CHAPTER TWO
Adele was restless the entire morning at work. The announcement that had been made the previous night was beyond shocking and what mortified her the most was Jamal's response.
"If it's grandma's wish that I marry Adele, then I will honour it. Let me know when the wedding date is set."
His words replayed on her mind like music and every time it did, her heart missed a bit.
She and Jamal were complete strangers and the man's entire existence intimidated her. He wasn’t only rich, but he was the most famous bachelor in the entire country.
Not a day passed without him appearing in the newspapers. He went to public places with guards because of the multitude of paparazzis that flocked around him wherever he showed up and above all, he was a workaholic.
Jamal's entire life centred around his work. He didn't have time for anything else in his life. Adele didn't want to marry a man who would not give her the attention she needed.
She didn't want to marry Jamal King Dominick.
She was terrified of the man and his entire existence.
She was not even able to have a single conversation with the man, not to talk of sharing the same bedroom with him and having sex with him. The thought sent chills down her spine and she immediately shot her eyes wide open and shook her head.
"Gahhhh!" She screamed, shaking her head violently. "That cannot happen" She said as she picked up her cell phone and scrolled through her contact list.
Before she left that morning, Grandma had shown up from nowhere in her bedroom and saved Jamal's contact in her phone. She had instructed her to call him if she needed anything. She did not object, but deep in her heart, she knew she would have to die before she called Jamal to ask him for anything!
When she found Jamal's contact, she stared at him for a whole lot of seconds as she contemplated on whether to call him or not.
She wanted them to meet and talk, probably talk him out of the marriage. She knew he had more influence over grandma than she did and that if he told Grandma he did not want to marry her, then grandma would let the matter go.
After a few moments of contemplating, she dialled the number and waited patiently for the phone to ring. She held the phone over her ear and paced about her desk as she waited for him to pick the call. After several rings, the call was finally answered.
"Jamal King's office, how may I help you?" A female voice came through and Adele was astonished but she immediately understood it was his secretary.
"Of course it's his secretary. All calls are forwarded to her desk" She thought in her mind and cleared her throat.
"I will like to speak with Mr. Dominick if he is not busy"
"And you are?" The secretary interrogated and Adele could feel the rudeness in her voice.
"Just tell him Adele Mackenzie will like to talk to him." She instructed as she waited patiently for the secretary to forward the call to Jamal.
"Adele" Jamal's deep voice came through, causing Adele to stop on her tracks. The voice came like a smooth baritone.
Clear and calm. Certainly intelligent.
Reasonable.
"Jamal… uh… hello. I'm sorry for calling so abruptly"
"Do you need anything?" He asked calmly and Adele could sense a hint of concern in his voice.
"Umm… not… n…" She stammered nervously and at that moment, she wondered whether to pose the invitation or not.
They were just talking over the phone and she had already lost her calm and was blabbering like an idiot. She wondered what would happen to her if she talked to him in person.
"Adele, are you there?" Jamal's voice came through again, snapping Adele out of her thoughts.
"Yes, yes, I am… I .. I just wanted to ask if we can meet … you know. To talk about this whole issue, that is if you are not busy, of course… but if you are busy, then it's fine… you…"
"When do you want us to meet?" Jamal cut her off.
"Oh… ok…. Um… by one pm." She blabbered.
"And where will that be?" He asks curtly.
"At Wangis restaurant. "
"Alright then, see you at Wangis restaurant in two hours time." Then the line went dead.
Adele let out a heavy breath as she tiredly slumped on her office chair. She could feel sweat forming on her forehead.
How was she supposed to marry and live with that man when she couldn't even talk to him?
"Miss Mackenzie '' A man called as he walked into her office and immediately, Adele sat upright to address the man properly because that was her superior at her work place.
She worked as Senior editor in a famous publishing company in the city and her grandma was the one who had gotten her the job.
"Yes, Mr. Franck"
"Kayla took a sick leave so I need you to fill in for her for a few hours."
"Oh… okay. What do I need to do?"
