Remember when I said I was going to allow the future to decide how chaotic my life choices would be? Yes, I did.“I got it!” I said, staring into my laptop that rainy afternoon. I had finally gotten to my house. I wasn’t in the mood to interact with anybody. “Eeww what happened to you?” I jammed my sister in the lobby. Of course, I completely ignored her. However, I shot her a very stern stare before I opened the door to my room and shut it behind me. “Weirdo,” I could hear her curse me from outside my door. I dropped the bag I was carrying like I was helpless and slid down my door with my face cupped in my hands. I couldn’t let tears stream down my face again because I was really cold and I cried all through the walk home. I was shivering yet I really couldn’t do much about it because the pain I felt in my heart surpassed all kinds of feelings. “Jane, are you okay?” I could hear my mom knock on my door from outside. I immediately got alarmed and shot up from the ground where I sat,
……………I opened my eyes slowly and everything was hazy and blurry. My head was banging with a serious headache and my tongue was really dry, I was so thirsty. I tried moving my fingers and I had no idea if they moved because so much pain and discomfort shot through my body like an electric shock.“Doctor! She’s awake!” I heard a voice shout from the background and I tried looking around to see where I was. I was in a hospital. “Doctor? What the fuck happened?” I muttered under my breath. I tried getting up and sitting up slowly on the bed but I was in so much pain and I was really thirsty so I decided to wait for whomever to get to my theatre.“Hi, Mrs Jane,” the doctor said, excitement beaming in his voice and I slowly turned my neck to the left side of the bed where he stood. I carefully opened my eyes to look at his face and my vision was finally clearing up.“Hi, can I get some water?” I said in a raspy voice and the doctor ordered a nurse to get some clean drinking water for me. “T
“Thank you,” I said to the doctor then went ahead to stare into an empty space. I had tried so hard to remember but how was I supposed to remember what I never knew existed? It was a whirlwind of emotions for me. The doctor sent the nurses to get my family. So after all this time, I’m finally married to Rick? How? How did that happen? How’s this even possible?I questioned myself in so many ways more than one because the last thing I remembered was preparing for an exam in France so I could get in and be close to Rick. Did that actually work? Did I pull that off? How did it all happen? Poof! It was gone from my memory like it was never there.“Here’s some aspirin,” the doctor handed me the pill alongside a glass of water and I accepted it with a smile. Rarely had I seen doctors who were so nice and so handsome at the same time. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that doctor was hitting on me. But I would blame that insane thought on my health condition.“When will they get here? I’ve be
I got out of the bathroom and took one last look at myself in the mirror. Everything felt so unreal. Then my head started to hurt. I started to remember things slowly like a movie.“Ahh,” I screamed touching my head. I noticed the nurse rushed in to help me. At that point, I already lay on the ground trying my best to get up but my head hurt so bad. While the nurse was trying to help me, I tried to get away from her grip“Leave me alone!” I yelled but she kept trying to subdue me until I felt a very sharp but quick pain at the side of my hand and then my eyes felt heavy and drowsy instantly. Then I met darkness.……………..Now, back to my teenage life.“Mother! Guess what?” I hopped excitedly to the kitchen where my mother was. You must be wondering why that seems to be the only scenery where I can speak to her. Well, it’s because my mother was a good cook in her days and loved to spend most of her time in the kitchen.She often cooked for big organizations and charity so she was always
I stared at my empty phone. I sat opposite it and spoke to it like I would a friend. Of course, it didn’t reply back, what was I thinking? Every beep and every slightest sound the phone would make made me jump up and open the phone in anticipation. What was I anticipating you may ask? I left Rick dozens and dozens of calls he was supposed to have returned but he didn’t return any. I even told him I was on the verge of dying but he still ignored me. How heartless could he be? Or maybe he knew I was definitely lying. Somebody tell me why I was sitting there and anticipating a call from somebody I knew wasn’t going to call me back. Speak of boredom. “Jane we’re going to be late!” My sister often yelled at my door just to get me to come out and go to the counselor. Oh, how I despised going to meet her. My mother never failed to meet her every month to update her on our life and get the best advice from her. She started doing that ever since my father died.She noticed she started making
“But mother, that’s my recent development at least for now. Or what did you want me to say to her?”What my mother did next, shocked me till this very day.She whacked me so hard across my face that left me seeing little stars. “Mom!” I yelled, holding my face with my left palm.“You don’t come in here and disrespect anyone like that, we’re all older than you and I didn’t teach you how to be disrespectful!” She yelled and I already had tears welling up in my eyes and anger filling my chest. I knew I had to leave.My flight to France wasn’t until two weeks and I planned to go to my best friend's place to stay till it was time for me to leave. I was tired of the toxic situation at home and extremely tired of having my mother over my neck at my decision that would affect my future, not hers.……………….“Jeez, are you okay?” I heard a voice as I slowly opened my eyes. My vision was blurry again and I looked around, noticing that I was still in the hospital, I groaned inwardly.“Get me out of
