CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT.
After a long day of attending meetings, signing documents and making sure everything in the conglomerate was going on well, it was finally closing time and Jamal couldn’t wait to get out of his office. He was feeling tired, so he didn’t drive himself. He let his driver and a guard take him home.
As they hit the road, he thought of going to see Adele, but on a second thought, he decided to dismiss the idea. They had separated that morning on a very bad foot and he didn’t want to get her anymore upset that day. When she told him she was going to spend time with friends, he was happy. He had no idea she had any friends. But he was also worried that she would let the issue of their marriage slip and that would cause a lot of damage.
Nevertheless, he trusted Adele. He knew she was never going to do anything that would implicate him, no matter how much she was mad at him. That was how kind she was.
When the driver parked in the driveway of the mansion, one of the guards on standby in the mansion took long strides over to the car and opened it up for him.
Jamal gracefully stepped out of the car and stood up tall, looking at the entire mansion that was then owned by his father.
His father had used that house to threaten him as well and it was on the list of things he was planning to take away from him. He grew up in that house with not the best memories, but still he loved the house and what he intended to do was take the house from his father and turn it into what he wanted so he and Adele would live there and raise the children they were going to have.
Talking about children, what the doctor told him about Adele’s fertility crossed his mind and he let out an exasperated sigh and walked into the mansion.
In the living room, he met his mother, watching a TV show as usual, but this time around, she didn’t have a glass of orange juice before her, but red wine.
“Good evening mother.” He greeted her respectfully. His mother quickly rose from the chair and rushed over to him with a smile plastered on her face.
“Jamal! Welcome son.” She welcomed him with a wide smile.
Jamal was her son. She wanted to hug him, kiss him, hold him in his arms like she used to do when she was just a boy, but she was too scared to do that because the last time she dared was twelve years ago and he had warned her never to try it again.
It had been twelve good years and she had not been able to hug her son or even touch any part of his body. He always made sure to stand at least one mile radius away from her when they spoke.
“Thank you, mother.” He replied with no hint of emotion on his face. He didn’t look like someone who was going to smile any time soon.
“Jamal, I was informed by Danielle that Adele sent you divorce papers.” His mother announced. Jamal, who had turned around and was about to leave, stopped in his tracks and turned back to look at his mother with an eternal frown plastered on his face.
The entire family was aware of the fact that Adele had served him divorce papers all thanks to Danielle.
“Of course she did.” He mumbled to himself as he let out a heavy sigh.
“Did you say something?”
“No, mother.” He denied and looked at her intensely.
“So, did you sign them?” She asked eagerly.
“And why would I do that?” Jamal asked with raised brows.
“Because she asked for it. She wants you to set her free, she is no longer interested in you, why don’t you just let her go?” Aliya asked agitatedly, but Jamal did not respond because he knew if he did, he was going to say something very bad to her.
“Jamal, I am your mother and I love you more than anyone else ever will. I will never mislead you, so listen to me when I tell you that Adele is not the woman for you. Sign those divorce papers, send her out of this family once and for all and marry Danielle. I promise you that’s the best decision you will ever make in your life.” She stated confidently and Jamal looked down at her like she had lost her mind.
He didn’t want to tell her about the divorce at first because he had known all along what nonsense she was going to vomit to him.
“Mother.” He called quietly.
“Yes, Jamal.”
“Apart from the fact that Danielle is an international model and the daughter of a wealthy business man, what else do you know about her?”
“Well, I know she is a sweet and we’ll mannered girl…”
“A sweet and well mannered girl?” Jamal cut her off by repeating her words in an annoyed tone. “Seriously mother, you honestly think Danielle is sweet and well mannered?”
“As matter of fact, yes, I do. She’s always smiling when she comes around and she interacts with everyone. She’s like a shining bulb that illuminates the entire room when she walks in, unlike that soon to be ex-wife of yours. She never smiles when she’s around us and always isolates herself from us like she’s some special queen that needs to be far away from common people.” She explained thoughtlessly.
Jamal wanted to tell her that Adele was a queen and that she needed to stay away from people like them because they were commoners like she had rightly said.
He wanted to tell that she never smiled nor interacted with them because they despised her and only ever taunted her when she was around.
He wanted to let her know that they were the cause of all his marital problems, but he decided to swallow his words.
He knew how dramatic his mother could be. If he let one word out, she was going to fall on the ground and wail in agony like someone who had lost her entire family in a plane crash.
He chose to spare himself the one man display of agony she was going to put up if he said all those things to her.
“Mother.” He called with his head bowed down.
He was smiling because of the things he knew about Danielle which no one knew about. Things that if brought to the light, no one in that household would bear to look at Danielle not to talk of smiling at her.
“Yes, Jamal.” Aliya responded as she took a stylish pose, both arms crossed over her breasts. She was ready to hear whatever condemnation he had to dish out about Danielle and support her all the way.
