Chapter 005: The Marriage

Dante held Lyra's hand woodenly as they began to approach the registry. Lyra felt stiff and awkward, her face staring straight ahead and trying not to steal any glance at the flamboyant-looking stranger beside her, the same man who would now be acting as her husband for the next two years and legitimately so. 

The only thing that bore witness to the fact that there was someone beside her was the fragrant scent of his masculine perfume that kept tickling her nostrils. She inhaled and exhaled quietly as they moved uniformly and at the same pace.

   Dante, on the other hand, was a lot more confident. He flashed a broad smile and seized the opportunity presented by Lyra's stiffness to steal as many glances of her face as he could, from the corner of his eyes. She was gorgeous, but she was looking too self-conscious. She needed to “Sell the story.” he thought.

    He leaned towards her to whisper in the loving way he saw husbands on similar occasions due to their wives.

   "Put on a little more smile." 

  "Oh," Lyra echoed, quickly lifting her cheekbones and smiling a bashfully plastic smile.

   When they got there, the officials stood up to ask them the necessary questions, they reciprocated with their rehearsed answers then in a moment, Dante unveiled his ring; a round sparkling piece of silver, which he carefully inserted into Lyra's ring finger. 

After that, they went ahead to take their vows. Finally, the head official handed them their marriage certificates declaring them openly as a lawfully wedded couple.

  

Outside the registry building, Dante and Lyra posed for pictures while Marcus a young man whom Dante introduced to Lyra as his personal assistant had crouched opposite them, grasping a camera in his hand to take the pictures.

   After all was set and done, the couple separated momentarily, then Aria, who had been hanging around since they arrived, watching everything from a distance strutted toward her friend to hug her with an emotion-laden face. She looked like she was not sure whether to be happy or sad.

When it was time for them to leave,  Dante came closer to Lyra again to whisper in his typical collected manner.

     “I need to go to the company, my assistant here Marcus, will take you to my house." He added.

Lyra cast a flustered glance at the assistant again, taken aback for a second.

  "House?" She echoed.

 "Must I move in today?"  She asked further.

  Dante dipped his hands in his pocket and gazed at her blankly, raising one of his eyebrows.

  

"I thought you said you needed the money urgently."

“Oh,” Lyra exclaimed, blinking in self-realization and nodding abruptly.

 "That's true. I will move in today as agreed. Just give me the address."

Dante nodded again and made a face  as if to say, "Good girl."

Before he jumped into the rolls Royce phantom, he arrived with and zoomed off into the long stretch of road.

Marcus took that as a cue. He went towards her and silently handed her the address but not without bowing slightly.

"My phone number is also written there, madam. Please do well to call me if you need any more help with  moving in." He added.

  "Thanks, Marcus," Lyra said, staring at him as though he were somehow transparent, as though she was in some sort of trance. And even when he bowed again and turned to leave finally, her ghostly expression did not change.

 

 Later, when she returned to the same house that she once shared with Felix to park her things, she could not help but break into tears. She was mourning in advance the days, weeks, and months that she would not be able to spend with Felix. 

"How would I cope?" She kept asking herself in thought.

  She stared at the spot on her ring finger where Dante's silver ring glittered from.

Gloom,  that was all she felt, she was supposed to be happy and she knew she should try, but whenever she remembered that she was going to be away from Felix for so long, she always felt the sensation of one trapped under a crumbling wall.

Aria came to join Lyra not too long after she arrived. 

She had just gotten off the phone with someone before she pushed the door to enter only to see Lyra hunched over about three opened luggages with heaps of clothes at different sides of the table and chairs.

"Lots of work to be done."

 Aria voiced,  hurrying in to join her friend silently as she attempted to pack everything she could find on the bed into the luggage.

  "Oh no," Lyra waved weakly.

"I wouldn't be needing everything since I will still be coming back once in a while." She explained.

They zipped up the luggage Lyra pointed and packed them one after the other into Aria’s Hyundai, waiting outside. The moment they were done with the packing and after locking up the house, Lyra turned to Aria, asking her to stop by the hospital. 

  "I don't feel complete yet, I need to see Felix first," She said.

Aria nodded and drove her to the hospital.  

Michael was sitting by the side of Felix's bed by the time they arrived. He stood up to his feet the moment the two friends came in. Felix himself was awake as well lying tiredly at the rear end of the bed.

   Aria and Lyra took turns exchanging hugs with Michael while Lyra went over to the bedside to plant a kiss on Felix's cheek and lips.

