Prologue (An office)
The CEO of the Alphonso Construction company sat in his office with his mind busy with meditation rolling in circles on his swivel chair. He was lost in thought when a knock was heard on the door of his office. ”Yes ,who is it”, Mr Alphonso asked. “It’s I, Cherry”, the lovely tender voice of mine said. “Come in”, Mr. Alphonso said sternly. “What is it? Have you handled the documents I gave you properly? And have you sent the mails I asked you to send to our clients?”His whole face was covered with seriousness . My boss had always been strict from the day I had worked as his Secretary. “How would I tell him what is on my mind.”My thoughts were all occupied. “Yes sir. I have done all of them. I just sent the emails to our clients yesterday night”, I said with my smile almost looking invisible which was covering the fear I had after saying that. “Just yesterday night!”He shouted with a strong frown on his face. ”How incompetent can you be? I gave you an mail to send to my clients in the evening and you just sent it in the night. Can you just imagine?”He yelled. Mr Alphonso could be inconsiderate sometimes. The mail had just be sent to me the previous day during in the closing hours to send to his client which was at an ungodly hour. If he wanted the mail to be sent on time, he would have given me in the morning or during work hours not closing hours. “Yes, what are you here for ?”Mr Alphonso asked. I thought to myself if I would be able to tell him what I had came into his office to tell him. I tried to summon courage thinking to myself that asking for whatever I wanted would not cause me to lose my life. The worst is that he would decline or maybe shout at me. “Yes? Answer me on time. I don’t have the whole day, please. “Mr. Alphonso spoke with his scary face. “Umm-mm” I stuttered .“I just want to ask you for a favor, sir.” “Okay, what is the favor.” He asked. “I just want to ask you if you could pay me my salary in advance. I need money urgently. I have sought money from where I could, but I have not seen anyone who can render me any assistance. I need the money for my mother’s kidney transplant.” I said. “She is the only one I have now because I no longer have a father and I don’t want to be an orphan at this stage of my life.” I said with tears covered all of my face. “The money is just $32,000 to cover all of the expenses for her surgery and medications. I promise to work harder than I have ever worked. I wiped away my tears. “Haha!”, he laughed. ”You say “32,000”.Where do you expect me to see such? Do you know how much the company needs to spend on expenses? You must be kidding me. I don't have money to give you .” “Sir, Please I promise to pay you back from my salary or I will borrow from anyone I know to give you back. My mother is in a critical condition and it is so urgent.” Mr Alphonso laughed again and stared at me while crying.That was the first time I would ever see him smiling for the three years that I had worked as his Secretary. As he continued to smile, I felt excited that he was ready to assist me. “Cherry” he called out my name. “Sir” I replied. “Do you know you just made me laugh by what you just said?” he asked. “It is the way the effrontery for you to say you would pay me back or borrow it. My question is; “How would you get it?”When you don’t know who you would borrow from? And come to think of it; you only work for me or do you work for anyone else?” he asked and I gave a negative nod. “You see, why I can’t offer you any assistance?”He said with a smile while my eyes were covered with tears. I felt the smile was to make fun of my misery. I guess my boss must not only be arrogant but a sadist. “But, sir…..” I tried to talk before Mr Alphonso interrupted me on purpose. “Make sure you help me to inform the members of the board office that we will be having a meeting this afternoon. I also want to give you some correspondence for you to handle for me. So that’s all I want you to do .You can go now.”He ordered. “Okay sir.”My face was covered up with tears. Nothing was pushing me to still beg him or ask for his assistance because I had lost all the courage I had. “I would be taking my leave, sir.” I said with tears almost well. “Yeah, lock the door after going,please.”All his attention was fixated on the file that was in his hands.I turned my back and was already leaving his office .I cleaned my tears and catarrh I was that was coming out of my nose. I had already gotten close to the door. “Cherry!” I turned back and saw Mr Alphonso’s serious face glaring at me. I was already shocked at the spot I was standing. I was already thinking of what I had done wrong. “I am willing to offer you more than the $32,000 you need for your mother’s treatment if you would do my biddings”.After he said that, I had a smile on my face without asking what his biddings were. “I want you to act as my wife for a year and I would pay you $35,000 for accepting my proposal. I just want you to see it as a fake marriage. After a year of the marriage, We would get a divorce. But during the marriage, there would not be any form of intimacy at all. So it would be a contract marriage. When it is already a year, I would give $150,000 by the time we are about to be divorced.” After he had said that already,the smile on my face dropped and tears began to fall out of my eyes. “Why? Why do you have to offer me a contract marriage? Of all people why does it have to be me? This seems to be