Chapter 003: The Reality of Hailey's Marriage

Scanning the surroundings and the surveillance layout, Amelia got on her toes. Flattening herself against the marble pillar, she calculated the interval between each camera pass before slipping through a surveillance blind spot and into Khalifa's private sanctum.

Amelia heaved a quiet sigh of relief as she slipped into Khalifa's private sanctum. Softly closing the door behind her, she pressed her back against it. Her eagle gaze swept across the room as she quickly mapped the surveillance layout.

The split second Amelia stepped forward, a loud crash echoed from the lower floor, followed by a woman’s piercing scream.

“What's that?” Amelia thought, her brows knitting together in confusion.

“Wait! Did something happen to Hailey?” Amelia thought.

Without a moment's hesitation, she bolted out of Khalifa's private sanctum. Cautiously weaving through the surveillance blind spots, and made her way into the private elevator.

Amelia rushed into the formal living room, her gaze instinctively flickering toward the dustbin where she had hastily dropped her disposable bag of bugs.

“Was that enough reason to shatter that beautiful flower vase?” Hailey yelled at Khalifa, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears.

Khalifa released a dry, humorless chuckle. “Are you seriously making this about my reaction instead of your actions? Are you really serious right now?”

“Hailey, what happened? Who made this mess?” Amelia asked, her gaze darting between Hailey and Khalifa.

Hailey completely ignored Amelia. “You know very well that lilies are my favorite flowers, yet you still went ahead and smashed the vase.” Hailey wiped away the tear that rolled down her cheek, her gaze lingering on the shattered vase without casting Amelia a glance.

“Are we seriously talking about consideration right now? Are we?” Khalifa stomped forward, his towering frame trapping Hailey flat against the wall.

Seeing Khalifa corner her sister, Amelia immediately dashed forward. With every ounce of strength she could muster, she violently pushed Khalifa away from Hailey.

“Stop it! I won't stand here and watch you hurt my sister,” Amelia bellowed.

“Then you should ask your saint of a sister why she fucked my estranged former best friend! Ask her!” Khalifa hissed, threading his fingers through his hair.

The entire living room dropped dead silent. “What!?” Amelia turned to Hailey.

Hailey quickly lowered her head, fidgeting nervously.

“Amelia, excuse us. We're having a private conversation,” Hailey said, raising her head.

“No! Let your sister stay!” Khalifa growled, his fingers trembling with raw anger. “Are you ashamed that you fucked another man and returned home pretending to be a faithful, doting wife?”

“Khalifa, lower your voice…” Hailey bit her lip as she fought back a sob.

“You're making a mountain out of a molehill,” Hailey said, inching closer before placing a hand on his chest.

Khalifa caught her wrist. “Did you think about how I'd feel when you started dating Orton Vance?” Khalifa asked, his ice-cold voice cracking.

Amelia felt her heart drop to her stomach as she heard Orton's name. Her knees buckled, and she stumbled backward, pressing a hand against the wall to regain her balance.

“Hailey, you let another man touch you, and you're telling me to keep my voice down? Is this some sort of joke or what?” Khalifa thundered.

Khalifa shoved Hailey's hand away. His blood boiled as the image of Orton's hands roaming across her body burned into his mind.

Amelia's mind went blank.

“Hailey is dating Orton? When? How?”

Khalifa blinked back the tears threatening to roll down his cheeks.

“It hurts. I can't even express how badly I'm hurting right now because I'm a man. I'm expected to bottle everything up and move on,” Khalifa said between ragged breaths.

“Babe, calm down,” Hailey pleaded, her knees giving way.

Consumed by rage, Khalifa turned away. His stomach churned. He clutched his chest as the weight of betrayal slowly crushed his heart.

“Did you for once consider my feelings and mental health when you repeatedly allowed that lunatic to toss you around his bed?” Khalifa asked, his voice dropping dangerously low.

Khalifa’s restraint faltered as the image sent to him of Orton spanking Hailey's half-bare backside at a private beach resort clawed at his heart, shattering the composure he'd been struggling to maintain.

“Are you going to listen to me, or are you going to believe whatever people say?” Hailey yelled at the top of her lungs, disgust and irritation creeping into her voice.

“Are you calling these text messages and the wiretapped recordings of your calls with Orton ‘whatever people say’?” Khalifa retorted, a vein throbbing at his temple as he angrily pulled his phone from his pocket and tossed it onto the couch.

