CHAPTER FOUR

TAMIKA’s POV.

I don’t know what kind of psychopathic lunatic he is but I am not letting his words get to me.

How did I become his redemption? No matter how much I think about it, it is one of the most bizarre and foolish things I have ever heard in my life.

To me, Malachi has nothing to offer me and I am going to stick to that until the very end.

“I am sorry,” I finally say, “but I do not wish to marry you. You are not the man I have dreamed to spend the rest of my life with. Maybe you can find someone else to fill that void”

I chose not to be violent with him again. Malachi will not let me go if I continue to throw a tantrum. I can see it in his eyes, the way he is looking like he wants to snatch me up and make me pay for disrespecting him. My father has already agreed and by that, Malachi can do whatever he wants. The only prayer I have now is that he sees reason and let me be.

“Are you certain?” His deep baritone rings out, his face expressionless. I genuinely wish I could fathom what’s going on in his mind but men like you will kill you from behind and you may never know. He looks like a simple businessman who comes to cane-city for business but I have watched him for years since father started inviting him to the palace for lunch—he is more dangerous than anything I have ever seen or imagined before. I didn’t want to get in his bad books but I cannot choose to marry him, not in my life.

“Yes,” I retort, “so please, let me and my boyfriend go. We have a date and we will like to get back to it”

Malachi chuckles, the kind that sends shivers down your spine, the kind that leaves you thinking about what’s going on in his mind.

“Will you go willingly or do I have to end your little boyfriend before you understand the severity of things?”

“What?” My eyes popped open. Part of me believed him, I knew he would hurt Rome without batting an eyelid.

“You heard me princess,” he sneers as he makes a gesture. One of his men walks up to us and hands me a phone. My jaw drops. Rome is seated between two men in the car and one of them has a gun to his head. My mouth almost hit the floor as panic settles within me.

“What the heck do you think you are doing?” I yell out.

“The ball is In your court now,”

“Let him go,”

At this point I no longer care about the passerby. This man is a monster.

“I have tried to make you see reason like the gentleman I am but you chose not to. I will no longer be doing that, agree to me and I will let him go. I do not have time for rubbish”

He doesn’t even let me finish, he grabs my hand and shoves me into the car.

“You can make a decision on the way”

I have always dreamt of a fairytale wedding, one where I get to smile widely as I walk down the aisle with the man of my dreams.

Tears well up in my eyes as he slips into the car beside me. He is big and his presence is beginning to suffocate me. This is not how I planned my day to go, this is not even how I planned my life.

“You have five minutes to make your decision or I swear..

“I will,” I blurt out without thinking twice about it. No matter how stubborn I am or how much I hate him, I cannot for the life of me allow anything to happen to him. I love him with every fiber of my being.

I clean the tears that stream down my face before turning to the man beside me.

“You said one year,” my voice comes out more hoarse than I expect, “and after one year, this marriage will end and you will mean nothing to me anymore,”

“I am not looking to mean anything to you, Tamika,” Malachi answers, “after one year, everything will be rendered null and void. You will be free to meet your lover. It’s a good deal, ladies are dying to be on my bed,”

I roll my eyes to the back of my head as I turn away from him. I may not be able to escape from this but one year is enough time for me to take revenge on him for what he is doing to Rome.

****

This is how I found myself in America, thousands and thousands of miles away from the place I have always called home. A land I have never known two days later.

When I told Rome I was getting married and saw the look in his eyes, it was like my heart was being ripped out of my chest. He asked me not to go, almost confronted Malachi but I stopped him. It was just for a year—one freaking year.

The moment the car pulls up in front of the huge mansion and I step out, I feel my lungs with air that didn’t have malachi’s suffocating perfume. My eyes travel everywhere and I give a silent nod. I did not expect anything less from someone like him.

“This is where you will be staying now,” he announces as he comes to stand beside me. This is the first time I am taking a proper look at his outfit since we left Cane-city. He is not dressed in his usual suit but a pair of casual pants and a shirt like he has finally found peace. His hair is pulled into a neat ponytail and the tattoo on his arm did not go unnoticed. I thought he only had it on his neck, I did not know it spread out to his other body parts.

“Okay,” I answer with a shrug, pulling my eyes away from him. No matter how handsome he looks, it will not justify the fact that he is the devil in human form straight out of the movie “Lucifer”

“You will be shown to your room. Everything you need is at your beck and call. And if nothing is, you can let the butler know,”

He sounds like he is about to leave and honestly? I cannot wait. If he leaves, it will be better for me. I will not get to see his face every morning and tolerate it.

“And the men with guns?” I cannot help but ask as my curiosity gets the better of me. I did not get scared when I saw them because I see them everyday back at the palace. What I do not understand is why Malachi has them in their numbers. I know he is an important man but how important is he to have them?

“They are here to guard you,” he answers, pulling out his phone and handing it over to me, “put your number in,”

I scoff. So much for being my husband. I don’t say a word as I take the phone from him and punch in my digits. He takes it and slips it back into his pocket.

“I will be back late. Do not wait up for me, everything will go according to how you want it,”

He doesn’t bother to wait for my response, he only turns and boards the car again.

God!! I hate him so much, I can literally feel it in my heart.

“Hello ma’am,” a voice pulls me out of my thoughts and I turn to see an old lady smiling at me—I instantly feel at ease at the sight of her.

“Welcome to the Steene mansion,” she says again, “everyone has been expecting you,”