CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX.
Jamal drove straight home from Adele’s apartment. He was still greatly shaken by the divorce papers she had sent to him. His heart was still palpating hard in his chest.
He had known she would think of filing for a divorce, but he didn’t know it would be so soon. The fact that Adele was so mad at him to the extent that she wanted to divorce him left him completely devastated.
He loved Adele and he wanted to be with her. He knew he had made a lot of fatal errors, but he was ready to change his ways and do all he could to amend things between them. All he needed from Adele was a second chance and he was going to make sure she did not regret it.
When he stepped out of his car, he handed over his keys to the parking caker and walked into the house. He was exhausted after that very intense argument with Adele. That was the second time they were raising their voices at each other and he didn’t like it, but he couldn’t help it.
“Jamal!” He heard his mother call the moment he stepped into the living room. She was watching TV as always with a glass of orange juice on the table before her.
Orange juice.
Talking about orange juice. It was his favorite thing to drink in the world and he got that from his mother.
“Good day mother.” He greeted with his eyes focused on the glass of orange juice on the table. He was already salivating just looking at it. His mother, who noticed his interest in her juice, smiled and looked up at him.
“You can have it.” She offered proudly and Jamal broke into a tiny smile as he took long strides over to the table.
“Thank you, mother.” He thanked her as he carefully took up the glass and gulped down the juice in one go. He then set down the glass and looked at his mother who was beaming at him.
“I’ll instruct the maid to serve you more in your bedroom.”
“Please do.”
“Your father told me you found Adele. Is that true?” She asked and Jamal calmly nodded his head as he looked at her.
“Yeah. I did.”
“So, what do you intend to do?” She asked curiously and Jamal gave her a hard stare before saying:
“You’ll see when the time comes.” He said and began walking to the staircase.
Aliya wanted to insist, but she knew her son all too well. He will not tell her what she wanted to know even if she whined all day and night. She was just going to see once he had carried out his action like he had said.
“I got married to a stubborn man and gave birth to an even more stubborn son. What did I do to deserve this?” Aliya lamented as she tried to focus on her show. Arguing with Jamal was nothing but a waste of time and energy. Staying mad at him would make her lose her sanity, so she chose not to think about anything related to him at that moment.
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In Jamal’s bedroom, he took his bath and drank a good amount of orange juice that had been served by one of the servants. What he waited for now was dinner to be ready so he could order for his to be served in his bedroom.
He didn’t want to dine on the same table with father, mother and sister who were the main cause of almost all the problems he was facing in his life.
He picked up his cellphone and went to his contact list, specifically searching for Adele’s contact. He wanted to call her, but he remembered it wasn’t going to go through because she had obviously destroyed the other sim card.
He heaved out an exasperated sigh and threw the phone away, but when a brilliant idea crossed his mind, he picked up the phone once more and dialed Sean’s number and he picked almost immediately.
“Hello Mr. King.”
“Sean, I don’t know how you are going to do it, but I need you to get me my wife’s new phone number tomorrow morning.”
“I’ll get on it right away Mr. King.”
“Thank you.” He said and dropped the call. A sinister smile spread across his lips when he imagined himself already in possession of Adele’s new number.
A knock on his room door brought him back to reality and he stepped down from the bed to go open it up. He wasn’t very pleased to see his grandma standing by the door.
Lately, seeing his family members brought him no joy and he wished they would all just stay away from him, but that was not the case. They seemed hell bent on prying into his affairs and making things worse.
Well… except for his grandma.
“Good evening grandma.” He greeted with a forced smile, but the frown on his grandmother’s face did not fade away. She pushed him away from the door as always, making way for herself and stepped into the bedroom.
Jamal rolled his eyes hard and frowned in frustration as he closed the door, before turning to look at her.
“Grandma, what have I done now?” He asked in defeat because he knew she was about to give him the scolding of his life for what he did not know.
“Why did I have to hear from someone else that you have found Adele? Why didn’t you tell me yourself the moment you found her?” She asked in fury and Jamal bit his lower lip out of guilt.
It had completely escaped his mind.
“Grandma I’m sorry I forgot. It was not my intention to keep away from you, I swear, please don’t scold me too much.” Jamal pleaded in a serious tone. He had already gotten scolded pretty hard by Adele, the first lady of his life, he didn’t want to get scolded by his grandma who was the second lady.
Getting reprimanded by the two women whom he loved the most in his life in one day was equivalent to a death sentence.
And yes, Jamal loved his Grandma way more than he loved his own mother who birthed him and I’m sure you know why.
“I’m not here to scold you. I’m here to ask how Adele is doing and for her address as well.”
“Adele is doing alright physically, but psychologically, she’s… she’s volatile.”
“So, that means you went to see her today ?” Grandma asked and Jamal calmly nodded his head as he took a few steps further into the bedroom.
“Yes, I did. I actually planned not to go see her just yet, but she did something and I could stop myself from going to see her.”
*What did she do?” Grandma asked as she approached Jamal. He turned towards her and chuckled when memories of what happened at Adele’s apartment a few hours ago flooded his mind.
She had given him a proper scolding of his life and for the first time, he was scared of her.
She was a stallion, a fierce woman.
His fierce woman and there was no way he was ever going to let go of her.
“She served me divorce papers.” He announced sadly.
“That… that was expected.” Confirmed grandma as she carelessly shrugged her shoulders.
“Yeah, but not so soon grandma. You have no idea how stupefied I was when I tore open that envelope and read the heading of the letter in it. I almost died of shock. It’s a miracle that I’m still standing here strong and healthy. My soul literally left my body!” Jamal lamented. His grandma chuckled hard.
The look on her grandson’s face as he narrated his ordeal to her was one in a million. She had never seen him so openly distressed before and now that she had, she was somewhat convinced that he wasn’t a robot, but a human who had a breaking point like everyone else.
“Well, if you are crying this much, that means you truly love Adele.”
“Grandma, that’s something you shouldn’t doubt. I have loved Adele for more than six years now and I have done a lot of things to keep her by my side.”
“Then why didn’t you treat her well when you had her?” Grandma asked with raised brows and Jamal went mute.
Grandma didn’t know about his father’s trap for him and he did not want her to know.
“Anyway, I don’t think I’m interested in that. What I have to say is that, if you truly love Adele as you claim, then you won’t let her go. Try all you can to get her to forgive you so you can bring her back home.” She advised and Jamal immediately nodded his head.
“I’m not going to give up on her Grandma. I’m going to bring her back home to us. This is where she belongs.”
“I’ll try my best to talk to her, but don’t expect anything. It’s all left for you to work this out. Meanwhile, text me her address so I can go pay her a visit tomorrow. I miss her dearly.”
“I will do just that.”
“And also, make sure to have dinner before going to bed. Good night.” She said and kissed his left cheek before exiting the bedroom. Jamal locked his door and strode over to his bed. He fell on it, arms and legs spread open and let out a loud frustrated groan.
He needed to think of ways to get Adele to forgive him ASAP.