Chapter 23

"That's my design!" I couldn't stop myself from saying it aloud.

Every face in the auditorium turned my way. On any other day, I would have felt anticipated but today I was raging in fury. An uncontrollable fury!!

I walked to the stage, seething in anger and stood up in front of George. "You cheat! You stole my design."

"Excuse me, mind your words, Miss kings. You have no right to accuse me of something which I didn't do," George retorted back in the same manner as I.

"Stop lying…" I barked as I opened the jewellery box and pulled out the replica of my pendant. "You stole this from me!"

"What is the meaning of all this, Miss Kings? Please tell us clearly," Katie asked as all the judges stood up and walked to us.

"I'll tell you what happened," I said as I pointed my finger at George who was standing there as if he did nothing wrong. Bloody cheat! "This man stole my design from me and presented it here as his own."

"Now you are crossing the lines missy, that's my design so stop lying. And why would I steal your design? Who are you, some rich man's daughter? Unlike you I am a world famous designer…"

"Oh cut the crap Mr, we all are equal here…" Susan came in my support with Emily beside her. "And trust me when I am saying this you are lucky we didn't come here using her surname if we had done that you didn't know what could have happened!"

"So now you are trying to scare me, I will go to the court and sue you both for tempering my reputation…"

"I think you all should be calm here for a second," Katie said.

"Not until he accepts his crime!"

"Miss Kings, calm down please." She turned towards George, "and you Mr George, don't try to scare us of a legal lawsuit because you are under a signed contract with our company and I gather you didn't read it before signing it because if you had you wouldn't have used the word 'lawsuit' here. Second, our judges are here to decide if what Miss Kings just said we trust or not."

"Do you have any proof that the design belongs to you, Miss kings?"

"Yes, my friends were there…"

"Certainly the judges are not going to prove me guilty only on the basis of oral testimony of Miss King's friends here because just like her I too have someone who was with me while I was creating the design," George said.

"Please tell us the name of that person, Mr George." Kevin Rawls said.

"Evelyn Rodriguez, she was with me while I was designing my model."

My eyes turned to Evelyn who came forward and lied to her teeth. "Look, miss Katie, we both are well-known jewellery designers and I am shocked you didn't believe George because I know it's his creation. How could you believe a girl with no professional background. I mean she is nothing but a rich brat."

"Excuse me!" Susan snapped but she raised her brow in superiority.

"Truth is hard to digest honey, so shut up!"

"Oh you just shut your bitchy mouth for once and all you old hog!" Susan retorted.

My attention was not on them but the design in front of my eyes. My grandfather's legacy, my mom's legacy was on stake and I won't let anyone steal it from me.

"I can prove that this is my design."

Katie's eyes held my gaze but it was Kevin who spoke. "Alright! The issue is getting out of hand, we judges have decided something for both of you."

I looked at him. "Whoever made it could define it with hundred percent accuracy. So let's see who is lying and who is not?"

"Let's start with you, Mr George as you presented it." Alexandrios said.

George nodded confidently at the judges. He walked near the projector and started explaining my design.

"It's a beautiful creation. Modern art meets the biblical values in Christianity. The Red rose in this design symbolized the shedding of Christ's blood, and white diamonds referenced the charity of the Virgin Mary. White roses evoked the chastity of the Virgin, who was known as the rose without thorns."

I took a shaky breath, I knew I lacked the proper knowledge of art and culture and today I came to know the value of professionalism. The way he was defining my design was better than I had expected. He defined things I never knew could resemble my own design.

Apparently, it was not only me who was scared but my friends as well. Susan and Emily both held my hands in assurance. But I could feel how worried they both were. We could be proven guilty. The contest wasn't as important for me as it was for them.

My dad would always help me but Emily and Susan's dreams rely on this contest. If I fail today, it won't be my failure only but my friend's as well.

"Miss Aurora Kings,it's your turn now."

I gulped and somehow managed to stand up with heavy legs. When I walked to the stage and stood up beside the projector George smirked at me and Evelyn raised her brows with a look of superiority in her face.

I swallowed the heaviness in my throat again and started the words mom told me while giving me the pendant.

"The design is a silent description of love because one can't describe it into words," I pointed at the picture in front of me.

"There is a story behind this design…" I cleared my throat and started the story mom told me. "In Greek mythology, the rose was created by the goddess of flowers, Chloris. One day, she found the lifeless body of a nymph in the woods and she turned her into a flower. She called upon Aphrodite, goddess of love, and Dionysus, the god of wine. ... That is how the rose was created and rightfully crowned 'Queen of Flowers.'"

