King of My Heart

Chapter 15 - The Hoax

Claire Kinsley's POV

Somehow I don't want to face Liam after what happened that night because we just couldn't return to how we were like before. I didn't know how I should face him or feel towards him, knowing that he was no longer just a brotherly figure to me. Thinking about it just makes me feel entangled in raw pain each time and so I chose not to think about it nor face it.

I naively thought that time would water down whatever happened, but I was wrong. After weeks of avoiding him at all cost, I still felt constantly confronted by this lingering dead knot in my mind. So I thought perhaps Nicki could provide me with a fresh perspective and figure this out together with me. That night, I met up with Nicki at our favourite Izakaya hangout spot.

"Hey Nicki, over here!" I waved fanatically at Nicki upon the sight of her when she entered the bar as it felt like ages to me since I last saw her.

"Claire!!" Nicki hugged me back in equal fervour before she apologised and exasperated, "I'm sorry for being late, my boyfriend just wouldn't let me go..."

"Boyfriend? You're seeing someone now? Since when?!" I interrogated her in exhilaration after being pleasantly surprised by her news.

"Alright! Alright! I will tell you, just please calm down..." She giggled in bliss.

"Tell me... where and how did you know him?" I rolled up my sleeves in pretension.

"He was my patient back then during my internship," She gushed.

I nearly spurt out my drink when I heard that, and then I teased her, "Patient? Don't tell me you fell in love with some terminally-ill old fogey?"

She rolled her eyes before she retorted, "Oh please, he is as healthy as an ox!"

"Alright, I was just joking with you," I wiped off my tears of chortle before getting back on topic, "So, how did you two ended up together?"

"Well, his name is John Keyser, he was a patient under the care of my mentor during my internship back then. I heard that he got injured at the construction site and that's how he ended up in the hospital. I was assigned to attend to his care a few times during then, we talked for quite a while. But I didn't expect that he would start courting me after he was discharged. He seemed so genuine after weeks of relentless courting, so I thought I would give a chance at this. It was only after we dated that I came to realise he was actually the heir to Alka Construction Company."

"Oh my god! Isn't that one of the largest construction firm in our country?! So he is the son of a billionaire?!" I gasped hard at the astonishing news.

"Yeap..." Nicki blushed once again as a wide smile of bliss held across her face.

"I'm so happy for you that you found your prince charming, not that he is rich," I congratulated Nicki, not forgetting to tease her once again.

"Alright, enough about me, what about you? Just what's bothering you?" Nicki asked.

My heart sank once again whenever I have to revisit this. My lungs heaved before I could find the words in my mouth to explain to Nicki, "Liam confessed to me."

"You mean he did something wrong to you again?" Nicki raised her brows nonchalantly.

"No, not that kind of confession! I mean he said he... love me. And he made sure to even tell me that it's not the family kind of love he meant, but a man to a woman," I corrected Nicki before I shook my head and exasperated, "I really don't know what should I do now..."

"Oookay..." Nicki seemed taken aback for a brief moment before she continued, "I knew there was always something more to that between you and him, I mean even a blind person can tell he is really into you, but I just didn't expect him to come clean about it after so many years."