“You know him?!” Adil asked turning to look at me, I nodded slowly my gaze still fixed on Enzo as he approached us.
“Kind of,” I added in a whisper, immediately Enzo got to where we were his smile deepened as he stared at me.“Meant to be, is it not?!” He muttered his gaze fixed on me, as we stared at each other, Adil cleared his throat in an attempt to stop the intense staring, Enzo’s smile suddenly changed to a taunting one as he turned to look at Adil.“How does she look?! Does she look beautiful in the dress I chose for her?!” He asked, Adil’s eyes dimmed as he stared at him, I could feel anger oozing out of his members.“I know you to be emotionless about a lot of things, but leaving your wife to shop for her wedding dress alone?! That’s the peak!” He added, Adil’s nose flared and he suddenly step forward and closed the distance between them.“You have no right to speak to me like that! And stay the hell away from my wife,” Adil growled,“Ohh, you actually don’t feed me, so you have no right to tell me what to do,” Enzo replied sharply and before Adil could reply, he walked past us and towards their grandfather in greeting.“We’re done here! !” Adil muttered as he grabbed my hands and pulled me out.Later in the night ….I could not stop thinking about all the drama that happened today with Adil’s family, they didn’t seem like a family, especially the energy between Adil and his mother it seemed quite strained and a little toxic, and between all of his mother smile, I could see underlying and strange emotions.I exhaled deeply as I packed my hair up with a plastic band, all has been said and done, I actually have no business with his family and private life, I’ve done my end of the bargain, marry him and be his wife, now it’s time to go back to my reality, as a matter of fact I have a whole lot of thinking to do, his family issue should bother me less.-“ I expect you to perform your duty to me as a wife,”- His voice resounded in my head again, earlier when he showed me to my room, he said to hurry up and get changed, what was that supposed to mean?!I hope he wasn’t asking for a wedding night from me, because that would definitely be impossible, I get that he is a goddess in human form and any lady would be willing to throw herself at him, I wasn’t any lady and I wouldn’t sleep with a stranger for anything in this world.I peeled off the face mask from my face as I pushed the chair I was seated on backwards, I better let him know my stand now, and clear up the air once and for all, I exhaled deeply and began to make my way towards his room.His room was just opposite my room and as I stepped out, I placed a small knock on his door, there wasn’t any reply, I grabbed the door knob and pushed it open, I gingerly stepped into his room with cautionary footsteps as I closed the door behind me, as I walked further into the room I realized he wasn’t any where there, just as I turned around to leave a shiny necklace on the table caught my attention, it was like a couples necklace and only half of the pendant was his, it looked very shiny and expensive, I don’t know what it was but I felt my legs drew close to it, I gently picked it up and stared at it, something about it was endearing to me and it warmed my heart to stare at, who had the other half ?! If he has a significant other, why then did he choose to marry me on contract.“What are you doing?!” I heard his voice boom behind me, I turned sharply in shock to look at him and the necklace dropped from my hands as a result of the shock, my jaw dropped as I thought of possible excuses to give after he had clearly told me to respect his space, he slowly looked down at the necklace that had just dropped from my hand and looked up at me, as my eyes met his face my head suddenly began to bang, and it came again, that throbbing headache, accompanied with a feeling of Dejavu, trying to get a grip on myself I took slow unsteady step backwards but the pain got worse, and the next thing I knew, my legs gave way and everything blacked out completely.Next Day,7:00am …..*”You make me happy”**”I have become a better person because of you”**” I love you, and I promise, I’ll keep on loving you till the end of time”*My eyes slowly went open, it wasn’t the first time I was having a dream like this, a very strange guy confessing his feelings to me and It felt so real, sometimes I hear my voice confessing love to this strange person also, but his face is never clear or visible in this dreams, my eyes dimmed as I stared at the ceiling above, this wasn’t my house, this place is quite unfamiliar, I panicked but I was too weak to do anything, where the hell was I ?! I thought as I slowly turned my head, immediately I did that my gaze fell on - Adil, he was leaning on the dressing table his hands folded across his chest. I felt a sudden surge of energy and I sat up immediately reality and everything that happened prior starting to rush back into my head.Fuck! I’m married!