~~~ CHAPTER 22 - THE CONFRONTATION ~~~
Even if I didn't tell her to come in, Stella went inside. Her towering height somehow intimidated me.
Still, even if she hadn't been told to take a seat, she headed to the sofa and sat there with her legs crossed flaunting her weird-looking stilletos.
"What do you want? Nigel isn't around," I asked her immediately. I didn't want to waste my time looking at her face. Her presence alone peeved me to a great extent.
"I'm here not to see him but to see you. As I said, I want to talk to you," she answered directly.
What? What did she actually want from me?
"So what do you want to talk to me? Go ahead," I said still standing in front of her. From the corner of my eyes, I saw Suzana appearing in the living room but I gave her a sign to go back to the kitchen. At first, she was hesitant to leave me alone with Stella and I could tell why. The latter appeared to have come for a fight. However, I assured Suzana through a slight nod in my head that I could handle this woman. She finally left but I was pretty sure that she was just around ready to aid her señorita in case of an attack.
"What exactly are you in Nigel's life?" Stella broke in, still in her demanding voice.
I blinked my eyes at her. Hadn't Nigel told her that I was his foster sister? Didn't she believe that?
She stood up and crossed her arms in her chest. "Come on, tell me!"
"Didn't Nigel tell you that I am his mom's foster daughter?" I replied sarcastically.
"You know what? I don't believe that crap!" she yelled at me.
"What the hell is the matter with you?" I asked also raising my voice. "What do you want me to tell you?"
"I want to know what you are in his life!"
"Why do I have a feeling that somebody's acting so insecure here?" I retorted.
Yes, I wanted to tell her in the face that I was engaged to her boyfriend! But, of course, I couldn't do that. If she had to know, it would not come from me, it had to come from Nigel.
"You wouldn't like it if you knew so better not to insist on knowing the truth..." I said calming myself now. I had been to being hurt several times and that feeling was unbearable. I wouldn't want her to feel the same... like I cared... Gosh, what really was the matter with me?
"You're a bitch, do you know that?" she came closer to me and was about to slap my cheek but I was too quick to avert my face away from her.
"What's the matter with you? You only saw me twice before, and now that you see me for the third time, you actually want to hit me on the face!" I felt the blood boiling down in me. This Stella was one heck of a war freak.
"Because you're a great fake!" she shouted. "You pretend to be just his foster sister but you're acting like---"
"What?" Had I acted so clingy to Nigel everytime she was around? Of course, I hadn't because I wanted to keep the engagement secret to her and to give Nigel full time with her. She was his girlfriend and she was something not forced to him, he must love her that much. I was just trying to be martyr. Would she ever understand the heartache I felt every time?
"What have I done? How have I been acting?" I asked again.
She took a deep breath and turned around so her back was facing me. "Okay, okay it's not you who's acting weird," she said trying to pacify her tone. "It's Nigel maybe... Why do I have a feeling that he's been protecting you like crazy?" Her voice was slightly raised again.
Protecting me like crazy?
Then, she turned around to show her angry face to me. "Tell me, why was he so damn worried when you fainted the last time that the three of us were together? Tell me, why did he act so damn worried?"
So, Maria Stella, his girlfriend, also noticed Nigel's concern to me like what Kara did. So, it was really true. Nigel had been worried about me. But, was that the only reason why Stella was suspecting about my relationship with Nigel? Wasn't it a shallow reason for her to suspect?
"He was worried because I'm his sister?" I lied. Oh, crap!
"Come on, you're not even sure of what you're talking. You sound so fake!" she complained. "Are you really trying to let me believe on that? I haven't seen him that worried about me. I'm his girlfriend, for pete's sake!" Maria Stella cast me an angry, fiery glare.
Oh, I already had enough of this!
"Well, if you have complaints on how Nigel is treating me, you've confronted the wrong person. I think, Nigel's the one who can answer you who I am to him. Go ask him," I strongly said as I remained firm on where I stood.
"Why do I have this feeling that behind your innocent facade is a devious, scheming bitch? Tell me, what are you planning, bitch?" she yelled.
Before you become his girlfriend, I've already been engaged to him. How do you think you would react if I'd tell you that marrying Nigel is my absolute goal?
"Don't answer me with that damn glare!" she stormed off.
You're glaring at me, too! I wanted to shout at her but I tried to calm my temper. "I can't answer your questions, Stella. Please, will you leave now?" I spoke clenching my fists at my sides.
I saw her raise her right hand as if to slap me again but she hesitated for some reason so she just clenched it before my face. "I am Nigel's girlfriend, not you, so you better behave yourself properly." She flipped her straight hair at her right shoulder before she walked towards the door.
How could a very beautiful woman act so very insecure? I was not even doing anything...
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It had been a week since Nigel was out of the country. I attended my classes the whole day and, afterwards, sat on a bench near the parking area to wait for my driver. Kara still had her last period going on so, as usual on a Tuesday afternoon, I sat alone on the bench. Marcos, my driver, had been instructed by Nigel to wait for me and not the other way around. However, since I wanted to stay for a while every afternoon in this particular area to just loaf around, I told Marcos to fetch me twenty minutes after my last period. It was just, I thought, finding another private space...
In this particular afternoon, I neither stared at passing people nor read a book, instead I spent it gazing Nigel's number in my phone. I wanted to call him, ask him how he was doing and, most especially, hear his voice.
I also wanted to tell him about Stella's jealous outburt last week. Yet I had already decided that I would just shut my mouth about it. If she really wanted a confrontation, she had to come face-to-face with Nigel.
