My eyes were locked with Nikolai's, I didn't look away and neither did he. All of a sudden, I realized how alone I was in this room full of people. He was the only one I considered mine after the death of my parents but he belonged to someone else. I broke eye contact to look at the unfamiliar faces around me.  They were mostly Costellos... his family. Bianca was also a Costello, she was his cousin. I had no one.

I had no one...

"E, are you alright? What's wrong?" Bianca's voice echoed again.

I ignored her and took off. I walked down the hall toward the exit. A sarcastic laugh dripping with bitterness left my lips. My eyes had turned red and were glistening with tears but I didn't let them fall.

I walked past the security, keeping my head down. The cold air bit into my skin. I had forgotten my coat inside but I didn't care. I just wanted to be away from here, away from him. I don't want to see him again.

My heels were a little unstable on the cobblestone driveway but I kept on going without looking back. Just as I reached the gates of this enormous palace, a cold voice from behind halted my movement.

"Where do you think you're going?"

I didn't need to turn around to see who it was. Fear crawled on my back just at the sound of his voice. I stood still for a moment, my chest tightened with incredible force. I sucked in a breath to keep the tears in. He will not see me cry. Nikolai Costello was nothing to me anymore.

"I'm so sorry for coming here uninvited, Don Nikolai Costello. I didn't know that it was your engagement, Bianca lied to me and brought me here. If I knew that you were going to be here, I wouldn't have come." I spat, my voice laced with venom.

I can't show him how much the news of his engagement has broken me, hurt me. I can't show him that. He made it clear that there was nothing between us from the very beginning, I won't act stupid and tell him that maybe, I started to feel something more than just a physical thing.

"Stop acting like a fucking child."

"And don't worry, I didn't drink the celebratory champagne or ate anything while I was here. You can keep the clothes, shoes and all the other costly stuff you bought for me, I don't need them. And for the rest of the things you have done for me like food and stuff, I'll pay you back!"

I told him everything that was weighing on my chest from that night. How he made me feel so low and worthless.

"Jesus Christ, Evangeline. I don't fucking care about that"

I laughed sarcastically and ignored his words, I continued to walk down the driveway while I could hear his heavy footsteps behind me, catching up to me. I felt his fingers wrapping around my elbow and flinched away from him. Finally facing him with pure anger reflecting in my eyes.

"DON'T EVER TOUCH ME AGAIN!"

His eyes darkened, and I could feel the anger radiating off his body but then he gave his head a shake. "I asked you a question. Where are you going?"

I wrapped my arms around myself. "Home!" I declared.

He nodded like he understood. He jerked his head toward the entrance of the hall where his engagement party was held. "Let's go back inside, we'll leave together in an hour."

I raised an eyebrow comically and scoffed. It was funny how he thought that I was still going to live with him. "What?" 

His expression was indifferent, bored, he was trying hard not to show his anger but now I knew better than to trust him again. "We'll go home together, Evangeline"

A sardonic breath of amusement escaped my lips and I shook my head. "I'm not talking about your house, I'm not going back there. I'm talking about mine. The one where I lived with my parents. It belongs to me, doesn't it?"

I could see his clenched jaw and how hard he was trying to keep in anger in check but I didn't care. I was too furious to care. "Stop being fucking stubborn, and get the fuck back inside. We will fucking talk about this when we will get home!"

Frustration shot into my vein, spreading into my body like wildfire. "What part of I'm not going back to your house, don't you understand?!"

"Don't make a scene out here and get back inside"

My cheeks heated with frustration. "I don't take orders from you anymore!"

He pinched the bridge of his nose and mumbled profanities under his breath, I could tell, I could hear him mumble colorful words.

His heated, dark gaze met mine. "You are not going anywhere."

"Yes, I am."

"Do you have any idea where the fuck you are supposed to go? Do you have any money on you? Cab fare? Do you know the fucking address? Do you have any idea what could happen to you in a matter of mere seconds after stepping out of his place?"

I was so angry, I was downright furious when I stepped out of that hall. I was so consumed by rage that I didn't even think about all these things. I didn't know where my parents' house was, I didn't know the address. I didn't know how to even get there. But I won't give him the satisfaction that he had won.

"I'll figure it out!"

He looked like he was at the end of his patience with me, well, so was I. "Don't fucking push me, Evangeline."

I breathed out a sarcastic laugh. "Or what? You'll threaten to rape me?!"

"Evangeline..." His tone was harsh but also contrite. It almost sounded like his voice was coated with regret. He let out a dry breath.

"Niko..."

Both of our attention turned toward the source of the deep voice. Scott stood before us with a frown, his gaze coasted between Nikolai and me before it settled on Nikolai.

"Your father is asking for you," Scott said to Nikolai.

I breathed out in relief as I saw Nikolai walking past me and towards Scott. He stopped before him and said something to him under his breath. Scott nodded and responded to his words before Nikolai walked back toward the hall.

