A SECOND CHANCE IN LOVE

CHAPTER 7

Unaware of the commotion that she had left behind, Vanessa was currently sitting on the flat ceramic surface surrounding the sink of the women's restroom, playing on her phone.

"s**t! Where did they come from!"

"AHHHH!"

"You stupid bastards!"

"No, I won't let you win!"

In the end, their team still lost. Looking at the word 'game over' on the screen, Vanessa felt wronged.

As she went out of the restroom, she muttered in dissatisfaction, "Damn you, Ken..."

Vanessa was about to say 'Kentaro', her nemesis character in the game she's just playing, but the words dried up in her mouth as she stared at the man waiting for her outside the restroom.

"Ken...?" Kiran's voice was dangerously low. "Tell me, Vanessa, what was the name of the man you were texting in there? What else are you not telling me, hmm?"

With each word he uttered, Kiran took a step closer towards Vanessa, trapping her between the wall and his unyielding body.

Like a predator that had caught its prey, he leaned one arm against the wall at her back and tilted his face close to hers.

Him being too close to her, Vanessa could see in his eyes that his control had finally snapped.

"Why aren't you saying anything? Feeling guilty already?"

Kiran had an overpowering aura even when he was calm, but now that he was angry, Vanessa slowly felt like she was suffocating. She could only keep her silence as she turned her head away, refusing to acknowledge him and his accusations.

"Answer me!"

He grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him. Kiran stared at her eyes, which were like two wide pools of limpid autumn water. Her face was pale, and her lips were trembling slightly.

Vanessa wanted to cry.

She did nothing wrong, alright?! Was it wrong of her to call out the name of a game avatar?

Kiran looked at her for a moment longer, before he leaned over and planted a kiss on those soft lips. As she stood there unmoving, he opened her mouth and pushed deeper, twining their tongues together.

Vanessa's legs had already been shaking from his sudden attack earlier, and she would have completely fallen from the shock of the kiss if he had not reflexively held her waist to stabilize her.

This pushed their two bodies closer together, and Kiran's eyes darkened as his whole body started burning with unquenchable lust.

The truth is, Kiran had not completely lost all semblance of control. It was a thin thread, and it gave him enough awareness that they were in a public place. Otherwise, he would have taken her then and there.

When he finally broke the kiss, Vanessa was gasping for air.

Her heart was racing inside her chest, and she took a minute to gather herself before saying angrily, "Kiran, have you completely lost your mind?"

She was not falling for his trick again!

Kiran was instantly furious. "You are my lover. It is only my right to kiss you!"

Vanessa laughed. She felt like she was going crazy.

"Oh, I'm your lover, is it? Then is Riana your lover too?"

Kiran was confused. "Riana? What are you talking about?"

Vanessa curled her lip. "Forget it. We aren't going to be engaged for long anyway. I wish you luck with your future bride!"

She took a step forward, but Kiran grabbed her arm.

His expression looked frigid, and the control he had just gotten back was already quickly disappearing.

"Are you not my future wife? Or are you saying you'd rather be with another man?"

Vanessa could not make sense of what this man was saying. She frowned at him. Did he just accuse her of cheating? Isn't it the other way around?

Finally, her eyes could only focus on the hand that was wrapped around her arm like a vise.

"Let me go!"

"No."

Kiran's expression was stony, and Vanessa could feel her panic rising as she realized that he did not plan on releasing her.

Fortunately, an old lady decided to go to the women's restroom at that exact moment, and her bewildered glance at the two of them made Kiran finally drop his hold on her.

And the instant Kiran removed his hand, Vanessa fled.

...

Later in the day, after being driven back to her apartment, Vanessa made sure to lock the door. She even tested the knob a few times before she finally relaxed.

What a rough morning!

After they had gone back to their table, Riana was like a tiger that grew wings. She clung to Kiran's arm even after they had finished eating and had gone back to the car, rubbing her body against him like a dog in heat.

For the first time, Vanessa was glad that Riana was there.

It made her able to return to her apartment safely since Kiran was distracted by Riana's endless public display of affection.

Maybe because of nerves, Vanessa could almost feel his intense stare drilling a hole in her back before the car turned around the corner and vanished from view.

She had already expected it, but her opponents were incredibly formidable to c***k. She had to make sure she would be more prepared for the next time they met!

Shaking her head to remove all that in her mind, she slipped out of her dress and went inside the bathroom, humming softly under her breath. For now, she wanted to relax. She can plan later.

But when Vanessa saw her younger self in the mirror, she already knew what her next step should be now that she had been given a second chance in life.

It was to recover what she had lost, the very important thing for her that she exchanged for the approval of the damn Lauder family so she can marry Kiran—her dreams!

Ever since she could remember, she had always wanted to become an actress.

She loved the idea of donning several personalities at once, like a game of hide and seek.

In her past life, before she married Kiran, she was a minor actress at F&F Entertainment. Unfortunately though, in her whole career, she only had been acting as side characters and extras that the audience would easily forget.

Because her salary from being a small-time actress was not enough considering her usual roles, she also did menial chores around the agency, anything that would give her enough money to pay her rent and buy food.

It was not that Vanessa didn't have the ability to rise to the top and become a famous actress. In fact, she could act better than most A-list celebrities. Even when she was only given a few lines to say, she always practiced hours and hours just to make it perfect.

Aside from her talent and hard effort, with her peerless beauty, she was someone that you could simply not ignore.

She had languished for all those years simply because she had the bad fortune to be the recipient of someone else's wrath—Angelina Kramer, the actress holding the title of No. 1 Most Popular Female Artiste in the industry. Not only had she been awarded with the Audience's Choice for Best Actress, her fanbase was also one of the largest in the country.

Since they were training in the same agency, and considering how much control Angelina had in F&F since she was their major source of profit, it could only be called as nothing short of miraculous that Vanessa hadn't been kicked out yet.

Of course, this was only because Vanessa's manager was very capable. Otherwise, she would have been left in the streets after her contract had expired, although her situation right now wasn't that much better.

With the pay for her rent coming up next month, Vanessa was already considering taking another part-time job to cover her expenses.

But this difficulty was nothing to her. She was almost a slave in her past life after all. Working hard was not a problem!

It could even give her an excuse to avoid Kiran altogether.

With that conviction in her mind, Vanessa finished her bath and changed into a semi-formal attire. She quickly typed out a resumè and went out of the apartment, locking the door behind her.

A few blocks away, a brand new black Maybach quietly followed her.

.................