Chapter 71.
Tia ran after the Train heading towards the next town, she was leaving for the market. She has to stock the house as they have run out of foodstuffs.
She hopped in when the train stopped and sat down, she started praying she reaches early in order to come back before the children return from school.
The train arrived in the next town in thirty minutes and everyone came down. She placed her hand on her aching head, she couldn’t catch some sleep last night because she was worriedly sick after Lyra contacted her when she was able to reach her stating the children didn’t agree to eat the dinner the cook made and craves for another meal which the cook would have quickly made for them but couldn’t as there was no ingredients for it.
She was very worried because it was her responsibility to make sure the house was always stocked but she forgot.
Tia checked the watch on her wrist for the time, and found out that she has at least 5 hours before the children return back from school. So she decided to go grab a cup of coffee in a nearby cafe and walk inside.
She got in and bought a cup of coffee for herself, and sat down, but one of the attendants in the cafe asked her to leave as the cafe had been booked entirely by someone.
Tia wanted to rip her into shreds, the expensive cafe was the only relaxing place she found around the vicinity. She paid her bills and grudgingly started leaving, cursing in her mind.
As she opened the cafe door to Leave, something caught her attention which distracted her from looking at the direction she was heading to.
She tripped and bumped into someone and spilled the warm coffee on the person’s shirt. She looked up and her eyes met an angry face.
The man she bumped into let go of her, and she fell on the hard ground on her butts which attracted the attention of the people around the cafe, they all gasped as they saw what Tia had done.
“I’m so… sorry,” Tia stuttered, and dusted her butts as she stood up on her feet.
“How dare a filthy wench like you?” the man barked with rage, and the whole cafe shook with fear.
“I just apologized sir, you don’t have to call me names,” Tia replied, getting angry.
“Do you think your apologies will wash off the cheap filthy coffee you just spilled on my expensive white shirt,” the man asked, the rage in his eyes increasing.
Tia looked at the man’s shirt and noticed the coffee had really made a mess on the white shirt, but he still didn’t have the right to act so rude to her, she thought and looked up at the man.
“Seriously?” How much is the shirt that you are bragging so much about huh?
How much is it that I can’t pay?” Tia asked, glaring at the handsome man. The man waved his hand and a middle aged man came forward.
He handed Tia a receipt, and she checked it out.
“$600, 000 dollars for just a shirt?” Tia yelled, totally bewildered. She started sweating profusely, she only has $300, 000 dollars in her account.
“Yes, and you are providing it now, or you ain’t going to walk away, you forsaken bitch,” the man said.
“Guards, seize her,” he commanded. Two men in Black suits came forward and grabbed Tia’s hand.
Tia pushed the guards and moved back a bit.
“You didn’t even wait for my reply and asked them to seize me,” she told the handsome man.
“That’s because I don’t trust you, I want you to pay for your damages,” the handsome replied with a cold stare.
“I don’t have such an amount of money to waste on a shirt,” Tia replied and folded her hands together.
“Then you would be in my custody until you pay for your damages,” the man replied and signaled the boys to arrest Tia, but as they came close.
She kicked their balls and posed ready for a fight which surprised the handsome man and he burst into evil laughter and didn’t stop until it started becoming annoying.
“Are you trying to show me you know how to fight?” he asked Tia, but she didn’t reply.
The Man looked at his Assistant and looked at Tia. His assistant walked away and came back after some minutes with over a dozen men in black suits which scared Tia.
She started moving backward slowly as she knew she cannot start fighting the number of men when she had an interview to attend.
“Are you trying to escape?” the handsome man asked as he noticed Tia moving back but Tia didn’t even wait to reply to him and started running.
The men in suits went after and chased her down the street but she got lucky and hid in a local coffee cafe. The men came inside to search for her but didn’t find her as the middle-aged woman who ran the cafe told them she didn’t see anyone like Tia come inside her cafe, and the men left.
“Thank you so much, ma’am,” Tia said when she came out of her hiding place, she bought a hamburger and coffee from the middle-aged woman and started leaking.
She checked her time and noticed she had four hours left. She started panicking as she knew what would happen if she didn’t come back early in order for the chef to prepare the meal for the children.
She brought out the piece of paper from the small bag she was carrying and checked the list of food items again, none was missing.
She flagged down a cab and got in, the cabman drove her in her direction of the big supermarket she had in mind and she alighted and followed a sign post given direction to the supermarket.
She went inside and started purchasing what she wanted to buy. She finished in two hours and walked over to the cashier with the heap of food items she bought. The cashier calculated it and she paid her bills. She contacted an Uber driver who she booked to drive her back home.
The man arrived after some minutes and helped her load the food items into the car.
Just as Tia wanted to hop in, a man seized her and dragged her out. She started struggling with the man holding her asking him to leave her.
The man she spilled coffee on showed up which made Tia shut up her mouth.
“Well, who do we have here?” He asked with an evil grin. Tia swallowed hard, knowing she was in trouble.
“You think you can run away right?” The man asked but Tia didn’t give him any reply. He smirked and came to stand in front of her.
“You have to pay for the damages you have done or you wouldn’t leave here,” The man said and Tia looked around. She saw plenty of men in Black suits hanging around the Supermarket.
“Who are you?” Tia asked him, looking at him directly in the face without fear.
“I own this place and more other places you can find around here,” the man said which got Tia scared. She perceived he was a Billionaire and concluded she was in trouble.
“I’m sorry Sir, but I cannot pay for the shirt,” Tia said sincerely.
“Shut up,” The man barked and waved his hand. His assistant came forward. He signaled him to throw the shirt at Bella and she grabbed it.
“No, pay me my money or get arrested,” he said. Tia became apprehensive, she checked the time, there were only two hours left and she didn’t know what to do.
Henri who happened to go on an errand for Bruce around that vicinity saw the men in Black suit hanging around, it got his interest and he looked towards them, he saw someone familiar and recognized her to be Tia.
“Tia,” he exclaimed, wondering what she was doing around this vicinity in another town. He stopped and started going closer but the men in suit stopped him from getting close to Tia. He started fighting them and made his way through to meet Tia.
“What’s going on here?” He asked immediately as he walked towards Tia. Tia recognized Henri’s voice and froze.
She didn’t know how to begin explaining everything that happened to him.
She didn’t answer his question which got Henri angry.
“I’m asking you a question, Tia,” Henri thundered, which made Tia flinch.
The man chuckled before saying.
“She damaged my shirt, which is the one she is holding,”
Henri looked up at him and asked. “How much is the shirt?”
He smiled before replying. “$600, 000 dollars,” this made Henri gasped and he stared at the man with a shocked expression, trying to understand why a common shirt would cause that much. He couldn’t even boast of such an amount as his account balance and he knew Bella wouldn’t be able to.