"Jamal King Dominick was spotted at Vegas restaurant yesterday. So I called their manager and asked if they would like to do an interview about their restaurant that would be published in the newspapers and he was more than delighted to oblige. I need you to go there with Ciara and interview the manager. Ask him a few question about Mr. Dominick's visit" He explained with all seriousness and Adele just kept looking up at him as if he had lost his mind. "Adele, have you heard a single word I just said?" He asked after noticing Adele's lost gaze.
"Yes, I have. I'm just, you know wondering… you want to interview the restaurant just because Jamal… I mean… Mr. Dominick went there to have lunch?" She asked in a state of surprise and the middle aged man nodded enthusiastically.
"Yeah. That's a big deal. Now, get the questions prepared, you leave at one pm"
"One pm!" Adele asked aghast.
Her meeting with Jamal was at one pm.
"Yes, I know it's your break time, but I'll compensate for that. After the interview, all you have to do is come back here and hand me the final draft of the article to be published tomorrow and then you can retire home for the day."
"Mr. Franck, I have made an appointment with someone at one pm. I can't fail him"
"Reschedule!"
"I can't… I really can't"
"Whoever it is, I'm sure he will understand when you tell him it's about work, just reschedule. It can't be that hard!" Mr. Franck proclaimed carelessly as he swaddled out of the office, leaving Adele totally dumbfounded.
"I really can't reschedule " She whispered breathlessly as she covered her face with her hands and groaned in frustration.
Where would she get the audacity to call Jamal and reschedule their meeting?
How would she call a man who even his choice of place for lunch mattered so much that it had to go in the newspapers and cancel a meeting she herself arranged?
Then a brilliant idea came to her mind.
"Yes!"
CHAPTER THREE"Kayla told me you are a smart girl" Adele told the intern once she parked in the restaurant's parking lot.The young intern who was about nineteen years-old blushed hard as she fiddled with her fingers. A gesture which Adele found to be very cute. When she worked as an intern back at a publishing company in her home city in England, her superior had been a complete jerk to her and she hated the woman to the core. She only hoped that her colleague, Ciara, was not like that."Miss Kayla is too kind" Ciara replied with a bright smile."Ciara I'm going to trust you with a very important task right now. I know this is wrong, but my hands are tied. I really have to do this.""What do you want me to do?" Ciara asked looking at her.Adele took out a pice of paper on which she had written the questions that were to be asked to the Manager and handed over to Ciara."That is a list of the questions that I intended to ask, I want you to do the interview for me. I really have to b
CHAPTER FOUR"No Ma! This cannot be happening, my Jamal cannot be getting married!" Cried Danielle. Aliya and Shannelle had just told her about the arrangement and she was not taking the news lightly. Aliya and Danielle's mother were very good friends and since the day Aliya was born, they had decided that their two children would get married when they grow up.When Danielle hit puberty, the two mother's told her about the arrangement and she was very happy. However, Jamal never knew about this engagement and even though he was friends with Danielle, he had never thought of marrying her.Danielle and Jamal grew up together and Danielle loved him with everything that had life in her. She had done all she could to get close to Jamal in every way, but Jamal had done nothing but shut her out. She had hoped that one day, Jamal would open up to her and ask her to marry him since according to her, she was the only female he ever looked at and spoke to."Ma! Please tell me it's not true!" D
CHAPTER FIVE"I need you to make sure My mother, Shannelle and Danielle have no contact with Adele for this entire day. Keep a close on them until the wedding is over. Am I understood?" Jamal asked the four guards standing before him in his bedroom.That day was his wedding day with Adele and he didn't want anything to go wrong or happen to her. His mother and sister have been bitter towards Adele the entire week and he was scared that they would do something to her, so the only way he could think of, was to keep them supervised.The only person he trusted with Adele at that moment was his grandmother, so he told her to stay with Adele until everything was over."Yes, Sir!""I swear if anything goes wrong, I will make your lives miserable. So if you know what is good for you, you will go out there and do your job like you are supposed to." He warned in a deadly tone and the four men looked at each other nervously because they knew he wasn't bluffing.Jamal Dominick was not the type t
CHAPTER SIXThe sound of Adele's alarm rudely woke her up from her sleep. With her eyes still closed, she stretched her right hand to her nightstand and blindly searched for her phone. When she found it, she quickly picked it up and sat up alright to turn off the alarm.On days like that, she wanted to shoot the phone at the wall, but she could not because it had been a gift from sone unknown person a few months ago.The phone arrived at her work place in a parcel with no name or address on it. There was just a simple note on it which had read:"If you break the screen, I will be disappointed"She was terrified for two reasons.First, the phone was her dream phone, Samsung Galaxy S 22 ultra. It was the latest phone in town and she was saving up to buy it. It terrified her that person chose to buy her dream phone. She wondered how he or she knew that.Second, she had the habit of breaking the screens of her phones. She also wondered how come the person knew that was a habit of hers.
