Bound by Tension
74

"Samantha?" I asked again, scanning her from head to toe. Maybe I might've heard the wrong name.

They paused, gazing at me.

"Do you know her?" Dash asked.

"Of course not. Where on Earth am I supposed to know such a disgusting person?"

"I'm so surprised to know you decided to go after such a cheap thing. I mean, look at her." She scoffed at me, resting her elbow on Dash's shoulder.

"She was supposed to be for fun but she was proving so hard to get and I wanted to make her my girlfriend to use her and dump her, sorry baby." He admitted, not bothering about the fact that I was standing right in front of them. "Aw, my babe is so nasty." She smirked at him, patting his head proudly.

"I can't believe you're so terrible. I thank God I didn't fall into your crazy trap, motherfucker!" Oh my, where was this courage coming from?

"Why is she being so dramatic?" She asked with her forehead crumpled and wearing a lopsided grin.

I stormed out of the house and quickly got into a taxi.

Samantha, she was probably not the same person. There should be billions of people who are also Samantha.

*** IMOGEN ~

I flinched when the door was kicked open. There was no way Hames returned... oh, it was Lila.

She staggered in and threw her bag on the floor without care, dropping herself on the bed.

I rose from the chair I was sitting on, dropped my phone on the table and ambulated to her. "What's wrong?"

"Dash is a motherfucker." Oh. My. Gosh- Lila just cussed? This had to be damn serious. "Okay, what's wrong?" I sat beside her.

"I thought I had found love."

"What did Dash do?"

"He was nice, sweet, calm, gentle, awesome, the best boyfriend I could ever ask for but..." she trailed off, obviously holding back tears, "...what happened? How did it turn out to be this way?" I patted her head. You know, just to be comforting.

"Mom was so excited that I finally had a boyfriend, now she'd be broken. I thought I had found someone I could call my soulmate but it was all a crazy lie."

"I'm very curious to know what happened."

"I went to Dash's house then to his room. I started hearing crazy moaning from inside and kicked the door open without knocking."

"He cheated on you?!" I frowned, my blood started boiling in rage.

"Obviously... yeah." She curled her body.

"Why are men so foolish?! Why are they so stupid? Morons, idiots, useless bags of trash!" I was beyond frustrated at the moment. "Are men just brought into this world to cheat on their wives or girlfriends?" She chortled. "Please calm down. Dash is simply an idiot. Due to the no sex before marriage policy I implemented on our relationship, he made it clear that he just wanted to get in my pants. Maybe I seem like a cheap toy to him." She let out a mirthless laugh.

"That's not true at all, babe. You're like a diamond, and you're very lucky he didn't stand a chance to use you and dump you like some kinda cheap slut." My blood was still boiling really high. "I feel like running down to that bastard that's called Dash, and beating him up till my heart's content."

She chuckled again. "You're pregnant, remember?"

Pregnant for that other annoying man called Hames.

"Oh, and the lady Dash was-" she was unable to complete her sentence due to something dropping on the floor.

We stared in the direction of the widely opened door. Nikita stood still with her bag on the floor.

"Oh my gosh, Imogen is pregnant?!" She ran to me, arching her back to fix her gaze on my tummy.

I giggled, hugging her. "I missed you."

"I missed you so fucking much too. I was worried about you, Hames kept calling to ask if you were with me." She sat beside me, holding my shoulders.

"I'm glad you missed me."

"Why wouldn't I? But how can you be pregnant and not let me know?"

"Stop being so dramatic about it. It was supposed to be a surprise till we discovered the gender of the baby."

"Oh... I'm so happy for-" she glanced at Lila who squirmed. "What's wrong with her?"

"Her stupid boyfriend cheated on her." I frowned while Nikita bursted into laughter. "What's so funny?" I dabbed my eyebrow.

"You can't understand." She turned to Lila. "So this is how good your relationship is? I thought it was going to last for a billion years, judging from how you were so keen on taking his side to insult me." "You can have him to yourself, he's a jerk." She sighed, turning her face away.

