Chapter III: Second Betrayal. Running Away - 1

Norman.

"Did you get all the information I asked you for about Yvaine Stewart?" I asked Jason, my assistant.

“Yvaine Stewart is single. Her parents died in a car accident. She is the niece of Marcus Campbell, the president of Campbell Construction. She doesn't have a good relationship with her aunt. She works as a designer intern at Walter Design.”

Her boyfriend is the heir to the company. However, he is said to be a hopeless womanizer and good-for-nothing. He inherited a house in Forest Hills, Queens, from his father."

Yvaine has $27,500 in her bank account and owns a black 1967 sedan. She studied design in college and is still paying off the loans she took out for her degree. Recently, rumors have circulated that she had a falling out with her boyfriend, causing them to break up. Consequently, she quit her job as a designer at Walter Design.

She is a hardworking young woman with no known illegal activities or relationships other than her past relationship with Harry Walter, the heir to the Walter Design companies. She met Harry while studying design at university. "That's all, Mr. President," Jason said, finishing up.

"So I'm to blame for her breaking up with her boyfriend? Or did she perhaps take my advice? I want you to keep an eye out. If Miss Stewart attends any medical appointments in the coming weeks—especially gynecological ones—I have a feeling my Alicia is going to try to run away, and I won't allow it," I said seriously, smiling suspiciously. My assistant blinked, but she had been with me so long that she didn't ask questions.

Yvaine.

Three weeks have passed since the incident at the hotel, and I discovered the betrayal of my cousin and ex-boyfriend. I soon discovered that Harry had interfered with my chances of getting a new job as a designer. All the employment agencies in New York City found fault with me or made up excuses not to hire me.

To make matters worse, my aunt and cousin had been spreading lies about me to all my friends and acquaintances. I still hadn't found a job, and I had a feeling I wouldn't find one for a long time.

On top of that, I still hadn't gotten my period. I was always very regular, and although I didn't want to believe that I was pregnant, the feeling that something serious had happened was beginning to sink in.

The next morning, I decided to take a pregnancy test. I was hysterical. I went to the pharmacy and bought a test. I decided to take it that night.

After dinner, I took the box to the bathroom, but there was a knock at the door. When I opened the door, there was my ex-boyfriend, Harry, who was completely drunk. As soon as he saw me, he lunged at me and tried to kiss me. I pushed him away as hard as I could, yelled at him, and asked him what he wanted.

"Don't you know, bitch? You sold yourself really well with that angelic, good-girl face. I found out from your cousin that you were never a virgin and that you slept with anyone who asked you to ever since college. Did you want to make me look like an idiot? I've been waiting to see if you'd make room for me in your bed. It turns out a whole battalion has been passing through it." I looked at him angrily and replied.

"I don't care about the lies you and my cousin are making up or the slander you want to spread about me. There's nothing between us. Who I sleep with is none of your business. You don't deserve an explanation or a defense from me because, to me, you're no longer important. You're irrelevant to my life. Go back to the woman you're sleeping with and never come back to my house. Get out of here right now!" I said, pointing to the door.

At first, he wouldn't listen to me and came closer, who knows with what intention. But when he looked at my hand and saw the pregnancy test, his eyes widened. He looked at me angrily and, without another word, stormed out the door and slammed it behind him. I sighed, shook my hair, and headed to the bathroom to take the pregnancy test.

While I waited three minutes for the results, I checked my email to see if I had received any job offers, hoping it would calm my nerves. Because of Harry's family's influence, I hadn't been able to get a job in New York, so I decided to send my résumé to other international companies.

None of them were within Walter Designe's circle of influence. I noticed that I had received three offers. Two of them weren't interesting to me because they were below my current level, but the other one was for an interior design position at a department store in Los Angeles. I replied that I was interested and would attend the interview on the agreed-upon date in two days.

When I looked at the results, my legs felt like they were giving way. I was pregnant!

"Oh my God!" I thought. "What am I going to do now?"

During those two days, I went through hell. I didn't know whether to have an abortion or start a family. One thing I did know was that the father of my child would never find out.

To do that, I had to speed up my escape because there was no other way to describe it. I didn't know why, but I had a feeling that if I stayed in New York, Norman Miller would eventually find out that he was going to be a father. I certainly didn't want to be his wife, nor did I want my child to be caught up in a court battle. Nor did I want my son or daughter to become the subject of a court dispute.

Furthermore, knowing how ruthless he could be from what I had read and heard in the news, I knew the father of my future child had everything to lose.

Since he left me alone in the hotel, I hadn't heard from him, but I had a feeling that it was only a matter of time and that I shouldn't trust him. What's more, my aunt and cousin had made sure that malicious and unfounded rumors spread among all my friends. Now, apart from the neighbors who had known my parents, I had no one on my side. To make matters worse, Harry had spread the rumor that I was pregnant and didn't know who the father was. He insisted that he wasn't the father because, once he learned what kind of woman I was, he decided to distance himself from me and fire me from his company.

In other words, I had everything I needed to run away. So, when I passed the interview in Los Angeles, I gathered all my money, asked my neighbors to look after my parents' house, and, without telling anyone, decided to start a new life in Los Angeles. I had to get away. To avoid being found, I changed my last name to my mother's.