Don't toy with me: sexiest man of the year

NOT EVEN A COMPETITION

Angela's world had been turned upside down. She walked through the busy streets, her footsteps carrying her forward without any clear destination in mind. “It's all over, isn't it?” She thought and smiled, trying to fight back her tears. “Things will never go back to the same, I mean this is Diana we are talking about, his one and only Diana,” she scoffed with a sarcastic eye roll with tears soaking her eyes wet. “I am not even a competition to her, it would have all been avoided if only I told him from the very beginning about Damon. He manipulated me all along while working well Diana, he knew quite well that she was alive. I blindly played right into his trap, he got all he wanted and stabbed me in the back, it was all his plan all along, how could I have missed that?” She rubbed her elbows as though she were in a lost soul in winter. The encounter with Diana certainly left her feeling exposed, vulnerable, and consumed by fear. She could feel the weight of the blackmail hanging over her head, and it made her feel nauseous. However, that will be nothing compared to the fear of seeing Antonio's wretched face when he will be told that all she had for him was nothing but a lie with proof! Angela paused at a spot, letting her tears flow down freely, ignoring the noise in the background and the busy street. “How could I have been so careless? How could I have let myself get caught up in something so dangerous, so reckless? I knew the risks, but I thought I could outrun them, I thought there will be time for me to let him know that. I thought I could keep it a secret until the perfect time. How stupid!” She slapped her forehead, staring down at the ground beneath, her mind racing here and there, unable to come up with an explanation. “I never meant for it to end up this way. All I wanted was to revenge Antonio, but that was all before it started. I love him… I really do love him. All I wanted was to have a happy life with Antonio, to see him happy to be the best version of himself”. Angela continued her grief as flashbacks of the times Antonio smiled at her genuinely flashed back into her mind. The day he laid his head on her lap, or the day with the twins where they played the King and the Queen, their intimate moment. There so much that she can't afford to lose. That smile on his face when he was leaving the penthouse this morning, what would happen to it now? She paused and looked up as if realization hit her. “Well he is going to have Diana to lay back on, he will probably be much happier without me”. Her brow arched tightly as she dried her face roughly and continued her steps of agony, looking as miserable as anything unimaginable. Shamelessly. As she walked, she couldn't help but relive the conversation with Diana over and over in her mind. If she gets into Antonio's hearts, then the public is going to know…it's going to be a trend. Angela could picture the news hotlines and the blogs discussing her every single day. She tried to think of ways to protect her family to find a way out of the trap she was in, but she felt powerless and helpless. This was it. Her life was about to crumble around her like the dust of a sandcastle swept away by the tide. Her life was normal like everyone else's before the Montero's. It was the worst to happen to her and also…the best. She could picture Grandma's face showing genuine concern for her each time she was almost unlived by Antonio's marathon sexual abuse. However, it was more heartbreaking to think of her face showing how disappointed she is to find out about whatever Diana is going to expose to them. Angela was so lost in her thoughts, that she failed to notice the couple walking towards her on the street. It wasn't until they collided that she was jolted out of her inner turmoil. “Hey watch it!” The man yelled, protecting his woman from the assumed psychopathic lady. Angela's apologies spilling out in a rushed, breathless manner. “Oh! I'm so sorry, I wasn't paying attention.” She couldn't even raise her eyes to meet with their furious ones theirs. A flurry of apologies tumbling from her lips. “Yeah you are sorry, that's all you have to say, she is pregnant you just…” “It's okay, baby” the woman with him interrupted. Her voice was kind, soft, and understanding. “It's a crowded street, accidents happen.” Angela was still there, bowed in apology until the couple left. She raised her head, hot tears streaming down her face. Her emotions were a tangled web, each strand tugging her in a different direction. She forced her hand up to stop a cab. The driver pulled up and she entered. As she settled into a seat in the cab, her mind was racing with a thousand thoughts, a thousand fears. The anxiety of Diana's blackmail, the guilt of her mistake, the desperation to keep her family out of it all — it was a suffocating weight that threatened to crush her. She stared blankly out the window, her eyes unfocused as the cityscape flew past in a blur. She felt so numb and disconnected from everything around her, a hand supporting her jaw. Suddenly, her phone rang, breaking the silence of her thoughts. Antonio's name appeared on the screen, jolting her from her trance-like state. Angela's heart pounded as she grappled with what to do. She had longed to speak with him before but now her fear of the truth and her longing for the man she loved, is a mixed feeling she can't escape from. She closed her eyes and pressed her lips tightly as her fingers searched blindly and silenced the phone. However, the calls kept coming. Antonio's name flashed across Angela's phone screen like a warning sign, each ring an alarm bell in her mind. She covered her mouth with a palm, not to break down. The unanswered calls still echoing through her mind like a countdown to the inevitable. She felt her heart racing, her stomach churning, as she debated what to do. Part of her wanted to answer, to hear his voice, to feel the comfort of his it and to tell him everything about Diana's blackmail, but another part knew that it would never make everything better. She had no excuse, she had the time to let him know, but she was afraid of its result now it has gotten to the stage where it ends. What if Diana had exposed her to him already, that's why he's calling her right now?