocery store to grab a bunch of supplies. My plan was to bake cupcakes and pipe the word ‘Daddy’ on top of them in blue frosting—the exact shade of my querido ’s eyes.
I couldn’t wait to see his reaction. Cade would be surprised, yes, but content above all. He’d smile big, gather me in his arms, and kiss my forehead.
Afterwards, we’d discuss the best way to break the news to our parents.
Because we were a team.
Him and me.
Always.
The Remington residence was blazing with neon lights and teenage debauchery by the time I arrived. I parked my car near the gates and parallel to the woods on the estate. When I stepped out and walked to the trunk, a light wind sailed, causing the skirt of my sundress to flare around my hips. I wore it specifically to fend off the summer heat and for Cade, who went feral whenever I donned a short dress.
It was a peace offering to make up for the fact that I missed a series of his calls and texts.
Cade was probably worried sick. My sweet, protective, and obsessed boyfriend liked having my location and attention twenty-four seven. But I had a valid reason for not answering him. Containing my excitement was too difficult. I was too impatient and afraid I’d reveal my pregnancy beforehand.
This was a milestone for us and I wanted to see his reaction in person.
When I was in the midst of yanking out the pi?ata, someone shouldered into me from behind so roughly, it knocked my body against the side of the car. Pain exploded down my left arm and I gasped.
What the hell was that?
I spun around in time to see the culprit.
A tall guy wearing all-black with his hood up and face hidden stole into the party like a thief in the night.
“Watch where you’re going, you fucking jerk!” I barked, rubbing my arm to soothe the ache from that hit.
I didn’t have a chance to discern his features as he quickly disappeared in a sea of bodies congregating the side of the mansion.
A series of goosebumps rose over my skin. The strange sensation of being watched slithered over my frame. I glanced around, feeling uneasy. There was nothing but darkness and trees in my close proximity and yet…something felt wrong.
There was a voice in my mind chanting that I needed to find Cade.
Now.
I locked my car after grabbing the pi?ata and crossed the courtyard, the smell of alcohol and weed assaulting my nostrils. It was triggering and I fought the urge to puke. First trimester clearly sucked. I feared it would only get worse from here.
A few St. Victorians—alumni and current students—recognized me and waved, laughing when they saw what I was dragging into the party. I greeted them back. While I would miss high school, the people, and the daily shenanigans that took place in that institute, I was more excited for this new chapter in my life. Pregnancy and starting my undergrad.
Though you’ll probably have to drop out once the baby arrives, Ella. Raising newborns is not an easy fit. They need stability and routine. You won’t be able to attend school like a regular student.
That chilling thought made my nausea worse.
I pushed it aside the second I entered the raging party. My stomach was in knots and my nerves were having a field day as I worked through a flock of people in the foyer, being mindful of keeping my middle shielded. I was already possessive and protective of a fetus that was barely the size of a pomegranate seed.
Searching for Cade and my friends would be like searching for a needle in a haystack. Instead of wandering around aimlessly, I figured messaging the group chat for everyone’s whereabouts was the best course of action. But when I dipped my hand into my purse for my phone…
It wasn’t there.
Confused, I searched through the interior frantically. Bobby pins, cash, credit card, driver’s license, scrunchie…
Still no cell phone.
How was that possible?
I had it with me before I left my place.
Did I…drop it somewhere between there and here?
My shoulders drooped. Well, this was inconvenient.
I guess I’d just have to look around for Cade. Deciding to start with his room, I climbed the grand staircase, bypassing dancing bodies and a guy doing lines on a girl’s tits.
The second floor was just as crowded as the ground floor, harbouring an even stronger rancid smell of weed. I was so close to vomiting and the more I neared Cade’s bedroom, the more my skin prickled. There was a group of rowdy partygoers gathered close to his door, drinking liquor straight out of the bottle with no chaser.
I recognized a few of the boys and girls from St. Victoria. Shallow, vain, and most importantly: the gossiping kind.
They eyed me with interest, jealousy, and fake smiles.