"Scott, can you please drop me off at my parent's place," I asked him nicely. I didn't have any other option and he and Bianca were the only two people I knew here. I was not going to ask Bianca as she had lied to me and I was furious at her for that.

He blew out a breath. "Sweet cheeks, we will go to Niko's home first and then I'll take you anywhere you want to go, alright?"

I stared at him. He was as bad as Nikolai, I didn't trust him, and the fact that he had suddenly started to treat me better made me even more cautious of him. He and I have never seen eye to eye since the day we met. There was a reason behind the sudden change in his demeanor, I needed to know what it was but right now I needed his help more.

Scott walked to me and stopped until he was at arm's length. He took off his jacket and wrapped it around my bare shoulders. I clutched it closer to me as warmth enveloped me. His jacket smelled a little bit like Nikolai's cologne, I squeezed my eyes shut.

"Thank you," I mumbled.

"Come on, let's go back inside."

I shook my head. "I can't go back in, I won't"

I can't stand to see him celebrate his engagement with another woman after he had broken me with his words.

He looked around as if contemplating what to do and then sighed deeply. "I can't leave until Niko leaves, sweet cheeks"

"Then I'll stay outside here. I'll wait, you can go back to the party"

He pulled out his car keys. "Come on."

I followed behind him until we reached Scott's car. I couldn't believe he was going to lock me inside, so, I wouldn't leave.

"I won't leave, Scott. I don't have anywhere to go. You don't have to lock me in your car."

He glanced at me, amused. "I'm not locking you in my car. We will sit in the car until this party is over, alright?"

"You don't have to stay with me, I'll be fine on my own."

"Stop talking and get in the car, Sweet cheeks"

He sat in the driver's seat and I settled beside him in the passenger seat. He turned the engine on, clicking on the car's heater. I eased back into the comfortable seat and closed my eyes. An unknown song softly played on the radio. I rested my head against the window and looked out.

"You know what, Sweet cheeks, we may have gotten off on the wrong foot but I think you are not as stupid as I thought you were," Scott said, his elbow resting on the center console.

A hint of a smile pulled up on my lips. "Is that you trying to make things better with me?"

He cast a sideways glance at me. "Is it working?"

I rolled my eyes. "Don't you have a way with words"

The amusement that was there a second ago disappeared. He stared at me for a minute and then asked. "What happened between you and Niko?"

The shock of what he had asked me made me tense my muscles. I had no idea what to say, I don't even understand it myself. What it was, what had happened, and why was I here... sitting in a car with Scott.

He locked me up in a dark room for hours and that didn't faze me, he killed a man right in front of me and I didn't feel anything, not fear or disgust. What scared me to death was him, drunk out of his mind, and that monster peeking through his eyes and into my soul. 

I opened my mouth when the buzzing of his cell phone cut me off. I glanced at the screen and saw Niko written on the top. Whatever he said Scott only replied with a single word. He hung up and glanced at me.

"I have to go inside---"

"It's alright... I'll wait "

He nodded and got out of the car, I noticed how he took the key with him and locked the car, it showed how much he didn't trust me.

I broke down as soon as Scott disappeared from my view, sobbing loud and hard, gasping as I try to catch my breath. Complete hopelessness converted into tears that rained down my face at lightning speed.

I pulled my legs up, curling up on the seat, sobbing in the darkness, in the silence, until I had no tears left to cry. I didn't even know why I was crying. I couldn't pinpoint a single emotion I felt. Why was he affecting me so much? I told him I won't love him, I told him I won't ask for his love and I won't! I won't! I don't love him... but there was something deep inside my chest that hurt every time I thought about his words, his engagement.

I wiped my tears with the back of my hands. I looked at myself in the rearview mirror and saw the reflection of my soul. I was a mess. Mascara was running down my cheeks, my eyes were puffy, my lips chapped, and I looked like I had been beaten up.

An hour passed by as I waited for Scott to come back.

Two hours passed by and I felt myself getting tired. My muscles ached and my throat was parched.

For three hours, I sat in the car curled up into a ball when people finally started to leave.

I saw his relatives, and his fiancé's relatives getting into their cars and leaving the party. Then I saw Scott, he came out of the hall and stepped down the flight of stairs. Then an army of bodyguards came outside, observing every single corner of the place, and then nodded at one another.

Nikolai stepped out of the large wooden door with his father beside him. His father was talking to him while he just nodded his head. He held his father's hand and placed a kiss on the back. A car halted before them and his father settled inside leaving Nikolai and Scott alone in the driveway with a bunch of his soldiers.

They walked together in the direction of Scott's car. I tightly held Scott's jacket around my shoulders and looked down at my lap. The door from the driver's seat opened and Scott settled in.

I hid my puffy face away from him and looked out of the window. From my peripheral vision, I saw Nikolai's car zooming out of the driveway followed by multiple black SUVs.

"Where are you taking me now?" I asked him as he started the car.

"Home..." he answered. 

"Mine?"

"Niko's..."

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A/N

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