"Have him to myself? Pfft, I don't need him anymore. I've made an oath that I'll exert revenge on both of you for embarrassing me that day. No one messes with this bitch and goes scot-free." She smirked.

"Jeez, Nikita, can't you just let go?" I immediately realized what I just asked was impossible after observing the sinister look in her eyes and remembering when we were in College; I had accidentally burned Nikita's special dress while cooking.

No matter how hard I had tried to explain that it was an accident, she had been so determined to exert her revenge, as always, and had taken all of my clothes and threw them over a bridge, never to be found in that wide body of water ever again.

"Are you seriously asking that?"

"Can I have some privacy?" Lila requested.

"Sure, why not?"

"Imogen, you have to tell me a lot of things. Why did you leave suddenly? You're clearly fighting with Hames, but why?"

"I'll tell you everything but let's leave Lila alone first." I held her hand and left the room with her.

***

"Hames was here." I sighed, taking a handful of chips and threw it into my mouth.

"Really? Wow, how did he replace out you're here? You told him?"

I glared at her. "Why would I?"

"I don't know." She shrugged, also taking a handful of my chips, earning a glare.

"He said he found out, blah blah blah- that isn't important. The main point is that he was here and explained that Samantha was pregnant with his first child before he even started loving me." "Oh..."

"Then the second child was after our marriage. He said he didn't have any idea. He was in a company then drank juice and the next morning he was on a bed." I fiddled with the end of my hair. "So he met Samantha with him?"

"He said he didn't. She sent him a video later claiming that he slept with her that day,"

"So... she forced herself on him or something?" She raised her eyebrow.

"I don't care, I don't want to believe anything he says. Men are all liars, cheaters, crazy people." I pouted, throwing another handful of chips into my mouth.

"So what do you want to do now?"

"I'll talk to Mia for advice because I can't stand being with him. He lied to me, he has two children with the same woman, isn't that just crazy?"

"You need to calm down and think deeply before making any decision out of haste. You wouldn't want your child to not have a father."

"I'm not ready to think about that. I'm still very mad at Hames and I don't think it's changing. What should I do? Accept that he has two other children with Samantha and live with him after having his third child? It's crazy, okay?" I sniffled. "Please stop crying."

"I'm not crying." I dabbed my eyes. "Let's just talk about something else."

"Wait. Speaking of Samantha, is she slender?"

"Uh... yeah, why?"

Her eyebrows curled. "She has red hair?"

"Yeah, why?"

She slapped her hand to her mouth. "I thought it was probably another person that was also Samantha."

"What are you talking about?" I drew my eyebrows in confusion.

"Does she have... a kinda strict face, like a serious cat face?"

"Uh... I guess so."

"Remember I told you Dash cheated on me?"

"Yeah, duh."

"He cheated on me with Samantha."

"For real? Samantha Blaze?"

"I don't know her surname but I'm certain she's Samantha if my description matches her. How can you be certain she's pregnant?"

"She's pregnant, her bump is big enough." I replied like she asked the most stupid question ever.

"I don't think so. When I saw her, she had only a towel around her and no bump."

A weird kind of emotion flushed in me after hearing that. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

"Maybe the towel didn't make her bump so obvious." I shrugged.

"Nope. When I heard her name is Samantha, I checked her out from head to toe but when I noticed that she didn't look pregnant at all, I assumed she was a different Samantha." "Oh my gosh, how's this possible? She had a very protruded belly when I saw her."

"Something is definitely fishy here."

"It is. Thank you for this information."

"Silly, no need to thank me." She smiled.

Her phone started ringing and she held it up. "Kade's calling again."

"You're so lucky. Your stupid boyfriend broke up with you and immediately you have a new replacement." I said and she rolled her eyes.

"He's not a replacement, he's just my boss."

"Your boss, the same man you have feelings for because he likes you." I teased.

She rolled her eyes, still smiling and left the room.