I finished the story of Greek mythology and added "Now look at the design carefully, You see this rose and the wings of a nymph in the pendant."

The judges seemed intrigued by my words and that gave me strength as I continued my description.

"The rose represents love and wings represents what falling in love feels like.

Rose describes the beauty of love while the wings describe that Love gives you wings to fly in the sky. Love has no limit just like the sky…"

My throat felt heavy as tears welled in my eyes. "My grandfather took inspiration from Greek mythology before creating this design; it resembles true love and I added white diamonds to it because it was my tribute to my grandpa and my mother. I added white Diamonds to the original design because it resembles my mom's smile."

I looked down for a moment to control my tears and then looked at the Judges. "I have one more thing which proves that the design belongs to me."

"And what is it, Miss Kings?" Alexandrios asked me.

I unlocked the pendant from my neck. "This is the original design I took inspiration from. My grandfather made it for my mom. You can read it in his memoir, it is available on the internet under his name. The design is not available due to copyright as he wanted the design to be his legacy. But a rough description of the design is available."

"It means she stole it from someone else!" Evelyn pointed out.

"That's my legacy, given to me by my grandfather and my mother. I am the owner of it and an owner does not steal from itself Miss Evelyn." I snapped.

Alexandrios stood up with the microphone in his hand. "It's not easy for us to decide here as both parties define the description beautifully. I know it's not fair to other contestants but it's a special case we have. So today we all are going to study the design and decide the real culprit here. After that we will continue the second round."

Everyone in the auditorium nodded. "In the meantime, Miss Kings, we need your necklace to study it to make our decision. So you have to submit it to us for today."

I nodded and handed my necklace to Alexandrios. "Please take care of It. This is very precious to me. It's my mom's last gift for me…"

He gave me a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, Miss Kings. I will take care of it as if it's my own."

"Alright, contestants. You have a day off. You all can enjoy the weather for today as the judges will be busy handling the case at their hands. Enjoy the cruise because tomorrow the contest will start again and we are going to choose our three finalists."

We all walked out the auditorium. I was angry and irritated over the situation. Susan and Emily followed me. "I am so sorry, Aurora. I swear I didn't leave the box even for a second. I don't know how they managed to steal it from us." Emily said in a low voice. I patted her hand in assurance.

"It's not your fault, Em," I assured her and she gave me a hug.

"So the loser is hugging goodbye…" George and Evelyn came to us. I turned towards them.

"Oh no! You both are not going anywhere that easily because once the design proved mine I will not leave you both. I will take you both to every court in the country and won't stop until you both rot in jail. And what did you call me, yes! A rich brat. Just wait, miss Evelyn Rodriguez because this rich brat will show you what she could do or what my dad will do to both of you when I tell him about this incident."

"You bitch…" Evelyn took a step in my direction while George held her back.

"Let's go girls," I said and we walked away from those thieves.

"Aurora, calm down. Tomorrow everything will be fine and you know what, let's go to the bar area and lets get wasted to forget today," Susan said and Emily agreed with her.

"No, I am not in the mood."

"Oh cmon girl!"

After a lot of persuasion I accepted going to the bar area to get drunk. And by God! The atmosphere took my breath away. Neon lights were making our skin blue and green, loud music was a treat to my ears.

"Let's forget the sh***y day!" Emily yells over the high beat music.

And I smiled, letting myself loose in the world of music and liquor as Emily bought another glass of vodka.

"Let's have a bet," Susan slurred.

I frowned. "What bet?"

"Leave bet, is that Alexandrios?" Emily asked, pointing her finger towards the entry gate.

"Wow! He looks edible!" Susan whisteled, Emily turned her head towards Susan, growled and she gave her a middle finger.

My mood got bad again seeing one of the judges here. "I am going to my cabin. You both enjoy it."

"Hey, why would you leave? You are not going anywhere. And you know what, behave as if we didn't see him. I won't even call him here," Emily said as she ordered the waiter two bottles of vodka.

Alexandrios slanted his eyes to Emily but she just ignored him. Plain and simple ignored! Alexandrios raised a brow at the show of Emily's ignoring him. He walked to the opposite of our seat and sat down, ordered himself a drink and when he had one in his hand. He mocked Emily a salute by raising the glass slightly in the air and then taking a sip from it.

"That man!" Emily gritted out. She slanted her eyes to Susan. "Fill me a glass of Vodka!"

"Okay!" Susan opened the bottle and gave her a glass of It. "Em, you should not be drinking this much!" I told her as I was worried.

