CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE.
One week later.
“I’m sorry Mr. King, I tried to stop her, but she wouldn’t listen.” Jamal’s secretary apologized as she rushed into Jamal’s office and shortly after, Danielle waltzed in looking all furious. Jamal groaned in frustration and heaved out a heavy sigh of exasperation before turning to the secretary who now looked like she had seen a ghost.
She was scared for her job, her future and her life as a whole.
Jamal King Dominick was not a man whose orders were to be disobeyed. Grave consequences always accompanied disobedience.
“It’s okay Gloria, you can leave.” He dismissed the young girl and she hastily walked out of the office, leaving the two to settle whatever problems they had.
“Seriously Jamal? You instructed that lowlife to not let me into your office whenever I come? Do you know how embarrassing that is?” Danielle asked, raising her voice.
“Danielle, you can’t just come into my office anytime you wish. I am a busy man and I am not always available to attend to you anytime you need me. You are not my wife.”
“Yet!” She added confidently, but Jamal didn’t bother to protest.
“What do you want?”
“I was told it’s your lunch time now, I made reservations for us at All Class Reliefs lounge. Let’s go have lunch together.”
“May God have mercy on me for what I will do to the people who keep telling you things about me when I finally find out who they are. I’m not going out with you Danielle. Not even in your wildest imagination.” Jamal stated firmly and Danielle’s soldiers sagged in disappointment. She rushed over to where Jamal was seated with her heels clicking on the ceramic tile and sat before him on the table.
“Why are you always rejecting every outing I organise?”
“For a lot of reasons, Danielle. The first being that I’m married and the second being I am not interested in spending any sort of time with you. You are literally a thorn in my flesh and I need you at least one mile radius away from me before I can breathe properly. Right now that you are seated this close to me, you are suffocating me!” He blasted and pushed his chair backwards and away from her. He then rose to his feet and went over to the sitting area just to get far away from Danielle’s intoxicating presence. She had on an outfit that revealed a lot of cleavage and thighs.
Not that Jamal was interested in all that, he just did want her to do anything funny to him. Danielle was a famous model in the country and she had an awesome skinny body, but his wife, Adele, was even taller and with curves.
That’s what enticed him, his wife’s curves.
“Why are you treating me like this Jamal?” Danielle asked as she sat up from the table and turned to face him at the sitting area.
“I’m not doing this with you right now.” He flatly denied.
A knock on the door interrupted their conversation. Jamal, who was more than eager to stop talking with Danielle, signalled whoever was there to open the door and seconds later, the door opened up and his secretary walked in with a brown envelope in her hand.
“What’s that?” Jamal asked, walking over to her.
“It was sent by a man named Marshall O’Connell, he’s a lawyer.” She replied as she handed over the envelope and at the mention of the name lawyer, Jamal’s heart fell into his abdomen.
The first thing that came to his mind was his father and the documents he had against him.
“You may leave.”
“Thank you Mr. King.”
Jamal walked over to his table despite the fact that Danielle was there as well and sat on his office chair to check what was in the envelope.
He could feel his heart in his throat as he carefully unsealed the brown envelope and took out the paper in it. His hands were trembling and he was sweating all of a sudden.
“What’s that?” Danielle pried, but he completely ignored her
He held the paper in his trembling hands to read what it was about and his eyes landed on the words written in bold at the top of the page which read:
“PETITION FOR DIVORCE.”
His soul left his body.
Hot air escaped his nostrils and he took in a deep breath without even realising it.
Without saying a word, he dumped the paper on his table and began unbuttoning his tux jacket.
Danielle, who was eager to know what was written on the paper, picked it up to read and when she did, a wide smile formed on her lips.
Adele had requested for a divorce, that was the greatest news she had ever received in a long time.
“This should be from Adele.” She pointed out, but Jamal did not say a word. “She wants a divorce, why not just give it to her and set each other free?” She asked carelessly and Jamal, who was done taking off his tux jacket, turned and gave a hard glare before seizing the paper from her hand.
“You should be gone before I return.” He warned and left the office before Danielle could understand what was going on.
He was going to meet Adele right away.
**********************************************
Adele was sitting in her living room and watching a movie when her door bell sounded. She was surprised because she wasn’t expecting anyone, but still, she went to check who it was at the door. When she opened it, her heart dropped into her abdomen and all the hair on her body stood erect when she saw Jamal standing before her.
