"You will have to marry him, and that's final!" I can still hear my stepmom's words ringing in my ears.
Without her, I wouldn't be in this mess that I'm currently in.
She was the one who forced me here just so she can save her crumbling business.
Sly is the most sought after billionaire in uzom City, but he's not the most sought husband.
Why he agreed to my stepmom's arrangements was beyond me.
Why accept to marry a person you don't love and don't have any hope of loving?
I just don't get his reasons for accepting the deal, since it's obvious, that he feels absolutely nothing for me.
Living in this mansion all alone can make a sane person run mad.
Ever since I stepped foot into his abode, since the moment I said I do, I've been locked in this prison of a mansion.
I have everything I can ever want, maids to do me every bidding, but what I want most among all others wasn't given to me.
I know I was forced into this marriage, but that didn't mean I won't make the best of it, A person makes the best of any situation they find themselves in.
"I'm off to work," I watch Sly leave.
No goodbye kiss, no see you later, he just left.
This is his typical morning ritual, he passes by and mutters his departure, and when he returns in the evening he will still mutter an
'I'm back' to me.
What does it matter to me whether he's back or not?
It's not like they make a difference, his appearance, and disappearance make no difference to me.
Almost a year here, and I haven't for one day felt at home, I haven't felt the touch of another on me.
I was living a celibate life, he doesn't touch me, and he won't allow another person to do the job.
Not only am I not allowed outside, but he expertly made sure the connection I had with the outside world is completely cut off.
As a young student who just graduated from high school, I had my hopes set on completing my university education, leaving home, and falling for the only male I'll love for the rest of my life, but life doesn't seem to go the way we want it to be.
It's as if fate is trying to play a sick joke on me.
*
I can still vividly recall the day I made the first step, a day I still regret until now, a day I wish to blot from existence.
It was two weeks after our marriage, and I felt he wasn't initiating intimacy due to his shyness, but I thought wrong.
He wasn't shy, he wasn't ready to initiate intimacy with a person he doesn't feel any attraction towards.
The day began too like it does since I married him, he passed by me and muttered his 'I'm off to work' slang.
The night was still the same with him passing me and muttering "I'm back".
I had everything planned, from my seduction to our ultimate coupling.
"You have to sacrifice what you have to get what you want," that was my stepmom'swords as I said my farewell to my father.
She pulled me to a side, "don't disappoint me, my hope lies on you not disappointing us. You have to please him for us to get what we want. Before you attain your peak, something must give, you have to sacrifice little to gain more."
That was her version of motherly advice to me.
I wore the tightest undies I have with me (mind you, I haven't been with anyone before, but I can't help being prepared) to get his attention on me.
I believe I will set the location and allow the car to drive me.
Well, to cut the long story short, he gave me the cold shoulder when I walked in on him bathing.
"You're worse than a scum under my shoes, you're not worthy of touching me, you gold-digging bitch."
I can still recall his words and the tone he said them.
"I rather allow a street urchin to touch my skin than allow someone like you to do the job."
The words stabbed straight into my heart.
l felt a kind of constricting pain I haven't felt in my life, it was as if someone drove a stack into my heart.
"If you hate me this much, why did you agree to the marriage?
Why did you sign the certificate?"
I still don't get it.
Why will he sign a certificate he would rather not sign and get shackled with a husband he didn't want?
Why go to all that trouble to get married to a person you don't like?
It's too early for love, but at least can't he love me despite the circumstances of our marriage?
"I couldn't bear to see your pathetic self when your mom presented the proposal. You looked as if you needed help, and an out from her clutches.
So, I gave you one.
I gave you what you badly required, and yet, you wouldn't give me what I silently asked for?
You're just a gold-digging ingrate like your mom," he banged the door to the bathroom shut.
I was left standing in front of the door, looking like a fool who just forgot the way to his house.
Even then, the so-called fool is better than I, at least he might find his way home, but I don't have any hope of finding a home.
Home?
Is that even something that exists for me, for someone like me?
Someone who doesn't deserve to be loved, someone who deserves whatever is handed to him.
That Someone is me, and there's no hope of tomorrow, no hope of a place to call home, a person to call mine.
I legit cried myself to sleep that night, vowing that I will never put myself in the position I earlier did, I will never stoop so low as to repeat the mistakes of earlier.
*
I took my plates to the kitchen * I work whenever I have to* it's too damn boring to sit alone in a house as big as this.
Not only am I not allowed out, I'm not allowed a gadget. The only thing I have free access to is the television, and even that is monitored.
The first day was like a paradise to me, sitting undisturbed at home without my stepmom disturbing me.