“What were you doing in my room yesterday!” He asked immediately he noticed I was awake, I rolled my eyes to the back of my head discreetly as I pulled up the duvet to my body, not even to ask me if I was okay?! That was the first question that mattered to him?! I looked up at him and he had this stone cold expression in his eyes,“I-I-Iam s-sorry ….,” I stuttered incoherently trying to pick my words carefully, as it was, he was the one helping my life and my mother’s life more importantly, I can’t afford to mess it up, I needed to play cool even when I am being extremely pissed off, without even letting me finish my statement, he stood up with a loud exhale and adjusted his shirt.“I think I should lay down the rules again more clearly this time,” he began his gaze not leaving my face, but I cowered and looked away staring at my feet as he spoke.“I don’t want you snooping around my belongings, especially my room, you can’t at any point come in there,”“I don’t need you asking questions about everything you see! You don’t understand it?! Forget about it, especially around my family, I won’t be entertaining any questions!”“Once we’re at home please let’s try our best to stay out of each other’s business but I expect you to be a wife to me in public,”“Lastly, there shouldn’t be any strings attached and you cannot at anytime back out of this contract until the two years contract span is done!” He concluded, i nodded slowly as my grip on the duvet around my body tightened, the things we actually do for the people we care about!“Also you should know, …” before he could complete my sentence the door bursted open and a little girl about five years old appeared at the door, she stared between Adil and I, her gaze zeroed on me and the next thing I heard threw me off balance. “Tehilla your Mama is back home!”That came as a rude shock to both me and even the girl, her grip on the door slowly loosened as she stared at me, I looked up at Adil my eyes begging for Explanation but the only message I got from his dark grey orbs staring at me was to play along.She slowly began to take small steps towards me, I pulled the duvet away from my body as I gently stood up from the bed and squatted to her height as soon as she got to me.She was putting on a necklace and it was the other half of the necklace I saw in his room yesterday, she is definitely his daughter!“Dada said you went on a trip, why did you leave without me,” she muttered, her voice low and delicate as she stared at me in my eyes, I suddenly felt guilty for something I didn’t even have the slightest idea about.The look in her eyes broke my spirit and even if I didn’t want to, I didn’t have any choice, the look in her eyes was too mature for a girl her age, she looked like she had searched for her mother her entire life, I know how it feels to have a mother who barely had your time, I know the thought of not having a mother at all would be worse.I stretched out my hands and pulled her to myself,“Mama is very sorry for leaving you, Mama needed to work to make you comfortable, but I’m back now,”“You won’t leave me again?!”“I won’t baby, Mama is here to stay,” I muttered in reply and she slowly walked into my arms, she wrapped her tiny hands around me and laid her head on my shoulders.“Please don’t leave me again,” she muttered and my heart broke, both at the thought that she had lived without a mother probably all her life and also at the thought that I was actually lying to her, both about being her mother and about being with her forever.“I won’t,” I replied softly, she gently disengaged from the hug and held out her pinky finger to me.“Pinky swear?!” She asked in her tiny voice, I slowly looked up at Adil, wondering why he decided to lie to his daughter this way, he might have been trying to not hurt her, but at the long run she definitely would end up hurt at the deceit.I looked back down at her and my lips stretched in a small smile as I wrapped my pinky fingers around her.“Pinky swear!”Janelle.Thirteen years later.12:00pm …“Do you really think that works?” I muttered and slowly turned to look at Adil beside me, he adjusted his glasses and his lips slowly stretched into a smile as he stared at me.“Come on now Adil, I’m being serious,” I grumbled as I slowly let go of the keypad, leaned against the chair and turned fully to face him.He reached out slowly and gently caressed my hair his eyes twinkling in admiration,“Thirteen years down the line and you’re even more beautiful than when we first met,” he muttered, I chuckled lightly and slowly arched closer to him.It’s actually being thirteen years down the line, I wouldn’t say those thirteen years have been bed of roses but it has been the most perfect years because I have my family around me.Tehilla is now nineteen years and ten years ago we birthed our second child- Hazel, she’s the cutest and sweetest and we love her so much, we love both our children so much, and I actually won’t prefer doing life without my
