Those Seven Years Between Me and Him: From Lovers to Strangers

I am Elianna Lambert. The day I received a tearful call from my best friend, Regina Haynes, telling me that her ex-husband had abused her, my boyfriend, Kristian Reynolds, and I flew back to the country overnight and rescued her.

To help Regina get even, I set aside all business interests and took every order from her ex-husband's company. Kristian also made it clear that he would have him blacklisted across the entire industry.

The day her ex-husband went bankrupt, Regina hugged me, laughing and crying at the same time.

"You two cannot fight, okay? If you break up, who am I supposed to go with?" She said jokingly.

Kristian pulled me out of her arms. "Shut up. There is no way I am ever breaking up with Elianna."

Later, I had her move into my apartment to live with Kristian and me so that I could look after her; I even arranged for her to work at my company, and encouraged her to find a new boyfriend and start a new life.

Every time Kristian would wrap his arms around me and ask, seemingly jealous, "Who is the one you really love, anyway?"

Everything was fine until I left on a three-month business trip and secured a major international deal worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

When I finally returned to the country, I was eager to surprise Kristian. He drove to pick me up. Out of habit, I opened the passenger-side door and was about to get in when my fingers brushed against something wedged between the seat cushions.

It was a used condom.