Trials of Love Pt. 01

She mouthed, 'I love you'. Then she plucked several of the roses from the bouquet and threw them into the audience.

Stephen escorted her from the stage, and she kept glancing in my direction. It appeared as if she was trying to tell me something, but there was no chance I could hear anything over the renewed applause. The other man moved to her side and took her hand. The familiarity of the gesture was disturbing.

I waited for five minutes for the crowd to thin before heading to the back of the stage. I needed those moments to calm down, whoever he was, it was evident that this wasn't the first time he and Kay had met. I found her changing room, but it was empty. I spotted one of Stephens lackeys in the corridor, the same one from the entrance lobby and grabbed his arm.

"Where's the hell is Kayla?" I asked. "Where's the fucking reception?"

"She's gone." He looked at me in surprise. "I thought you weren't..."

She'd gone, gone where? What the hell was going on. "Where has she gone? Who did she go with? We were supposed to be meeting backstage. She was supposed to wait for me."

"Stephen and Nigel, but Stephen said you'd decided not to go."

"I texted her to wait for me." I looked around the emptying building. There was no evidence of a reception here.

"So, where the fuck is it being held? It was supposed to be here."

He named the same nightclub the mayor's wife had mentioned.

"How the fuck am I supposed to get there?" I shouted at him, "and is this the all invite party the mayor's wife told me about earlier? The one I don't have an invite to, so how do I get in?"

"Diamond records were supposed to send you one when it was decided that they were going to host the reception."

"Well, they fucking well didn't, and who the fuck agreed that they could hold the fucking reception?" I was mad, and my language was showing it. I took a couple of deep breaths to try and calm down and then apologized to the man.

I pointed at the phone in the lackey's hand. "Call him," I demanded. I didn't need to say who, he knew.

He did, "Mr. Matthews... "

I snatched the phone from his hand, "Stephen, what the fuck is going on. Where the hell is Kay?" I was talking to a dead phone; he'd rung off after he'd heard my voice. What the hell was he playing at?

"Get him back on the line," I shouted.

He was punching numbers on his phone as I finished my rant. "He's not answering," he said a few moments later. "I think Stephen's limo is still here, we can take that. I believe that they used Nigel's."

I called Kay's phone, but it went straight to voicemail. I left her an angry message telling her she'd better get back to me ASAP.

"We can use Stephen's limo." the lackey confirmed, as he put his phone in his jacket pocket. One of these days I must learn their names, but there are just too many of them.

The limo took us downtown. I spent the journey trying in vain to call either Stephen or Kay. It didn't get any better when we arrived.

"If you don't have an invite or your name's not on the list, then you aren't getting in," the six foot six bouncer told me.

"I'll find Stephen," the lackey said as he flashed his invite to the doormen. He was checked against a list and had to show a photo ID before he was allowed in.

"Warn Stephen if I don't get in, he's fired, and I don't mean as my agent, I mean from the agency, and he better have a fucking good reason for hanging up on me."

The situation was ridiculous, and Stephen better have a bloody good reason as to why he had allowed the recording company to take over the reception. I was a majority owner of the management company, and I really wanted to know why the arraignments had been changed without anyone telling me.

A good ten minutes passed while I watched as a steady stream of people showed their invitations and entered the nightclub. Not one of them I recognized. Several gave me a sneering look as I paced up and down, which didn't do my temper any good.

Finally, a further ten minutes later, a contrite Stephen appeared behind the bouncer and the doormen.

"Why are you out here?" he said, but he lacked conviction in his voice.

"Because these fucking dickheads won't let me into my wife's reception, that's why," I shouted.

"Where's your invite?"

"What fucking invite, nobody sent me one, Stephen." I had him by his arm, and he could see the anger in my eyes.

"You've two choices, and only two," I said, and he could see I wasn't in the mood to argue. "Either I get in, or Kay comes out. Otherwise, you better start looking for a new job. While you are at it, you need to explain why we are not holding this reception. Why is the fucking recording company the host?"

He looked utterly confused at that.

