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Sixty-one
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2021-10-17 07:00:00“I wanted to let you know Brianna woke up,” I say to Ava while picking at the material of my seat.
The calm silence stretches into something so suffocating I want to bolt out of here. She’s too cool about my reappearance. If I had to deal with a client with my attitude, I would have stopped seeing them. I glance at Ava, she averts her eyes but it’s too late. She was watching me too. Her dreadlocks are gone, replaced by short brown hair that curls at her temples. I liked seeing the cowries. Made me feel better.
Worry prickles my neck, I rub my hand against the back of my head and pretend her stern frown has nothing to do with me. “That’s good to hear,” she finally says. “Congratulations. I’m happy for you.”
I lower my head to avoid meeting her gentle gaze. It feels like she has more to say but she’s weighing her words like I am doing. The quotes on the wall make less sense. Identify you
maramarthaIt is my birthday today. I don’t know what time it is where you are from but this chapter is set to release 12:00 am, 17th October, my time. Happy Birthday to me and thank you for the gems. Thank you for reading!
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Mrs Reluctant Billionaire Sixty-two
Everyone is watching.Bren. Wyn. Joshua. They have been watching Brianna for the last few minutes, expecting her to stir awake and probably speak. Wyn sighs first and props herself by the elbows on her side of the bed. She looks the most frustrated. I slipped and told them Brianna spoke once, now, they want her to prove it.Joshua examines the wheelchair, face pensive as his fingers trace the buttons on one side. The buttons are for fancy since Brianna can’t use them yet. Mia, her caregiver is somewhere in the house to allow us privacy with her. I slouch on the edge of the bed, face buried in my hands. Three weeks and there has been little or no improvements yet. I should be thinking about the girls birthday party. Christmas too.I haven’t even shopped for their presents.The phone in my pocket pings with a message from Jei. Wrinkles mar my forehead. He wants us to meet now. I slide the phone into my pocket without a re
Last Updated : 2021-10-18Mrs Reluctant Billionaire Sixty-three
The party is in full swing.Balloons. Music. Tents. Bunch of kids from the twins school with their parents in tow.From my position, the twins look to be having fun. And what is that dance? I push Brianna’s wheelchair to the window so she can have an idea what the noise is all about and a gentle breeze welcomes us.We would have stayed back at home but the twins wanted her here. There was no way I would miss their party. The party that marks their big girl-ness and entry into a new world. They don’t want to keep wearing matching dresses anymore. It’s a bit scary but I guess it’s time for them to choose their styles.A part of me hopes they don’t stick by it but judging from the heap of new clothes El bought for them, I don’t see that happening. The twins are her first models for her clothing line. The launch is next week.Tucking the blank canvas under my armpit, I drag my seat close
Last Updated : 2021-10-18Mrs Reluctant Billionaire Sixty-four (Part I)
El stands at the door, gaze sliding between me and Mia with her nose stuck in the air. A fake smile etches on her lips as she steps inside. I see through it and muster a sheepish grin. “It’s time to cut the cake.”I send Mia a curt nod and follow behind El. As soon as we are alone in the corridor, she spins to face me. Hands resting on her hips, her pupils dilate with anger. “Now you are flirting with the caregiver, huh?”Her audacity irritates me more than her accusation. “What I do is none of your business.”“It’s my business if you are doing it where my kids are.” Laughter trickles out of my lips. She has nerves.“They are my kids too, El. I know what’s good for them.” I am so horny I will fuck a tree but if Mia had given herself up to me, I wouldn’t have touched her. It is one reason she is getting fired. I don’t want to find out if today is part of a
Last Updated : 2021-10-19Mrs Reluctant Billionaire Sixty-four (Part II)