She ignored me totally and made another glass and placed it in front of me. "Let's get wasted tonight!"

"No, I already had three glasses. I won't be able to handle it."

"Oh come on! Drink it, Aurora…" Emily shouted as Susan held my face and almost poured the fourth glass of Vodka in my mouth.

And then I lost count how many drinks I had.

"Wow! I want to dance!" I slurred going to the Dance floor with Emily and Susan who both are drunk like me.

Suddenly Alxandrios came to the dance floor and grabbed Emily by the waist, turned her towards him and nodded at me and Susan then out of nowhere he picked Emily in his arms and walked away with Emily beating his back with her fists and cursing him.

"What the hell was that?" I asked, astounded.

"Em, is going to have a wild night ahead! Fuck, I need someone tonight."

I looked at her and giggled. "Really I want someone to. Any willing fucker here?" I shouted.

Susan giggled and then walked to a blonde man. She whispered something in his ear then she turned towards me, waved her fingers and left with that blonde man with his hand pinching her butt.

And I was left alone here, again lonely!

"I want someone too. I am all alone," I whined but an idea popped in my mind. I grabbed my phone out of my purse and searched for Gabe's number.

Couldn't find it because my vision was blurry. Ah! These neon lights. I walked towards the back side of the club which led to a secluded area on the cruise.

It was calm there and my vision was swirling but I managed to find Gabe's number, it used to be on speed dial but nowadays I was not calling him and he was not calling me either so the number shifted low in my speed dial call history. To my luck the number was switched off again.

"Arh!!!" I screamed in anger as I leaned on the railings and started at the pacific ocean.

"Any problem, Mrs Knight?"

I gasped, that voice and that endearment. I turned with a jerk and started at home other than the Arrogant ass!

"What the hell are you doing here?" I snarled at him.

He only chuckled as he walked closer to me and started into my eyes. "Keeping an eye on you, Mrs Knight."

"Shut the fuck up! And stop calling me Mrs Knight."

"Oh then would be Mrs Knight," he mocked me.

That was it! I couldn't take it anymore. I stepped closer to him. Stared into his beautiful but irritating black eyes," I won't marry you even if you are the last man on this planet earth. You are the most arrogant, disgusting man I have ever met and I want to squash you with my six inch heel like a cockroach under my shoe, you son of a bitch!"

Something shifted in his eyes, they were calm a moment ago but now they were hard and angry and suddenly I gasped in horror but more than that in pain as he grabbed my jaw tightly. "Ah!" I managed to get the voice out of my mouth.

He glared at me then with another hand fisted my hair tightly and tears swirled in my eyes. No one has ever treated me in this manner before.

"How many times do I need to tell you to be respectful towards me, hm?" He gritted out.

I tried to get out of his hold but he didn't allow me and pushed me against the railings, my back facing the ocean as he leaned over me. "I don't take insults for granted. You are going to be my wife, you need to learn how to talk to me, don't force me to use the hard measures because trust me when I am saying this," he neared my ear and gritted out every word harshly. "You. Won't. Like. That."

I was numb and scared hearing him. His voice was so dark and scary that I couldn't even manage to breathe. His eyes roamed over my face, his grip on my jaw loosened a little as he rolled his thumb over my lower lip smearing my lipstick to the corner of my lips.

He neared my face, I could smell liquor in his breathing. "I am craving for these perfect lips," he sniffed my neck.

"Cinnamon! I like the fragrance but I would love to see you smell of my cum when I fuck the daylight out of you."

I was heaving as my breathing turned short and heavy. I wanted him to get away from me. I curled my toes in anticipation and i didnt know what else I was feeling but there was a kind of tingling in my tummy and...and that place between my legs.

He grabbed my neck, my eyes widened as his grip tightened and I saw little stars in front of my eyes. "I gave you enough time and liberty but not anymore, Mrs Knight." And then he placed his lips on mine. I grabbed the railing tightly with my hand as my body lingered more towards the ocean.

He left my neck and bit my lip harshly. I gasped as I opened my mouth and he entered inside. His tongue dominates mine, he left my hair and his hand travelled to my bosom as he pressed his body more into mine.

A shiver ran down my whole body as goosebumps arose. I could feel his male parts there on my body. I was lost, lost in that moment of heat and passion but suddenly Something my phone blinked a notification came to it. The home screen was of me and Gabe smiling together.

As if someone has poured cold water over me, I pushed him away with all my strength. I was ashamed of myself but my mind was hazy and my eyes were blurry. "Leave me you molester!" I slurred but then a blackness came in front of my eyes and I didn't know what happened next...