"But... but they were supposed to get your approval to organize this," he said. "Come with me."

He grabbed my arm and started to pull me inside, only to come to a dead stop with the doorman's hand on his chest.

"I'm sorry sir, you can go in, but he can't. We've got strict instructions from the host, no entrance unless the persons on the list or can show us an invite. He hasn't got an invite, so he ain't coming in."

Stephen snatched the list from his hand and pointed at the title right at the top of the list. Over his shoulder, I saw that the name was Kay's.

"See here," he said, "where it says 'Reception for Kayla Ortiz? Well, he's her special guest, and I really wouldn't want to be you if her guest is refused entry."

They weren't moved.

"Do you know who I am?" he asked them.

They nodded and watched as he scribbled my name on the list.

"There," he said and handed the list back.

The bouncer and the doormen glanced at each other, then reluctantly waved me through.

I followed Stephen through the crowds. For a nightclub, the music was rather quiet, and I found out why almost immediately. Standing on a little stage was Kay, and the gentleman who I now knew was Nigel. He had a microphone and was in the middle of making a speech.

" ... and as I was saying earlier, it was my pleasure to listen to one of, if not the best, pianist in the world today in one of the finest concerts I've ever heard."

There was a long round of applause at that. "The best thing, is that Diamond Records has it saved for all time in a priceless recording, so you can all hear it again."

There was another loud round of applause at this and Kay managed to smile and blush at the same time.

His voice was familiar, but I couldn't place it. I started to step forward, but the crowds made it difficult to get much closer. I waved hoping to attract her attention, and I thought I saw her briefly looking in my direction, but then she turned back to listen as he continued, "Now there's something much more personal I'd like to say." He turned towards Kay. "I've only known this beautiful woman for four months, but they've been the best months of my life. In that time, we've become very good friends and have grown very close. We are no longer just business colleagues, we are so much more."

What the hell was he talking about? I began to push hard against the crowd in front of the stage to get closer, then froze. I watched in shock he dropped to one knee and held out a hand in which a ring glistened between two fingers.

"Kayla Ortiz, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife, will you marry me?" he said.

There was a gasp and then the room erupted into a wall of applause. My last sight of her before she was hidden behind the crowd of onlookers was the smile on her face. Stephen was standing behind me, and he took hold of my arm and prevented me fighting my way to the stage.

An icy stillness washed over me. Fuck, of course, how stupid had I been, it had been right in front of my face all the time. The mysterious 'N'. Now it all made sense. Fucking Nigel; he was her lover. She was having an affair with him. I had to get away; I felt nauseous and needed fresh air. I lurched away; pulling myself from Stephen's grasp and ran from the nightclub. I made it to the curb before I threw up. I was fortunate in that I had so little in my stomach that I made little mess.

I was lucky, a cab was dropping off passengers at the door, and I dived into it. I gave him the name of the hotel and sat back as the tears flooded down my face. No wonder she hadn't wanted me to be there tonight. She had her own announcement to make; but it wasn't the one for which I'd hoped. There was a disturbance in the crowd as we pulled away from the curb, but I ignored it.

Shit, I realized Stephen had to have known what had been planned. My mind was racing, nothing that had happened today made any sense to me. She had said she'd loved me, yet it was evident from what Nigel had said that they knew each other in a way that destroyed our marriage, and somehow Stephen was involved, but why? I'd always thought of him as a good friend.

At the hotel, I tore off the tux and changed into some comfortable clothes. I had two choices, stay and fight, or leave. It didn't take me long to decide. She'd made her choice, and in such a public way, something she'd refused me for the past 10 years.

Call me a coward, I don't care, I felt so betrayed that all I wanted to do was run away and lick my wounds. But where? Then I recalled I did have a bolt hole that no one knew about. I threw a few things in a bag, grabbed my passport from the safe and was on my way to the airport, all in the space of five minutes. My phone was going ballistic in my pocket, and I switched it off.

At the airport, there was a flight leaving to Zürich in two hours, and I could get the last business class seat.

To be continued

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