Rosemary33:
Chapter 31
The gradual hush that descended in the moderate-sized exquisite decorated hall was loud enough to announce her arrival. Morgan swivelled with the guests and watched her took in the howling, squeals, waves and camera clicks. His first thought was how much she’d change these past months. Growth was the perfect word actually; she’d smoothly slid into the celebrity lifestyle. Smiling and posing for the camera- flipping her hair! She did flip her hair and flashed him the most seductive smile he had ever seen.

“She is not human!” He heard someone muttered beside him

His heart swelled as he leered at her, “Excuse me gents” he straightened his slim-fitted black long-sleeved senator suit, adjusted his black with white embroidered cap and walked towards her. His gaze grazed through her perfect curves which were accentuated by her crimson red silk fishtail gown.

“You didn’t tell me you are going ahead with this” she whispered as he brushed his lips on her cheek. The gleam in her eyes eased his nerves- she wasn’t mad at him.

“I wanted to surprise you” he didn’t know if it worked. The event planner promised to make this as discreet to her as possible- it wasn’t difficult to cook up a story to get her all dressed up and pulled her to the venue.

“You didn’t do a good job keeping it secret anyways”

“Ouch! That hurts” his hand flew to his heart and his face crunched
“am I terrible?”

“In lying and keeping secrets. You are not good”

He’d forgotten it wasn’t a secret love getaway meant for just the two of them. “Forgive me, beautiful one. For once, I want to take pride in flaunting you” his fingers trailed the silver glittering stones on the neckline of her gown, down to the silhouette between her bust.
Someone cleared his throat behind him “Sir, the guests are waiting”
A roar of laughter erupted in the crowd and they joined in.

“Come on girl, let’s go meet our guests” he took her arm and lead her into the exclusively reserved event centre. “You look like a doll, the most beautiful one” he whispered to her ears and made her laugh

“And you look like you are about to steal a thousand hearts away, should I be worried?”

“Na…this old heart belongs to you forever my love”

He had never been more proud of introducing anyone like he was at the moment. He could see the eyes of most of the men ogling at her as they moved deeper, even the women could not stop staring.

When he finally slid the pear-cut shaped diamond ring on her middle finger and watched her pupil dilated and her cheeks turned rose pink, his heart swelled, he took her in his arms and sealed her soft warm lips with his amidst cheers and thunderous claps. “I am madly, irrevocably in love with you, fine face.”

“I love you deeply Nkem…from that day you came back looking for me when I told you not to. I was ashamed to say it all these times”

She was taken away from her by friends and family, while his colleagues chose that odd place to talk business! He swiped a glass of Champaign off the tray being carried around by one of the bartenders, his head darted in search of her while he took his seat among the men. He massaged his nape, took a sip from his wine, looked over his shoulder, his gaze caught hers. Her lips pursed slightly as she narrowed her gaze, looking through him- seeing the hunger and the desire that had gripped him. He wished he could whisk her away from here, he wanted nothing more than the pleasure of skimming that gown off her body and making slow sweet love to her.

The corner of her eyes wrinkled as she laughed to whatever joke one of the women was telling. Yet, her eyes didn’t leave his face. He wet his lips, “Gentlemen, this is not the right place to talk business now, it’s my engagement night!”

*
Madonna stood out of view as she watched her. The girl was far too beautiful for her own good. A kind of beauty that should be kept hidden, especially in Lagos where there are lots of predators. This wasn’t her kind of life, she saw the way those women hovers around her, given the chance- they would tear her up and have a piece of her flesh, and the men? One thing stopped them from approaching her, that is if some of them hadn’t, Morgan. Who would want to be on his wrong book?

She opened her purse, got a pack of cigarette, fiddle with it for a while and place it back, she seriously needed to smoke, she thought of stepping out to do it, but she didn’t want to lose sight of her prey. She swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat, shifted her buttocks on the chair, her legs dangled.

She tore her gaze away from the doll face lady and searched for Morgan, and wasn’t disappointed seeing him amidst business colleagues. She should have gone to say hi, but she wouldn’t want to be seen- not by Morgan. He didn’t bother inviting her to the party and that was perfect, the alibi she needed.

She heaved a sigh, swivelled her chair to face the bar, “A glass of vodka…just vodka” She grabbed a celebrity magazine she saw on the granite counter and flipped. When her drink came, she gulped everything down. Glanced at the glowing bride to be one more time, eased herself off the chair and made her way out of the hall, to the arms of the moonless night that welcomed her.