An inaudible gasp escapes El, my teeth graze her neck, her shoulder and she sucks in a sharp breath. My hand slides between her legs. She shudders. I tug on the tiny, elastic waistband of her panties and release it without notice. El whimpers. I don’t care if it hurts, I repeat it again and again until she grabs my hand. She was with T. She should be punished.“It hurts,” she cries. Her eyes beg for mercy and my chest falls in defeat. What are we even doing?“Take it off,” I order. Her hesitation irks me, my jaw ticks. If she didn’t want to be here, she would have left. She wants me too, not that fucker. “Now.”El gives a shaky nod. I step back for her to pull off her panties. The stirring in my groins intensifies at the colour of her underwear. Red. The colour of sin. Does T also know the colour? I stretch my hand for it, she drops it on my palm and I sniff it. Amazing.“You smell good,” I
Last Updated : 2021-10-19Mrs Reluctant Billionaire Sixty-five
We cut the cake, take tons of pictures. My parents manage to sneak into a few. I clench my jaw as they pose for a picture with Joshua. He is all smiles as he stands in their middle, hands around their shoulders. A wave of anger sweeps over me. I want to march there and slap the smile off his face. He keeps acting like they are the best parents a child can wish for. They ruined us. I turn away while their photography session is still ongoing so I won’t be forced into the picture. Where’s my wife? We are not done talking. Maybe we are. El is with T. They might be discussing business but she’s staring hard at him and her brows are furrowed in concentration. She nods at something he says, barks out a laugh and punches him slightly on his arm. We fuck and she returns to her buddy, is that it? Am I a fuck buddy? Or, fuck husband? Changing direction to an empty tent, I grab a saucer with a slice of moist cake to eat away the jealousy
Last Updated : 2021-10-20Mrs Reluctant Billionaire Sixty-six
I didn’t dance with El. I danced all night with Mother, stepping her a few times like the awful dancer I am.Mother is feeding Brianna when I arrive downstairs. I toss my briefcase on the table and give Brianna a peck after bopping her nose. Mother watches our exchange. She is still taking it all in. The videos and pictures. She hasn’t spoken about them or what she feels about Brendan’s actions and I doubt she will.“We will be leaving in a bit,” she says with a side glance at Father who has his phone pressed to his ear.“Good morning.” My hand covers hers resting on the dinning table and I give it a small squeeze. “You can stay for dinner. The twins will be here.” I get them for the rest of this week and next until El arrives. She left with her mother while I danced with mine. A crash sounds, we dart a look at the balcony. Father tugs on his hair from the roots. He turns to us and waves, I
Last Updated : 2021-10-21Mrs Reluctant Billionaire Sixty-seven
“Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you, Mummyyyy...” the twins flanked on each side of me drag the words out in a sing-song voice. El rolls her eyes but her smile never falters. I tilt the screen of my laptop to have a better view of her face. Her smile is not directed at me but the sight of it warms me. Our eyes meet briefly, she looks away. “Happy birthday to you.” They look at each other. “Hip. Hip. Hip.”“Hurray,” El finishes for them. She yanks her robe close and I smother a groan. I loved the view. “Thank you, my loves.”Wyn pries the laptop from my laps to hoist it on her legs, Bren relocates to her side of the couch. They cradle the laptop like a toddler, careful to keep it on their knees. “How old are you, Mummy?” Wyn asks.“I’m plus one.”“What’s plus one?” Bren asks.The laptop returns to my legs, the twins prop
Last Updated : 2021-10-21Mrs Reluctant Billionaire Sixty-eight
My first instinct is to call T and punch the living daylights out of him because every bad thing that’s going wrong in our lives is his fault. I run my fingers through my scalp until the tremors wear off. El squints.“Why?” She’s too calm. Too collected for someone who talked so much about wanting this. I will lose my shit if I have to reschedule the launch of Project El. Heck. I lose my shit each time I have to tolerate Jei’s arrogant ass. It is not my place to ask, not with our pending issue but I whisper, “Did something happen?”“It’s one of the things we need to talk about.”The phone on the heap of file pings. I ignore it. “Why can’t we talk about it now?”She shrugs off her robe to reveal a black top that exposes her midriff. I lick my lips. That banging body is one of the many reasons we need to get back together. With the amount of stress I am passing through