Adil.Next day…“Careful,” Janelle muttered for the umpteenth time as we walked into the house, I told her that I could walk myself but she insisted on holding me, my hands was around her neck and her hands around my waist as she assisted me inside.“Welcome home!” Everyone yelled excitedly as I walked into the living room, the living room was decorated with small welcome home posters and balloons, it wasn’t too much of a decoration but it was cute.“Welcome home dada,” Tehilla squealed as she ran towards me with a bouquet of flower.“She insisted on getting you flowers,” Janelle whispered to me as she gently let go of me and Anna Tehilla nanny came up to take the shoulder bag she was carrying from her.I looked around and all our intimate family and friends were present except Janelle’s parents, I turned to face her and just as I wanted to ask her, Laura walked up to us,“Big Man! You’re back!” She teased, I furrowed my brows at her and moved closer to her as if trying to examine so
One month Later.I sat by Adil’s bed with my hands folded across my chest, after all the bullets from Enzo he went into coma and it’s been four weeks.Four weeks of everyone of us praying and hoping that he would come awake, four weeks of me crying every night just because I could not bear to lose him just when everything is starting to look bright, I don’t know what I would do if he remains asleep for longer than this.I slowly reached out and placed my hands in his hair rubbing it slowly,“Adil please, it’s okay now, you’ve rested enough, come back to me please,” I whispered tears starting to fall off my eyes and I just let them fall freely.One month back, I got the shocker of my life, Diane was Enzo’s Sister?! I definitely did not see that one coming and then I just came to realize that what we just conquered is a carefully well thought about plan that took years, the positioning of everyone Enzo used was very strategic, No wonder all the investigators before me never got anywhere
Enzo.“Hello, you don’t have any other option,” I said and with that I removed the phone from my ear and ended the call.I exhaled deeply with a sigh as I turned to the corner where Tehilla sat playing with toys absolutely caught up in her own world, Too bad that she’s about to be caught up in the world her parent created.“Uncle Enzo,” she called and slowly turned to look at me, I dipped my phone in my pocket and turned to look at her with a small sneer at the corner of my lips.“What of Dada and Mama, when will they be here,” She asked, I rolled my eyes to the back of my head as I picked up my car keys, about to head out of the house, the door opened and Diane walked in, I paused in my tracks and slowly turned to look at her close the door behind her and walk in, after her outburst yesterday, I did not expect to see her here again so soon.She slowly walked in and looked around, her eyes went wide immediately she saw Tehilla in the room, she blinked rapidly and slowly turned to me.
Janelle.Next day, 2:00pm …I pushed the door into my parents house opened and walked in, I closed the door behind me and made my way inside the living room.“Ohh you’re here, we weren’t just about to have lunch,” Dad said to me immediately he saw me walk into the living room, he raised his head and flashed me a smile, shortly after mom stepped out of the kitchen, our eyes met and she wordlessly walked up to the dinning table and dropped the jar of water she was carrying on the dinning table. She gently turned around and walked up to me.“You finally came to see your father,” she muttered, ignoring her, I dipped my hands into my bag and took out the paper I found yesterday.“Actually I came to see you both,” I replied in a whisper, Adil’s voice begging me to calm down and listen to whatever explanation they had ringing in my ears. I just could not fathom why he is still being calm and nice after everything they have put us through, I slowly looked up at her locked gazes with her and
Janelle.I picked up my coat at the entrance and put it over my pyjamas, Adil rushed towards me immediately and grabbed my hands, he gently turned me around to face him and pulled me closer.“Relax, “ he whispered, “He has been bugging to see me all these days well I’m ready now,” I grunted, he slowly raised his hands to my hair and patted it gently, he caressed my hair slowly and gently cupped my cheeks in his hands, he stepped closer to me and stared down in my eyes.“You’re not honey, Don’t go there tonight and ruin your already bad relationship with your mother,”“I don’t plan to mending the relationship,” I replied stubbornly, his lips stretched into a small smile as he gently placed his palm protectively around the back of my head and pulled me into his chest in a hug.He patted my hair gently and I instinctively wrapped my hands around his waist.“Go to your parent tomorrow Morning instead, take tonight to collect your feelings, so you don’t end up saying things you don’t mean