I returned to the hospital all tears and sucked into my gloom. My head heaved upon me and I felt withdrawn from this world. What was that? Can somebody remind me what just happened at the Fanny’s mansion?Am I dreaming or what? God forbid that I marry a mad man. How could they be so cruel and heartless? They knew I was in dire need of the money. They perceived the money meant the whole world to me right now and the only way they could rip me off it was to give me the condition of marrying their mad son.Who does that? Can you imagine! I can’t picture myself settling down for a mad man all in the name of marrying a billionaire’s son. I was often niggled by its impossibility whenever I thought of it.Mother’s health was plunging me into all this. I didn’t want my mother to die. Neither did I have money for burial. I was naïve and rudderless at the moment. I would be twenty two in few days and the last factor on my mind was marriage.What would become of me now?“You could still scuttle
“How would you feel if the son of a billionaire whose sanity is not impaired is given to you in marriage because his family sees you are in need of money and marrying their mad son is the only price to pay?” I almost chafed at Nurse Stella.At the time, I had taken my time to know most of the names of staff at the hospital.And it was the same Nurse Stella that took me to the Fanny’s villa some days ago to see if the billionaire could be of help. She was the only one I could complain to. I wanted to seek her opinion.All my life I have grown to be jaunty but this time I was losing it. What was going on in my life at the time was more than being trapped between the devil and the deep blue sea.“I would feel bad and even go crimson. Why would they do that to you?” she intoned, gritted her teeth and let a sullen look on her face.“The billionaire feels I can’t pay back half a million dollars so the only way I could do that was by signing to a contract marriage agreement with his mad son,
Nurse Stella and I stood staring at the Fanny’s villa while I was still all tears, with heavy sob which shook my entire body. I squeezed my eyes shut and felt sadness cloud my features.I felt like a kid that was about to be sold for slavery. I was daunted, naive, stolen and abandoned to an impending fate. I gazed upon my scruffy self and swallowed hard at the thought of the decision I was about to make.Nurse Stella grabbed me into her embrace, only wishing she could really be of help to me at the time. Had it been she could afford the half a million dollars, I believed she would have given it to me without a tinge of rejection.Although I saw no sense in the advice yet there was an awakening that accompanied it. Yes. My thought was opened into an unfathomable recognition of the fact that once my mother ‘kicked the bucket,’ I would never set my eyes on her again.She was all I had at the time, my essence, my now and future. She may not know the sacrifice I was about getting to becaus
“Who do we have here?” Fanny, who was the first person to catch sight of me, said. His face lit with uncertainty, and he gave a lopsided grin.Instantly every eye came upon me and I lowered my gaze and pressed my lips tightly in exaggerated shame. I paused at the door post, shivering and fondling with the torn hem of my dress. Certainly my intention was stated and I wondered with which face I would used to behold this wealthy family to remind them I was eager to sign to the contract marriage now.The entire Fanny’s and their laborers were having a delightsome dinner at the time, so everywhere smelled of roasted prawn, almond and strawberry. Heavy chuckling and clattering hung over them too.The hotness that churned in my stomach wasn’t inspired by hunger but by thought of what awaited me. All my life I had lived with sane people; people that reasoned properly and behaved with absolute rationality. I never associated with the rich having such short coming.What was I getting myself int
I sat elegantly yet shyly as I was superbly decorated more than the former. This time diamond bracelets piled my neck and wrist. On my feet was a pair of Italian stiletto and my wedding gown was shapely made from the Royal Home of England. The tailor-made wedding gown caught my shape so invitingly that my curves and hour-glass shot out at the right edges and corners.“Wow this is so much for a wedding gown that would worn by the mad man’s wife,” one of the maidens gossiped with another by the corner as they gaped at the POS slip for the purchase of the wedding gown.“How much is it worth?” another asked cheerfully.“Eightmillion dollars!” the maiden replied, and cast an inspective gaze at me, probably expecting my reactions.My eyes almost burnt with tears at the thought of my attribute hence forth; mad man’s wife. That was what I was brooding about inwardly not even the worth of my wedding gown. I wondered how I was going to deal with the reserved emotional trauma this marriage was g
I halted my step and could hear voices whispering from ear to ear over the reason for my tears. Fanny Luis’s jaw dropped upon seeing my teary face and I doubted if it was for me or for his reputation.The voices were as the chirping of innumerable bees; they were murmuring about my fallen countenance. I just wish I could chin up and be matured before these gusts.“Why is she all tears?” a voice among the guest queried.“Isn’t she happy?” another replied coldly.“Oh it could be tears of joy,” another suggested.“Who wouldn’t be emotional? She is fortunate to marry the billionaire’s mad son,” that was another voice which sounded even more offensive than all the voices.The guests whispered among themselves, while the waited for the next line of action.I stood in my gloom, locked and pressed my hands in front, with my gaze lowered, at least with the intent to hide my sullen teary face from any careful onlooker.All of a sudden a lush silence hung over the entire building as piles of cha