The second day was like a vacation to me, I get to sit and watch my favourite movie series, drink anything I want, and eat to my heart's content.
Seven days into it lost all attractions, I was bored beyond comprehension.
This is the first chapter, hope you enjoy!!!
Waking up every day is more like a necessity in my world, and nothing more. Long ago, I would have long committed suicide had it not been for the fact I can't do that, not if I want to have a peaceful rest in the land of the dead.
My stepmother will personally make sure I don't get any rest there at all. She'll surely make sure of that.
"What are you going to eat today?" Marli asked the moment I walk into the kitchen.
"Nothing special. Just the usual." Shrugging, I. walk towards the sink.
"Why? There must be something you want." She says in an insistent tone. " You must have something you want."
"No one cares about what I want, Marli. Even if I say it, I won't get it. " Washing my hands, I dry them.
" I'll make sure I cook them to your taste. Just tell me the meal you want to have, and I'll make it for you. "
" Anything is okay. " Smiling at her, I walk out of the kitchen.
I don't care what I eat anymore, as it doesn't change anything.
There was a time I was too eager to know my meals, too eager to have my favourite meals cooked almost every day, but not now.
Nothing makes sense to me anymore. Nothing moves me at all.
Things are just the same to me. Everything is just bleak.
Living to me right now is merely just a necessity.
*
Taking a stroll through the gigantic compound, I tried to imagine myself in a place similar to this in physical appearance, but one that has a lot of love in it.
One that's not as cold as this one.
A little love sprinkled here and there can go a long way into making this place more lively and homely, but there's no love to make it so.
My love isn't enough to transform a place, after all, it's said two heads are far better than one.
"Sir Lee, you need anything?" One of the bodyguards my so-called husband had stationed at the poolside asked the moment he saw me.
" Must I always need anything whenever I decide to take a walk?" I raise a questioning brow at him.
" Not really."
" And that answers your question."
" You're out to take a stroll, then?" He slowly asked for fear of making me angry.
"What else does it look like I am doing?" Raising a brow at him, I sit on the bench.
The pool in Sly's home is built in such a way it looks more like a stream.
With three large trees surrounding the area, and the blue rim of the edge, it looks more like a stream than a personal pool.
"I'll leave you here then." Bowing lowly to me, he leaves.
"Good riddance." Sighing in relief, I remove the clothes I am putting on.
Wearing only a boxer brief, I enter the soothing, but cold water.
Currently, this is what my soul needs. Something bitty and cold to remind me of my existence on planet Earth.
Swimming first, I decide to float around a little. This way I can be able to fully relax without doing anything.
Closing my eyes as I face the setting sun, I decide to meditate a little as I allow the water to carry me wherever, it, pleases.
Had this been a public stream, I would have been afraid of the current taking me with it, but this place isn't a public stream, it's a private one; I have no reason to fear being taken by the current.
*
Opening my eyes when I got tired of the float, I got startled when I see the person sitting on the same bench I sat on before I decided to swim.
Still putting on the same suit he wore when he left the house, I can tell he just came back from work and headed to this place.
"Sly? You here you swim?"
I've never seen him swimming in this pool, but there's nothing to tell whether he swims or not. I'm clueless when it comes to some basic facts about my husband.
Facts that should have been known by me, but he never told me, and there's no way for me to know since he won't talk to me about anything.
"No I'm not. I came to check if you've decided to drown yourself." He said in that cold, indifferent voice.
The tone of voice is colder than the water. The tone alone made me shiver in fright as I thought of what he might do if he should get angry with me.
"You're… You're. You're back already?" I swallow deeply.
"What? You don't want me to be back?" He raised a brow.
"It's not that."
" You can continue with your lazy swimming, since that's what you love doing." He gives me a look indecipherable look," After all, this is the reason you decided to marry me." Giving me a last stink look, he heads back to the house.
He went back the way he came, but he took something of me with him.
He broke my heart more than he did before.
In a way, he's calling me a gold digger, and that must be the reason he hates me.
He thinks I agreed to this arrangement for his wealth, but that's not the truth at all.
I Am stuck in this marriage all because of my stepmother, who doesn't seem to be content with what she has.
Getting me married off to the richest man in the entire city is what she considers a stepping stone.
To her, I'm nothing more than access to greater things.
Should I have been given the choice, I would have taken attending school over him.
At least it wouldn't have any need to worry about what he thinks of me.
Who knows, I might be having the time of my life with my best friend, who probably thought I ditched her for some man.
Only if there's a way to tell her the truth, and stop her from hating me.
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