Beau let out a harsh breath and walked few steps away from them.
"Do you want me to drop you?" Nik asked Lily, aware of what her reply would be.
"No. Thanks. I have my car." She walked out. Sitting in the car, her hands tightened over the steering wheel and chest rose and fell with rapid breaths. Who is he? She was having a small bit of good opinion on him when he told that she wasn't such a type of person, but the blood on the floor completely crushed that feeling. The rage that she had earlier turned into fear.
Frightened to be anywhere near the place, she roared the engine and drove, thinking of any possibility of escaping from the marriage. She reached the house, but till couldn't find an option where both she and her parents could be safe. With a frown, she hit the bed, still working on the possibilities.
However, the tiring day drowsed her off instead of thinking.
"Lili! Lili!"
Her mother's voice woke her up, to see the sun rays peeping from the window. "What happened?" Lili groaned, sitting on the bed, lazy to reach the door and open it.
"They say that you are getting married tomorrow?" Sophie cried, standing in front of the door. She couldn't believe how their situation had changed. She was much more devastated to know her daughter's wedding date from the news.
Lili jumped from the bed and opened the door, to find her lovely mom in tears. "Who are THEY?"
"The News" her mother answered to which Lili's heart sank. She at once ran to her phone to see fifty-seven missed calls and thousands of messages on her social media. She was much more shocked to see the skyrocketed followers. What the heck? Her messaging app was filled with multiple questions from friends. Most of them were asking for confirmation or mocking. But there was one message that made her eyes swim in tears. It was from her friend Bella - 'Are you okay?'
As soon as she read the message, her phone rang, and it was Bella. Lili immediately accepted the call. "Bel!" Her face brightened, but sadness overtook all the features.
"Do you want me to come to you?" Bella asked, and Lila couldn't stop her eyes from getting wet.
"Mmm," Lili hummed as he nibbled on her bottom lip. "Can you?"
"Of course, Lil! I will be in three hours. Don't worry!" Bella panted. The call suddenly turned chaotic with various background sounds of door shutting, keys clinging and footsteps tapping. "I am hanging up now. I need to check the transport."
Lili crashed on the bed, knuckling her fingers and scrolling over the news. Nothing seemed to happen in the world, except Nina's marriage. Many photos of her surfaced, multiple videos revealing her education flared up, and awful memes portraying her as a poor lucky girl being helped by a rich man emerged all over the internet. She, for the first time, wished for some natural calamity to occur so that all the attention on her gets shifted.
As she kept scrolling, she also found interviews with her classmates. Some pitied her while some mocked her for playing the penniless cute girl in order to grab attention of a hotshot.
"She always thought that she was superior to me, just because her father earns a few millions than mine. Now, look at her, poor, helpless and unworthy."
Lili's mouth twisted to hear the comment from Aimee Bradford, daughter of Patrick Bradford - a major competitor to Andrew Meyers. 'Stupid! What is she even doing on the news? Ridiculous! Attention seeker!' As a person who knew Aimee from the middle school, she was damn aware of what kind of person she was. Fed up with wasting energy on her whole life, Lili refreshed the page to see the latest updates.
"What?" Her brows knitted to find no photos or videos about her. "Where did all go?" she sighed and ran from one news website to another. None of them had her news about her. The only post that appeared after searching for her name was the official announcement from Cooper's company about the venue and date of the wedding. "WoW!" she exclaimed, and her mouth turned into a smile. She knew Niklaus was powerful in the business industry, but she didn't expect him to control the media, too.
As if to make her little excitement disappear, her phone rang, and it was a message from Beau. "A vehicle will come to take you to the hotel at sharp four in the evening. Everything is taken care of. You don't have to bring anything."
"TAKEN CARE OF!" Lili growled, "Why don't you take care of yourselves first instead of being nosy?"
The next three hours, Lili took a bath, ate and wandered around the house, analyzing if there was any possibility of escaping from the marriage. Though she knew that going against Niklaus would collapse her family business, she didn't want to lose her hope and think of a way to save her and her family from the evil Cooper's hands.
"Lillliiiii!" Bella sang as she entered the lifeless house. She was carrying heavy shopping covers and was wearing a wide smile on her lips. Lili ran from her room upon hearing Bella's voice. She rushed down the staircase but stopped abruptly to see Bella's curled lips. She seemed perplexed to see how excited her friend was when she was in the pits of sadness. "Where do you want to celebrate your bachelorette party?" Bella shouted.
"What?" Lili groaned between her grinding teeth.
"This is the last day that you are single and, of course, the last day for freedom." Bell teased, placing all the hefty things on the sofa.
Lili sighed and put a plastered smile on her face. She thought her best friend would be there to support her, but never did she expect her to be also mocking and saying ridiculous things. "I didn't expect this from you." Lili murmured with her head down.
"Why? Did you think I would cry with you or indulge in your futile escape plans? I think you should have understood by now itself that it's hopeless." Belly gave Lili a reality check. "I think that this is good for you. The people whom you think are annoying you are actually jealous of you."
While the discussion of the party was going on, Niklaus was at a party with his best friend and Assistant - Beau. "Mr. Cooper, how do you feel to get married with your one-year secret one-sided lover?"