The pounding beat of the DJ's music filled the crowded room. Flashing lights illuminated the people dancing throughout the club. The sound of their screams was no less deafening than the music.
Max sat on a red sofa with three bottles of whiskey on the table. Two younger men sat on either side of him. They were Max's best friends, Alex and Kiano. Naturally, the two young men were baffled. Max had never come to a place like this, no matter how many problems he faced. And for the first time, Max was sitting in that room.
Alex and Kiano remained silent. Neither of them wanted to ask what their friend had gone through that made him willing to come to such a sinful place.
"Don't you want to ask?" Max asked with a mocking smile, knowing exactly what his two friends were thinking.
Kiano cleared his throat softly. "Why all of a sudden?" That was all he asked.
"Didn't you say you didn't want to enter a room this full of sin?" Alex asked in turn.
Max didn't answer. He remained silent.
Should he be honest about Novela? And would his two friends laugh at his miserable fate?
Damn, Max didn't know how to explain it.
Seeing Max fall silent, Alex and Kiano exchanged a look. They noticed the change in the man's expression.
"Max?"
"She cheated on me and got pregnant with another man's child. The funny thing is, she asked me to take responsibility." Max finally answered in a low voice. "Am I really stupid enough to believe her lies?"
"Huh?" Alex and Kiano were both shocked. The two young men exchanged another look.
"Who__"
"Novela. She slept with another man, but she asked me to take responsibility, Lex."
"WHAT?!"
"MAX! I can't believe Novela would do something like that. I've known her longer than you have, Max." Alex shot to his feet when Max finally said Novela's name. Of course Alex couldn't believe it. Novela had been his friend from their teenage years until they graduated high school.
"Don't joke around, Max. Novela is a good woman. She__"
"And I was fooled by her innocent-looking face," Max said, cutting Kiano off. "I don't want to believe it, but... but I have proof. Someone sent me__"
"And you just believed that proof without even trying to find out the truth first, Max?" Alex cut Max off in turn. "You swallowed that evidence whole without bothering to find out whether it was fake or not?"
Max could only give a small nod.
"Idiot!" Alex cursed angrily.
"Max, you're going to regret this!" Kiano shouted.
Max fell silent for a moment, then suddenly burst out laughing. He stared sharply at his two friends. "I know you've been Novela's friends for a long time. That's why you're defending that cheap woman," he said coldly.
"MAX?!"
"DON'T SHOUT, ALEX! JUST BECAUSE SHE'S YOUR FRIEND, THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU CAN DEFEND THAT CHEAP WOMAN!!" Max shouted right in Alex's face. His eyes bulged furiously, his jaw clenched, and every muscle in his body tensed. The hatred inside him continued to grow. "Just so you know, I have her PHOTO. I have her VIDEO! So what else am I supposed to investigate?!"
"Impossible!" Kiano murmured.
Alex stood frozen after hearing Max's cutting words. The young man slowly shook his head, unable to believe what Max was saying. Of course. Alex knew what kind of person that woman was.
"You'll never accept that painful truth."
Max picked up a glass of whiskey and downed it in one gulp, wetting his dry throat. Then he walked away, satisfied that he had exposed the true nature of the woman he had loved for three years.
"Go ahead and defend that slut," he sneered softly before leaving the club, whose noise grated on his ears. "I'll burn this den of sin to the ground. What idiots. Why would anyone build a place that serves as a nest of sin like this?" he continued grumbling angrily.