Chương 9: Betrayal

Jade stood outside the room with complex emotions as her hand rested on the doorknob.

She looked at the room number again just to be sure she was standing in front of the right room. '121', that's the right room number. Then why did it seem like she had heard Cale saying something about getting married?

Jade slowly opened the door, she was death-struck by the sight of Cale kissing that familiar blonde-haired woman. She felt like she was frozen. A shiver ran down her spine. She didn't understand what was happening right now.

'Why was Cale kissing his Cousin? Wasn't Stephanie supposed to be his cousin? So why were they kissing so passionately?' Her heart was contracting, and her chest felt so tight. She felt like she couldn't breathe as her chest rose high.

"Ca...Cale?" She called out in a quavery voice. Cale pulled away from the kiss but he wasn't fast enough for Jade to have missed him kissing Stephanie.

Cale was shocked to see her standing by the door. He almost hit himself for being found out by Jade. He had thought she'd be at work and would only drop by later. Who would have thought...

Jade slowly took a few steps into the room as she looked from Cale to Stephanie "Cale... why were... you kissing your cousin?" Jade asked with difficulty as her voice quavered and her eyes slowly turned red. She didn't know why she still asked such a rhetorical question. Maybe she wanted to know if he had lied to her about Stephanie being his cousin or if this was incest.

Jade stood there like she was glued to the floor. Her eyes couldn't believe what just happened in front of her.

She had come to take care of him and here he was kissing his 'cousin'!

"What cousin?" Mrs Stuart asked when she walked into the room and overheard Jade say 'Cousin'. She had a frown on her face as she was confused about what was happening. When did Cale have a cousin? Her frown deepened when she saw Jade's expression which looked like her world was crumbling down on her. Jade had heard her voice but she was too distorted to look at her right now.

Jade looked at Cale intently expecting some kind of answer that would make her believe what she had just seen wasn't real. Something like, Stephanie took advantage of his sick predicament and forced herself on him. She wanted him to say something, anything at all. Anything that would make her feel she had misunderstood him.

Sometimes when we're in love, we'd rather believe the lies than face the truth even when it's staring at us right in the face, just because we don't want to lose the other person.

"Jade...It's not what you think..." Cale tried explaining guiltily as Stephanie sat down with a smug smile on her face, looking pleased with the turn of events. She had not expected Jade to walk in on them, but she had hoped Jade would be in the know about her relationship with Cale. She had thought of ways of revealing their relationship to Jade, but it seemed she didn't have to do anything anymore. Mrs Stuart observed the smug look on Stephanie and she got an inkling of what the commotion was all about.

"You!! Get out!" Mrs Stuart said to Stephanie as her eyes flashed red in anger. Stephanie shuddered at Mrs Stuart's outburst. She gave Jade a last look that interpreted, 'I'm not sorry about this' before stepping out of the room.

Jade felt like the room was spinning at the moment. 'It's not what you think? Isn't that the typical guy's excuse when they got caught?' She had hoped for something better. Something better than that statement of guilt.

What was she supposed to think, when her man was kissing his supposed cousin? She saw the pleading and guilty look Cale was sending her way, and it made her feel worse.

She felt like dying at the spot where she stood. She felt crushed to dust. She saw her man embracing another girl and kissing her passionately. And he was expecting her to think what?

A tear rolled down her cheek.

Cale felt a pang of guilt in his heart when he saw Jade's broken expression. He felt bad for seeing her like this. He had messed up, and he knew it. Jade had been a sweet girl. She had loved him a bit too much.

Jade unconsciously took a step back. She didn't want to hear any explanations anymore. She held her tears at bay, as she dropped the nylon bag and bowed to Mrs Stuart who was equally broken by all this before dashing out of the room.

Mrs Stuart had never expected her son to treat Jade this way like she meant nothing to him. She shot a disappointed look at her son and said, "She didn't deserve this. And you don't deserve her".