I simply grinned back and waved my fingers, used to this kind of attention. At school, there were two categories of students. Those that fawned over me and my boyfriend and those that loathed us. It came with the territory of being St. Victoria’s most revered. The queen bee, cheerleading co-captain, and the broody, hockey alternate captain. Children of the most affluent families in South Side, Montardor. Getting crowned prom king and queen was the cherry on top of their shitcakes.
Eventually, I reached Cade’s door.
That same prickling feeling intensified when I twisted the handle and pushed, taking a step into the dark room. It was illuminated with the barest amount of light coming from a small lamp.
And suddenly, my entire world came crashing down.
I froze.
My gaze captured the scene before me in vivid details, a picture that would forever be etched in my mind under the word betrayal.
Cade.
Sitting next to another girl on his bed.
Red-stained kisses on his mouth, jaw, and neck.
Their limbs intertwined as intimately as long-time lovers.
The sharp pain in my chest had me dragging out a croaky, “Cade?”
Like I needed confirmation from him that this was a figment of my imagination. Far from reality. A fucked-up nightmare I’d somehow found myself trapped in.
I cradled my stomach, an incessant pain thrumming in my core.
Was this really happening to me?
Was the man that I loved with my whole being actually fucking cheating on me while I was pregnant with our baby?
I stood rooted in place, soaking in the situation like I was having an out-of-body experience while my dreams of a future with Cade shattered to a million pieces.
In the blink of an eye, he destroyed us.
All my love. All my trust. Instantly gone.
“Ella?” he slurred, drunk and high, appearing shocked and disoriented as he stared at me.
The girl next to him seemed intoxicated as well, watching the entire scene unfold with hints of confusion and horror on her expression.
“You fucking asshole,” I fumed. “This is…This is what you’ve been doing this whole time? You’ve been…”
Cheating .
I couldn’t force the word out. It was foul. Something that didn’t belong in my vocabulary, much less something to be associated with Cade.
And yet the evidence was right in front of my face.
My blood boiled and tears smarted my eyes. I wouldn’t let them fall. I wouldn’t let him see how much he wrecked me with his treachery.
Behind me, a crowd gathered, composed of the same St. Victorians who’d stared at me with envy. Now they were gasping and guffawing at my predicament. Flashlights burst in the room as they took pictures and videos of the scene, immortalizing this juicy piece of gossip for everyone to see.
Something about my words and the people flocking around us had Cade snapping into motion. He stood up, eyes going wide with realization. As if he finally registered the depth of the situation. The utter wrongness of it.
Now he was seeing me. Every bloody and broken inch, held together by stitches of my stubborn pride.
“Ella…” Cade extended a trembling hand my way. To stop me from leaving? To provide him comfort? “It’s not…It’s not…wait…”
“It’s not what it looks like?” I growled. “Give me a break. It’s exactly what it looks like!”
“Ella…Please…I…” Cade was so far gone with booze and drugs that he couldn’t stand on his feet without swaying like he was on a carnival ride.
If he wasn’t intoxicated, would he have cheated on me? Or has this been going on for a while and tonight is the first time I caught him?
Bile rose in my throat. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t want to believe it.
“Stay the fuck away from me, you piece of shit!” I fisted my hands to stop myself from doing any physical damage I would regret. Including clawing out my own stupid heart and throwing it at his head, blood splatters and all. “We. Are. Fucking. Done!”
Shooting daggers at Cade and the girl, I retreated a few steps and collided with a solid body. One of the St. Victorians I didn’t like. He beamed at me mockingly. “Smile for the camera, babyyy!”
Anger rushed through my veins.
Taking the pi?ata, I whacked it against him until he fell into the swarm of people with a pathetic squeak. Squeals and curses erupted as Jolly Ranchers exploded from the penis-shaped cardboard like confetti. Then I snatched his phone and whipped it hard against the wall, breaking the screen and hopefully the device as a whole.
From his position on the floor, he yelled in disbelief. “What the fuck, bitch?”
Usually the quintessential good girl in front of these people, their shock at my outburst was palpable in the air. They’d never seen me like this. And unaccustomed to my bad side, they had no idea what I was capable of.