“You are here but this isn’t you. You’re half here and half of you is gone,” she said and it absolutely broke my heart.“When will I see Rick?”……………..“You’ll see him soon,” she responded and I nodded. I was waiting patiently, anticipating his arrival. I wondered how he looked now. I wondered if he still hated me or how we would react when we see each other. Well, my sister did say that we were on the verge of a divorce so I didn’t expect a nice, warm welcome either.“When will he be here? I mean, I’m so anxious to meet him,” I tucked my hair behind my ears and moved my hands slowly to my chest, my heart rate had increased and so has my breathing.“I’m right here baby,” I heard a voice coming from the door, I shifted my gaze from my sister to the door, and oh my days. “Rick?” I muttered to myself, moving my hands to my lips, I noticed they were chapped and dried. I tried adjusting myself to make sure I looked presentable to him but I already knew that no matter what I tried, I still
“I will not say a word about this until I have proof,” I said, folding my hands over my chest. She glared at me for a while before speaking.“I will show you proof.”………..“Here, look at that,” she said handing me her phone after she had been scrolling through for a couple of minutes. I wondered what it was she wanted to show me.I gasped when I saw the picture before me. It was a picture of my swollen and beaten-up face. I swiped and I saw more pictures and videos of different parts of my body where I had been bruised. Soon, my memory drifted back to when I was in the bathroom earlier that day. I did see some marks that I never noticed on my body. Little did I know that it was my husband who gave me those marks.I was stubborn, I still refused to believe because I loved him and needed him in my life. Or so I thought. “Trust me, Jane, you don’t want anything to do with that man,” my sister tried to convince but I obviously turned deaf ears. “I believe our marriage can still work,” I s
“Well! Now, we’re going to have to make a new round of chicken,” I said, groaning angrily while he chuckled and pointed toward the store room.“At least we have a whole island of them,” he joked and I nodded, slightly feeling guilty about wasting food.I had grown up to know that wasting food was not an option and here I was, abusing the gift of abundance. I needed to retrace my steps.“Why don’t we just order takeout?” I suggested and he pondered a while over it before he shrugged and looked me in the eyes.“What?” I asked and he shrugged. “Well, why do you want takeout?” He asked and I rolled my eyes. He was literally impossible.“Don’t give me that look! I just want to know why. I can cook the food if that is what it’s about,” he pressured but I was already having a headache as he kept going on and on.“I didn't know men talk a lot,” I spat and he looked at me with a surprised expression.“Okay, I’m only talking this much because I want you to be comfortable with me. I don’t want
“Oh, I see. Well, it is hard for a guy to pass by you and not stare at you with his eyes or even make a passing comment. But that’s not what we’re trying to talk about here,” he said, noticing my uncomfortable look. “I’m sorry, okay? I just want to keep letting you know how beautiful you are and how lucky I feel to have you over. How lucky I feel that both of us are sharing the same house at the moment. How lucky I feel that I’m helping you with whatever it is that you need, okay? I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable near me. I want you to feel very comfortable because it’s going to be a long ride in the long run. But I need to remind you once in a while how crazy you drive me,” he said and I blushed again.“Okay, I’ve heard you. I’ve heard everything you said. Now, I guess it’s time to go and have dinner. Maybe. I’m starving,” I said to him as he nodded in agreement. “Of course, yeah, dinner. I didn’t even realize how much time had passed since I stayed with you. You make time go
“Alright then, we can drive there right now,” David said with a mischievous grin. I looked outside and saw that it was already getting dark. I just wanted to smile and relax and wait, because obviously he couldn’t penetrate that safe. And I made sure that it was a high-quality safe that I laid my hands on while I was at UNI. You know, that woman who first gave me those original documents? She also gave me that safe. Nobody could crack it open, not even the best programmer in the world. It couldn’t even be blown up by a bomb. It was just a safe, just the way it was. So I was less bothered about that, but what I was a little bit bothered about was the fact that he would go in there and probably start taking all the furniture and all his clothes and all that.“Don’t worry, there’s no rush. Revenge, especially the sweet ones, take time. We’re going to go tomorrow. It’s already getting late. We should make something to eat and go to bed,” I said to him with a smile. He smiled back
