THE CONSORTIUM SYSTEM

THE ULTIMATE BETRAYAL

How could she be pregnant? But there was no other explanation for her weight gain and swollen belly. He just sat there staring at Ashley's swollen belly. As far as he could remember, he has never touched her, not even held her hands once since they got married or kissed her. The first and the last time he tried doing that was during the wedding and he paid dearly for that when she embarrassed him by walking away. Suddenly she goes on a so-called business trip and returns with pregnancy?

 There was no other explanation, she cheated on him, and got pregnant by another man. Her pregnancy was already showing so she was at least five months pregnant now. He stood. His body was moving but it was like he was in a trance, watching everything happening instead of actually living in the moment. Bianca was saying something to him but he couldn't hear what she was saying. He walked slowly towards Ashley until he was a few inches away from her face.

"How could you do this to me? Y.you cheated on me. You’re carrying another man’s child.”

Ashley just snorted without a hint of remorse on her face. Then she reached into one of her small bags and brought out a file. 

"That's the divorce paper. Yes, I cheated on you and you're clearly mad at me, so yeah, sign the papers and make it real quick so I don’t have to see your face again and you don’t have to see mine."

He stared at the file in her hand with shock. 

“She’s right. Just sign it, don’t make a fuss.” Bianca said in support of her daughter.

So this was the plan to kick him out of the house.

"No."

"No?" Bianca furrowed her brows. "What do you mean by 'No'?"

Bianca carefully took Ashley to the nearest seat close to her and turned back to Xaden. 

"Look here, I tell you what to do, okay? I tell you to run into the woods, you do that without complaining. I tell you to wash the dishes, you do that. Now I'm asking you to sign the papers and you don't want to?"

Xaden walked towards Ashley. He wanted to know why she did it. Why she cheated on him, why she had another man's baby growing in her. He then stopped and turned to Jay and the others.

"If I sign these papers, be sure to know that next you'd be hearing from me, I'll be suing you for going against your grandfather’s will."

Before she could say anything, someone else walked into the room. He was tall with a bulky frame that made the tank top he was wearing look like a baby's bib. He wore a black cap and held a bag in his hand. A lady's bag.

"Kelvin. I didn't know you would come here. Forgive us. Now isn't the right time to…" Bianca was speaking when Kelvin cut in. 

"I got tired of waiting outside." He noticed Xaden and then stopped.

"What's he still doing here?" He said to Bianca, "I thought you said he'll be gone before Ashley comes back."

That was when everything fell into place. Xaden knew at once. She was cheating on him all this time. So this was the supposed boyfriend he thought Ashley broke up with years ago. They were still together and did things behind his back. And what was worse, no one was surprised to see the man here, that means they knew all along that Ashley had been cheating on him from the first day he got married to her. He just wanted to walk up to the guy, strangle the life out of him but that wouldn't solve anything. He just walked out of the house.

He met Catherine still in the dining room when he came back. He was gone for about four hours. He needed the air and the space to carefully analyze what happened and to try and calm himself down. 

"I'm really sorry about all this, Xaden"

"How could she do this to me? I loved her with all my heart, Catherine. I stayed here for her sake, endured everything for her sake with the hope of gaining her love so why?"

"We can’t talk here for long. Aunt Bianca doesn’t know that I’m here and if she finds out, I’ll be in trouble. You know she doesn’t like me speaking to you. Let's get to your room, okay?"

He nodded and they walked together. As soon as they got to his room, he began to rant.

"I gave her everything- not that I had much- but I really loved her. I did everything she asked me to do. Uncle Trevor even told me to be patient with her, that eventually she will accept me but that never happened. I'm just so stupid. I would have just gone back when I had the chance to."

And the conversation went on and on, even though it was one sided and it was Xaden mostly doing the talking. Soon he got tired and stopped talking. He turned to the other side of the bed where she was seated but what he saw made him jump out of the bed. 

Catherine was half naked. What was left on her upper half was just her pink lace bra but she was still wearing her pajama shorts. 

