Left At The Altar - ON HOLD

Chapter 6

* Colton's POV *

Shawn Barrel.

A vile, selfish and insane human being.

Shawn Barrel is the mastermind behind all of this. He has always been so envious of my family's success with our company. Shawn and I have known each other for a long time now. We went to the same high school where he was always the kid who was picked on at school and was always rejected from the girls. He was the kid that had family problems at home and everyone knew about it. But no one accepted him. Except for me.

Shawn and I became friends in the beginning of our high school year. It was first out of pity but shortly he became a cool guy to hang around.

But soon, after the second year of our friendship, he started to act a little off. He always wanted to know what was happening inside my family, every time I was needed to come into the office, he always wanted to come with, and whenever he did come, I always found him either asking questions from the janitors or security guards, or I would find him wandering around suspiciously.

I never really paid attention to it until one day I found him in my grandfathers office where there were many important files. I kicked him out confused but he just played it off like what he was doing wasn't wrong.

Soon after that day, strange things started to happen around the office. Files started to go missing, multiple employees became very hesitant towards my grandfather and Shawn avoided me whenever he could.

It was that one day where he confessed everything to me. It was that one day he decided to attempt stealing everything my grandfather started.

~FLASHBACK~

I walked into the office to see Shawn's presence unannounced.

"Shawn, what are you doing here?"

"It was you of all people who pitied me." Shawn laughed cynically. "You even let me in."

I stared at him in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"Let me get straight to the point for you Colton." He took a step towards me with a sly smile. "Everything here, everything you have, I want it."

"You see Colton, I have always lived in the spotlight, but not your spotlight." He continued. "I lived my whole life as the freak who the great Colton pitied."

I stared at Shawn speechless and baffled at his outburst while he smirked at me.

"My life wasn't a secret. Everyone knew about me. Everywhere I went, people talked about my family problems and I was always the odd one out of all of you! I was always the outsider, excluded from everyone. It got even worse when you wanted to hang with me. Colton Saunders. Mr. Popular. The one every guy wanted to be and the one every girl wanted to date. The one who had all the money in the world, spending it like there's no tomorrow. You had everything I always wanted. I despised you so much and when you wanted to become my friend, that was my leeway. It was like a prayer answered. The perfect opportunity to get close."

I tried processing everything he was saying. I couldn't understand why or how he could easily do something like this. The fact that he's been playing my family and I this whole time. He was starting to make me feel nervous and uncomfortable because he knew everything now. He's been secretly following and tracing everything I've done. The sad part is, I let him without realizing. I let him work for me. I let him hang out with us all. I was the one who let him in.

Shawn stepped away from the file cabinet and began making his way towards my desk. He stared at the picture I had framed of Addison and grabbed it. The small movement had me feeling uneasy and startled.

"She's so beautiful. Out of everyone, she was always the kind one. True to herself and to others. I could've been her first love. But you took that away from me! Along with everything I've always wanted. You could've had any other girl, but you had to choose her. And she was stupid enough to fall for you." He said, pointing at me angrily.

He walked around and sat on my seat. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a key and unlocked my drawer. When did he duplicate my keys?! That must explain why my stuff is always shifted or moved around sometimes. I wasn't just losing my mind!

I finally came back to reality and went up to him, closing my drawer shut.

"Why?! I gave you everything! I accepted and treated you as my brother. But all this time, you've been jealous of me? I've done nothing but be good to you when no one cared and you're still on the fact that I was like the rest of them." I grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him up to face me.

"Everyone was right! I can't believe how stupid I was to think they were wrong. All these signs, I chose to ignore them and all these warnings, I let them go because I trusted you. I defended you! But all this time, you've been fooling me for what? Because you were jealous? What I gave you wasn't enough? Get out of my office before I punch you out! You're fired and you are no longer a part of my family." By now I was angry and couldn't stop yelling at him.

"You're too late." He slowly smirked at me.

"What did you do?!" I asked him. But he quickly walked away and disappeared from the building. I called Addison to make sure she was okay without giving her any hints of trouble. I didn't want her to worry. This was my family's company and I made the mistake. This was my problem to fix and I needed to act quick. I checked around my office, making sure every important file was still here when my grandfather called.

"Colton, go to your office and don't move anything around. I'm on my way. We have to talk, it's important." Gramps whispered. Where was he?

"I'm in my office already. If this is about Shawn, you were right. I just found him going through my stuff so I kicked him out." I told him, feeling shame for disappointing him and not listening to his instincts about Shawn.

"We'll talk when I get there. For now, just keep an eye on all the employees. I'm sure a couple of them are working with Shawn, but I'm not sure who. I'll see you soon." With that said, he hung up and I did as told this time, looking around for anything suspicious.

~END OF FLASHBACK~

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AUTHOR'S NOTE

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who waited for this update. Sorry it took so long, I had writers block and got busy with other things. I still have writers block, but I will try to update at least something. But for now, things might go slow.

Thanks again! You guys are the best. And I hope you enjoyed this chapter!