CHAPTER SEVENJamal did not come back home for the rest of the week and he did not call again. For the first three days, Adel stayed up late, hoping that he would return, but he did not. She later gave up waiting for him and decided to stop over thinking about him or the fact that they were married.There were times when she stared at her phone and contemplated where to call him, but she decided against her better judgement not to do so. She didn't even have the audacity to ring his phone.Grandma, whose presence made her feel better was not around. She had to travel to England for an urgent matter.Adele did her best to avoid Aliya and Shannelle because she new they would only makes matters worse for her with her words. That was a house she was supposed to be able to call home, but she could not.When she was adopted, she was brought to that house and lived in it for five years before relocating to England. Even now that she was married, she was living in that house, but surprising
CHAPTER EIGHT."Come to my office after dinner, I need to speak with you." Jamal’s words echoed in Adele’s mind as she made her way to his office.She could not help but wonder why he wanted to see her all of a sudden. There was this tingly feeling in her heart that she could not understand. For some odd reason, she thought he summoned her to actually appreciate her for the delicious meal she cooked.When she got to the door, she knocked on it and almost immediately, Jamal’s voice came through, signalling her to open the door. She opened the door, hoping to see Jamal smiling at her, but she was surprised to meet a very angry looking version of Jamal.Terror overcame her as she walked into the bedroom and closed the door behind her.He was leaning on his desk with his arms crossed and as she approached him, he looked up at her with blood red eyes."Sit down, Adele."He ordered and Adele immediately complied. As she did that, he extended his arm towards her with his ipad in it."Tell
CHAPTER NINE.Jamal and Adele went to bed without settling the dispute. Adele made sure to spend a lot of time in the closet and when Jamal got tired of waiting for her to come out, he went to bed.He did not apologise.When she woke up the next morning, he was long gone and she was even more frustrated than when she went to bed. He had wronged her and she knew she had all right to be mad at him, but she felt like she was being dramatic."Maybe I should just let it go." She thought as she stepped down from the bed and walked into the bathroom so she could prepare for work.When she was done preparing, she went downstairs to leave for work but to her greatest dismay, she met both her mother and sister-in-law in the living room.She wondered if they had nothing doing, especially, Shannelle. She was always at home doing nothing and waited for the the slightest opportunity to pick fight with her."Petty!" She whispered to herself as she descended the staircase. "Good morning to you" She
CHAPTER TEN"Good morning Mr. Franck '' Adele greeted as she walked into her superior's office. She wanted to ask him about the article to be sure that it had truly been canceled."Good morning Adele. I hope I'm safe" He inquired, looking up at Adele and that made her laugh."Why do you say that?""Because you never come into my office or anyone else's office in the morning. You always just crawl into that hole of yours called your office and shut everyone out for the entire day " Mr. Franck explained and the accuracy of his words made Adele feel very guilty.That was what she did everyday of her life.She only got out of her office when she wanted to get something from a colleague, when she was going out for lunch or when she was going for an outdoor work."Well Mr. Franck, I promise everything is alright. I just came to get some clarifications about something, if that…is okay with you" She explained and her voice died down towards the end of her statement."Of course Adele, go ah