CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN
“Cole!” Adele called when she spotted Cole walking into their office at the conglomerate. When Cole heard her call, he instantly halted on his tracks and turned to face her. A few weeks ago, he would have walked over to her and given her a casual hug and even pecked her cheeks, but after finding out that she was the wife of Jamal King Dominick, his boss, he could even dare to get too close to her.
“Mrs. King.” He called with a smile and Adele frowned in disappointment as she approached him.
“I thought we already had this talk, Cole. Please, don’t address me as Mrs King, it makes me feel very old.” Adele lamented and Cole chuckled, shaking his head.
“You don’t get it, do you? If your husband hears me calling you by your first name, he’s going to have me fired. I love my job.”
“You honestly think Jamal is that petty, don’t you?” Adele asked with a serious look.
“I did not hear you just address my big boss by his first name. I swear I did not hear that.” Cole declared as he dramatically closed his ears with both hands and rushed into the office. Adele chuckled lightly and followed him.
The moment she stepped into the office, everyone adjusted themselves on their various seats.
No matter how much Adele had tried to persuade them to act normal in her presence, they couldn’t bring themselves to do that. Adele, who was already used to their sudden adjustments, simply sighed and turned to look at Cole.
“We are not done talking.” She told him and he pouted his lips. “I forbid you from calling me Mrs King. I mean it, Cole.”
“Fine! understood. I will try my best not to call you that.”
“Now, that’s better.” She walked over to her cubicle and sat on her chair.
“Good morning.” Kelly greeted as she settled down and she flashed her a warm smile.
“Good morning, Kelly.” She greets back.
“You know, there’s something that has been haunting me for a while now.” Cole told her and everyone turned to look at him. Even Adele was surprised that he was trying to have a conversation with her.
She was thrilled.
“They say is a problem shared is half solved. Shoot!” Adele urged and Cole took a more comfortable pose on his chair as he gave her a critical look.
“How come you were able to hide this so well for so long? I swear I did not suspect a thing!” There was flustered look on his face which caused Adele to giggle.
“Well, I didn’t want it to be obvious, so I did my best to hide it. I didn’t want people knowing I was married to the big boss.”
“So, what changed? Why did you finally decide to reveal yourself?” Asked Lois.
“It was not my decision, Jamal wanted it to be so and also, rumours were beginning to spread and we didn’t want people coming up with obscene stories that’s why we decided to make the announcement ourselves.” She explained carefully and almost everyone was shaking their heads as they digested the revelation.
“You know, I’m curious about a lot of things. When did you two meet and how? Adele, you are a gorgeous lady, very intelligent too and you definitely turn heads wherever you go, but this is Mr. Jamal king we are talking about here, how did you get his attention? How did you make him fall in love with you?” Megan asked and Adele chuckled.
“I didn’t have to make him fall in love with me because he was already in love with me.”
“Liar, liar pants on fire!” Lois blasted from the other end of the office.
“Don’t you think I’m too big to tell these kinds of lies?” Asked Adele and Lois stayed still. Adele let out a heavy sigh and looked up at them. She made up her mind to tell them a few details about her and Jamal’s relationship. “Jamal and I have known each other since we were kids.”
“I knew it! You are from a powerful family, don’t you?” Cole asked eagerly and Adele calmly shook his head.
“I was adopted by Jamals grandmother when I was five years old. I don’t know the circumstances that led to my adoption and I really don’t care, but I grew up in the Dominick family, even though abroad.”
“No way!”
Everyone was shocked.
“You grew up with the Dominicks. Wow! Just wow!” Adele smiled as she nodded her head.
“You all know how Jamal is. He’s cold, doesn’t socialise, mysterious and all what not. We were perfect strangers until about two years ago. You see, when I was in college, Jamal was in love with me, but he made no mention of it. He sabotaged my relationship with the only boyfriend I ever had and after college, he made me come back home. One thing led to the other and we got married. So yeah, almighty Jamal king Dominick fell in love with an ordinary girl, not with a billionaire heiress. Irony of life.”
Everyone was speechless after hearing that story, if only they knew the most important part had been left out.
Adele couldn’t dare to explain anything in detail to them because that would cause a lot of commotion and problems that she was not ready to handle.
“You are a lucky girl Adele. You must have done something really good in your previous life to have the odds favour you this much. You are the wife of the most powerful man in this country. That’s huge. I have no idea what the hell you are doing in this office. You should be out there doing other things.”
“Like shopping and cruising? Living my best life?” She asked with a smile and everyone nodded.
“Yeah, that!”
“I have plans to do that. Now, that’s enough gossip, let’s all get to work.” She turned her chair into her cubicle and the others did the same. Kelly wheeled her chairs over to her side as usual.
“You are the most humble girl on this planet earth and I admire you a lot. You will definitely go places.” Kelly told Adele and she couldn’t help but blush.
“Awn… thank you very much. She cooed and the girl nodded. ” I like you Kelly. You’ve been wonderful to me ever since I got here. I really don’t have any friends and it gets lonely at times. If you don’t mind, you could make me your friend. We could spend time together, go on shopping sprees and those cruises you talked about.”
Kelly laughed hard and as she leaned on her chair and threw her head behind. She could not believe Adele was asking her to be her friend.
“Are you seriously asking me to be your friend?”
“The one and only. I promise not to cheat on you.” Adele added and Kelly laughed even harder. The others were confused as they had no idea what was going on.
“On what condition.”
“Which is?”
“You’ll find me a good man to marry.”
“My husband has connections. Making that happen will be as easy as ABC, do I have a friend?”
“Yes, you do, Mrs King.” She said and wheeled her seat back to her cubicle and Adel chuckled as she shook her head.
Things were actually moving very smoothly for her.”