CHAPTER FIVE

TAMIKA’s POV.

“What do you mean?” I ask the lady beside me, “who has been waiting for me?”

She doesn’t say anything, she just offers me a smile and gesture to one of the men to carry my things. Part of me wants to ask her what she means but the much angrier part of me decides to forget about it, it’s not like any of this means anything to me. My marriage to Malachi is a deal and I will not hesitate to leave the moment I am done.

“I am the butler, maam” she continues, “and I am in charge of taking care of you as long as you stay in the Steene mansion. Anything you need at all. Your room has been cleaned and made ready for you,”

“Thank you,” I manage to say and she smiles at me before making her way towards the house, I follow suit.

In no time, we enter the house. The exterior is nothing compared to the interior. It is beautiful, magnificent to say the least. Whoever designed this house has an eye for good things.

The butler leads us towards the in-house elevator and in no time, we walk into a spacious room.

As soon as I walk in, my eyes scan the entire area and I nod. At least, they paid attention to detail.

“This is your room, Mrs Steene,” she announces.

“Call me Tamika, please” I gently cut her off, “I prefer if you call me that,”

“Sure,” she replies with another smile. My forehead creases into a tiny frown but I don’t say anything. I am a princess and I have seen different kinds of workers, she is only doing what she knows how to do best.

“You can take a shower and have some rest Mrs Tamika, food will be ready soon,”she continues.

I only nod and she smiles before making her way out of the room again.

I slowly make my way to the bed and slump on it. My mind immediately wanders off. Up until yesterday, I had my entire life in Cane—city but now, I am in a land with a man I hated with everything inside of me. No matter how much I wanted to see the good in it, I just couldn’t. Malachi came and he snatched everything away from him, something I will never forgive even if I tried.

My phone in my pocket buzzes and I pull it out, my heart skips a beat when I see the caller ID—Rome.

He has been calling but I have refused to pick his calls. I have nothing to say to him anymore and I don’t want to keep hurting him. Leaving him and getting married to someone else is already torture enough. I just fling the phone on the bed and close my eyes. Part of me wishes that this is a bad dream and I am going to wake up from it very soon.

I hear a car drive into the compound and this is when I finally open my eyes, a small frown on my forehead. I had slept off but I don’t know for how long. I look at the wall clock and it’s a little past 6PM.

“Gosh,” I mutter under my breath as I pull my body to a sitting position. I slept off earlier because I was extremely tired and I wanted to be away from the chaos of the world.

Without thinking much, I pull my body off the bed and make my way into the bathroom. After I am done, I get dressed in a pair of loose pants and a tank top to match.

The only thing I want to do now is jump back in bed and read a book. Maybe that will help my mind settle because I feel like I am about to lose my fucking mind.

Just as I climb into bed, my phone buzzes and seeing it is my mum on the line, I almost do not answer. I mean she didn’t bat an eyelid allowing a stranger to take me away from the life I have always known so why the heck should I pick her call?

The phone continues to ring but I just pull out a book from my backpack and settle down on the bed again.

It is at this point that a knock comes on the door and it pushes open—a not so familiar face walks in.

“Good evening, ma’am” she greets politely and I nod, not another word.

“The boss is back and he is asking for you at the dinner table,”

“Tell him I am not hungry,” I answer, not bothering to spare her another glance, “thank you,”

“Ma—

“Tell Malachi I am not hungry,” I cut her off again, this time in a more angry tone, “I am not hungry,”

“Okay ma”

Without saying anything again, she scurries out of the room leaving to myself. The nerve of him to invite me to dinner like we were some happy couple. If he had any decency left, he wouldn’t bother to do that.

I pick up my book again as my phone screen lights up. I don’t pick it up, I am not in the right frame of mind to talk to anyone right now.

In that moment, my door pushes open and a familiar figure steps in. My eyes travel over him and I roll my eyes to the back of his head. Maybe other women can ogle at him because of how handsome he looks but to me, he is the devil in disguise.

“I called for you,” Malachi says.

“And who are you for me to respond to?” I shoot back at him.

His forehead creases into a tiny frown as he leans against the wall. He doesn’t say anything for a few seconds but from the look on his face, I can already decipher what is going on in his head.

“I don’t like your face too,” he blurts out, “but I am not going to have you starve in my house. If you want to badly die, you can do that after a year. Do you understand me?”

Silence!!

I have no reason to explain myself to him. Whatever rolls his boat is fine by me.

“Tamika—

“Let me be, Malachi!” I hiss, pulling my body out of bed, “Stop irritating me and calling my name,”

After I am done, I turn around to leave for the bathroom but he grabs a hold of my hand and yanks me closer—our faces only an inch apart I swallow hard as his woody scent filters into my nose. This man exudes danger and the only thing I want to do now is run far away from him.

“I will not ask you again,” his voice comes out, icy and lethal like a hunter about to pounce on his prey.

“You will come down for dinner and that’s final. Do you understand that?” The more he talks, the more his eyes darken and his jaw clenches tighter, “I do not mind shoving the food down your throat in my own way. So do not piss me off again.

“I am just your contract wife,” I spit in his face, “do not act like we are two lovebirds who had an argument,”

“You do not—

The phone in my hand buzzes again, cutting him off. when I see the caller ID, a tiny smirk forms on my lips. I didn’t want to talk to him before but I think this is the perfect time. The only thing I want to do now is break Malachi’s ego to the point of no return. How dare he treat a princess of my caliber like this?

I didn’t wait to respond to Malachi, I only click on the receive button and put the phone on speaker as Rome’s voice comes through.

“Hi, baby”