"Niklas!" Marja’s voice came again, louder this time but no less heartbroken. "Tell me that what Kaija just said isn’t true. Tell me you didn’t think highly of me just because I’m my parents’ daughter!"
While Niklas’s face had already tightened with hopelessness at the situation, Kaija’s eyes merely rolled upward.
"Of course he did," Kaija grumbled inwardly. "You were just too blind to realize it, and I was just too nice to break your heart with the truth back then."
Though Niklas had never voiced it out loud in front of Marja, in private, Kaija had heard more than enough of his rambling about how Marja Ralpha could have been a great successor to the Chairman seat of Ralpha, instead of ending up merely as the face of the brand.
He had even gone as far as commenting that should a man ever take Marja’s hand in marriage, it would mainly be because of her surname.
All of this, of course, Niklas had said when he was still madly in love with Kaija. The younger Niklas probably never expected he would one day end up becoming the very man he had once talked about.
"Let’s go, Juho," Kaija said in a bored tone, her steps continuing forward. "Let the couple simmer with their own problems. There’s nothing left here for us to do."
"Kaija!" Niklas’s voice suddenly rang out again.
Dark lines instantly slid down Kaija’s face. Wasn’t he supposed to calm his pregnant girlfriend’s fury instead of calling out to her right now?
"I was wrong for not caring about you and your feelings when we were together!" Niklas went on desperately. "If it could somehow ease your anger toward me, you should know that Marja couldn’t make me even half as happy as I was with you. I am still in love with you!"
At his confession, the entire corridor fell utterly silent.
The young man didn’t even bother to check what state Marja was in after hearing him call Kaija’s name instead of hers. From his voice alone, anyone could tell he was desperate for Kaija’s attention right now.
The worst Kaija feared had finally arrived. Now, the only thing she could do was pray Marja wouldn’t end up miscarrying right here, right now, in this corridor.
"What the fuck is wrong with you, Niklas Morze?" Kaija muttered, finally turning around. "Do you have no shame or conscience? Don’t you give a damn about the woman carrying your child at all?"
As much as Kaija loathed the idea of seeing her ex’s face, she felt the need to at least check Marja’s condition, purely out of morality. No pregnant woman could possibly withstand that much shock and insult, especially when Kaija knew for certain Niklas was also the first man Marja had ever been with.
As expected, Marja’s beautiful features had crumbled into devastation.
"How could you... how could you..." Marja stuttered, and those were the only words she could manage.
Her nails dug hard into her palms, her body trembling so violently the nearby assistant had to rush over to steady her. She gasped desperately for air, unable to breathe, but the man fathering her unborn child still turned a blind eye to her state.
Niklas’s voice came again, this time urgent, laced with foolish hope as he believed Kaija had finally given him the attention he wanted.
"Kaija, please, hear me out," Niklas said, arranging his face into regret. "These past few months, my life has been hell without you. While you gave me all the respect I didn’t deserve, all the space I needed to pursue what I loved, being with Marja made me feel suffocated to the point of breaking."
Marja had always been surrounded by attention from the day she was born.
That gave her a kind of fragility and helplessness Kaija never had, for Marja always had someone to rely on, someone to do the things she needed done for her.
At first, that fragility looked cute and innocent to Niklas’s eyes. Who wouldn’t feel like a big man, taking care of such a princess?
The problem only surfaced when the princess never seemed to have enough of the opposite-sex attention she had never tasted before, and kept demanding more.
To make matters worse, the princess’s parents made sure Niklas felt as small and despicable as possible. Mr. and Mrs. Ralpha still hadn’t seemed to recover from the shock that a mere doctorate student who hadn’t even graduated, yet could possibly impregnate their one and only precious daughter.
Disapproval was written all over their faces whenever Niklas visited Marja at the Ralpha estate, along with countless shady comments spoken aloud without any regard for the young man. Marja, self-absorbed as ever, never seemed to notice how Niklas’s face contorted as he sat in front of her parents.
Disgusted by Niklas’s words, Kaija squirmed and muttered, "Please, just stop. You’re making me regret how considerate and tolerant I was toward trash like you back then."
Her gaze stayed fixed on Marja the entire time, checking whether Marja might collapse, rather than on Niklas’s yearning amber eyes.
"You didn’t cheat on me on impulse, Niklas. You’d already been dating Marja for a while before I found out about the two of you. It was never a mistake. It was a choice you made. So man up, take responsibility for your choice, and stop making such ridiculous comments out of desperation. Your little princess needs you right now."
With that, Kaija turned away, and Niklas’s face collapsed into desperation once more.
"My only princess is you!" Niklas shouted. "If you’d just give me a chance to make this right, I promise I’ll treat you better than I did in all four years we were together!"
Juho, who had been standing to the side the whole time, had held back enough. He’d wanted to let Kaija have the satisfaction of delivering her final words, but now that she seemed finished, he didn’t intend to let another of Niklas’s filthy sentences reach her ears.
"Let’s go, my princess," Juho said, nudging her shoulder again. "That’s enough energy wasted for one day."
"Ah, jeez," Kaija mumbled, her cheeks burning, though she was the one bringing up the whole princess thing in the first place. "Please don’t call me that, Juho, my goodness. It’s so cringey."
Enraged at being ignored, Niklas suddenly lunged forward, only to meet the same grim fate once again.
THWACK.
This time it wasn’t a punch to the face, but one of Juho’s favorite moves: a direct kick straight to the abdomen.
Handsome as Niklas’s face might have been, he wasn’t exactly athletic. There was barely any abdominal muscle protecting that part of his body.
As a result, his soft organs took the full impact, fueled by Juho’s rage and years of practice. The brown-haired young man collapsed to the floor yet again, head bent toward the carpet, arms clutching his abdomen in agony.
Marja, though barely holding herself together, still snapped into horror the moment she saw her man assaulted.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Marja shouted, rushing toward the crumpled Niklas on the floor. Heartbroken as she was, seeing Niklas like this still tore her heart apart. "How could you assault someone in broad daylight like this? Security! Someone call security! Help!"
At Marja’s cries, the corridor erupted into chaos as nearby staff rushed toward Niklas to help him. There was no security in sight, however, and none of the staff dared approach the green-eyed man now wearing a murderous expression.
"Oh dear lord, Juho," Kaija clutched her head, shaking it. "This is definitely going to earn us one hell of a scandal."
"It’d be lucky if it ends up as just a scandal," Juho muttered. "For a second, I was considering turning it into a homicide."
Cold chills ran down Kaija’s spine at his casually spoken words.
For some reason, Kaija was starting to suspect it wasn’t she who needed protection from Niklas. It was Niklas who needed protection from Juho.
"Ahem," she coughed, grabbing his arm and tugging him forward. "No homicide for you today, Juho. That’s enough. Come to the dressing room with me now."