*
Nwamaka, unfolded the piece of newspaper and stared hard at the photo, then to the gigantic building before her. It must be here, she thought. She squinted, tilted her head backwards and gazed at the glistering engraved words on top of the multiple story building.

“Madam, it is the hotel now, there is no other hotel with that name.”
It was the place alright. She breathed out her relief, they had been on this merry go round for like ‘God knows how many hours’ this city was meant for mad people, no single sane person would want to stay here. Why does every rich man want to reside here?

She scrambled for money inside her bag, brought out a single one thousand naira note and handed it to the taxi driver who gave her an evil eye, muttered something and drove off.

One problem solved. Two actually, how to get into Lagos was the first problem. The next challenge was how to get inside and where to find Akwaugo. What lie would she tell? She inhaled deeply and blew out the air from her mouth, shoved the piece of paper inside her bag and made towards the gate.

“Hey. Hello. Excuse me, madam”

She was already inside, no going back. So she summoned the best smile she could, and cast her gaze on one of the security guards.
“Hi. I am here for the party” the smile never left her face. With a black gown she estimated to worth between twenty to twenty-five thousand naira, a black pump shoes that were hurting her feet, and a multi-coloured handbag, she looked the best she could and that was something.

“But Mr Morgan didn’t tell us another guest is arriving”

“Come one, I was running late!” she mimicked the classy walk she’d seen and had even used in Port Harcourt. The thrusting and rolling of her hips. She wasn’t nervous, was she? She felt wetness around her armpit, beads of sweat trickling down from there to her arms. “See, I am a relative of the bride! She is expecting me!”

“Your Name?”

“Name? for what?” she didn’t rehearse for this.

“Your name, Lady”

“Oh! Nwamaka is my name…see we grew up together, Akwaugo knows I am here”

The security guard gave her a long hard stare, “I don’t believe…”

“She is relative. I know her” a feminine voice cut in behind them, she turned to see a dark tall elegant lady approach. “Don’t worry boys, it is a long way from her place to this venue. Sure you guys understand that?”

“Yes ma’am”

“Follow me, the event has already started”
*
Doesn’t fate has a good way of delivering solutions to your laps when you list expect it? She was dragging and puffing into the night, working out how to go about her plans. Getting closer to the lady would be a high risk to take- there was no lost love between them and she was convinced her billionaire fiancé must have warned her. Not that she couldn’t manoeuvre her way through. Then, the answer came.

Madonna gazed at the lady from the corner of her eyes as they walked towards the elevator, a small slender woman who moved quickly. She wouldn’t pass as a beautiful woman, that could have been the first thing the guards must have noticed- she definitely wasn’t related to the little miss beauty. But she had a well-defined cheekbone, a chin slightly pointed and her hips were quite a thing.

“You are not her sister” it was a statement

“I swear ma; we are” the lady shrilled

“Cut the drama. You look nothing like her”

She pressed the elevator button, floor twelve. She admired herself on the mirror by the wall inside the elevator, smoothened her fake hair. “So how did you come to know her?”

“Actually ma, we grew up together in the village…”

“Village?”

This was new. So little miss beauty was a village girl! And here she was thinking she was competing with a sophisticated beauty queen from abroad. She felt like throwing her head backwards and laughing out so loud. The cheaply dressed lady gaped at her.

“Yes. She was married to one man in the village…”

Her head spun three hundred and sixty degrees. Was she dreaming this or… “She is someone’s wife!”

“Ehm. But she left that man,”

Poor Morgan. To think the big wolf found himself in love with a cheat and a liar. She was right to call her a gold-digger. It would shatter him when he finds out this ugly side of the woman he was entangling himself with. She would tell him anyway.

They stepped out of the elevator into a long corridor. “Nobody will allow you into that party except you do what I say”
The eager lady nodded vehemently.

“I will give you something to deliver to her. And I will tell the guards you are her personal maid”

From the frown that creased the lady’s forehead, she knew this idea didn’t please her. But who cared? It was her only chance of executing this plan and get it done with. Thought with the new information she had at the moment, she would have wanted to abort the mission and watch what would play out once Morgan knows the real identity of the tramp he was with. However, she wouldn’t want this to turn into another Cinderella story.

please what other stories have you written on this forum

Please what other stories have you written on this forum