The Moment I Met You (Chapter 365)

 By Nightengale Ben-Onyeukwu

Reaching Aso Rock Villa, Sharon entered the banquet hall which was filled with government officials that were eating large spread of delicacies. The lunch had been in honour of the vice president who just recovered from heart attack. Nathan was seated in the fourth row. Just as Sharon was going to  tell Nathan that she had come to pick him as he had requested, someone blocked her, reaching out his hand in greeting, ‘Miss Sharon, long time no see.’

                    

Sharon looked up to see Emmanuel Nnaji, dressed in his white high-end agbada. ‘Sir, it’s been a long time since Jessica insisted on marrying Michael, leaving my brother behind,’ Sharon replied with a smile.

                

‘I hope your brother don’t hang himself because of this,’Emmanuel said. ‘I have tried my best to stop my daughter from loving Michael, but she is so stubborn that she can’t do without him.’               

While Sharon was greeting Emmanuel, someone beside Nathan seemed to have recalled something; he leaned over to Nathan and whispered, ‘Nathan, Jessica had a press conference today. She told everyone that Michael had accepted to marry…’                                                       

   Before the man could finish his sentence, Emmanuel turned around. The man immediately paused, not daring to continue with what he was saying. His family wanted to secure a contract from Emmanuel, so it was obvious he wouldn’t do or say anything that would stop Emmanuel to give the contract to his family.

                  

Emmanuel turned back to Sharon, smiling brightly. With a warm and welcoming voice, he remarked, ‘Sharon, you’re much prettier than the last time I saw you. Wish I have a son, I will make him marry you.’                                                                                                                           

Sharon’s lips couldn’t help curling upwards. ‘No, Jessica is the one that has blossomed. She is getting married to the nation’s husband because of her extraordinary beauty, thereby; leaving the ordinary men behind.’ Sharon’s words carried layers of meaning.’                     

   Emmanuel smiled. ‘Yes, my daughter is very beautiful that is why Michael has fallen head over heel for Jessica. You see, Abuja city is saturated with beauties and many of them have gone under the knife…one just had to pay a bit more attention, like you do in class, to see the similarities or to find out the true and fake beauty. My daughter has a clean beauty with delicate features, giving off a bright and fresh vibe…Michael saw this, and decided to make my daughter his own instead of that bitch from the filthy slums…’                                                                           

Nathan who was listening to their conversation stood up, and said to Sharon, ‘Let’s go.’                                                                                       

Emmanuel thought Nathan would ignore him, taking Sharon’s hand to lead the way; he stopped directly in front of him.                   

  Emmanuel smiled slightly. ‘Thank you for understanding my daughter.’                                                                                                              

Nathan’s mesmerising lips curved into a sardonic smile and said coldly, ‘I just didn’t want to bring trouble to myself. The son of the president marrying a lowly-governor’s daughter will definitely stir gossip. I don’t want any of the Nnajis bad reputation to affect me. I had to let her go for my family’s clean reputation.’

                     

   Emmanuel lowered his lashes, shielding his embarrassment. It seems Nathan’s sharp words attracted everyone in the room, for they all turned towards their direction.                                                   

Nathan glanced coldly at Emmanuel, and then walked past him in long strides, leaving Emmanuel embarrassed even more.                                  

Sharon had parked her car at the parking lot, which was a bit far. She left Nathan at the entrance and went to collect it. As she left, Nathan took out his phone to call Jessica, but saw that his phone was already lit up, a call coming through. It was Prince that was calling.                           

‘What will you still do with Jessica after she had torture you?’Prince asked.                                                                                                             

Nathan was silent, not knowing what to say, because he was still in love with her despite her betrayal.                                                               

  ‘I understand if you still love her, but you can’t be playing the role of a fool. You won’t make it to the last episode,’Prince said, his voice sounded worriedly for his elder brother. ‘You can just dump her as well. Find someone else…I mean, I hate to see you suffering because you love someone that will never love you.’                                                                  

Before Nathan could reply, he saw Sharon’s car stop beside him. Nathan hung up the call, opened the back door, entered the car and sat down.

‘There was a car accident that jammed the road fifteen minutes ago,’Sharon said while driving. ‘Father should look into the bad roads that we have. They are causing accidents…’                                                    

Nathan didn’t say a word; he tilted his head to the side, looking out the window.                                                                                                         

Sharon glanced at the back mirror before making a turn. ‘Nathan, did you mean it when you said that you have left Jessica?’                   

‘What did the weather forecast say today?’Nathan asked Sharon instead while ignoring her question.                                                           

  ‘A rainstorm will hit the city tonight.’                                                              

‘We better hurry home. I hate to play love rain,’Nathan said.                           

‘Jessica loves it…but she wouldn’t want to play love rain with you but with Michael.’                                                                                                  

The minute he heard that, Nathan clenched his lips, shutting his eyes.                                                                                                                                     Sharon continued, ‘I guess Jessica will come back to you. After all, you have known each other for so many years; I know you will eventually forgive her.’                                                                                                      

  ‘She doesn’t love me. She hates Me.’Nathan was truly hurt. He didn’t open his eyes, afraid that he would cry in front of his sister. ‘She hates me, ‘he muttered. ‘She deceived me, stepped on my heart. I thought that she loves me when she accepted my proposal…I didn’t know that she was using me…’                                                                                       

Sharon curled one corner of her mouth up, and said, ‘Everything will be fine.’                                                                                                       

‘But Jessica will never come to me…I have to sleep.’                                     

‘I’ll wake you up when we reach home,’Sharon said and the car sank into silence.