CHAPTER 5

Natalie Jackson.

I had fallen asleep waiting for my husband, Franklin Howard, to return home after he left the house with Amelia.

It was past 10 p.m. When I awoke, I heard loud banging on the door.

As I rushed to unlock it, Franklin was back and accusing me of drugging him.

I thought he was joking, but he was dead serious, and he started kissing me as he dropped me on the bed, even before my mind could register what he was about to do.

Franklin hadn't kissed me for three years since we got married. He didn't even want to acknowledge me as his wife. He only wanted my food, claiming that he didn't like eating food prepared by outsiders as they usually didn't cook it well and often mismanaged ingredients. So he mostly returned home to eat what I prepared for him.

"Frank, stop!" I tried to push him away as I was breathing heavily. He took me into our main bedroom and continued showering me with kisses. He kissed me so hungrily as if he had been starved of it for so long.

"Frank..." I was supposed to be excited that my husband was finally making love to me, but I knew Frank. He wasn't in his right frame of mind, and I sensed that Amelia had drugged him. Now Frank came home and was accusing me of being the one who had drugged him.

Frank laid me on the vast bed and removed my green nightgown in a flash. He resumed kissing me and touching my sensitive spots.

I moaned and responded. I should have left him when I had the opportunity to. Frank's mother didn't like me. She called me a prostitute in the presence of her children and said that I wasn't fit to be her daughter-in-law.

None of Frank's two siblings liked me. They didn't relate to me as they disapproved of my presence in their gatherings.

The only person who was kind to me was Frank's best friend, Michael. He was the only one who smiled at me and happily ate my food whenever he came to visit Frank in our home on weekends like Saturdays and Sundays.

But Frank didn't like it and had warned his friend Michael to stop teasing me. He said that I didn't know how to cook, and each time, I tried to improve my cooking skills to win Frank's heart so that he would love me more and say thank you.

Franklin wouldn't. He would only remind me that he was the one who provided the money to prepare the food, and he didn't owe me any gratitude for it or for cooking the food with ingredients that he had paid for.

Franklin was mean to me, but I kept enduring him as I didn't want to be referred to as a woman who couldn't manage her home or stay in her marriage.

Some referred to my mother as a prostitute. I had seen her after I got married to Frank when she came asking me for money and telling me that my husband was rich, so it was right that I took care of her.

I couldn't believe my mother would say that to me. But I tried to explain to her that Frank didn't give me money for anything.

She advised me to report him to the human rights department near us, saying that Franklin was my husband and had to take care of me. He was supposed to give me money to take care of my family too, my mother said. But I let her know that Frank and I weren't twins. We weren't born on the same day, and our marriage wasn't built on love.

I told her how Amelia had set me up, and she wasn't happy about it and concluded that I should leave Franklin alone, stating that I was pretty enough to attract any serious bachelor to marry me.

I didn't want to leave Franklin.

He was my husband. Even as he glared at me at the altar of God and refused to say, "I do," I happily told him, "I do."

I loved him and wanted to be his wife, but he didn't trust me and believed that I was the one who had drugged him on that fateful night.

Frank stripped off his clothes like a flash and joined me on the bed. He didn't take it gently on me, just like I remembered three years ago when we were caught on the bed inside my room.

Frank slept with me. He kept moaning and thrusting into me. I didn't try to stop him and allowed him to get his relief.

He finally fell asleep on the bed next to me.

My body was sore after our passionate encounter, given the level of impact at which Frank had made love to me.

I crawled out of bed, as it had been a long time since Frank and I had been intimate. I couldn't remember that night because of what Amelia had given us. But tonight was different; I clearly remembered everything, and I knew Franklin wouldn't.

What was Amelia's target? She wanted my husband to sleep with her.

Why couldn't she be patient and maybe wait until Frank and I got divorced before she drugged him?

She drugged him and made me suffer the impact of her actions.

I wanted to get my revenge on her.

I had suffered enough from Amelia's actions, and I knew that this wouldn't be anything different.

As I picked up my phone from the shelf, managing to stand up as I felt my legs shaking, I saw that it was already midnight.

Frank got back home late at 10 p.m., and now it was midnight. He lasted two hours nonstop, taking me to cloud nine and back to earth with him.

I wanted to message Amelia, but I was enraged, so I called her instead.

"What did you do to my husband?" My anger was evident as I asked her, almost shouting on the phone.

"What nonsense are you talking about, Natalie?! You shameless prostitute and bastard! What did you do to Frank?" she barked at me.

"Hmm, don't pretend like you didn't know. Frank went out with you, and now he came home drunk and is acting under the influence of whatever you gave him. Don't think that Frank wouldn't find out about this. I will have you arrested!" I shouted, and Amelia laughed.

"Hahaha! If anyone should be arrested, it's you, Natalie, who drugged Frank. You know what you did to him, and what you gave him before I came to your house. So stop asking me nonsense!" Amelia ended the phone call, and my brows furrowed.

I knew Frank would accuse me of drugging him once he awoke the next morning, and I feared what his anger would lead to. Frank didn't physically abuse me, but he slapped me just because I refused to let Amelia eat my food.

He showed his angry side to me for the first time, and this had never happened before.

I blinked my tears away and went into the bathroom to wash myself, as my body ached.

Although I loved Franklin, I really did enjoy it and wished that he had made love to me with a clear mind and eyes, not under the influence of whatever Amelia had given to him.

I was exhausted, so I finished my bath, walked out of the bathroom, went to the closet, I then put on a light nightgown and got back on the vast bed to sleep.

This master bedroom was mine, although Frank hadn't given me any specific room in the house. When I arrived here with him two years ago, he said the room was his and I was only temporarily using it until he asked me to leave his house.

We shared the closet, but he hadn't mistakenly slept with me even once.

He sometimes used the other rooms on the top floor that were also furnished whenever he wanted to avoid me. But most times, I told him that I was scared and having nightmares. I said that I couldn't sleep alone, just to crawl into the same bed as him; but Franklin hadn't taken advantage of me.

I lay on the bed and fell asleep, as I was already exhausted.

The following morning, I awoke, and Frank was still sleeping on the bed. I touched his chest to see if he was alright. His head felt hot, and likewise, his entire body was warm.

"What did Amelia give to my husband?" I sprang up in bed, wondering if anything had gone wrong with Frank. I would be in serious trouble, but I couldn't leave him at this point or leave his house.

I stepped down from the bed and went to bring cold water to wipe his forehead and take care of him, but Frank wasn't waking up.

Afraid, I laid my head on his chest to listen to his heartbeat. He was breathing, but his breathing wasn't stable.

"My God!" I rushed out of our room to call the family doctor and to find out if I should take Frank to the hospital or not.