“Smile for this, jackass,” I spat and flipped him my middle finger—a long orange claw that I wouldn’t hesitate to sink into his jugular. “Now fucking move out of my way!”
People watched the drama unfold like it was a hot episode of reality TV, giggling and murmuring amongst themselves, while I sauntered out of the room, shoulders squared and head held high.
Trying to appear as unaffected as possible.
Despite the fact that pictures and videos of this moment would be plastered on social media before the end of the hour.
South Side’s princess humiliated and dethroned in front of fucking peasants.
By her very own princepin.
It would be a goddamn headline.
And the coveted couple of St. Victoria falling from their pedestal would be the highlights of their summer. Not Josh’s stupid pi?ata.
But I was one resilient bitch. I’d never allow them to see my internal scars or the magnitude of my pain. I’d never allow them to laugh behind my backs without showing them how nasty Ella Ximena Cordova could get. Revenge was a dish best served cold and I’d make sure each motherfucker here choked on every bite as I spoon-fed it down their throats.
I inhaled their cruelty, exhaled a dose of my retaliation, and adjusted my crown.
I was a queen amongst these vultures and I knew it. You could not dethrone me. I was here to fucking stay. Anyone who dared to mess with me would end up with their expensive convertibles keyed and their tinted windows smashed with a crowbar.
I ignored the taunts and gossip as I descended the grand staircase. Behind me, another pair of footsteps followed and Cade incoherently mumbled a warped, “W-Wait.”
Warm hands grabbed my arm and attempted to pull me back. Unhinged. Disbalanced. Furious. That’s how I felt when I spun around and yelled, “Get away from me!”
“P-Please,” Cade panted with bloodshot red eyes and a sheen of sweat decorating his skin. He barely stood straight, his hold on me fragile as a feather. This wasn’t like the other times he got drunk or high at parties. This was tenfold worse.
But I killed the small nugget of worry dancing in my system.
He didn’t deserve that from me.
Not anymore.
I slapped his hands away and sneered, “Don’t touch me! Don’t ever fucking touch me again, you filthy two-timing scum!”
My words sucker punched through his drunken haze and he jolted, clutching the banister for support.
I ran down the remaining steps, angry with the need to raze everything in my surroundings. The music and the flashing neon lights slowed my senses until the only thing I could focus on was the jagged sound of my broken heart thumping in my ears.
Having heard the loud commotion, a crowd gathered at the base of the staircase. Numerous faces gawked at us, like Cade and me were the main acts in a travelling circus. And unfortunately, my friends were nowhere to be found amidst this chaos.
Despite the cold-hearted bitch persona I adopted, I was crumbling on the inside, brick by brick. All thoughts of retaliation instantly fled away. I was fighting tears, the need to vomit, and the fact that the cupcakes I made so lovingly only hours ago would have to be thrown in the garbage.
Fresh air spread over my heated skin as I sprinted out the front doors and towards the woods. I doubled over and vomited on a dirt patch, tears streaming down my face. My entire body shook with turbulent emotions and the same cramps from earlier started quivering below my waist. I pressed a hand over my stomach, retching and coughing.
A branch cracked nearby, an indication that I wasn’t alone.
I snapped my head in the direction of the sound and saw… Darla.
Leaning against a tree, under the moonlit night, my ex-best friend observed me quietly.
Darla stopped talking to me weeks ago, including answering my calls and text messages, for unbeknown reasons. Since our friendship ended, she went out of her way to school her expressions into something unreadable whenever we were in the same space. I could never tell what she was thinking. It was frustrating. And if I tried to talk to her, she left faster than you could say stop . Essentially, she avoided me like the plague. The worst part was I had no idea why, despite trying to understand how we got here.
Though right now, Darla wasn’t running away. She gripped a beer bottle in one hand and her phone in the other, the screen playing the video of me catching Cade in the act.
Oh, God. How did the video circulate so quickly? Had everyone already seen the sordid situation?