“Jane, Jane, relax.” David said, as he rushed towards me. He tried to hold my shoulders, because I looked like I was going crazy. Like I was going mad. And he was probably very afraid at that point, because I was acting batshit crazy. That I was going to injure myself or him. So he held me firmly in his arms and made me look at his eyes. His caring eyes.I said to him, with tears in my eyes, “All the assets, everything I worked my ass off for, everything is gone. I have searched everywhere. I have checked everything. Maybe I misplaced it. But no. Henry has betrayed me.” I said in the most heartbreaking voice you could ever imagine.I was so heartbroken, because I never would have done the same to Henry. But why did he do this to me? He had stolen from me. And I would not stop until I had stolen back from him.“I always knew Henry was shady for that thing he did. Of course, it had nothing to do with getting married to you or you being a terrible person to get married to. There were alw
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I said, with a very nervous chuckle, as I tucked my hair behind my ears and faced forward, avoiding his gaze. But deep down, I knew he was right about what he was saying. I was just very afraid to admit the truth. He asked again, “Jane, look at me. We need all the information we can get if we’re going to get to the bottom of this. You don’t have to be afraid to release any information. You don’t have to be reluctant to do that, OK? I’m here, standing by your side. I’m always by your side and I will forever be by your side. Right now, we need all the information we can get. You’re the only one who can give us that information. Do you understand, Jane?” He asked, looking at me intently. I shook my head, feeling overwhelmed by emotions. I didn’t know how to feel at that point, because he was right. I knew so many things that could have made Henry make this decision of his. Or whatever it was. I knew quite a few things about why he may have lef
“OK, so I have some detective friends who could also help out in your case, but I need your consent with everything. I promise you it’s not an affiliation with anybody, not your ex-husband, not your fiancé. You know I just really want to help, just in case you need backup. Is that OK with you?” He asked, his voice gentle and reassuring.I looked at him, feeling a surge of gratitude and affection.His eyes met mine, and I saw a flicker of something else in them. Something warm and tender, something that made my heart skip a beat.I almost wanted to jump up and hug him, but I had to comport myself because I was a lady. Oh, fuck it, I thought, and jumped up and hugged him tightly. He wrapped his arms around me, holding me close.“What was that for?” He asked, sounding surprised but pleased.I smiled shyly and pulled away slightly. “Well, you care about me more than anyone else cared about me ever since I lost my child. So I think you deserve more than that.” I said softly.He took my ja
“Why don’t you call them to know what’s up?” He asked, looking at me with concern. I shook my head.“No, no, no, no. We already spoke about this. We discussed it. It’s OK. They will have to be the one to call me after the mission is complete. I can’t call them now. It would be destroying something in the mission.” I said, biting my lip nervously. I was already tapping my feet fast on the ground and grinding my teeth anxiously. Just remembering everything already brought a knot to my stomach and a lump to my throat. And I guess he noticed, because he reached out to my hands and took them in his. He rubbed them gently and gave me a reassuring smile.“It’s OK. I’m sure you’re going to get the text soon. But I need to ask you some questions. I don’t know if it will be OK for you to answer them for me.” He said and I looked at him. I hesitated a little bit, because I didn’t say I was going to trust anyone with the information that I had. But I was willing to give him a small chance. May
“Oh, not so fast, David,” I said, holding up my hand. “Not so fast. You have to take it easy with all this flattery. I’m very quick to fall in love, haven’t you noticed that?” I teased him and he looked at me with a twinkle in his eyes. His smile matched his eyes, bright and warm. It was one of the most brilliant features about him. Was I falling in love again? I had just promised myself that I wouldn’t fall in love so quickly, but I couldn’t help it. This man was amazing. So good looking… Even more good looking than Henry and Rick combined. And I had a very high affinity for very good looking men. And to be honest, at that point, I didn’t really care. I just felt that I should live life and just be who I wanted to be, when I wanted to be, and how I wanted to be.“Oh, I have noticed,” he said, leaning closer to me. “We did have quite the chemistry there when I first walked into the room. When I got coffee with you, you know… I felt it. It was kind of obvious. But I didn’t think anyth
I felt dizzy for a while because I was so confused. I was usually the one who said I love you first in all my relationships. I was usually the one who made the first move, probably because of my desperation. I hoped so much that this man wouldn’t see through my desperation, that he wouldn’t see how desperate I was to find somebody to love. But obviously, I was wrong because he saw it. Why would a man be telling me that he loved me on the very first day we met? And given the circumstances surrounding it, it was a big lie, at least in my ears. What did he mean by love at first sight?“Jane, Jane, did you hear what I said?” David’s voice woke me up from my little mini trance right there. I didn’t even realize that I had drifted off from the normal conversation that we were having. But in truth, I didn’t know what to reply to that because obviously, I didn’t love him. But I did have a little bit of liking for him. And if there’s anything I’ve learned over the past few months, it’