By Nightengale Ben-Onyeukwu
Michael busied himself with the signing of the files on his office desk. In fact, he had always been busy with work that most times he never had the time for news, let alone entertainment headlines.
Robert walked into his office carrying some national newspapers, and placing them on the coffee table. Just then Michael looked up and asked, ‘What’s in the news?’
Robert read out the headlines for him, and immediately Michael’s face turned cold.
‘Even though Jessica’s fans were scolding Chioma for snatching you from Jessica, she has never responded with a single word. How could your woman manage all that, sucking up the insults?’Robert wondered. ‘Honestly, I have studied Chioma and studied the way she handles things. She is a lot more tolerant than most people I have seen…I think that she could endure loneliness well.’
Michael frowned at Robert.
‘I don’t mean to say that Chioma will be lonely in the future. I was just analysing what I have seen in her,’Robert hurriedly explained. ‘The public put Chioma through all kinds of pain and abuse. But thankfully, the entertainment headlines are now focused on Nathan and Jessica’s engagement.’
‘Chioma’s
body parts will be purchased today,’Michael said instead. He seemed not
interested in the entertainment news. ‘Make arrangement for their arrival. You
have to go to the airport and pick the white men who will see to the insurance.’
Robert nodded. He wanted to tell Michael about Louisa being accused of
theft, but he decided not to. Peter told him not to say a word about it to
Michael, for he didn’t want Michael to get mad at Felix for paying the bail for
Louisa instead of him.
By
noon, Audrey selected a red Ferrari from the garage, heading for Central Bank
of Nigeria, to meet Isabelle for the lunch which she had promised her. Isabelle
had told Audrey before leaving for work to come to the office for lunch. Celine
had left for a pool party with her friends. Felix was already at work. Nicholas
was at the National Assembly.
Audrey’s phone began to ring once she was about reaching CBN. She put on her earphone before picking the call. It was Jessica calling. Audrey didn’t want to pick up the phone but when she remembered Chioma and her family was almost thrown out of their house if she hadn’t intervened, she answered the call.
‘Where are you, Jessica. I need to speak to you.’
Jessica chuckled. ‘I called to tell you something and now you are wasting my airtime to tell me that you want to see me. When did you become a stingy girl? Perhaps since you started hanging out with that stupid Chioma…’
‘Are you telling me or not?’Audrey didn’t want to waste time arguing with Jessica.
‘Okay, okay. Nathan took me to lunch. He took me to a well-known sushi restaurant,’Jessica smiled, but deep down she didn’t want this. She had wanted it to be Michael, not Nathan. ‘We are eating exquisitely made Japanese dish in a small compartment.’
‘Tell me where…’
Jessica told him where the restaurant was. Audrey hung up and turned her attention back to her driving. Instead of heading to meet her mother, she turned around at an intersection, heading towards the restaurant.
In few minutes, Audrey’s bright red Ferrari drove at the entrance of the restaurant and stopped in front of Jessica. Jessica had come out to make an important call which she didn’t want Nathan to hear about.
Audrey opened up the roof of the car as she turned her head sideways to speak to Jessica, ‘Why are you outside instead of waiting for me inside? Don’t tell me you don’t really like Nathan.’
Jessica smiled, then turned her way inside. Audrey followed her. Inside, Audrey greeted Nathan politely. Sitting down, she said, ‘Instead of officially getting engaged I suggest you two get married at once.’
Jessica curled her lips. If she wanted to really marry Nathan she would have done that. But no, she was using the engagement to conceal her plots. No one would suspect her for doing anything against Chioma. Everyone would just think Chioma was suffering in the hands of karma. As they three of them ate, Jessica took pictures and posted them on her timeline and Whatsapp status, purposefully. She posted four photos. The first one was a selfie showing her enjoying her sushi. Though, Jessica had taken the picture with a photo editing app which was beautiful, anyone that has seen Jessica would know that she was beautifully created. The second photo was the lavish food spread of Japanese dishes. The third photo was a picture of her and Nathan. Jessica had taken the photo while she put her arm around his shoulder. Nathan was very handsome while eating. He was wearing a Valentino blue long sleeved-shirt, his hair looked neat. He was very handsome, and they looked picture-perfect.
The fourth was Audrey and Jessica. They two women were beautiful. Jessica was wearing a white shalwar kameez, paired with sneakers. Audrey was donning a vibrant green tunic over white trousers. She had paired her dress with a marching Dior scarf and matching earrings.
Above the picture in her facebook timeline, Jessica added the words, ‘It’s a beautiful day. My fiancé took me out to have sushi. I am really lucky to have him…Audrey might be the third wheel but she is cute enjoying her kimbap, which was a special Korean-style of sushi. My handsome fiancé also made sure that she enjoyed the kimbap with a jar of kimchi. Isn’t it a perfect combination?’
Immediately, comments began flooding in under the post. Sharon who was at a grocery store, reached for her phone when she received the notification, then she commented when she saw the post. ‘Why didn’t you invite me? Isn’t Nathan my brother…’Sharon accompanied the message with a laughing emoji.
‘Now I am certain that you guys are really a match. Thankfully, you are not deceiving Nathan,’Prince wrote. His words carried deep layers of meaning.
‘Picture perfect,’Celine chuckled. Robert gave a like without commenting. He wondered how Jessica would react should she hear of Michael buying an insurance to protect Chioma. She would explode in fury, he was certain of it. Wanting to see if Michael would be consumed with anger or jealousy, Robert showed him the post. Michael seemed not to care. After all, Jessica meant nothing to him. He coldly asked Robert to take away his phone.
Audrey felt weird about the post when she saw it. She lowered her head as she ate her food, she didn’t comment neither did she give a like. Meanwhile, Edward was at the garden, seeing the post, he waved at Patricia who was reading a newspaper.
‘Have you seen this?’ Edward pointed at his mobile phone.
‘How could I have seen that?’ Patricia took the phone from him. ‘Ooh, Jessica left our son for Nathan?’
‘I think…she gave up quickly.’
‘Maybe…but I will invite her over and ask her why she did this. I thought the engagement was one of those newspaper lies but seeing this,’Patricia shook her head, ‘it seems something is going on between them.’
Patricia didn’t comment to
the post but was concerned about this issue. She wondered why Jessica swiftly
shifted her love to Nathan, perhaps, this was to deceive people, Patricia wondered.
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