hard for me, sir.” I whined. “Are you kidding me right now? Where you not just crying and complaining about how you need help to save your mother from dying because you don't have money to take care of her. I am rendering you this offer, which is of mutual benefit and you are acting petty.”I wondered within myself why he would ask for a contract marriage with someone like me. “Or do you want your mother to die?” he asked with a smile. Mr. Alphonso is one hell of a mean person. He is a very ruthless and arrogant man. He is also one of every woman’s choices in town like who would not want to be with a man like Leonard Alphonso, a wealthy and successful billionaire. Meanwhile, I had also had a crush on him which was because of his charming looks having a height of 6’4 inches and his charisma I would have considered it a dream being in a relationship or being married to Mr. Alphonso. Chances were not left to me but to accept his proposal because of the risk of losing my mother.Since there is not going to be an intimacy of any such , I would have to accept this marriage proposal. Like.... I mean it’s just a year. “ I have agreed to accept your marriage proposal,sir.” My face was all squeezed up because I already knew what I was putting myself into something tough which was inevitable. “Good girl. Now you are talking. I will call my lawyer tomorrow and he will bring the contract for you to sign tomorrow. I guess we have got ourselves a deal right” he said bringing out his hands for a shake. I shook his hand and accepted his offer.Three years later Cherry’s POV It’s been three years since I had gotten married . I would be celebrating my third anniversary the next day. I was excited and could not just wait for my husband to come from work. My whole day had been drain from making preparations for the anniversary ceremony. But I was sure I knew Leonard was in love with me and cared about the ceremony. Suddenly, My husband’s personal assistant knocked on the door while I was trying to handling the preparation . “Alice, Go and open the door,” I ordered one of my maids. “Good evening ma’am,” Kenneth greeted me. “How are you?” I exchanged greetings. “I am fine ma’am”He replied “ What’s with the meeting today? How is my husband ?”I asked. “He is fine ma’am. He sent me to give you these documents .” While seeing my husband’s secretary, I was guessing my husband had sent my anniversary gift. I guess the documents might be for a building or land but nothing was indicated on the documents. I wondere
Anxiety and the feeling of being miserable surrounded my thought as I was expectant of Leonard . “Won’t my husband come to celebrate our third anniversary? Or was the prank not yet over already?”I thought to myself. “He fell out of love?”What could make him fall out of love? I began to wonder Was it my looks? Or the way I dress. I dress the way a person of my age ought to dress and I still look the same way from the time we got married. Or was it another woman? No, I know Leonard to not be that kind of man. From the three years that I had worked as his secretary, he was not a promiscuous man with the amount of women that pushed themselves on him. He does not give them a face at all. Was it that he did not love me at first but played along the three years of our marriage? But why would he want to do something like that; to profess his love to me, if he wanted to extend the contract? I was all alone sitting in the dining room looking elegantly dressed since morning and the tim
Tears began to fall out of my eyes as I began cleaning the scent of the wine that had poured on my dress in the bathroom alone.I cried all of my eyes out. “Why would Leonard see me fall to the ground and did not even come and help out? Was he ashamed of me or what?” I said out loud looking at the mirror. My makeup was almost wiped up with my tears. “Or could Leonard be in love with Vivian?”I took the tissue and started wiping off the stains out of my dress. I could hear some footsteps and quickly took a tissue and wiped off my tears. As the bathroom door opened, to my surprise, it was Vivian.” Hi” I greeted her as she entered the bathroom shockingly. ” Hello” she replied me. I hoped she did not notice that I was crying. I lowered my face and continued cleaning my dress so she did not notice anything. She came standing beside me looking at herself in the mirror as she adjusted her make-up. I wondered what she was trying to fix with all of her looks which could seduce an 85-ye
Annoyance swelled up on my whole body as I saw Leonard sitting and all his whole glances were focused on the newspaper he was reading . I could not believe my eyes. I was so annoyed and disappointed in him. “Leonard! How could you do this to me? I collapsed yesterday in the afternoon and was taken to the hospital and you did not bother to come and meet me in the hospital or even try to call me.”The tone I was talking with was filled with rage. “I still tried calling your number this morning, but you picked it up and cut the phone on me. Why would you do such a thing like that? What if I had died from collapsing? Is this how you would still have acted cold?”I continued nagging without bordering if my workers were in the house. “I was so busy and I was tired yesterday to come and meet you at the hospital.“He said slightly. “You were tired or you were with that slut, Vivian.”He could see the disgust that was on my face. “What is going on between you and Vivian? So you are ch