I sucked a mouthful of cold air and looked up, only to see Lyle, and also Crystal, who was standing beside Benson. She deliberately came closer to Lyle and stealthily touched his hand from an angle only visible to me before shooting me a provocative smile.
Sadness and anger overtook me and I shook off Lyle’s hand. “Get the f*ck out of my way.”
Lyle was taken off guard hearing me swear. Since the reporters were already gone, there was no need for me to keep up the act anymore. It was time I leave.
“I mean what I said.”
Lyle looked at me, confused.
I pointed at Benson and Crystal, and then at myself. “As I said earlier, you’re not some king in the ancient past. You don’t have to force yourself to maintain a relationship with your queen while sleeping around with your concubines. I don’t care if you want to go look for Crystal.”
Lyle had wanted to dance with Crystal when the ball started, but he turned back and looked at me intensely right after he took the first step away from me. Nonetheless, I knew him all too well. His heart was already somewhere else.
“Just go do whatever you want to do. The reporters are gone already.”
I could see anger burning in his eyes as his gaze wandered to somewhere far away behind me. When he looked back at me again, his gaze was resolute. He almost said something, but he stopped himself. He spared me one last look and walked away.
And so, I was alone again. I turned and saw Mason and Mary behind me, still chatting and smiling at each other.
Their happiness drew tears to my eyes and I walked over to the table. I gobbled up some spicy food so people would think I was tearing up because of it. I stuffed more food in my mouth as tears rolled down my cheeks.
“Cut it out,” Sabrina snatched the food in my hand away before putting it in her own mouth. “Geez, how many did you eat? It’s so hot!”
I did not reply but drank a shot of wine.
Sabrina passed me a napkin and looked at me. “I didn’t know Christopher is already engaged. I wasn’t expecting him to pull this trick after his high-profile return from abroad.”
My heart wrenched when she brought up the matter again. Sabrina was the only person who knew what was going on between Christopher and me. “It’s okay. He’s helped me before, so I’ll just treat it as returning his favor. We’re even now.”
“I’m glad you’re looking on the bright side. Who knows, things might work out between my cousin and you after you divorce that useless man.”
I was not sure how much Sabrina knew about what happened between Christopher and me. It was likely that she only knew he helped me out a few times and was interested in me, and that the feeling was mutual on my side. That was perhaps why she made it sound like it was easy to get over him.
I forced a smile on my face so I could calm down, but it was to no avail.
I noticed that Lyle did not dance in the end. I guessed he was afraid of the paparazzi. He went over to Benjamin and asked him to take Benson away before coming back to me.