“There are things you don’t know about Danielle. There are things she has done and the day you’ll find out will be the last day you’d never want to set your eyes on her or even hear her name being called beside you. The day you’ll find out what I know about Danielle, you will despise her for the rest of your life.” And with that, he turned around and headed for the staircase.
Aliya stood on her spot, totally confused and dumbfounded. She had not the least idea what Jamal had just talked about.
The bewildered look on her face made Jamal smile from molar to molar as he made his way to his bedroom. She praised Danielle too much and he was beginning to get fed up. However, he did not want his mother to learn the truth about Danielle from him. He wanted her to find out for herself, so she’d hate her as she should.
When he got to his room door, he stood by it and exhaled heavily. For a while now, he had been coming home to a bedroom void of Adele and he hated it. He was used to coming home to her, but ever since she left, things had been different.
What he did was, he made sure to spray Adele’s perfume around the bedroom every morning so as to keep her smell in it. Her clothes, shoes, makeup stand and everything she owned were still intact and he had no intentions of ever moving them, because he was confident that he was going to bring her back home.
He opened his room door and walked into the bedroom, gently closing it behind him. When he turned around and looked at the bed, all the nerves on his body stood erect when he spotted Danielle lying on his bed with just a bra and lingerie on. She was almost naked.
“Danielle get away from my bed!” He scolded as he rushed over to bed and forcefully pulled her off of him by the arms and pushed her far away.
That was his matrimonial bed and he respected it very much. He wasn’t going to let a tramp defy it.
“Jamal! What are you doing?” Danielle Cried as she struggled to gain her stability.
Jamal’s reaction shocked her. She did not expect him to be so hard on her.
“What are you doing in my bedroom and on my matrimonial bed looking like a hooker?” He asked in a furious tone.
“I don’t look like a hooker!” Danielle firmly defended.
“Well you sure do! Look at what you have on.”
“I only wore this to entice you.”
“That’s exactly what hookers do. They dress up half naked to entice men they have no relationship with. God Danielle! What is wrong with you?” Jamal scolded in disbelief .
He did not want to accept that that was how desperate she was for him.
“My love for you is what’s wrong with me.” She cried as she took a few steps closer to him, but Jamal stepped back to maintain the safe distance between them. “God Jamal we have known each other since we were kids, we grew up together and I grew to love you. I started having these little fantasies about us the moment I hit puberty and I did all I could to make you notice me, but nothing worked. You don’t know Adele at all, yet you chose to make her your wife even after knowing how much I love you. Jamal, what am I supposed to do to make you love me back?” Danielle cried bitterly.
Jamal watched in amusement as tears spilled down her face, smudging her makeup. Her mascara spread all over her eyes and made her look like a zombie.
“Danielle.” He finally called. “I remember making it clear to you a few years ago that nothing was very going to happen between us. There was a time when I had great respect for you Danielle. I loved and respected you the same way I did my younger sister, Shannelle, especially as you were her friend. I did my best to protect you as well, but after finding out that you had something to do with my father, I lost all of that respect and there’s no way I can let go of that and look at you differently. Who knows how many older men you have gotten involved with?’
“There’s no other.” Danielle lamented. “Jamal I told you I did that because of you. I suspected he had something against you so I had to do what I did to get the information out of him and when I did, I reported it to you immediately. I did it for you!”
“I didn’t ask you to do that, did I? I would never ask you to do such a despicable thing for me and you know that. And by the way, you claim you did it for me, but that’s a lie, you did it for yourself. You did it because you thought I will feel indebted to you when I find out and then I will make up my mind to marry you, but that backfired, didn’t it? Coupled with the fact I dislike you for a lot of other reasons, I cannot look at a girl who has had something to do with my father. Not now, not ever.” Jamal bitterly revealed. Danielle furiously wiped her tears away and gave him a hard gakre.
“If that’s the case then I’m never going to give you what you need to set yourself free from your father’s trap. You will spend the rest of your life working for him like the slave you are.”
“I’d rather spend the rest of my life working in my father’s conglomerate like a slave than marry a cheap whore like you. Get the hell out of my bedroom before I shove you out myself!” He threatened and Danielle saw that he was damn serious.
She hastily picked up her clothes and barged out of the bedroom, sobbing violently.
Jamal ruffled his hair with his fingers out of frustration and let out a loud exasperated groan.
Danielle’s actions were driving him nuts.
Just then, his room door opened and his mother barged in, fuming in anger.
“Jamal! How dare you…” she began scolding but Jamal did not let her finish her statement. He quickly held her by her right arm and dragged her all the way to the door where he shoved her out his bedroom and banged the door hard, making sure to lock it up with the key.
It was a good thing the room had soundproof walls so he wouldn’t hear his mother’s agonising wails outside.
He was sick and tired of all of them.