“Why are you fidgety? Don’t you know you are married couples now, and soon you two would share same bed and roof?” Salsa snapped to me once I dared to withdraw to the wall as Brian advanced forward to sign on the agreement papers.Salsa’s words etched off every memory of what an ideal husband should look like and installed in me the belief that every husband was supposed to be insane; that I had no right to protest in this marriage.The two hefty men dragged him to come forth and he shuffled his legs, unwilling to make a move and throwing his face side ways to bite them since they seemed to be stronger than him. He was chuckling idly now and struggled violently with the two hefty men; to an extent the hefty men didn’t want to get much violent with him since this could result to hurting him.“Brian! Brian! You had better respect yourself and come forth to sign the papers. You are not going to keep us waiting. This is a time we have been anticipating as a family. You can’t ruin this mom
I wished the buzzing and merriment would continue forever, so that I could find reason not to return to my mad husband. For over an hour now I had stilled my sight upon a large mahogany door which I perceived was the entrance to our chamber. I sniffed and got swallowed into the heavy expression on my face.Shortly after we were legally joined together, Fanny approached me with the one million dollar credit card. I sobbed and dared to perk up as he spoke to me.“This is your gift for agreeing to marry my mad son,” he said and touched his face as though he was yet to forget the saliva Brian plastered on his face. “Once again, congratulations, Melissa Brant and welcome to the Fanny’s,” his voice brooded excitement even when his face said otherwise.I forced a smile yet I could barely keep the smile longer than normal. He handed me the credit card, grinned and joined the guests.“Congratulations, Melissa,” that was Opula’s voice right behind me.When I swirled around behold there she was
Having waited for Salsa to show up in my chamber, but to no avail, I decided to check her up in the kitchen where I knew she could be found. I needed to appreciate her for saving me from being implicated the other day.Salsa gave me a second chance to stay at the Fanny villa; of course, she had saved my marriage the moment she told a lie about the gift.“Hey, I have come to say thank you for saving my marriage,” I said softly , standing at the door as she got startled under the sound of my voice.“You startled the hell out of me,” Salsa said calmly, her lopsided smile dragging from ear to ear as she turned on the gas cooker, “What are you doing here, Melissa? I hope you know I will be punished drastically if you are found in the kitchen.”I was all smiles too, as I glanced around for any onlookers, “I know family members are restricted from the kitchen. But it is taking you too long to take breakfast in my chamber,” I whispered and glanced around.Salsa seemed to be scared; it was evi
On this day, mom was in her garden harvesting some bunches of flower which had posed as weed to her vegetables, when a Ferrari sped and halted at her compound.She never expected a visitor and since she wasn’t expecting any, she busied herself with the weeding and didn’t consider checking who it was.“My mother-in-law! Where are you? I am here!” a voice called and my mom raised her gaze from the ground. Suddenly, she had familiarized herself with such name because she was certain I would get married to Rod Benson, whether I like it or not.And emphatically, no one called her by this name except Rod Benson. When she raised her gaze she saw a young man in a T-shirt and jeans, having dark shades on his eyes, with luxury hanging around him.Indeed, mom was aging; she couldn’t recognize who it was until Rod took off his dark shades and lit his face with a smile.“Rod Benson,” mom called, and tossed her hoe to the ground before dusting her hand on her wrapper to go forth to him. “My son-in-
Once the Lamborghini halted, Rod furiously opened the door and alighted as lightning struck through the sky. His face was filled with thunder and brimstone. He had handy the gift items which I rejected. Snubbing the servants that greeted Rod was an understatement; he almost hit some of them that got in his way.He almost bumped into some of them, and he didn’t stop rolling his eyes at those that murmured about his anger. The fact was that the son of a billionaire was furious and prancing like a bull to confront his father .When he barged into the penthouse, he met his father, addressing a few of his domestic servants about what to do at his new site.“Everyone leave now. I want to have a word with my father!” Rod commanded through clenched teeth.And promptly under the sound of his voice the servants took a walk, leaving father and son.“What the hell was that, son?” Mr. Benson groaned as he gaped at Rod, who was fuming with despair and scorn. The task of getting an eligible wife was
Salsa was standing idly; despair crowding in and humiliation hung over her. Opula, Kate and Fanny surrounded her. Earlier the next day, Kate had given Salsa a sack letter, which Salsa presented to Fanny.When everyone saw the fallen countenance on Fanny this morning, they knew he was going to blow hot at his Kate.But then Fanny had nullified the sack letter and invited the girls, “Why would you sack my chief chef? Do you realize Salsa has rendered a selfless service to this family? She has come a long way with us that the only thing that remains is to bear our surname.”Kate fumed at Salsa and pointed at her, “Did you report me to my father?” she queried her and turned to Fanny to say, “Father, Salsa has overstayed her welcome as the chief chef. It is time for her to leave. We are going to hire another chief chef who is respectful and loyal…”Salsa broke down in tears and couldn’t raise her gaze at her accusers.Fanny queried Kate, “What the hell did she do to have warranted a sack?