“Jamal!” She whispered in a shaky voice. She could never imagine that it was Jamal at the door. Before she could realise it, Jamal stepped into the house and locked the door and turned to face her once more.
She was still in a trance. She could not believe that Jamal was standing before her.
“Jamal, how the hell did you find me?” She asked in complete shock.
“You dare send me a petition for divorce? You dare try to leave me?” Jamal asked in a deadly tone, but that did not bother Adele. She was still trying to understand how he had managed to dig out her location.
“Jamal, how the hell did you find me?” She asked yet again, but this time around, raising her voice as tears began forming in her eyes.
“You left the house without my knowledge and even when I found you, I decided to respect your boundaries by not coming to see you. But this?…” He said as he held the paper to her face. “This is too much. A divorce? Adele, how can you send me this?”
“Because I can and because I want to. I’m sick and tired of this sham called marriage and I want to call it quits. I don’t want to stay married to you Jamal. I hate you!” She scolded with tears flying down her eyes.
Jamal furiously tore the sheet of paper in her face and threw the pieces to the ground.
“Never! That is never going to happen. I am never going to sign any divorce papers. You are my wife Adele and you will remain my wife for the rest of our lives. There’s no turning back!” He firmly stated and that enraged Adele.
“Jamal please stop all this madness! You very well know that this marriage is causing us nothing but pain. Why do you want to get me stock in a loveless marriage? Why do you want me to suffer for the rest of my life?” She cried in frustration.
“You are not going to be stuck in a loveless marriage. I love you Adele and I’m sorry that I was unable to show it to you. I had reasons for doing all that I did. It’s almost over. I’m almost done with what I have to do before I can show you to the world as my woman. I can’t let you go now. I can never let you go!” Cried Jamal as tears came streaming down his cheeks as well.
“It’s always about you and what you want, isn’t it? It’s never about me, it’s never about what I want. I don’t want to be with you anymore Jamal and I don’t want to be with you because I hate you!”
“And I completely understand! But I also understand that you are saying all these things because of what happened to our unborn child. You are only saying all this out of anger. Time will eventually heal your heart and you will learn to forgive me and once that happens, you will realise that you don’t hate, that you have never hated me, you were only just mad at me.”
“Jamal, I need you to leave right now. I don’t want to talk to or see your face anymore. You are making me sick!” Cried Adele and she walked over to the door. “Leave now or I’ll call security.”
“Security can’t possibly throw me out of here, I own this building!” He told her.
“Do I look like I care about that? How the hell did you even find me?”
“Adele.” He called in a clam down. They were both calm at that moment, but the tension in the atmosphere was still unbearable. “Do I need to become the president of this country before you realise how powerful and influential I am? Even if you hide in the innermost parts of this country, I will fish you out and bring you back home with me. I’m giving you some time to be by yourself, to think things through. I will be back sooner or later, to take you back home.”
“I’m never going back to that house with you. I’d rather die than do that!” She fired back bitterly.
“Don’t waste your time and energy sending me divorce papers, I will burn them all.” He told her clearly.
“Get out!” Adele screamed at the top of her lungs as she opened the door and Jamal quietly walked out. When he was out of the house, she slammed the door hard behind him and slumped on the floor breathing hard and crying breathlessly.
All her attempts to hide had just proven to be futile.
Just then, her phone rang and at first, she didn’t want to pick up the call, but on second thought, she decided to pick it up.
She got on her feet and walked over to the sofa where the phone was lying on and picked it up. It was a call from a strange number.
“Hello.” She greeted the caller, whoever it was, in a gloomy tone as she pressed the phone against her ear.
“Good afternoon. Am I talking to Adele Mackenzie?” The woman on the other side of the phone asked politely.
“Yes you are.”
“This is the human and resource team from DHL Publishing firm. I am calling to inform you that you got the job as a senior editor in our publishing firm and you are expected to report to work on a Wednesday by seven am to discuss other necessary details.”
“Oh my God. Thank you so much.”
“You are welcome and congratulations.”
“Thank you very much ma’am.”
“See you on Wednesday then.” Then the line went dead.
Adele held the phone close to her chest and closed her eyes. She had mixed emotions.
She didn’t know whether to be happy that she just had a job or to be sad that Jamal now knew where she lived.