Chapter One

One's wedding night is meant to be the most special night for a woman. So Alice had thought. All through the wedding ceremony, Alice had thought herself to be the most special woman in the world. She saw herself as being so blessed to be getting married to a man as Kelvin Sanders, the only heir to his grandmother's multi-billion company. She was only a village girl who stopped her education at secondary school level and God favoured her with such a wonderful family. Throughout the wedding, she would look at her husband, Kelvin Sanders and smile to herself, 'How blessed am I!' she would say in her mind. She prided herself that day as the most envied woman in the world.

Kelvin Sanders was the kind of man every woman would want to have as a husband. He was kind, sweet, handsome and very wealthy. She was grateful that he had chosen her to be his wife.

After the grand wedding ceremony which was headlining the news, she was now alone with her husband in her grand bedroom, with tears in her eyes, flowing down her pretty cheeks slowly and one after the other. She could not believe neither could she imagine that the reality would be that far from her imaginations.

'What was actually happening?' she asked herself, trying to take in all Kelvin was telling her.

'Maybe I'm dreaming' she said once more to herself, but it was not a dream. It was real. It was really happening. Kelvin was actually leaving her alone on that night to be with his girlfriend. She watched him enter his walk-in-closet and came out after some time with his wedding outfit changed to something casual. He grabbed his car keys and walked out of the room without a word to her.

Poor Alice! Tears flowed down her eyes freely. She cried deeply. Her life seemed to be ruined to her. She felt that her world had ended. Her husband had just confessed to her that he was not in love with her and that he hated her. He shamelessly boasted about his girlfriend whom he claimed to be madly in love with and had gone to be with her all through the night. How could she not see this? Kelvin gave her no sign before their marriage that he was not interested. As far as Alice was concerned, Kelvin consented to the marriage and willingly married her. Why was this turn of events happening then? Why was he coming up with all those things he had said? What had happened suddenly? Alice was still baffled. If he did not love her as he had said then why would he be so selfish as to marry her? Why was he so inconsiderate to marry her just to secure his inheritance from his grandmother? She cried even more. Now she was all alone. How was she going to live through all that? Her tenure in that house was three years after which Kelvin would divorce her once he would have claimed his inheritance from his grandmother. She saw herself as worthless. She would have left the house and gone back to her parents but she knew very well the traditions of her people and that she would never be welcomed back. It was a taboo for a married woman to leave her husband and go back to her parents after marriage or for her to be divorced. She would be ridiculed, scorned and be treated like garbage if she should return to her village. She was stuck. Should she tell Kelvin's grandmother? She did not know if it would help matters or make things worse.

Having ran out of solution, she stood up, still in her wedding reception silver gown and walked out of the room, down to the foyer and finally out of the house. That night, she didn't know where she was going to. Lots of things filled her mind and she walked aimlessly and without a destination. She kept on walking wherever her legs would take her to, not minding if she got lost being that she was new to the city. She did not even care. Getting lost in such a big city was nothing compared to what she was going through at that moment. It would even be better should she get lost.

After minutes of walking, close to midnight, Alice found herself on a bridge. The road was empty. She stopped and thought to herself once more. She had just gotten to the solution to her problems. Death. She just needed to end her life and everything would be over, the pain, the disrespect, the insults and everything would die with her. She moved closer to the edge of the bridge and looked down through the railing, the water was deep down and was perfect to swallow her. She made her way, climbing the railing to the other side. She now stood on the slab without holding the railing. She closed her eyes, reliving her life from her childhood till then. Every memory she held dear to her heart. She thought about her mother and father, her sister, and then Kelvin's grandmother who loved her dearly. She thought of the pain they would all feel but she ignored it. She could not see herself living with a man who does not love her and would keep disrespecting her with his girlfriend everytime, a man who was only using her to get his inheritance from his grandmother. She just could not survive it. Death was the only way out for her. She took a deep breath and then jumped into the water. Darkness overwhelmed her and she sank deep down till she could no longer feel anything.

*****

Suddenly, she felt air passing through her nostrils. She opened her eyes to find herself in a simple yet fancy room. The room was neat and the windows were fully covered with the thick curtains. The sun's rays could barely penetrate in, still she could feel cool because of the air conditioner in the room. She looked at herself and realized that she was still in her gown from her wedding reception the previous night.

Alice wondered where she was. The last thing she could remember was jumping into the water and everything going dark and still. Now she was breathing and in a strange place. She stood up from the bed and slowly moved to the window to see. She opened the curtain slightly to look outside and she could see the busy street below her. She then knew she was somewhere in a story building, a high story building. The day was so bright and from the sun's brightness, she could tell that it was almost noon or maybe noon.