Last Updated : 2021-10-22
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ElnaI shut the door to our bedroom and tiptoe inside. Brandon doesn’t stir. He’s dead asleep. Or so I think till I near the bed and drop the package—his valentine gift on the nightstand. He puckers his lips for a kiss and I gladly indulge him. His hands grasp my butt, he pulls me up to straddle him and I move slowly against his erection without breaking eye contact. “Are they asleep now?” “Yeah. Finally. Alleluia,” I reply with a laugh. “Maybe I shouldn’t have given them the day off.” Silly me thought it would be great to give the twins nannies Valentine’s Day off so our family could do something special. Bad choice. With two one-year old attention demanding kids, I need all the help I can get. To make it worse, this year’s valentine fell on a Sunday and most of last night was spent trying to quiet the babies. “Maybe.” Brandon captures my lips. The kiss is lazy but it soon grows urgent. His tongue searches for mine, twirlin
Mrs Reluctant Billionaire In the end (II)
The girls are dancing in a circle. Wyn is in the middle of the circle trying to perform a break dance. I laugh at her failed attempts, holding El closer to me as we sway gently to a rhythm in my head. El wrinkles her nose in disappointment, her fingers intertwine with mine and I spin her in a lazy circle.“You’re not supposed to be laughing at them,” she says as their mother dearest. “You cheer them up.”True. But it was funny. Wyn waves, Bren does the same. Brianna does not spare us a glance. Like me and El, she has two left legs. She can’t dance but she is better than us. I wrap my arms around El from behind, tucking my head into her shoulder. She smells delicious. I can’t wait to have her alone.The music filters into my ears, I close my eyes and the lyrics wrap around my heart.“What’s Josh doing?”My eyes fly open. Josh is at one of the two canopies with Joy. Most of the g
Mrs Reluctant Billionaire In the end (I)
It’s today. Our vow renewal. To be honest, it feels like we are getting married again. This time, we have the people we care most about to celebrate the reunion with us and it makes me anxious. Joshua claps my shoulder. “Relax.” It’s so easy for him to say that but he doesn’t get it. The love of my life is out there. I haven’t seen my wife since yesterday because her mother believes it’s bad luck to see the bride before the wedding. We stare into the floor-length mirror, our matching charcoal grey suits are differentiated by our ties. He’s my best man. “Is Joy coming?” he asks. Sophia will be in attendance but I can’t speak for her friend. I don’t say a word to him but I know this won’t work. Joy is older than Joshua. If her attitude towards him on my birthday is a sign to go by, she doesn’t like him. Some parts of me feel like this is an infatuation that will die soon. It is taking too long for him to get over her but I hope
Mrs Reluctant Billionaire One hundred and ten
The cries of our newborn babies snap me out of my sleep. I jerk up and check the time on the alarm clock. 7 pm. I groan into my hands.My life has changed since their arrival. My sleeping pattern has worsened and my knowledge about babies has increased.Babies poop a lot. They cry too damn much. They don’t need a reason to cry, just existing is enough reason for them to cry. It is exhausting.Brandon Langalethu Stark is the louder one. Brendan Lelethu Stark is quieter. Annika gave them their middle names with approval from their godfather, Joshua. Lelethu means ours while Langalethu, short for Langa means our sunshine. I must admit, he hasn’t been a ray of sunshine for a while. He’s a big ball of noisy energy. El rouses from her sleep at the incessant sound of her crying babies. I love my sons but they cry too goddamn much. Their cries are coordinated. Once one of them starts crying, the other twin is bound to join in.
