Lady K

I'm Cassandra, but you can call me K, or the lady in the bracket.

I know you're probably wondering who I am, and what role I play in this book. Well, let's just say I am the eyes and heart of this book, the narrator of this story, a fraction of everyone's imagination, and a tiny part of everyone's memories. I am no one in particular, but I exist in the head and hearts of all the characters in this book. I know basically everything that goes on in everyone's life. You can call me the motherboard of all their subconscious and memories. I see it all, I know it all.

Where were we?

So yeah, Jeremiah had this really horrible breakfast with his family, blah blah blah, blah blah blah, and it didn't turn out so good, I guess that's what 'horrible' means. Anyway, Christian announced he was leaving the mansion, and then walked out on everyone, even the chairman. Yes, Christian's guts, especially when his family was involved wasn't to be joked with.

Natalie ran after him. Not run literally, since she was only a few paces behind him. She followed him all the way up the stairs and into their bedroom, not bothering to close the door behind her. She could see the way Christian hurried to one of the windows with one of his hands on his hips and his other hand, folded into a fist in the air, right on the same level with his forehead. His breathing wasn't steady.

"Christian?" She called his name, causing him to turn around quickly, now placing both his hands on his hips. "What was the meaning of that?" She gestured to the door.

"Pack your things." He announced as he walked away from the window, and then to the sofa behind her. Natalie turned too. If they were going to have that conversation, then she knew she needed to look him eyeball to eyeball. "We are leaving this place tomorrow."

"Leaving this place?" She scoffed "what on earth does that even mean?"

Christian was too busy pouring himself a drink from the Hennessy bottle on the table, he didn't care to answer her question.

"Don't tell me this has something to do with the fact that Jeremy is back."

He raised his head to glare at her.

"Don't mention that name to me ever again-" he pointed at her. It was a warning.

Natalie held her breath for a short while, staring at him. She wasn't perturbed. She watched him as he turned his attention back to his Hennessy. "Christian, it's been eleven years." She folded her arms under her breasts. "Why won't you forgive him? Why won't you let what happened go?"

"Forgive him? I can never forgive him, not after what he did to me." He took a sip from his glass. "Not after what they took from me."

"What they took from you? He was eight years old. He was only a child. He was a victim, just as much as you were, he still is. He's not the one to blame for everything you went through."

"I was a child too!" He yelled at her, dropping his glass back on the table with a loud thud. He turned to face her, glaring at her. "Who are you to meddle in this anyway? Just because we are married, and you got to know all of this family's deepest secrets doesn't give you the right to poke your nose in my business."

She scoffed as he walked past her

"I'm just saying." She turned around too.

If there was something Natalie was good at, it was getting under his skin. I'm no expert, but...no wait, I'm an expert. I'm an expert and I'm telling you right now that this marriage was the worst combination to ever happen in the history on earth. You know what happens in movies where there's a rich guy that meets a really poor girl and falls in love with that poor girl, madly in love, but then again, he realizes that he can't get married to her, and build the life he wanted with her, because he had to get married to another lady from another rich family, a lady he absolutely had no feelings for, just to gain power and strengthen the family's name?

Yeah, that was the kind of relationship these two had except that in this case, Christian actually wanted this marriage. It was one of the reasons why he didn't fight against it. He wanted the power that came with it, even though it lost him the love of his life. He needed enough power to own Benoil one day, although getting married to Natalie wasn't one of his best decisions. He hated his marriage with her just as much as she did with him.

They literally never went along or slept on the same bed. The perfect couple to the public but enemies within. Not really enemies, they just never really fancied each other. Maybe it was because they were never in love to begin with, because it was just a marriage of Convenience. Something Natalie had to do to strengthen her father's support for his political campaign. Benoil was the strength her father needed to win the senatorial seat in the upcoming elections. Getting married to a man she had no sort of feelings for, a man that was too drawn to anger from his past, a man she thought she barely even knew wasn't one of her best decisions, but it was something she had to do. Something she was clearly beginning to regret. Just how stuck up was this man and how complicated did this family have to be anyway?

"It's enough you isolated him from his mother all those years, from his family. It's enough your guilt tripped your father into sending him away, sending the both of them away. Did you ever stop to think how hard it must have been for him? Why he lived the way he did? Why he has no friends? How he felt when your father never called him or visited him because he was trying to not hurt your feelings? Because he didn't want to lose you? How he felt when his so called family didn't show up for any of his birthdays or graduations? When he had no mother or family to care for him whenever he was sick? He is not allowed to even go as small as a kilometer close to the only family that actually cares about him. You've lived like a prince these past eleven years, while he had to be the one paying for everyone's crimes all by himself. Do you really not care about him at all? Do you not care about the fact that he has lived everyday of his life trying to make up for what had happened to you? He still is. You won't even look at him."

Christian raised his brows.

"Do you like him?"

Yikes!
He actually said something like that to her. You should have seen the look on Natalie's face as she stared at him, wondering what in the lord's name she had just heard.

"What do you mean?" Natalie was trying so hard not to get offended at first?

"I don't know." Christian shrugged his shoulders. "I know you used to have a thing for younger boys before we were married. Your boyfriend then was about- was it six years younger than you?"

Natalie scoffed. She rolled her eyes. She couldn't believe that the man in front of her was trying to be really petty at that point, and trying to insinuate something she wasn't even considering.

"And the one before him, and the one before him-"

"What's your point?" She glared at him, pouting. Now she was getting really irritated.

"I'm saying you're getting really transparent." Christopher continued. "I always wondered why you always sent him presents on his birthdays after we got married, and why you tried to visit him whenever you were in the states. Thank God he didn't feel the same way about you. At least that's one thing I can agree we have in common, good taste."

She scoffed and then shook her head, trying not to laugh.

"Good taste?" She placed a finger on the top of her upper lip as she raised her head to him. Christian's frown deepened.

"That's why you're always taking his side. Recommending schools like Nile, encouraging Dad to let him go to that school-"

"Yeah, you mean the school he's not going to because you asked him not to?"

Christian rolled his eyes.

"Oh please"

"You're not opaque either Christian, neither is he. NAUN? Really? It was so obvious he was doing it for you. You just had to stoop so low."

"I didn't make him do anything." Christian turned to the window.

"Yeah." She modded. "Keep telling that to yourself." She said. "Just keep it up. Keep doing this to him, keep doing this to everyone, pushing everyone away and blaming everyone for having a shitty childhood, but remember that one day, he's going to get really tired of trying to please you, tired of asking for your forgiveness, and when that day comes, the table is going to turn so hard on you that you won't feel the sadness and loneliness that would come after it hit you so bad." She shook her head. "And I really wish I was the kind of person you think I am. I might actually be that person, because it's obvious that your younger brother who you hate so much is the better man. It really sucks being you, Christian Ozor."

She shook her head, and then turned to the door. She stormed towards it.

"Yeah, I don't care what you say!" Christian turned quickly, yelling behind her. "Unless you want to live here alone with your precious Jeremy, you can get all our bags ready for tomorrow!"

The door shut with a loud thud. Natalie wasn't having it. She wasn't having it at all.