CHAPTER 00003

NATHALIE’S POV

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SHE threw my clothes in my face. “I’m your only friend, so you can’t approach anyone else right now,” she shook her head while laughing. “Just tell me where you’re going to bury your mother–oops. My mistake, you’re without the means to bury your mother.”

Her disrespect caused a tightness in my chest. How could she devise and utter such a statement? 

When my parents and her parents had a dispute and my parents kept me away from her before, my parents still treated Hazel like a daughter. Often her mother was away for work, we gave her food because her mother didn’t leave her any cooked food.

She turned away but turned back and clapped her hands once. “I just remembered. The one about threatening life, I was the one who came up with it. I talked to Joshua’s creditors to threaten our lives, especially your mother, so that you can pay off the debt and that way we can get you out of our lives.”

How could she do that thing?

As Hazel entered the house, I picked up my clothes one by one.

I had nowhere to go. I didn’t have enough money for a hotel, nor should I spend a single cent to cover my mother’s hospital bills. Her surgery is tomorrow night and I need thirty thousand dollars, plus the other fees.

I don’t know where I’m going to get that much money now.

I gaze at the door that opened. As I looked at Hazel, she threw my laptop and flash drive at me.

Seeing my laptop on the floor as if the sky and earth had thrown me.

I froze where I stood, feeling drained as I watched her destroy my laptop and the five flash drives, each containing over twenty copies of the presentation.

The presentation I had prepared for almost three months, along with my hopes for promotion, disappeared like a bursting bubble.

I stood up and ran to the door. I knocked loudly.

“Joshua! Have mercy on me–even if it’s just for my mother, give me my money back!” I pleaded.

With what they did, there’s no hope I’ll get thirty thousand dollars overnight, unless Joshua returns the one two hundred thousand dollars I paid this late afternoon.

“I need my money! Give me my money back!”

My hands were already red with pain. I stopped slamming the door when a guard from this subdivision approached me and Joshua came out.

“Get that crazy out.” He violently ordered the two guards.

“Ma’am, let’s go. The other neighbors are complaining too,” said one guard.

“I live here too.” I insisted.

“No, guards. She doesn’t live here anymore. I’ve thrown her out several times.”

“Do you have any documents to show you live here?” The guard asked me calmly.

“He doesn’t have any,” Joshua replied. “Get her out of here.”

“Ma’am, if you don’t come with us, we will have to drag you away, and the homeowner may sue you. Worse, maybe the other neighbors will sue you for your disturbance.” The guard reminded me.

“One more disturbance, I will not hesitate to sue you. I don’t think you would want to stay in jail, especially since your sick mother needs you.”

I didn’t fight anymore and didn’t open my mouth for fear that Joshua would do what he said. 

I can’t afford to be imprisoned. My mother needs me.

I picked up my clothes one by one. The two guards also helped me pick them up and escorted me out of the private subdivision.

“You can’t come back here. Sir Joshua has banned you,” the guard alert me. “Here.” He handed me three large grocery plastic bags.

“Thank you.” I said to the two and left.

I wiped the tears from my cheeks. I don’t know where I will go.

I don’t want to go to the hospital like this. My mother would be worried about me. All she knew, I am happily celebrating my fourth wedding anniversary with Joshua.

I stopped walking after I saw a drop of water on my forearm until it dripped down my entire body and around me as the rain got heavier.

I couldn’t help but cry along with the rain.

How did I end up in this situation in one moment? I dedicated my entire life to my marriage, to my in-laws, my mother, my job and his job and my life revolved around him. The happiness I felt was false, a deceptive fabrication.

My attention shifted to the road and the fast-moving car.

My feet seemed to have a life of their own that walked towards the road on their own and I didn’t know how to stop it.

In the middle of the road, I stayed. As the speeding car approached and I wasdazzlede by the car’s light, I closed my eyes.

I waited for the car’s arrival until I perceived its loud horn.

—————

THE TIME I opened my eyes, an unfamiliar ceiling appeared before my eyes.

“Miss?” The woman’s strange voice reached me once more. “Is there anything else that hurts you?”

I saw a woman, whom I believe to be around fifty. She had on a blue clothes, it seemed to be her uniform. She strokes my neck and forehead.

“Your fever has gone down. You might be hungry, which is why you have a headache. I’m going to get some food.”

Before I could question anything else, the woman left this room.

I forced myself to get up and stand up.

I checked the surroundings. This room is triple the size of the entire living room of Joshua’s house and has minimalist furniture. There is a mini living room with a complete living room set.

“Miss?”

The woman comeback with a food tray and situated it on the table, large enough for two, next to the bed.

“Eat first, then take this medicine so that your recovery continues. By the way, Sir Calix will be back in a few minutes.”

“Sir Calix?”

Before I couldn’t ask a question, the woman hurried from the room.

While I looked at the soup, my stomach growled, only then did I feel hungry. 

From the window was open in the mini living room. I saw it was already morning, which meant I hadn’t eaten since yesterday.

I sat down then eat the soup with garlic bread.

The flavors of the milky chicken soup with shell pasta and garlic bread brought me to tears.

This is the first time again I’ve ever eaten such delicious soup and freshly made bread. 

When Joshua and I were together, I saved myself to fit our household bills and pay off his debts. 

Almost every day, what I ate and bought was instant cup noodles and bread that was a day before it expired or on the day it expired to get a few cents cheaper. And that j*rk, at least once he didn’t buy me baked bread.

Thinking about all my sacrifices for him, I turned a blind eye. He made me believe I was the only one he loved since we were in college.

After I took the medicine, I heard footsteps approaching me. 

I stood up to meet what I thought was the woman who gave me food, but I was wrong. 

I was stunned when my eyes caught sight of the tall man approaching me and when I saw him up close, I couldn’t help but stare at his face.

Who wouldn’t know him? He’s almost always in the news article. As most people would say, he has the kind of face that stopped you in your path.

He’s dressed in business attire. He has sickle-shaped eyebrows and shapely face; his manful, gritty stubble grey eyes; he has arched cheekbones on taut skin, angular cheekbones carved down towards a flinty jaw. He has broad shoulders in an inverted triangle shape. He has a towering height and cool skin tone.

“I am Calix Zander Watson. You can call me Calix.”

My eyes widened after I realized where else I’d seen him other than news articles.

I cannot be mistaken. He is the CEO of the multi-billionaire jewelry company my shameless ex-husband works for, the CEO of Watson company. 

He came from a wealthy family yet became a young self-made multi billionaire. His family owns an airline and jewellery company. The chocolate factory he built is one of the most famous not only in this country but in many countries.

How did I end up in his care?