My Dream Marriage

Neera

I feel my hands breaking apart from whatever I was holding then I open my eyes. The environment screams of a hospital ward because of its white walls and the smell of disinfectant. When did I get here? Who brought me here? Charles was supposed to bring me food and I was feeling thirsty so I… No way, I fainted! But why am good here? I sit upright and someone holds me in place as for a moment I forget that I am heavy.

“Careful, you might fall,” a voice says. It sounds familiar. “Aniston? What are you doing here?”

“I brought you to the hospital.” How did he do that? I was in a basement of a building. “How are you doing now?” He asks. “Better.” I say but my stomach chooses this as the perfect time to grumble. “I can hear that.”ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

“Thank you for bringing me to the hospital but I need to leave now.” I say quickly, making to get off the bed but he stops me. “I can take you,” he offers. “No.” Something bothers me. “How come you are the one who brought me here?”

“I found you in the basement of my building.” What? “That is your company? You are Charles’ boss?” This is shocking. “Yes, he is one of my front office security guys. Were you visiting him?” Now this is hard. “Something like that.” I have no clear answer to that. “You are his relative,” he says more of a statement than a question. “No…a friend.” I say. “You came visiting,” he notes and I start feeling guilty. I feel like he can see through my little lies. Maybe I should get my luggage and leave there as soon as I leave the hospital. I shouldn’t let Charles get into trouble.

“Excuse me miss…Mrs, I might have gotten information that you have your luggage in the company and that is against the rules.” Michael says and Aniston looks at him and then narrows his eyes at me. “You know, I have strict rules for visiting hours for my workers. Charles might have forgotten them,” he says and I can literally see Charles’ star diminishing.

“I am so sorry about that. I am also sorry on Charles’ part. I didn’t know about the visiting times and I also didn’t know that it was your company,” I say apologetically. “How come? I thought you knew because you have been there and the name is also boldly written on the building.” Very challenging. “I came through the back exit,” I say not sure if it is an entrance or an exit.

“Back exit? Neera, you are confusing me, are you sure you are fine?” He asks. I also feel like I should tell him the truth because I don’t have any more lies to cover up my story. “I am fine.”I say. “Then tell me,” he sounds like he knows I am lying. I have never seen this side of him. It is as if he can read minds and this is one good trait of a business man. Aniston has been good to me and the one thing I shouldn’t be doing is lie to him. He might even find out later about that.

“I was going somewhere but with my condition, I got tired at some point so I decided to take a rest. I din’t know where I was at that time since my mind was too tired and I had lost count of time.” I say. “Michael, I need you to get Neera some food.” Aniston says and I think he might be dismissing him to give us some privacy. “On it, sir,” he says leaving the room.

“Were you walking?” He asks. “Yes,” I answer. “Tell me everything because after this, Charles is the next one.” He wants the truth from me.

“I was sleeping when Charles woke me up, telling me that I was at a private backyard of a company. He isn’t my friend, well except until few hours ago. I wasn’t going anywhere, I was just walking aimlessly then find somewhere to spend the night and know my fate tomorrow. I told him about that and he offered to let me stay at the company’s basement for the night then leave tomorrow. That is how I ended up in your company and to say the truth, I didn’t know I was at your company until now that you told me.”

“You weren’t going anywhere? Had you forgotten who you were?” He is referring to me being Edward’s wife. I even thank God that I have never had to fight with the paparazzi and for the first time, I am happy that Edward never made me public so not very many people in this city knows me. I can walk anywhere without anyone stopping by to take a picture of me or ask me any question.

“I know but what could I have done? I needed to go somewhere.” I say. “How can you say that and according to Michael, you had some luggage with you. How can you walk around heavy with luggage in your condition? Couldn’t you have used a taxi or better still, your family is resourceful.” I know he must be wondering why I can’t use a car given the status of my family or how can I be broke with all the money the Lawanson family has?

“You might not believe it but I am broke as a church mouse,” I shrug. “You must be kidding me,” he says, widening his eyes. “Oh, you are serious.”

“I quit my job a long time ago so yeah, I couldn’t afford a taxi.”

“What about your husband?” Oh no, there we go. I raise my left hand and show him my fingers and his face changes to one of, ‘I thought so.’ “He divorced you? Why?” He asks sitting down on the bed.

