THE BILLIONAIRE'S KARMA

Chapter 3

Silvana

“Get in…” the man said to me, in a tone that was in between a command and a request. But either way, he almost sounded like he was trying to abduct me.

“Who are you?” I asked, as my eyes ran through the details of his appearance. His jet-black hair and silvery gray eyes were a bit charming. But then, I wasn't ready for anyone with the way I was feeling at that point.

“Well, you could come in and find out,” he seemed quite cocky and was sure of the fact that I was going to come into his car. Did he know me from somewhere?

“I don't have time for any of this,” I said, as I hurried away from his car before he would proceed to do anything uncalled for.

My day was already ruined, and I didn't want to ruin it even further with a total stranger.

He looked a bit familiar but I wasn't in the right state of mind to try placing where I had met him. I had a divorce to heal from and an angry family to go back to, and those were problems enough.

I finally stopped a cab and I quickly pushed my luggage into the back seat and got in. “Chestnut Street…” I said, taking a look behind me, just to make sure that psycho wasn't following me. To my greatest surprise, he was gone without a single trace. What was going on?

The ride began to the house where I had grown up. I was steadying myself for whatever it was I would face when I got back there.

Xander was probably going to tackle me with insults, as I was sure that his title as owner of the family's business that I was supposed to inherit was finally his. I was going to be walking a landmine in the empire that he was running at that point.

But to my greatest surprise, the car stopped me in front of a building that seemed to be a shadow of what it had been six years ago.

I was almost doubting if the cab had brought me to the right place. “Remember, I said Chestnut Street…”

“That’s where we are…” the cab driver said as he pulled over in front of a building with scrapped white paint— an old version of its former glorious empire it had once been. Xander had a lot of explanations to do.

I hurriedly got out of the cab, angrily dragging my bag and making for the front door. Besides the memories of nostalgia that came to my head, anger came as well, as I spent the first couple of moments looking at the mess that Xander had made of my family's business.

The Hardin empire-building had been both our home and our business. It was a corporation that specialized in arranging the most epic weddings in the country. But then, it was now a mess.

“What are you doing here?” Xander had barely let me come into the building before his voice echoed his rude question which made it clear just how empty the former four-storey paradise was.

“What have you done here?” I retorted with a question of mine, as I was met with the ruins of the one thing I had thought I would be able to fall back on after my forced divorce from Reed.

Where was the paradise I had left when I was leaving to get married?

“And just who do you think you are to ask me that?” Xander retorted as he felt his pride get stung by that question. “The company was mine to run…”

“And that's why you decided to run it to the ground?” I still couldn't believe what was going on. It almost looked like a haunted house, with just a few people in it. That had me wondering just when last a client had walked in there.

“Like you could be better. You had a hard to even running your marriage and your own home. Now you got kicked out, so who the heck do you think you are to tell me what to do?” Xander’s words cut deep. “I guess now I have someone who can clean up after me.”

“What…?” I was too pained to say a single word to that. My heart was on the verge of exploding from the two heartbreaks I had received on the same day.

“Now that you're here, let's watch as you drag the same calamity from your marriage right into this company.” Xander walked away with that, leaving me all alone with the mess he had made.

I dragged myself up to the room that used to be mine. Every single thing in that room had me feeling like the worst person that had ever lived.

Xander's words had broken me immensely even though I had tried to hide it. At that point, I just needed a place to go get my mind off of everything.

What better place was there besides the bar? I thought as I got myself ready. I was about to self-destruct for a moment and that had my mind going to the wildest places imaginable.

Soon enough, I walked in with a heavy heart that I wanted to melt away in a couple of shots until I couldn't feel it anymore.

“Vodka, please…” I ordered as I got seated on the bar stool. That seemed to be the perfect drink to get rid of all the burdens I was feeling.

I took one more look at my ringless finger as I gulped down the first shot. Who would have known that I once had a ring on that finger that morning?

“Screw you, Reed…” I cussed as I was ready to get him off my mind. Shot after shot, I was beginning to lose grip of my sobriety along with the thoughts of the things bothering me.

“That's an odd drink for a lady as beautiful as you are…” a deep masculine voice called out to me as I was gulping down yet another shot. “Don’t you think…?”

“Well, if you knew how odd my predicament is, then you would know it's just the right drink for the moment,” I replied as I reached for another shot.

Then I turned to see the handsome man who had said those words. I wondered if it was me or the drink that made him look almost ethereal.

I was almost freezing for a moment, as I stared into those silvery gray eyes of his, that seemed like an infinite pool of ice that I would like to cool off.

“Hello…?” He called me back to the moment, as I had zoned out for a couple of moments. It had to be booze. “Sure you haven't had enough of that stuff?”

“You seem quite caring…” I mumbled my unrelated reply as I was just above tipsy. I had lost control of my impulses.

“That's it, you've had enough…” he said, as he stood from his seat, and pushed the next shot away from my reach. “I don't want you puking all over the place.”

There was just something that made me find him both caring and possessive. That combo made me crave him at that point, as that was far from what I had experienced with Reed.

Again, I wondered if it was me or the booze that I had guzzled all because of the bastard that had me broken.

“We're leaving…” he said, as he paid the barman and helped me up from my seat. I was already on spaghetti legs and it was all by his help I got out of that bar.

“Where are you taking me?” I asked, laughing uncontrollably from the vodka. It was a lot to know that I was at his mercy.

“Home…” his tone was both persuasive and insistent.