For over two minutes, Melissa Fanny, stood gaping and staring irritatingly at me. I abandoned myself to shame and uncertainty as I smacked my lips tightly and pressed my hands in front.
“Brian Patrick?”
She called’ her voice was still and quarrelsome to an extent. All the while we stood staring at each other in shock, her father, Fanny Luis, a middle aged billionaire and the richest oil and gas tycoon in Rio Hondo rolled his eyes at me and kept gulping and pouring his wine impatiently. His jaw set.
Her grandmother Lisa Bake through her conical goggles couldn’t stop peering at me from her sitting position. She blinked anxiously as her nose wrinkled.
“Is this not your husband? Is this not the same Brian Patrick that siphoned fifteen billion dollars from Community Central Bank?” Lisa Bake, her grandmother queried.
“You are right, granny.” Fanny replied and afterwards mumbled, “The criminal son-in-law is out of jail.”
I stole a glance at him, lowered my gaze in hurt and swallowed hard, just to avoid bickering with him.
“What are you doing here, Brian Patrick?” Melissa asked, scowled her face at me and pulled back a little obviously when she perceived my body odor.
I could see the callous looks on her gloomy face, and it was evident that Melissa and her family didn’t expect to see this horrible face now and forever.
When I stared at her finger, I couldn’t see any trace of the cheap wedding ring I gave her at the registry on our wedding day. Rather what kept glistening into my eyes from her fingers was diamond ring that worth millions of dollars if I may guess.
She was about uttering a word when Lisa Bake trudged to our side with a box of diamond pearls and necklaces.
“Melissa, darling, your fiancée, Zion Don sent these diamond pearls and necklaces to you. I got it from the delivery boy yesterday.” Lisa bake smiled at the gifts as she brought them out one after the other. She chuckled excitedly and sounded, “Oh Melissa, your intended husband must be super rich. I hear he is Zion Don, son to the world richest man.”
“My wife is getting married?” I said inwardly and scowled my face at Melissa. I ground my jaw.
At the time Melissa couldn’t meet my gaze; she threw away her gaze to the wall, and breathed uneasily in guilt.
I writhed in pain, swallowed hard and kept winking nervously. My eyes burnt with warm tears which I struggled to fight back.
“Come on try it on, dear,” Lisa Bake intoned, and about swirling around to walk back to her seat when a white paper fell from her bosom and she gazed upon it, “What is this?” she asked and looked at Fanny Luis for prompt answer. Already she was unfolding the wrapped paper.
He replied her in a sonorous voice, “That must be the POS slip for the diamond pearls, I guess. Am I right?” he had a gulp of his wine and grinned.
“You are right. Oh my God! Wow!” Lisa Bake exclaimed, and covered her gaping mouth with her palms. “This is too much for diamond pearls. Eight point five million dollars is far way much for this.” She pointed at the pearls.
She peered at Melissa and put the necklace on her neck. “Beautiful piece; you must handle it with care, dear. I am very sure Brian Patrick cannot afford it now and in his life to come,” she said and sighed at me.
I couldn’t raise my gaze to look in their faces. I could feel those warm tears trickle now and its final destination on my foot. I sniffed repeatedly.
Melissa clenched my wrist. “Excuse me, father, granny,” she said and dragged me by the arm as we advanced outside.
“What are you doing here?” she asked arrogantly once we halted, “You are supposed to be in jail…”
I interposed her hastily, “Are you supposed to be asking me such rhetorical question? Don’t you want me to be out of jail? Should my wife be asking such silly question?”
Pa!
That was the sound of a resounding slap from Melissa. I caught my cheeks immediately and nursed them as I felt the redness and hotness churn my face.
She poked into my face, “How dare you ask me such question, Brian Patrick? You siphoned fifteen billion dollars from a reputable bank as Community Central Bank and went to jail and you stand here to question me, uh?”
I grinned, still feeling the slap burn my cheeks, “Why do you all believe Morgan Harris’s allegation. Trust me when I say I don’t know anything about that crime. I have never stolen in my life. How can I siphon fifteen billion dollars and still remain destitute?” I gestured at myself from head to toes. “I am innocent.”
Just then she glared at me from my unkempt scraggly long hair to my scaly dusty; dirty bare feet, before she shook her head in disappointment.
I swallowed hard and wished those tears wouldn’t trickle down any further as I stared at her diamond engagement ring.
“You disappointed us, Brian Patrick. Your fifteen years imprisonment left us with nothing than shame and regret. The news was making the round in Rio Hondo and beyond about the Fanny’s son-in-law being implicated in a fifteen billion dollars fraud. You know how influential my family is in Rio Hondo yet you brought this shame upon us. You rubbed the Fanny’s prestige in the mud.”
She broke down in tears.
“You are full of ruin and poverty now, Brian Patrick. Why are you here? What are you doing in my life, again? You should have remained in jail, because already you have gone extinct in my heart.”
I dared to hold her delicate pale hands and she cringed and raised her hands at me again. I pulled back, avoiding more of her slap.
“Go away Brian Patrick. I have moved on. You have never been better than what you are now. Right now you are worse than poverty. I gave up on you a long time ago…”
I interrupted her hastily once my gaze came on the diamond engagement ring once again, “Where is the wedding ring I gave you at the registry, Melissa?” I asked, stared and gaped at her…