“Ella?” Darla hedged, taking a tentative step my way like I was a wounded animal.
Whenever we attended parties, my ex-best friend eventually escaped to a secluded corner to charge her social battery. Darla was part introvert, part extrovert. It shouldn’t surprise me to find her slinked away in the woods, recuperating from the loudness of the Remington mansion.
Wiping my mouth with the back of my hand, I glared at her. Hurt and beyond exhausted. Unable to understand how she could throw away sixteen years of friendship without an explanation and move on like we didn’t have the best memories.
“What?” I hated the wavering quality of my voice.
As much as I hated the fact that I missed her so much.
As much as I hated the fact that if things were different…I’d be telling her I was pregnant and getting the emotional support I so badly needed at this moment. And now I couldn’t even confide in the one girl who’d been like my sister because she removed me from her life.
There was a slight crack in Darla’s armour. A softness in her brown eyes. “Are you okay?”
“Why do you care?” I straightened, pushing my hair back and cringing at the sour taste of vomit on my palate. “You’ve ignored me for weeks, and now you want to talk when”—I pointed at her phone—“I’m at my lowest? Are you here to gloat because I got cheated on?”
The softness was quickly replaced by resentment.
“I was here before you, getting some fresh air.” She shook her head. “And you know well enough that gloating and being petty isn’t my style. No one deserves…”
No one deserves to get cheated on and be made into a spectacle.
That’s what she wanted to say.
“What have I done to you?” I implored against my better judgement, wiping at my remaining tears. “I don’t understand, Darla. I was never bad to you.”
You were my best friend, my co-captain, my sister. What happened to us?
I zeroed in on her left wrist. She no longer wore the friendship bracelet I gave her when we were eight. Why did that hurt so much?
A heart-wrenching wave of homesickness swept over me. God, I needed to leave this place and lick my wounds in peace.
“You’re right. You weren’t bad to me,” she agreed, depositing her phone in the pocket of her miniskirt. “You were horrible , and you still haven’t owned up to it. You’re just like all of them, Ella. Mean and fake. How does it feel to finally get a taste of your own medicine?”
I’d taken so many hits tonight, but her calling me mean and fake—comparing me to the rats of St. Victoria—was a different type of pain that made me flinch like I’d been struck. “What in the world are you talking about? I don’t fucking get it, Darla!”
“You never did, Ella. That’s the problem.” Darla chuckled bitterly. “Don’t pretend to be innocent. You know why I’m done with you.”
Anything I said right now would be irrelevant when her walls were up again. I couldn’t reach her and she wouldn’t hear me.
Physically, this was the closest we’d stood in weeks. Emotionally, I’d never felt further from her.
Everyone who entered your life had a purpose. Sometimes it was to stay forever and guide you through your journey. Other times it was for a temporary period to teach you a lesson. While people come and go, the only constant in life was the relationship you had with yourself. The only relationship worth nourishing.
In this split second, I realized that Darla’s time in my life came to an end long before tonight. I just needed to accept it and move on. No matter how much it fucking hurt.
All good things come to an end and nothing lasts forever.
Not friendships.
Not romantic relationships.
And certainly not the love of dark brown-haired, blue-eyed boys with charming, lying smiles who claimed to love you until the end of time.
“I don’t, Darla,” I replied, backing away, my stance unsteady. My head spun and a dull ache spread through my gut. “Nor do I care anymore. I’m done with you, too.”
Darla remained silent, having already made peace with our broken friendship.
I jogged out of the woods and towards my car.
As if this party couldn’t get any shittier, I found my cell phone lying on the ground next to the driver’s side door.
I…I don’t remember dropping it.
But I guess I did, and someone stepped on it in the dark.
The screen was completely cracked. It wouldn’t even turn on.
Oh, well. A broken phone could be replaced within a day.
A broken pride?
Unlikely.
I hauled myself into my car and threw my smashed phone into the cupholder.
Then I turned on the ignition, shifted into drive, and gunned it out of the Remington estate.
The last thing I saw in my rearview mirror was Cade, stumbling after me, calling out my name.