My mind wandered again to that night when Stella barged in the condo unit and disclosed her insecurities. As far as I remembered, the first time I saw her, Nigel was kissing her just outside my bedroom; and the second time, Nigel was accompanying her all the time in the sugar factory. So how did she ever tell that there was more to my relationship with Nigel when it was she who always got his attention?
Wait, did she ever notice my feelings for him? Did she ever see how painful it was to me when I saw them kissing each other? Did she ever feel how hurt I was that Nigel invited her to go with us to the sugar factory? Was I that too apprent?
Yet, she said it was not me. It was Nigel...
I was so deep in my thoughts until I felt the aching of my head. I pressed my temples with my left fingers; my right hand was still holding the phone.
I was in that state when somebody tapped me on the shoulder. When I looked up, I met Dylan's smiling eyes.
"Why stare at the President's number?"
"Huh?" I asked puzzled.
He pointed a finger to my phone. "That's the President's number you've been looking at since five minutes ago," Dylan affirmed as he sat beside me. So, he had been watching me...
I gave him a lazy smile as I greeted him, "Hi."
"You seem lonely, señorita," he commented while giving me a scrutinizing look.
I shrugged my shoulders and placed my phone in my bag. "I just want to text him, that's all," I answered lazily.
"So, why not text him?"
"Because it will complicate everything," I muttered within my breath absent-mindedly.
"Why?"
Oh, it was so stupid of me to say those words! I didn't want to disclose to him my complicated relationship with Nigel. How would he react if he'd know that Nigel had a fiancèe and a girlfriend at the same time? It would need a lot of explaining to do... and I couldn't even explain it to myself.
"Just don't ask why, Dylan."
He became silent for a while.
I became silent, too.
"Do you mind if I ask?" Dylan asked afterwards.
"What?"
"What's your relationship with the President, Althea?"
I was appalled to hear those words coming from him. Last week, it was Maria Stella. Now, it was Dylan who actually wanted to know my relationship with Nigel!
"I'm sorry... It's just that I think I've seen you a couple of times being hurt because of him... Well, I know I don't have the right to ask. If you don't want to answer, it's okay. Just forget I asked." He raised his hands as if in surrender.
I stared at his face. Why was my relationship with Nigel a big deal to a lot of people? Nigel himself hadn't giving it a damn! Of all people, it should have been he who should give it the biggest of deal, not Maria Stella nor Dylan! Oh, why did I feel so shattered? Why did I feel so angry all of a sudden?
"Yeah, just forget you asked because I would never answer you anyway," I said apparently showing him my irritation.
He stared at my face, like really a long time. Sensing the anger in my countenance, he bent down his head. " I've crossed the borderline... I'm really sorry."
I turned my face away from him.
I'm sorry, too. I've just had enough of this. I wanted to tell him.
"Seems like you're not in the mood today," I heard him say later. "If I asked, it's just that I want to be a friend, Althea, like someone you can talk to every time you need one." Dylan stood up and gathered his books as if preparing to leave.
Realizing that he was just trying to be a friend, I stood up and held his left arm. "I'm sorry, too. It's just that I'm not really in the best of mood today."
"No, it's my fault," he said. "I should have not meddled in your personal life. I've assumed too much."
I released his arm, "Assumed?"
"Yeah... I've assumed that we... we are already friends," he stammered.
Come on, Dylan!
"Of course, we are friends," I let my hand flew to spank his arm. He jolted and I let out a laugh. "Enough of this, okay? If I become stormy a while ago, it's maybe because I'm still not ready to share, Dylan. Can we just move on?"
Finally, he gave me his signature angelic smile.
"Okay, let's move on?" I asked for the second time.
"Yeah, of course," he said still smiling.
I let out a deep audible breath in relief and he smiled more.
We both sat down again.
"So, why are you here?" I started a new topic for conversation.
However, I was not able to hear what Dylan had replied when my eyes caught sight of somebody I didn't expect to see today!
He was there standing beside his car, which I hadn't actually noticed arriving, and was intently looking at me... and to Dylan.
He was already here!
I heard Dylan's surprised gasp beside me, "Oh, boy, I'm so busted right now!"
Oh, no, didn't he ask permission to leave the office? You really are so busted right now, Dylan! You're so dead!
"Tell the President I'm not even here," he stood up, gathered again his books, and walked with big strides away from me... And just like that, he disappeared. Oh, poor Dylan Fernandez!
Gathering my things, I stood up quickly and moved to where Nigel was standing.
"You've arrived," I expressed happily when I was finally a few inches away from him.
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A/N
So, most of you hate Nigel now (too bad he doesn't have a POV, lol) and you can't wait for Althea to finally realize her stupidity! Well, I'd like to tell you that it's what my freaking heart tells me, too. However, Althea's journey to her realization would still take a long way... Your heart couldn't take it anymore? But I am still to give her the greatest heartbreak of her life and we're not even there yet... so how do you think would you take it?
You want to say "Enough!" Well, I'm sorry... because the author here is the ultimate heartbreaker! I'm just as stubborn as she! Lol!
But, promise, when our dear crazy, stupid Thea gets to realize everything, REJECTION of our proud hero is the sweetest REVENGE! (Ooopps, I've just revealed something... tsk, tsk. This isn't good.)
Anywayz, thanks for sticking around! Please VOTE, COMMENT, and SHARE.
Always grateful to you,
(sapphiregirl22) ~_^