Chapter 5

Daphne had a shower first after she was done packing her belongings. After a few minutes, she grabbed a shirt and a jean from the bed and put them on. She didn't have time to fix her hair and have some make-up as she wanted to get out of the house as quickly as possible. By the time she was done, she threw her torn wedding dress in a black garbage bag and went straight to the garbage bin by the side of her room.

As she walked back again into her room, she set her bag and luggage, carrying the arm-sized back in her hand while she made her way downstairs. The minute she was on the first floor, she saw Tatiana again with her hands on her waist, looking livid as ever.

Daphne had just laughed, her expression in her mind, completely ignoring her.

When Tatiana took notice of her carrying her luggage, she couldn't bear but to make another remark. "You ungrateful bitch! After everything that we have done to you!" She followed Daphne behind her back. "I knew it! I knew from the start when Maverick introduced you to me! You're a gold digger, just like your mother . . ."

For the longest time, Daphne had never once heard Tatiana complimenting her or be pleasant to her. Maverick's mother bullied her incessantly, that it had become a usual thing for Daphne to hear her say every time she was near the bitch.

"Don't talk to my mother like that as if you know her, Tatiana," I warned her while pulling mg luggage.

Her eyebrow rose. "Because you know that I'm right, Daphne! You're a slut, just like your mother!" she spat back with every intention of hurting Daphne.

However, Daphne had gotten hung with her insults as though it was just another appalling jingle, she had heard on a radio that was so bad you've just disregarded its existence. Moreover, Daphne knew that Tatiana was celebrating like it was New Year's Eve when her son didn't appear on their wedding day.

"At least I am not as horrible as you are," Daphne murmured as she ambled throughout the room, gliding with her suitcase.

She was about to pull the gate open on the sidewalk when, all of a sudden, she noticed a blue car that was parked in the driveway. Daphne stopped in the middle of the path and saw Maverick coming out of it, looking fresh and blissful as if nothing had happened.

'Well, fuck that asshole!' Daphne hissed internally.

Maverick, however, had seen Daphne with a suitcase that made his brows furrowed, utterly distraught about it. "What are you doing, baby? Why do you have your bag with you? Are you leaving me?!"

He was about to touch her arms when she hit it quickly, shoving it away from her. How could he act as if nothing had ever happened? God, how did she love this narcissistic and vain man? She was such an idiot to be blinded by all the red flags of Maverick that were already waving in front of her for the past eight years!

"Don't you dare touch me, Maverick!" Her emotions surged up like a firework that was about to burst out. She couldn't bear to see his face or even just smell or hear his voice made her want to barf already.

Maverick yanked her wrist and said, "Come on, babe. Let's talk this through, don't just leave me hanging without talking this out to me." He paused for a while, raking his hair with his fingers, and continued, "I ran away because this whole thing scared the shit out of me!"

Daphne pulled a coy smirk. "Huh, yeah, you did, and you ran away with another girl even before our wedding, Maverick!" She pushed his arms away from her and distanced herself from the man she thought would never lie. "I'm not stupid and I'm definitely not an idiot, you jerk!"

"Daphne . . ." Maverick couldn't think of another word that would somehow make her believe him again.

Then, he composed his bubbling anger as he tried to get hold of her by defending himself; however, she waved it away. "That's not it! Everything in the article was a lie!"

Daphne nodded and skewed the corner of her lips upward. "Yeah, it was all a lie. Just like our relationship and your feelings for me. It is all a lie." And with no warning, she raised her arms, slapping him directly on his cheeks and making him as shocked as more than ever.

Maverick just looked at her with wide-open eyes, as he couldn't believe that a woman like her who couldn't break a glass could do that.

When his thoughts had already processed Daphne's gesture, he uttered, livid and furious, "Daphne, shit! Don't you leave me like this! We're not yet done!"

Tatiana came down to walk toward them. "Oh no! You don't have a right to do that to my son! You bitch!" she shouted, lifting her arm aloft to hit her when Daphne stopped it by clenching it tightly with her grip.

"No, Tatiana. I won't let you have it your way again, bitch." She gritted back and before Daphne could hear the last insult word of her sentence, she walked away from them with full determination.

Maverick tried to run after Daphne, but immediately gave up when he realized talking it out with her would also be completely useless. On his side was his mother who reached out to him, cradling his man-little boy in her chest and soothing her like a five-year-old kid.

Meanwhile, Daphne stepped outside of the house and as she breathed in the fresh-sweet invite of the air, she cloyingly smiled in delight.

"At last self, you're out. You did well."

Heaving a sigh, she hailed a cab across the street and as a yellow cab stopped at her side, she quickly went inside, happy and excited about what her future would bring her.

"To sixty-eighth street, Eastwood Avenue sir," Daphne said to the driver to which he just nodded.