A dark glint flickered in Hailey's eyes as her gaze fell on Khalifa's phone.

Khalifa snatched up his phone, unlocked it, and shoved it into Hailey's palm. “Are the pictures and video evidence of your infidelity on my phone really ‘whatever people say’?” Khalifa roared.

Hailey squeezed her eyes shut as the sound of her own moans and whispers filled the living room. She hurriedly lowered the phone, her nostrils flaring with anger.

“How dare you, Khalifa Sinclair!? How dare you!? How did you get this?” Hailey snapped, her voice like glass over ice as she glared at Khalifa.

“What manner of disrespect and abuse of power is this?” Hailey hollered, gripping Khalifa's collar.

“Mark my words, Khalifa Sinclair, you won't escape the law for this gross invasion of my privacy. You can count on it,” Hailey swore, tightening her grip on his collar.

“Is this the same loving and calm woman I fell in love with? Is it?” Khalifa stared at Hailey in utter disbelief.

“Has she always been this manipulative or am I just noticing it now?” Khalifa felt his head throb with painful thoughts.

Amelia, who had finally snapped back to reality, hastily grabbed Khalifa's phone from Hailey and listened to the wiretapped recordings. She kept convincing herself she was caught in a nightmare and that none of what was happening was real.

Khalifa resolved to bear his soul if that was what it took to make Hailey understand the depth of her betrayal and how deeply she had wounded him.

“Where exactly did I go wrong? What did you ever ask for that I failed to provide?” Khalifa squeezed his eyes shut for a brief moment.

“Since you met me, what did you ever snap your fingers for that wasn't placed at your feet? Is he more of a man than I? Tell me. I want to know where I lost you to him even before it all began.” Khalifa struggled to speak, his heart aching with unbearable pain.

But Amelia wasn't listening to them anymore. She felt her world crumbling beneath her as she listened to Orton speaking to Hailey through the phone's speaker. The voice was tender, warm, and filled with love—bored none of the iciness she had constantly heard in all her years of loyalty to him.

Amelia turned up the volume, desperately trying to convince herself it wasn't Orton's voice. Instead, she listened as he shamelessly begged Hailey for her time and attention.

He pleaded like a smitten teenager experiencing love for the very first time, frantically rearranging their dates whenever Hailey cancelled on him, while she had spent years begging him for nothing more than a single glance that wasn't cold and professional.

Amelia's lungs stopped working for a second as she gasped for air, the realization of her place in Orton's heart carving a wound on her own.

Amelia weakly dropped Khalifa's phone back on the couch. “I thought I wasn't pretty enough, but I wasn't just the woman he wanted,” Amelia muttered under her breath as tears clouded her vision.

Amelia turned away from the bickering couple as tears streamed uncontrollably down her cheeks. Her hands hastily flew to her mouth, stifling a scream that threatened to rip through her chest.

Behind her, Hailey let out a cold, mocking laugh.

“What have you done for me that any man wouldn't do for the woman he loves?”

“You saw I was suffering from a bone marrow disease during the Sinclair Group's medical outreach and donated your bone marrow to save me and so what?” Hailey scoffed, fluttering her artificial eyelashes as she looked Khalifa up and down.

“I donated my bone marrow to save your life less than forty-eight hours after meeting you, and you call it ‘and so’? You call what I did out of love at first sight ‘and so’?” Khalifa paused in utter disbelief.

He kept staring at Hailey in disbelief as she blew a bubble with her chewing gum.

“I've never been the type to commit to any woman, but with you, everything changed,” Khalifa yelled again.

“Then take me as your karma! I'm done having this conversation, Mr. Khalifa. Good night.” Hailey pushed past Khalifa and Amelia before heading to the master suite upstairs.

Khalifa angrily snatched up his phone and car keys before stomping out of the penthouse.

Without wasting a second, Amelia ran to the dustbin, pulled out the disposal bag, and dashed to the guest room.

She quickly locked the disposal bag inside her restroom, grabbed her phone and car keys from the bed, then rushed out of the house.

Before long, Amelia was behind the wheel of her sports car with Orton's address displayed on her GPS.

She kept her foot firmly on the accelerator as she sped through the streets of Ardenton City toward Orton's villa.

Suddenly, Amelia screeched to a halt.