She heard the room door open and she quickly turned to see who it was. Fear gripped her as she thought that she was kidnapped. A young and handsome man walked in holding a tray of food in his hands. She had not seen him anywhere before and wondered who he was.

"How are you doing Mrs. Sanders?" he asked her smiling to reveal a set of dimples on both cheeks.

"How.... do you know me?" she asked, stammering.

"You are the daughter-in-law of Madame Janet Sanders. You are a celebrity? Your wedding, yesterday, was a worlds affair" He said and placed the contents in his hands on the table in the centre of the room.

"And who are you?" She asked him.

"Daniel is my name, Madame" He bowed slightly.

Alice felt at ease a little.

"You saved me?" she asked, "From the river?"

"Yes, I did. You're lucky I was passing by just as you were diving into the river" he said, still smiling. His goal was to cheer her up but she did not seem to respond positively.

"I brought you something to eat" He said, pointing at the tray of food.

"I'm not hungry. I want to go" she said.

"Well then, I'll drive you home" He said.

"You don't have to. I can go by myself" She said.

"I insist. I can't leave you all alone in this state" He said.

He did not want to pressure her about her attempt at suicide. The best thing was for him to take her home and let her family handle the rest.

"I said, you don't have to. Just leave me alone" Alice was getting irritated.

"Well, I don't think I can" Daniel replied.

Alice looked at him. Her sparkling blue eyes were showing anger and pain and Daniel understood it. She was hurt and was angry about something. He found himself wanting to know about it and to be a comfort to her but he refrained himself.

A quick flash back of how he had held her in his arms when he had carried her out from the water came to his mind and how he was completely lost in her beauty and innocence.

That was not the first time he was seeing her or feeling that way. He had first seen her on the television when her wedding to Kelvin Sanders was announced for the very first time and he had found himself being drawn to her for reasons he could not explain. Yes, she was very pretty and had an aura of innocence around her but she was not the only person with those qualities still, Daniel saw himself being drawn to her. He would always look forward to seeing her on the television everytime and there was a kind of joy and satisfaction he felt on seeing her, especially when she smiled.

Now he was with her life, it felt like heaven to him. He stared at her all through the night, lost in dreams and imaginations about both of them. He found himself wishing at some point that she was his and not another's. He could not really explain or understand why he felt those emotions and he honestly was not comfortable with them. He just wanted to get her home and satisfy his heart of ensuring that she was safe and then he would never see her again and eventually forget about her.

"Why do you care?" She asked him, removing the thoughts from him.

"Because I'm human" he replied.

"Humans are selfish. So what's your motive?" She asked him, staring at him sternly.

This time, Daniel was not seeing an innocent lady anymore but a fierce and confident woman, one who is not afraid of anyone. This her new appearance triggered his emotions more. He found himself smiling. He could just keep provoking her and enjoy the feeling it gave him.

"What motive do you think I have?" he asked her, trying to hide his smile.

"I don't know. Perhaps you want to kidnap me and demand a ransome from my family" Alice said.

He chuckled, "If I wanted to do that, I won't be giving you a decent treatment, neither would I offer to drive you home" he said calmly.

"I don't care. Men are never to be trusted. You may have a devious plan in your head and you want to take the opportunity of me jumping into the water" She said.

"Wow! How do you manage to come up with this accusation?" He asked, marvelled.

"Listen mister David..." Alice warned with her index finger.

"It's Daniel" Daniel immediately corrected.

Alice waved off her hands, ignoring his correction. She continued, "You better let me go now or else you'll be in big trouble" she said.

Daniel was laughing, "Really ma'am." he laughed hard.

Alice wondered what she had said that was funny. Or was it that her face was not showing the degree seriousness as her threat.

"What is funny? I'm serious" She yelled.

"Oh yes, ma'am. You are serious" Daniel controlled his laughter.

"I'm sorry" he added and got himself to stop laughing. Alice watched him. "So let's do this then" he continued, "So that I don't get into serious trouble with you and your powerful family, I won't keep you here anymore. I'll just take you and drop you at your house and you'll never see me again" he looked at her. Her face showed that innocence once again and he smiled slightly.

Alice did not say anything. It was better she was away from him for the time being and then think of what to do about her situation.

"Fine" She managed to say.

"Good" Daniel said, "Thank you ma'am" he added.