OLIVIABeing back home felt strange and familiar at the same time. Every room I entered filled me with nostalgia and vivid memories of my grandmother and I. The house was dirty and full of dust. Walls needed paint and floors needed to be scrubbed.I roughly wiped my tears away as I cleaned. I have cried enough at the graveyard; it was time for me to act now not to cry. a knock came through the door, and I went to open. May was standing on the other side of the door with a pretentious smile on her face.The woman must think I was still the same naïve Olivia from before. “Yes?” I said with a raised eyebrow. “Olivia, it’s me, May.” Did she really think I didn’t know who she was? But I went along with her. “Oh, I couldn’t recognise you, it’s been so long.” She pushed me aside and went inside.It annoyed me but I kept my mouth shut. “Goodness! This house needs a good scrubbing! I heard about your arrest, and I want you to know that I didn’t believe a word they said. Media can be cruel but d
NICK“What are you standing there for? Go get me my daughter-in-law back, tell her you are sorry and that you will do better. Go, Nick, go now.” Said my mother hitting me over and over while crying. She loved Olivia and I didn’t like seeing her that way. But what else could I do when she didn’t want me? I was not going to force her to want me.I held her hands to stop her from hitting me, “Mom, she doesn’t want me going after her. you heard what she said. She wants a divorce and nothing I say will change her mind. I am sorry.” She cried even more freeing herself from my hold. It hurt, the way she looked at me was like she was looking at someone she despised.“Get out, get the hell out of my house Nick!” she screamed at me, I looked over at dad, but he just sat there as if nothing was happening. I knew then that I had done more than just disappoint my parents, I hurt them. “I am sorry mom.” She only glared at me and pointed at the door.I gave her a sad look before leaving. Ethan and O
NICKEthan said something that got me thinking. Everything else he said made sense and I regretted it. But I didn’t get why he would say I didn’t take care of my wife’s grandmother. I might have refused to see her because of how ashamed I was of facing her after sending Olivia to jail. But I did send money to her card every month.She should have been taken care of even with Olivia in jail, I never sent Olivia to jail so I could punish her grandmother. “Ethan, you know me man, do you think I didn’t take care of her grandmother? I sent her money every month for the past two years. I might not have gone to see her, but I did make sure that she had money to live a comfortable life.”“You sent her money, then why was she buried in an unmarked grave?”“I don’t know Ethan, the person who buried her might not have known that she had money in the bank.” To be fair, she might not have known herself that she had that kind of money in the bank. Olivia’s grandmother was an old person, and she didn
OLIVIAI didn’t expect to see Nick so soon after asking him for a divorce. I thought he brought the papers already when I saw him parked around the corner from my house. Only to find out that he was spying on me. he thought I was still the naïve Olivia he sent to jail to believe the lie he told me about passing by.I must admit though, my heart skipped a beat when I saw him and that happened because of one, I was scared that he brought the divorce papers. I don’t know why because I was the one who asked him for divorce. All I can say is that it was not easy letting go of someone I still had feelings for. Two, because I was afraid of how final divorce will make things.The divorce was not going to affect me alone but my son as well. Samuel is a boy, and he will one day want to know who his father is. I needed to be sure what to say to him when that day came. But I didn’t want to think about that, all I knew was that I wanted to be free from Nick.He hurt me too badly that I no longer sa
NICK“Gentlemen, if this is what I flew all the way from New Village for, then I am not impressed. We have a reputation to protect, and you bring me ideas like this? Do better!” I stood and fixed my suit jacket. I walked to the door but turned to the group. “I want to hear something better tomorrow and it better not be a waste of my time.”I then walked out of the boardroom, I have been there for two days now, and they were yet to give me something I could work with. Just because Jones’ enterprise was a big company did not mean we should relax, there was a lot of competition out there. “Sir, I have ordered your lunch, it’s in the room.”I went towards the elevator but then turned around. “I want to eat out today, I need the fresh air, I need to clear my mind and think. Take me to those beach front restaurants.” Olivia liked beach front restaurants. She like the breeze coming from the beach, she would close her eyes and feel it caressing her face gently as it passed. Like a gentle kiss
OLIVIAI was busy showing the guys where to hang a painting in the reception area when Nick came in looking like he was ready to murder someone. “Everyone out, now!” The guys scattered leaving me standing by the reception desk wondering what the hell got into the man to act like that.He slowly walked towards me with his eyes locked on me like I was his prey. The look in his eyes got me thinking back to prison, to how those animals in there used to look at me when they were about the beat the hell out of me.I shuddered. He stood a foot away from me still not saying anything but looking at me. I didn’t back down either, prison taught me to face bullies head on even when I knew I was out matched and outnumbered. “Do we have a child together.” My heart grew cold, and I could feel my hands shaking a little.But I didn’t avert my gaze from him, I knew he found out something, but I didn’t know what. I bailed my hands into fists with my nails digging in the palm of my hands. The pain stoppe