I was having a wash in the bathroom when I overheard the creaking of doors. I wouldn’t have perceived who it was if I hadn’t heard the shrilling of china at my dining table; it was obvious Salsa had come to serve me breakfast.“Once you are done, don’t leave, Salsa. I want to have a word with you,” I said right from the Jacuzzi.“Okay, ma’am,” she replied, tone stiffened and easily quenching without much echoing. She knew I was pissed off and my groaning tone which hummed Brian’s favorite song could show it.It was when I stepped out of the bathroom that I saw Salsa had quite a couple of stuff in her hand; I could see a sizable box, a stylish Italian gown, a piece of paper.“Without telling me to wait behind, I would have waited,” Salsa said, all smiles a she placed them on my bed, “You will like them. Rod is out to shower you with priceless gifts. This is an Italian gown worth two million dollars, this is a check for five million dollars and this is a beautiful pearl…”My face thicke
Salsa was out of the villa to meet with Rod after she got a phone call from him. When I thought Rod’s visit was just going to happen once, it suddenly became a habit which might not stop soon.Salsa was all smiles once she got on Rod’s private jet, and she brought out some flasks of food. “I made you some intercontinental dishes which you will like. You can’t find it anywhere around,” she said and placed the food flask in front of him.Rod shot a delightsome smile at the food flask before sighing and asking, “How is my sweetheart, Melissa?Salsa forced a smile after corking her eyebrow. Although she was too thrilled about the day to let anyone offend her, she couldn’t stand Rod snubbing her just to ask her about me.She took a few steps towards Rod, and she was so close now that her warm breath burnt his nose, “Red tie doesn’t fit this sleeve shirt,” she said as she stretched the collar of his sleeves and the edge of his tuxedo. “Next time you could wear a black tie. You are too hands
Opula and Kate were having a nice time at the poolside, and whenever they gathered at such a time, the two names that never left her mouth were Brian and my name. She regretted it all now; she wished she hadn’t contracted me for this marriage.“I thought she was naïve and timid the very first day I met her,” Opula said to Kate, who was busy popping wine, “I never knew this poor Melissa wasn’t actually poor in mind. Today she is being problematic …”Kate shrugged, “You hired a beast and forgot to tame its fire. That rotten kitten is going to be our endless nightmare if we don’t act fast. I don’t need to remind you of the wings she has grown.”Opula caught sight of Fanny and I driving out in the Rolls-Royce, and she clenched her jaw and said, “Father is not even helping issues. But I know the problem with him. My husband mentioned it to me the other days and I doubted him. But right now I am beginning to believe him.”Kate’s face scowled in anxiety as she asked, “What could that be? Gis
Standing before the microphone, with the earpods tightly worn on my ears often reminded me of Brian. The last place I saw him before slumping into a coma was his studio, where he sang his favorite song.As I stood before the microphone to sing a little, nothing else sounded from me than a sobbing tone. To say I had missed Brian was an understatement. I saw him virtually in everything I did.And right about now, I could see him standing over there just behind the glass door, smiling cheek to cheek and hearing me sing his favorite song.But it was only imagination. Imaginations had ways of playing chase with our emotions, and I was only a victim. I couldn’t continue with the singing practice.I had broken down in tears several times and wasted precious time reminiscing about Brian and what our marriage would look like if he were around. I knew if he were here all these fights and quarrels wouldn’t have happened because he would have assumed his rightful position as the heir to the Fanny
In the heat of the quarrel, the doctor invited the security, who bundled Opula and Kate away. And because Fanny breached the policy guarding noise making at the emergency ward, the doctor was forced to ask Fanny and Eva to leave immediately.The doctor wasn’t going easy with me either. Although he scolded me, he gave me some pieces of advice which I found unnecessary and useless.A wave of anger rolled over the doctor as he asked, “Why did you do this, Melissa? You know you are pregnant, yet you went ahead to donate blood to your husband. Do you want to die?”My brow roughened as I shot a quarrelsome gaze at him. At the time, I was lacking the verve to speak up, but my thunderous face queried him annoyingly. I wished I could keep at my silence but I couldn’t. Why would the doctor ask me such a question?”“My husband’s life is involved here, doctor,” my soft tone came through, as I said yet further, “He has no one except me. It is only me that can save him…”The doctor’s wobbled eyes i