The CEO’s Unexpected Child

CHAPTER 1

CATHERINE SMITH

The pain I felt couldn’t be measured with mere words; it was too overwhelming to bear. As I listened to the couple in front of me, tears streamed down my face, and I kept wondering...

Why?

Why?

I just wanted to understand why I had been betrayed by the two people I trusted most in my life. How could I have been so blind? How did I not see it coming? He had shown signs, but I ignored them. Why?

The pain consumed me, tearing me apart from the inside. A storm of conflicting emotions raged within me. Despair gripped my heart, leaving me unsure of which path to take once I left this place.

I kept asking myself what I had done wrong to deserve such a cruel betrayal. Was there something missing in me or in our relationship that would lead my fiancé, Hector, the man I was supposed to marry, to treat me this way? And what about Vangie, my dear friend, advisor, and confidant, whom I loved like a sister? How could they do this to me?

She was my friend, and he was my fiancé! I screamed in my mind, desperately trying to cover my ears to block out the sounds from the other side of the door.

I was desperate, my heart shattered as if by a dagger. No physical pain could compare to the agony I was experiencing. At the same time, I felt like a fool forever believing in such low, hypocritical, false, and lying people!

A torrent of emotions surged within me, but none were good. They were all so terrible that I didn’t know what to do or where to go. I was disoriented by the pain, and all I wanted was for the earth to swallow me whole until it passed.

I kept wondering what I had done wrong to deserve this betrayal. Was it my fault? Had I failed in my relationship? And if so, where? Was I not a good friend? At that moment, I couldn’t pinpoint what had been lacking in me or where I had failed for this to be happening.

My thoughts screamed with questions, and even though I tried to silence them, they refused to stop. Lying on the bathroom floor, staring at the white ceiling, everything around me was white, but inside, I was consumed by pure darkness.

I had loved Hector so much, my fiancé, and I had also loved Vangie, my best friend whom I considered a sister. She’s the one who always gave me great advice. And now, look at me... hiding in the suite of the hotel where I worked as a cleaner, while I listened to the two of them having s*x in this room. The very two who always claimed to hate each other, who always bickered, were just a few meters away from me, having wild s*x, making vows of love to each other. And the worst part? Being ridiculed and realizing that I was a laughingstock to them. Hearing everything they said about me was destroying me.

I shouldn’t have even been at this hotel, since I worked at another one in the same chain, but today of all days, I was asked to cover for an absent employee.

Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that the bed I had arranged, where they had even demanded rose petals and a fine bottle of champagne, things not even part of my job, would be prepared for them, a couple I was told was deeply in love and celebrating their one-year anniversary, the hotel’s VIP couple, as they were frequent visitors here.

One year?

I asked myself, in what world had I been living that I hadn’t seen they had been having an affair all this time? If I had been with Hector for a year and a half, did that mean they had been making a fool of me for a year? Yes, that was right. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it. And he had never done anything like this for me, not even when he proposed. He had only proposed because I wanted to end our relationship, sensing his growing distance and wanting him to be happy, even if it meant I would suffer from not having him anymore.

I had always been this way, sacrificing my own happiness to see others happy, even if it broke me.

He had said no, that he loved me and that we should make our union official. On the day of our engagement, his mother and father hadn’t even bothered to attend our celebratory dinner, since they didn’t think I was worthy of their son, the heir to their neighborhood grocery store.

Hector was the kind of man who was great in the neighborhood and who probably had a great future ahead of him. The one who walked by and made all the women swoon, the one with parents in excellent financial condition. Meanwhile, I was just the daughter of a man who was always getting into trouble and a submissive mother who lowered her head to all the humiliations my father put her through. The typical poor girl, living in the smallest apartment, always hearing her parents’ endless fights, lacking the courage to end their sick relationship of complete emotional dependence.

“Ahhh... yes... harder, my love, harder.”

I pressed my hands against my ears in a desperate attempt to block out the noise that invaded my mind. Sounds that would likely haunt me, replaying in my shattered thoughts.

I could have ended it all then, but my mother needed my help with the household bills, and my supervisor despised me. She had even threatened to fire me several times. If it weren’t for my great friend, Claire, that probably would have already happened.

That’s why I was still there, hiding in the bathroom, terrified they might find me. I had planned to slip away quietly, but when I heard and recognized those voices, I froze and remained rooted to the spot, too scared to move even a foot.

The tears kept streaming down as the moans grew louder and more unbearable. If anyone had ever experienced betrayal like this, I wished they could tell me. Was it my fault? Had I done something wrong to deserve this? My mind was in such a state of collapse that I didn’t even know what to think or how to act in the face of this chaos.

After a few agonizing minutes, the moaning stopped, and the only sound from the room was their heavy breathing, signifying that they had just finished, tearing me apart inside as well.