OLIVIAI stopped myself right in time before I let it slip that I lost my womb in prison and a year and four months of my son’s life. “Go on, Olivia. Tell me what you lost; I want to know.” I turned giving him my back. “You lost the right to ask me questions the day you called the police on me and sent me to jail for two years. Oh, wait. It would have been longer if your parents didn’t come back, and you wouldn’t be bothered.”I sighed turning back to look at him. “Just leave Nick and never come back here again. When the divorce papers are ready. Send your lawyer with them and I will sign, there is no need for us to see each other again.” There we go again, a flash of pain in his eyes and it was gone before I could even react making me feel like I was seeing things.He looked at me for a while before turning back and walking out my door. The guys rushed back in surrounding me. “Mam, are you alright, did he hurt you? we can call the police if he hurt you.” I chuckled, clearly, they did
NICKA month has passed with my people searching the hole of Summer Strand for that boy but so far, they have not been able to find him. Ethan might have moved him somewhere else, but I couldn’t find any record of any other place he might have travelled to after leaving Summer Strand. The records show that he came back to New Village after leaving Summer Strand.I considered the possibility that he might have just let who ever was looking after the boy to travel with him somewhere else. But I checked for anyone travelling with a boy names Samuel from Summer Strand in that week but no luck.I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep, all I did was work and trying to find that boy. I tried seeing Ethan and asking him about that boy, but he would not talk to me. He just seemed like he resented me, and I didn’t know why. The man was worried about me knowing about his son yet, he didn’t know about the one who died.I wished I could tell him to stop being full of it and tell me what I needed to know.
OLIVIA I didn't stay after asking that question to Marcus, I know that he doesn't know the answer to that question as well. I might be hurt by everything that is happening but I know he is hurting as well. He doesn't show it but he is a shadow of the man I married. I have my doubts some days, especially when he is enjoying himself too much with that woman. I pour myself a glass of warm milk trying to get myself to sleep. Just when i lift the glass to take a sip, a knock comes on the door. I glance at the wall clock and it's after ten. Who could it be at this time? The person knocked again. "Who is it?" I asked moving away from the door. If it was Ethan, he would have called first and he has a key.I moved back some more worried to death. "Olivia, open the door." I stop moving and frown. That sounded like my father, what could he be doing here at this time of the night? "Olivia! Open the door." I rush to the door and open. Indeed, it is him with Nick by his side. "What are you two d
MARCUSI should have never suggested we have a baby, it is all my fault that this is happening now. If I didn't suggested it, my wife wouldn't be suffering, she, Samuel and I would be happy now. Going to the park together, trips, movies, dinners. Doing everything a happy couple should be doing. But I got greedy, I wasn't conted with what I had and I wanted more. Why, why did i want more, why couldn't I be content with things the way they were? Was it because Samuel is not my biological son? No that's not it. It was because I was afraid I would lose him to his real father when the truth came out.I wanted to have a child of my own so that it wouldn't hurt much when he left. Basically, I wanted a consolation prize which I was not meant to have. Now I am stuck with that disgusting woman and hurting my wife. As if she has not been hurt enough, as if the pain Nick caused her wasn't enough. Why the fuck aren't humans ever content? Men to be specific. We always want more.More money, more s
NICKI sat on that jet with the image of Olivia's sunken face engraved in my mind. I wanted to talk to her, find out if she was alright but as soon as the pitch was over, she disappeared. I thought of going over to her house to find out what was going on. Use the excuse that she invited me over not so long ago. But I held back, if she still wanted to talk to me, then she would have done so at the hotel after the pitch. But instead she left, that meant she was not ready to talk yet. But the image of her walking around looking like the dead hurt me. What could have happened to her? It's only been two months since I last saw her and she was happy. "Sir, we are here." I looked out and saw that we were outside Luke's office. Did he know what was happening with his daughter? I doubt it, he would have been there for her if he knew. A sigh left me. Owen opened the door for me and I got out. When I got to his office, i knocked once and let myself in. "I knew it could only be you who would h