"Wha..wha..what are you doing?" That was the one thing that could come out from Xaden's mouth. 

Catherine was like a baby sister to him. There was no way he would touch her. She came closer to him and tried to make him touch her, they struggled till they ended up falling back on the bed and he rolled away immediately.

"Put your shirt back on, Catherine. I can't do this with you." 

Immediately he said this, Catherine started screaming. She used her nails to tear her skin and clothes and then she was rolling on the floor. Xaden was confused. He tried to make her stop but she continued screaming. 

"You just tried to rape me!"

"No, I didn't. Catherine, stop this nonsense and wear your clothes."

Not longer than thirty seconds, Jay walked into the room with a smirk on his face. 

"Caught you."

Xaden stood up straight. "It's not what it looks like."

“Oh, I think it is. Your initial plan was to walk into this household and try to bag every single girl in the household. First it was Ashley and now, Catherine? Who knows next time, it'd be Emma?"

"Look, Jay. Nothing happened between both of us. I just turned and saw her half naked already on the bed."

Catherine sprang up, took her shirt and ran out of the room now that her part was done.

"But what was she doing here in your room? Don’t bother trying to explain, we put cameras in your room and we have everything on video.”

“Then the video will prove my innocence.” Xaden said and Jay laughed.

“How can you be so stupid? Of course we’re not going to just release the video just like that, we’ll make sure it implicates you as a rapist and sue you to court. Now sign the divorce papers and leave this house right now or be ready to spend your whole life in jail."

He couldn't argue with Jay any longer. Overall, he was tired of everything. So all this time that Catherine had been nice to him, it was just a plan so he would trust her and they would use her  to bring him down. He took the papers on the table and signed them. He handed over the paper, packed his stuff and left the house quietly. There was no one he wanted to say goodbye to. Not even Ashley. Outside the house, there was a red Cadillac packed in the garage. It was Kelvin's. He angrily walked to the car and kicked the tires but in return, he was the one who hurt his leg. He winced in pain and dragged his luggages behind him. 

It was late so the street was quiet. They couldn’t even grant him the mercy of staying the night so he would leave in the morning. Jay insisted that he leave their house tonight. He fell to the ground and breathed heavily. He was really tired and thirsty and unfortunately he was in such a hurry that he forgot to take at least a bottle of water with him. When he left the house earlier, he had gone on a long walk which was what contributed to his tiredness. He laid his back on the ground and took a deep breath. He couldn't believe that the only person he trusted hated him too. Catherine. She was a wonderful girl and the only person who was kind to him. Why did she have to betray him now? Was she forced to do it? Did Jay force her to do it? But why didn’t she warn him if she really cared? The only good thing now was that he was out of their lives for good. There was no way he would be going back to that family. He couldn't take it any longer.

A beam of light almost blinded him. It was from a cab. He sprang up and flagged down the cab. He was so tired that he didn’t even think of how suspicious it was for a cab to be driving at such a late hour. The cab slowly stopped. Xaden hurriedly carried his bags and walked to the car. As he was about to open the passenger's door, something hit him from behind. He fell on the car. Something hit him again and then he fell to the floor. His vision was blurry but he could see two people, with masks on their faces, carrying bats. 

“Our boss said we should deliver a message to you. This is a warning to never return. Stay away from his woman forever.” One of them said as they dragged him to the bush by the roadside before the beating commenced.

They continued beating Xaden and once they saw that his eyes were closed and he was no longer moving as he bled all over the road, they entered the car and zoomed off, leaving Xaden for dead. Xaden heard the car leave but couldn't open his eyes. He was barely breathing. He thought for sure that he would die here by the roadside, alone, cold and hungry with no one left alive to even remember or mourn him. How sad.

Suddenly, the ring in his right hand began to glow as it was covered with his blood. It was the last gift his grandfather gave to him, the ring he had promised never to take off.

[Host Detected. Supreme System Activated.]