“He accused me of cheating on him. He assumes that the baby is not his.” I answer and he raises one of his eyebrows. “Cheating? One look at you and anyone can tell which kind of a person you are,” he says making me chuckle. “One look? Looks can be deceiving you know.”

“Psychology is one of the areas I studied some time ago and I can tell you what kind of a person you are. Even though I have spent little time with you, I know you are not capable of being unfaithful.”

“I have never cheated on him. I even quit working when he asked me to. I even stopped going out just to focus on taking the responsibility of the house. I buried my dreams and even stopped dreaming because I thought I had found my destiny. I did everything to make him happy but he didn’t see that. What he did was to bring another woman in the house and make him his wife, forgetting me like I never existed. He didn’t hesitate to throw me out of the house the moment he got the slightest chance.” A single tear rolls down my cheek and I wipe it away with the back of my hand.

“I loved him and always put his and the family’s priorities first before mine. He never reciprocated. He never loved me at all and he had been cheating on me right from the beginning of our marriage.” Tears are now rolling nonstop and I let them fall freely. I can wipe them later when I am done with crying.

“Why don’t you leave when you knew that he was cheating on you?” He asks. “I thought he would change. I didn’t know he would go ahead and get another woman to our bedroom and disown me as his wife. I thought I could stay for my child but his new wife accused me of wanting to kill her unborn child and that’s how the whole family turned against me. Edward called his lawyers and made me sign the divorce and got nothing in return.”

“What? That is not how it works. You clearly have his child.” He says. “As I told you earlier, he doesn’t think that it is his child. He threatened to sue me for attempted murder if I created drama so I had no choice but to leave.” He pulls out a handkerchief from his shirt pocket and gives it to me. “I am so sorry Neera, I know of evil people and their deeds but I didn’t know that they exercised their cruelty on innocent souls.” He says and his face changes to a distant one. “I only did what our families wanted. I married him from an agreement that came about from the people I have never even met or seen before. I did what I thought was good for both our families.”

“You said that you didn’t have anywhere to go. Couldn’t you have gone back to your parents house?” He asks. “Oh that, he sold the house and when I asked him to at least give me the money that he made from the purchase, he made himself clear that it was a repayment for all that his family had done for me. I couldn’t bear to cause drama when Valen had made them believe that I wanted to kill her unborn baby and I could spend my time behind bars. I can’t let my child grow up in a foster home when I am capable. I did what I thought was right. I don’t know what I did to deserve such kind of treatment. I,” I choke on my words and Aniston moves near me and wipes my tears with his thumbs seeing that his handkerchief isn’t in use.

“Neera, you haven’t done anything. You did what any responsible daughter would do.” He says, wiping my ungrateful tears that fall continuously on my face even when he does his best in wiping them. “I thought he would love me, I thought he would love us. When my baby came along, I thought he would view me differently but it only got worse,” I sob and he makes me lean on his hard and lean chest. I knock on my head silently, how can I be thinking about that right now? “It’s okay. It’s going to be fine, don’t cry. It’s not good for the baby.” The moment he says that I wipe my tears away using his handkerchief and turn in his arms to face him. “I shouldn’t cry right?” He nods. “I won’t do that for an ungrateful human being. It could even be dangerous for my child and I would do anything for its wellbeing.”

Enough of the crying.”How did you know that I was in that room?” I ask him because I don’t know. “I was leaving and before I could get into my car, I heard a commotion and I had to go take a look. Guess who I saw lying on the ground?” He asks.

“Me?” I squeak.

“I had to do the honorable thing of taking you to the hospital. I thought you were Charles’ friend or relative.” Taking about Charles, “I may need a favour from you.”

“I hope it is worth it.”

“Yes, it’s from a noble cause. Can you spare Charles please? He was only planning on helping me. I can pay for his sins like maybe, work for you?” I am not sure he would accept my request. “Work for me? Which kind of work do you think is vacant in my company?” I scratch my head to be able to find a suitable answer for that. A cashier or a sales person? That is the only field that I have experience in. Although I am a literature graduate, I don’t know if I can be hired with the little to no experience that I have.

“You can check which department is lacking manpower then I can make myself useful.” I answer. I don’t even know the protocol they use at his company to hire somebody.

“No, you tell me what you want or your area of study then I can check then we know the way forward,” he says, making it difficult for me. I should just opt for unskilled roles because there could be a vacancy for a challenging role that is totally different from my area of expertise. What do I do? Can I just go for his idea or? Dear Lord, please help me.