OLIVIAI have tried, the Lord knows, I have tried. I have tried to keep the promise i made to my husband for the sake of our child. I have tried to be brave, to endure but it's too difficult. Each day I see less and less of my husband. Each day i lose a part of me, a part of my marriage, my happiness. I feel like I was never meant to be happy in this world. At least not with someone by myside, maybe my destiny is to remain alone, rasing my kids and working to make a life for them. One that will be way better than the one I had. Maybe I should just give up on love and focus on those who need me the most. My kids.I have desperately tried to love, first it was Nick, I gave him my all and he betrayed me. Now Marcus, the man is doing the most for the woman who came into my home as a nobody, just carrier for my child but now seems to own my home. My house no longer feels like home and I find myself not wanting to go back at the end of the day.I used to look forward to going home but now
OLIVIAMy blood boiled, “Excuse me, what did you just say?” Lupita was right, the woman did think she was the madame of the house. Where the hell did, she get the audacity to say something like that to me and in my own house. Treating my son like that in his home, she was the guest, and she seemed to forget that.“I asked what are you going to do if I call him a brat?” she repeated herself and I closed the distance between us. Marcus was quick to pull me aside. “Let us all calm down here,” he turned to Jennifer. “I know you are emotional, and little thing might upset you, but Samuel is a child. You don’t treat him like that.”She laughed as if she was a crazy woman. “Then what am I carrying Marcus? Is it not your child that I am carrying and trying to protect? Why would you even reprimand me and not this boy for being so careless? I could have been holding hot tea and it would have spil
OLIVIAI trusted my husband, besides our recent disagreements about Jennifer. I felt like there was something else going on. I didn’t want to think he was cheating on me with her, he was not that kind of man. Well, I also thought Nick was not that kind of man.He said he never cheated as well, that nothing ever happened between him and Sandra. But in my opinion, what he did with her was far worse than cheating. He neglected me, trusted her over me and even sent me to jail. I had a criminal record under my name because of him.Then there was my current husband, he looked hurt when he said he would do better, when he said he thought he was better than only to find out that they were the same. Then he told me to always remember that I was his, that he loved me.That alone told me that something was going on with him, something that might make me doubt his love for me. I wished I knew what it was, I wished he would talk to me and tell m
MARCUSI was going crazy; it was like Jennifer was possessed. The way she was threatening me, it made me wonder what happened to her, the woman we met and interviewed. Or was the person she was showing me now the real her and the woman we interviewed was fake.Was it all a lie? I did say there was something with her that I couldn’t put my finger on. I guess this was it, she was a psychopath and a pathological liar. There was no way a normal person could act the way she did. I feared for my wife as she didn’t seem to like her much.I feared for my baby even though she seemed to think that it was hers and mine. Just what kind of psychological test did the do with these women in the clinic and how did they miss that Jennifer was fucking crazy!When I was done with her feet she was yawning. I left when she was about to get out of the bath. I didn’t know what to do. All I knew was that I needed to tell someone. My wife? No, i
JENNIFERI clenched my hands into fists. Olivia, what the fuck have you done now? Marcus was warming up to me and doing everything I wanted. Then you went and ruined it all. You are starting to piss me off and you don’t want me to be pissed off. there is a lot I can do to make your life a living hell.“Of course, I can run myself a bath.”“Do that then.” He was so cold to me, colder than I have ever seen him and it was all Olivia’s fault. That woman doesn’t like seeing other people happy, she thinks she is the only one who deserves happiness. He turned and started walking away.“She might be working all day, but I am the one growing a human inside me, your baby. I would think my job is more important than hers, not unless you don’t really want this baby then I will understand.” He stopped in his tracks and slowly turned to look at me.His face void of emotions and if looks
MARCUSI couldn’t believe what I was hearing, so, she decided to tell Nick about Samuel. She even called him her son’s real father, like I was nothing but a replacement. I saw how tired she was, and I went to call the masseuse, I had booked for her, Lupita, grandma and Jennifer.I wanted them to relax and be pampered. She and I had a long way to go when the baby arrived. I wanted to spoil her now before all our time was taken by the baby. I guess, she was eager for her and Nick to get back together. Maybe I was just wasting my time trying to show her that I only wanted to be with her.I turned back without saying a word going straight to our room. I laid down staring at the ceiling as if it was going to provide me with answers or great wisdom on how to deal with what was happening. I didn’t know how long I laid there for when the door opened.My beautiful wife walked in, and I could not help but take in the sight of her. she looks radiant but the look in her eyes was distant and sad.