Mrs Reluctant Billionaire One hundred and nine
Chaos breaks out. Everyone is all over me and El, saying so many things at once. The smile sitting on her face disappears. Tears fill her eyes, her nails dig into my shoulders so hard I’m sure it will leave a mark.She is hurting.Annika is speaking so fast, asking about the baby things. Mother is telling everyone to calm down. El is crying, she doesn’t want to go to the clinic with a wet dress. I don’t know what to do. I wasn’t present for the first pregnancy. Mother pushes me aside and helps El to her feet. I almost scream. Is she allowed to stand? What if our kids fall out?I rush to El’s side. Mother guides her through a breathing exercise as what she calls a contraction hits El. It must have really hurt. She balls my shirt and makes a pained sound that stops everyone in their tracks. More than six pairs of worried eyes pin her in a stare but she focuses on only me. My baby.“I’m okay,”
Mrs Reluctant Billionaire One hundred and eight
Choruses of happy birthday fill the air. I am dragged away from El before I can kiss her back or utter a reply. I was so worried she would forget about today I forgot it myself. Mother nudges me with her hip and grins. Well played. Even the girls were in on it.Joshua claps my arm. “Happy birthday, brother.” This idiot. He called me during the day and didn’t wish me anything. “Many happy returns.”We cheers to my new age and Bren pulls me to the living room where the real party is happening. The place has been redecorated. There are balloons tied to the wall, a table with a bigger cake on it and the words, “Happy Birthday, my love” written on it.There’s another cake. Well, there are three more cakes. Instead of my love, one has son, the other has brother and the last one has Daddy written on it. A cake from each of the most important people in my lives. My wife. My kids. My brother and my parents
Mrs Reluctant Billionaire One hundred and seven
El sneaks an arm around my waist. Her belly is bigger now. Our babies will be showing up soon. She leans on me for support while we wait for the private elevator. It was her idea to get out of my office to buy crackers. A little fun fact: We have boxes of crackers at home. If she wasn’t pregnant, her attitude would have been suspicious but with pregnancy, anything goes. Rule number 123432444: Never argue with a heavily pregnant woman. It will end in chaos. We enter the elevator with my hand on her lower back. Our reflections on the metallic wall smiles at us and El laughs. I set my suitcase on the ground and palm her face for a proper kiss. With the pregnancy due, her office has become mine. She spends more time with me than anyone else. I love it. Her lips taste like donuts. We ordered some an hour after she arrived to “pick” me. I will never let her drive in her state but she enjoys using that term even if she was brought here by a driver. She r
Mrs Reluctant Billionaire One hundred and six
El won’t stop staring at her ring.We are in the backseat of the car heading to the hotel for dinner when she reaches up to give me a kiss. Leaning on me, she smiles at her ring again. I think I did right by her. Her mother will be happy. We had a long, loud, argument about this. About the vow renewals too but that will be after El delivers.“I have two rings,” El says, hand stretched out in front of her. She rolls Mother’s ring on her middle finger. “Does that make me Lord of the rings?”“Lady of the rings, maybe.”My phone vibrates with a text from Joshua. He wants to know if I did it. I facepalm at his request of a picture. It’s one more thing I have to get better at. Capturing the memories on camera. I nudge El with my elbow to show her the text. Her hand eventually lowers, she nods eagerly and strikes a pose, flashing her teeth in all the selfies. She knows she is pretty.
Mrs Reluctant Billionaire One hundred and five
I tilt the laptop and the girls’ faces occupy the screen. Wyn is on top of Bren but her twin doesn’t seem to mind. Brianna is on one side of the bed, smiling at the camera. They are all lying on their stomachs. El settles down beside me, I prop the laptop on my knees and slip my hand into her shirt from behind. She shoots me a warning look. I bat my lashes like the cute baby daddy I am.“I miss Mummy,” Wyn says.My back meets the headboard and El rests her head on my shoulder. “What about me?”Again, she and Bren are rocking the same gowns. Wyn frowns. “I miss you too, I guess.”El bellows out a laugh. Evil girls. In a few months, I’ll have my boys. She wraps an arm around my waist to soothe me. It works for only a second before my attention returns to the laptop. Bren is grinning.“How are you?” El asks.“Fine,” three of them chorus.&
