The Moment I Met You (Chapter 458)

 By Nightengale Ben-Onyeukwu

On the other side of town, at Nigeria Police Force Headquarters, Jessica couldn’t stand the humiliation she received from her inmates that told her several times that if she wanted to live long here, then she must obey their orders. She gritted her teeth and suffered through everything they threw at her.

For a girl like Jessica, who spent her entire life in luxury, she would rather die than to end up enduring such humiliation from inmates. Not able to handle the torture, she requested for Chioma to see her but Chioma declined. She knew that Chioma would refuse anyway, but she would still try her best to bring her at the station and beg for mercy.                                                                                                                       

Jessica had been unable to sleep for heaven knows how many days already. Her sleep was often deprived from her, not only that her inmates made sure to order her about like a slave. Such torture would obviously weaken Jessica completely that she would not be able to bear the pain.                                                                                                

No matter how hard Jessica struggled or how hard her parents, Sharon or Nathan begged, Jessica was still detained. The police who before listened to her at this moment never listened to her, this was because they didn’t want to get into Michael’s bad book.            

Jessica felt that being thrown into cell was the greatest humiliation she had ever received in life. She had gone through series of interrogations and was charged with attempted murder. 

  If she wanted to get out from here as soon as possible, she had to go through Chioma, knowing that she was the only key to Michael’s heart. So she cried to Nathan when he came to visit her.                                        

‘Nathan please, I just want to meet Chioma…maybe, she could have pity on me,’ Jessica cried. ‘I know that you don’t trust me but for many days I have been here…I have come to realise that I was wasting my time loving Michael…I should have opened my heart for you instead. But it’s late already…because you now love Erica…I don’t stand a chance anymore.’                                                                                         

Nathan remained silent. He looked at her with sorrow as his heart beat faster. He didn’t like to see tears in her eyes. He wanted to reach out and wiped off the tears but he withdrew his hand when she was about to look up at him.                                                                            

‘Nathan, I’ll be a good girl from now on.’ Tears flowed down her face as she spoke. ‘I won’t fight Erica. I will just let her enjoy a happy life with you…I know that your father is capable of doing something but I don’t want to disturb him, which is why I am begging you to either go to Chioma by yourself or send Sharon to go or perhaps, you can speak to her on phone.’ After she finished speaking, she wept softly.                                                                           

Still at a loss for words, Nathan sighed lightly and then reached out his hands, softly wiped off her tears. ‘Jessica, Erica’s my cousin,’ Nathan finally spoke. ‘She agreed to pretend to be my lover because I wanted to make you jealous…so that you could love me and want me into your life. You might not have known her to be my cousin because she had always been a busy girl…she had lived almost all her life travelling and modelling.’         

Hearing this, Jessica immediately looked at him, she was relieved to know that Erica was just his cousin and not in a relationship with him.

 ‘It has been so many years since you fell in love with me. But just now, it seemed like it’s the first time I’ve ever cried before you, and the first time that I really want to spend the rest of my life with you.’  

 Yes it was the first time. Nathan had always loved her, but she had only felt that she belonged to Michael and not him. The entire time she had known him, she had never wanted anything genuinely from him. She had always behaved as if his existence was nothing to her. Now in the police cell, she began to realise how much Nathan had loved him, for he never failed to visit her everyday. He had loved her for so long that it was only rational for him to comfort her. Seeing him here comforted her greatly. She felt safe and warm.                                                      

‘Nathan…do you still love me?’ Jessica asked curiously.                          

  ‘I will always love you,’ Nathan promised.                                          

  Jessica smiled. ‘Thank you.’