   "He's so lucky to have you, Lyra," Michael said from his standing position.

"Thank you for everything. I'm sorry I couldn't help with the money. If only I had not fallen into the catalog of financial ups and downs I fell into this year, you wouldn't be going through all these."

Lyra waved her head meekly from side to side.

  "I understand. You don't have to be sorry."

She immediately turned to Felix after that to inform him that she would be moving in with Dante tonight so she could get the first deposit as soon as possible.

  "Only after then will he agree to give me the surgery money," She added in conclusion.

Felix nodded in a tight-lipped manner to show he understood, then he shifted and sat up feebly,  leaning towards Lyra as they shared yet another tight hug and one last kiss to seal the moment. Then Lyra brought out his ring from her bag, pushed it into his palm, and held on to it.

   

"This is not goodbye," Lyra whispered into his ears before she eventually got up to leave, avoiding the eyes of everyone in order not to become overwhelmed by emotion.

   "Keep alive Felix, you will get through this,"  Aria added before she followed her friend out through the door.

  "Thank you both," Felix muttered, but they were already far gone by then.

They arrived in front of the reserved-looking vicinity where Dante lived minutes later. It had beautiful houses scattered across various points of the neighborhood. It was an Elite's territory.

Dante's house was an off-white mansion guarded by a large black towering gate. They introduced themselves to the security men at the gate. After that, it was opened up for them. 

Aria drove into the sprawling compound decorated with all sorts of flower types and blue hedges. They jumped out of the car, opened the boot, and with Aria's assistance, they packed all of Lyra's luggage into the huge house with the intimidating interior. 

    "We'll keep in touch, okay?" Aria whispered in a hurry, hugging her one more time as she rushed out again to meet up with something urgent at her workplace.

   After Lyra heard the sound of Aria's car driving off, she took a look around the cozy-looking space of the apartment. The long, beige-colored walls, the soft leather chairs,  the central glass table, glittery floors, and so on. As simple as they appeared to be, the affluence they communicated was undeniable.

Aria slept off on the couch far longer than she had bargained for, forgetting all her worries. She had even dreamt of her past. Blurish figments of her parents, smiling at her as she played in the garden.

Seconds after, she jerked back up to reality when she suddenly felt the tap of a hand on her shoulder. She brushed her face with her palm and blinked multiple times to look at him properly.

 Before her was the smiling face of Dante in an apron.

   "Food is ready." He announced calmly.

 "Hunh?" She mumbled with a sleepy voice.

 Then she got up and readjusted her clothes, that was when she saw that he was gesturing at the dining table bearing two plates.  Each of them was crowned with delicious-looking lumps of chicken alongside slides of crunchy chips.

  "Thank you." She mumbled again before rising and going over there to sit down. He took off his apron and joined her at the other side of the table. Together, they ate in silence.

Dante showed her to her room downstairs after their meal,  before climbing up the stairs where his room was.

   "Off to bed,”  he said.

  

After getting in, Lyra had barely settled down to take in the luxurious appeal of her new room when she locked the door and instantly pulled out her phone to call Felix, but he had not picked up. She tried three more times and got the same response. Then, out of fresh fear, She nervously dialed Aria's number, and the latter picked up at once.

   "Aria, look, I just called Felix he's not picking up. Did you..."

"Yes, Lyra, I'm actually there now." Aria cut in,  sounding even more nervous than she was.

 "Felix has gone into another shock, Lyra. They just rolled him back to emergency. Have you asked him for the money yet?”

"Oh my God, I will do that right away." Lyra fretted and ended the call at once, darting out of the room on her bare feet and climbing up the stairs with hasty footsteps.

  She stood in front of the first door she found on the top floor and inhaled before knocking once on it. However she got no response, she repeated twice and still heard nothing. Then she decided to push the door open only to see the half-naked, broad-chested figure of Dante with a only towel around his waist.

   "Hunh?" Lyra exclaimed, looking away shyly.

"What do you want? Wait, don't tell me you  want to consummate our wedding?" Dante asked with a naughty expression walking towards her slowly while flashing a smirk.

Lyra stepped back, forgetting herself for a second. Then she quickly blinked and racked her brain for why she had entered in the first place.

    "The.. money..my hus...brother needs surgery urgently." She managed to stammer out finally.

  Dante stopped at once and then swung his head to one side.

   "Alright, send the bank details to my phone  number, I will send it tonight."

"Thank you." She blurted and hurriedly ran off.

Dante watched her leave, allowing his face to flatten into a soft smile, seeing how innocent she was.