All I could think about was the anger I felt towards myself and for allowing them to make a fool of me, for letting them take advantage of my kindness and deceive me.

After a few seconds, I gathered the courage to peek through the small crack in the door that faced the bed. They were covered with a thin silk sheet, and Vangie’s long blonde hair spread across the pillow. She was that stereotypically beautiful woman with a big butt, large breasts, light eyes, always perfectly styled hair, and fake nails, just like her eyelashes. She was admired for her beauty in the neighborhood, just as Hector was, with his six-foot frame, strong arms, broad chest, and charming smile.

I always wondered what he saw in me. Every woman I knew said I was lucky to have a prince by my side. They should be here now to see this prince turn into a frog. The man I would surely hate more than anyone else in my life from this day forward.

“You need to figure it out, Hector. We’re celebrating a year together, and I don’t understand why you’re still with that fool Catherine. You know very well she’ll never be woman enough for you,” Vangie said.

Me, a fool? Was she really saying that? Where was the friend who always told me I was wonderful? Where was she?

He smiled at her and replied, “I’m only with her to annoy my parents. They think they can control me and plan my future, so I chose the poorest girl in the neighborhood. But I’m not going to take it that far. I’ll break off the engagement a few days before the wedding.”

My heart bleeds even more now. So that’s why he was with me?

“Ha ha ha... you proposed to her just to avoid marrying Linda. It’s almost funny.”

Linda? The daughter of his mother’s best friend? I knew that girl wasn’t coming to his house for nothing.

How many times had I questioned Hector about this girl, and he always said she was ‘just a family friend.’

"All lies! Everything...!”

“Catherine is a fool, Linda is another! Your parents could find a better bride for you, my love,” Vangie said in a whining voice, giving him a peck on the lips.

I felt disgusted just watching the interaction between the two.

“I know, but I’m not going to marry either of them. Do you really think I’m going to take Catherine to the altar? Ha ha ha... she barely knows how to have proper s*x. I even had to teach her how to kiss. Catherine still hasn’t learned how to satisfy me. Maybe it’s her body which was too thin, since she doesn’t have many curves. They say Mexican women have beautiful curves, so Catherine must have been born in the wrong country because nothing about her is good enough. There are times when I have to put in so much effort to feel pleasure with her that it becomes almost impossible! But you know what, I’ll end this soon. I just let my parents suffer a little more.”

He hadn’t felt pleasure? He barely entered me before he was already finished!

“Ha ha ha... not even good enough to satisfy you! I can imagine how it was for you to take her virginity; she must have cried for hours.”

I clenched my fists when I heard that. I couldn’t believe he had told her about how it was when he took my virginity. I had felt pain. Hector had said it would pass, and over time, the s*x even became tolerable, but I never knew what it was like to have an orgasm. He’d always come right away, then turn to the side and go to sleep.

Asshole!

“She doesn’t know how to please a man. It’s no wonder we haven’t had s*x for months. I don’t feel a desire for her anymore. I don’t think I’ll wait those two months to end this engagement. I’ll finish it within the next few days.”

I hugged my body as tears fell, the anger I felt mingling with pain, shame, and sadness, all at once.

“Calm down, my love. You could always leave her at the altar. Have you thought about that?” Left at the altar? He smiled at the "idea" she gave, but before he could respond, a noise echoed through the room.

Beep, beep, beep...

My beeper started to sound. I saw it was my supervisor calling.

Damn it!

I tried to turn it off, but I couldn’t. Within moments, the bathroom door was flung open by Vangie, who hadn’t even bothered to get dressed to see where the noise was coming from. The marks on her body were numerous, from the hickeys on her breasts to the redness on her thighs.

“Catherine?” She called my name, bringing her hand to her mouth, shocked to see me there. “How did you get in?”

“What!” Hector’s voice quickly followed as he entered the bathroom too, completely naked, his erection still visible. “What are you doing here?” he asked, his eyes wide with disbelief.

With tears blurring my vision, I gathered the last shred of dignity I had left. Even though I was torn apart and ashamed for not having noticed any of this before, I walked up to the woman I once called my friend and slapped her hard across the face. I did the same to my unfortunate ex-fiancé, overwhelmed by a surge of hatred. The foolish Catherine. They had just killed her, and a slap was the least they deserved.

“You deserve each other,” I said coldly, trying to hold back the tears that threatened to spill over again.

I didn’t wait for any reaction or explanation from them. I ran out of the bathroom, desperate for air, because I couldn’t even breathe. My chest felt like it was being crushed, and my legs threatened to give out at any moment. All I wanted was to run away and to escape from them, escape from the pain, escape from myself. I only stopped running when I came face-to-face with my supervisor in the hallway, and from the look she gave me, I knew the situation was about to get much worse.