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CHAPTER EIGHTY-EIGHT.
After Henry was dragged out of the room, Jamal and Adele were left inside along with the guards and with the silence.
The air was so heavy and tight between her and Jamal
that the guards who stood like statues all around the place did not dare utter a word. In fact they were long
pass the duration they were allowed to stay inside that
room, but no one dared to say a thing.
As for Adele, she was just sitting calmly on her chair,
thinking about how she should react to what she had just heard.
Not only had she found out that her main rival was the brain behind all that charade, but also that her current husband was probably the reason behind her separation from her previous boyfriend.
She calmly turned to Jamal who was still standing behind her and she just sighed when she noticed he was already looking at her with a pale face.
She immediately decided not to overreact. Jamal man was already on the verge of forgetting how to breathe.
Jamal was very much into his wife, namely Adele, and she had always been his weakest point. She didn’t know how much he loved her, but she was sure his love was very deep. So deep that the idea of her getting mad at him because of what she had just heard must have been very tormenting to him and making his face turn even paler with every passing moment.
Since she didn’t want her husband to have a stress
induced heart attack in front of her eyes, she decided to
be merciful to him.
“Are the words I’ve just heard, correct? Did you toy with Henry in any way when we were together?” She finally
asked the question he wanted to hear and he nodded.
“Were you in any way the reason why we separated?” She questioned yet again and Jamal took a deep breath as he inspected their surroundings.
“Adele, this isn’t the right place to discuss this matter.” He pointed out and she nodded slowly. She calmly stood up from her chair and looked at him.
“Let’s get out of here, then.”
She immediately started walking out of the room the moment she said those words. There was no particular
reason why she was walking rather fast out of that place.
Her feet just took the lead and they idly decided to be
energetic and walk faster, but her husband who was clearly in a very emotional state interpreted her feet
sudden enthusiasm as her walking away from him and
leaving him behind.
“Adele!” He called and she turned to look at him again, he was far worse on the scale of being pale. She was actually starting to feel worried about him, but before she could even asked if he was doing okay, he quickly walked the small distance that separated them and stood by her side
“Stay by my side. Don’t walk alone.” She instructed and immediately held her hand, entwining his fingers with hers and led the way.
“Jamal.” Adele called and stopped walking.
He turned to look at her with anxious eyes.
She knew the man enough to tell the difference in his gaze and as for the reason why she had to go to such
extremes so as to examine his gaze to decode his feelings, it was of course attributed to his permanent
cold expressionless face. She wanted to know what was behind his cold mask somehow and only his eyes could unveil that.
While looking at his eyes, she noticed that he couldn’t
look at hers properly, he seemed to be avoiding her eyes
So yes, it was clear, her husband wasn’t afraid of any
external threat to them, he was simply afraid of “her”, his
wife.
“Let’s go.” She said firmly and bossily.
He nodded and finally let go of my hand, leading us
to the car.
**********************************************************
“Jamal.” Adele called once they were in their bedroom at the mansion. “I already know you’re not the kindest person out there so my bottom line for you is very low.
If you truly separated Henry and I at the time then as long as you didn’t threaten to kill someone, I’m willing to consider whatever reason you had whatever that did. I know you’re too smart to reason…”
“I didn’t separate you both for the purpose of taking
you from him if that’s what you think was my reason.
He immediately interrupted her. He looked her pensively and continued;
” Although I loved you dearly, I still had my pride to keep too, Adele..”
She was well aware of how proud Jamal could be. He was so proud that for one whole year, he never tried to contact her simply because in a fit of despair, she had kicked him out of my life.
His pride was as high as Mount Everest!
“Then why did you toy him? More importantly, what exactly did you do to him?”
“The basics, of course. I gave him money, and he accepted it.”
Before Adele even had the time to feel dejected he turned to look at her attentively and continued; ” Yes, I offered him money. I was too generous and offered a lot, and I told him he could take all the money if he simply left you. That was a test for the man you cherished, Adele. I wanted to see how much he cherished you back. If he chose to stay with you and refused the money then I wouldn’t have gotten in your way, but since he chose the money, I had to protect you from a fake man at least.”
“And he chose the money.” Adele whispered with a tight
throat.
That money, he probably used it to establish his magazine.
“Back then, I made sure to keep your relationship with
him hidden from my father. If father knew about Henry’s
existence, he would have offered him money too, but
definitely not to simply separate him from you, Adele. Father who knew how valuable you were to me would
have used you in every possible way with the assistance of the man you loved the most. Henry simply took my money, wouldn’t he easily take anyone else’s? And wouldn’t he easily fool you for the sake of money? I had
to step up first, it was inevitable.” He explained and Adele spent a decent amount of time trying to accept the words she just heard from Jamal.
It never crossed my mind that Henry, who spent long months ruining their relationship bit by bit and crushing her love for him, was actually persuaded by money behind the curtains.
She regretted the respect she had for him.
She looked up at Jamal again with a sad look on her face. She was hurt, but she made up her mind not to cry because Henry was no longer worth her tears.
“Jamal, why didn’t you tell me about this earlier? Why did you have to keep this for so long? Were you even ever going to tell me?”
“No, I wasn’t.” He firmly denied it. “Because I didn’t see the need to. I had gotten the scumbag out of your life, that was all that mattered.” He calmly explained and Adele sat on the bed.
“Now that we are talking about all of this, now that I just found out what you did, I feel like you have done a lot of other things to influence our union, please Jamal, if there’s anything else I need to know, please just tell me right now.” Adele pleaded and Jamal joined her on the bed.
“Adele.” He held her hands and kissed them. Everything I did, I did out of so much love for you. I swear.”
“Please tell me already.”
“The Samsung galaxy that was sent to you when you just got back home from the UK, I was the one who bought it and delivered it to you. You used to tell grandma how much you loved the phone, so I bought it for you and left you an anonymous note about the screen.” He narrated and Adele chuckled in tears when she remembered what the note had read.
It was a warning for her not to break the screen like she did her previous phones.
“Oh Jamal…” she cried in tears.
“I was the one who asked Grandma to insist that you come back home after college. You wanted to stay over there, but I wanted you back home, but given the fact that we were nothing short of strangers back then, I had to beg her to help me convince to come back.” He further deciphered and Adele was shocked.
“What?” She asked, aghast.
“Yes, I did that. I was the one who found you the job at the publishing company you first worked at.”
“No! This is not happening.” She cried bitterly as it struck her that Jamal had been dictating what would happen in her life for a very long time.
“And lastly, I was the one who asked Grandma to propose and arrange marriage between the two of us.”
Adele froze upon hearing those words, her face glued on Jamal as tears streamed down her cheeks. Her heart was throbbing so hard in her chest and her head was spinning like a rollercoaster. She could believe what her ears were hearing.
“Jamal.” She called breathlessly. Jamal’s face went pale as he looked at her.
His heart was racing as he prepared himself to hear what she was to say.
“Adele.” He called almost inaudibly.
“I have just one question to ask and I want a sincere answer.”
“I’m all ears.”
Adele swallowed hard and wiped her tears again before looking at him.
“For how long have you been in love with me?” She asked curiously, with raised brows.
“Nine years.” He replied curtly and Adele couldn’t take it anymore. She rose to her feet and left the bedroom.
Nine years!
They started getting acquainted with each other two years ago, after the meeting grandma had held, announcing their marriage. That meant that Jamal had been loving her in secret for seven good years.
That was sick!