Meant To Be Yours #Wattys2016 [COMPLETED]

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: THE LOVE GAME

Running as fast as her legs could carry her, Kate felt breathless as she reached her room. Hell, she was in a mess! As she flung herself on her bed, she tried to catch her breath and she still could not make out what happened just now.

After several minues of debating with herself, she managed to convince herself that the reason she was confronting Aidan about Nathalie was only for Jennifer’s benefit. Only to have another bomb dropped on her. Ryce and Jennifer married?!! She remembered Ryce telling her that she was the first one to be getting married in their group on the day of his arrival itself. He had lied to her.

Furious, she went in search of her best friend and found him in the nursery playing with the twins. And stopped rigth in her tracks. Nursery? Ryce? And finally it clicked. He had a child with Jennifer. Or even several children and that explained the scars under Jennifer’s belly. It was caesarian mark. Of course!

How stupid could she get? She felt as dumb as Lois Lane for not seeing that Clark Kent was in fact superman! It was all so obvious and her fury got even more ablaze at the deception of her friends. Why had they deemed it necessary to hide that fact?

“Ryce!” she said glad that her voice came out calm even if she was trembling with anger. “Can we talk, please?”

“Sure,” he replied easily and bounced Bruce off him before he got up.

“How come you’re so familiar with kids?” she asked through hooded eyes and at the same time his phone buzzed in his pocket. As she peeked into the screen, she saw it was a message from Aidan.

Run for your life!

As soon as he read it, his head snapped in her direction his stance taking the flight posture but Kate stepped in front of him with a ferocious look. He was cornered.

“Look, sweetie..” he started.

“Don’t you look sweet talk me! Ryce Vin Connor, you are the worst friend one could ever have. You got married without even bothering to tell me. To my other best friend. And you have children with her. And then you dare come over to my wedding and pretend like you are my friend again and watch me make a fool of myself...” she stopped. She was out of breath and tired.

Defeated, she slumped down on the nearby stool looking even more ridiculous and she felt her eyes mist as she finally gave in under the pressure of the last events.

Talk about failures. She was getting married to someone she did not love and her friends had been sneaking behind her back with the past. The same past which had affected her so much that she had not been able to move on with her own damned life.

“Kate,” cried out Ryce horrified as one drop of tear fell down her cheeks and he sat on all fours to recomfort her. “I’m so sorry you feel so hurt but when I arrived I had no idea what to expect. We were so far apart that I feared that the news of our marriage might make matters worse.”

“Yes, I understand. But I feel so stupid!” she exclaimed her voice husky and Bruce picking up her mood approached her looking worried.

“I know! Hell, I can’t tell you how sorry I am. Please don’t cry. We... Jen was so against the idea anyway. I was the one who insisted on being the friend you were expecting back,” he told her gently wiping off her tear and she sniffed unceremoniously and tried a watery smile for the benefit of the child.

“Imagine how worse the situation would have been if I arrived with Jen as my wife. Aidan was still fixated over her infatuation with Jennifer and our friendship which was already in problems would have aggravated,” he continued when she said nothing.