Chapter 50
Enzo:
“Hi there,” she said.
She looked so beautiful I felt my heart quicken as she stood in front of me. I let her into the room and called for some drinks. I could hardly take my eyes from her. After we’ve had a few drinks, she moved closer to me and I put my hand around her shoulder.
“I’m glad you came into my life, Enzo,” she said. “I should thank you.”
“No, it’s me that should be thanking you, Nadine,” I said. “This is pure joy that I feel, pure ecstasy.”
“So you’ve never been in love before?” She asked.
I sighed. My love life was a long, sad story. I had fallen in love with a girl while I was in college, but she was a serial cheater and she smashed my heart into smithereens. I stayed away from any relationship until I finished college, still smarting from the hurt of the first one. When I finished college, I focused on establishing myself in the business world, but after then, I got involved with another lady whom I fell deeply in love with. I proposed to her one night, wanting to seal our love with a ring, but she said no and that was the end of that relationship. Since then, I had mostly avoided anything serious with any woman.
“I have,” I said. “But all of them ended sadly, you know. Almost as if I’m destined to go unloved throughout my life.”
There was a brief silence.
“I don’t think that’s true, Enzo,” she said. “I don’t think any one of us is destined to go unloved in this world. But what do I know?”
As she spoke, I turned to look at her. She was so beautiful. Instantly, I felt a pang of jealousy go through me. He always got the most beautiful women, despite how impudent and arrogant he always was. But at least I had Nadine now.NôvelDrama.Org (C) content.
“I love you so much, Nadine,” I said softly to her.
“And I love you even more,” she said.
Our faces edge towards each other and our lips touch. Our kiss was so passionate, so full of the intensity of two people who had been starved of love and affection. In that single moment, I felt more alive than I’d ever felt in my life. When we pulled apart from each other, she cupped my face in her hands.
“I wish it was you I’d met and not Enzo,” she said.
I nodded and kissed her again.
Clayton:
Work took its toll on me. The only respite I got was from Natasha whenever I returned home. I still was not speaking to Nadine. For all I knew, she was holed up in her room. One evening, shortly after I got back from work, I called on the butler to summon Nadine into my room.
“She’s not in her room, sir,” the butler said after he returned.
“What?” I asked. “Have you checked other parts of the house?”
“I don’t think she’s around, sir,” he said.
“Mmm,” I said. “You can go.”
“Ohh, what do you care about that lowlife, Clayton?” Natasha who was sprawled out on the bed said.
“I don’t care, actually,” I responded. “I’m just curious as to what she’s been up to. If she’s not around, it means she has found somewhere to go, something new to do, someone new to talk to. Because I know damn well she hasn’t gone to see her sister by this time; she usually does that by afternoon.”
“Ohh, well,” Natasha said tiredly.
I called on the butler and asked him to keep any eye on Nadine for me. I called on the drivers and asked them if they had driven her anywhere lately, and they responded by saying that apart from visits to the clinic they never took her anywhere. That was when I knew something was up. Nadine was going out without the drivers.
Evening of the next day, she was out again. I asked the butler what he knew.
“I’m not so sure, sir,” he said. “Perhaps she has gone out for some drinks with a friend.”
“Nadine has no friends,” I said. And I knew that to be right. She was a reticent person by nature, so whoever she was going out to meet, or whatever she was going out to do was important.
“Don’t worry, I’ll find out by myself,” I said dismissing him.
Nadine:
We would have had sex that night, Enzo and I, but I fought well not to. Even though I wanted to, I still had the constraints of a married woman. It pissed me off that Clayton could dally with other women while still legally married to me, even bring one of them to live with him, and I couldn’t because of guilt. Luckily, for me, Enzo did not push. He seemed just content with being around me, and the kiss was almost like a gift to me. When I returned home that night, I was met with a surprise. Clayton was sitting on the couch in his pajamas.
“And where are you coming from?” He asked.
“What do you mean?” I asked. “I just went to have a few drinks.”
“Alone, hunh?” He said with a calmness that terrified him. “Go upstairs to your room, Nadine. You seem to have forgotten that you’re a married woman.”
I climbed the steps still afraid. Clayton had a fickle personality and could do anything. I went to my room and got changed. Then I heard the door squeak open.
“I know you’ve been out to see my brother, Nadine,” he said. “I wonder what the fuck is going on between the both of you. I hope it’s not what I think.”
“It’s nothing,” I said, my heart pounding.
“I think I need to remind you that you’re still my wife,” he said.
He dropped his trousers and walked towards me. He shoved me onto the bed, and began to rip my clothes from my body.
“Don’t do this, please,” I said.
“Shut the fuck up,” he barked.