CHAPTER THIRTY

RHONA’s POV

The tension in this house was becoming unbearable by the day.

It was an unspoken rule that no one was to mention Kim’s name where Craig was. At first, when they arrived from the Maldives before the supposed end of their stay, I had just presumed that they had other reasons to cut their stay short.

Two weeks in and I realized that things were no longer at ease. I was confused at first, because wasn’t it the same couple that were deliriously in love right after wedding? I had turned detective overnight in my bid to figure out what the problem was. I did try persuading Craig to tell me but he got angry and lashed out at me. That was the last day I ever mentioned her name in his presence.

I was in one of my model shoots last week Wednesday when I started hearing gossip flying around.

“I honestly wasn’t surprised. What did he expect? To marry a saint? After all he did to us,” I overheard one of the models say. That caught my interest. Who was getting married? Who wanted to marry a saint? I didn’t want to butt into the conversation so I just listened on the sidelines.

"You do realize the article corroborated only one guy’s story. So what are the chances that she is actually a slut?” The girl with the ash blonde hair asked.

“This is the Craig Lionel we are talking about,“ she laughed mirthlessly and continued. "Karma is a bitch and the chances that what you’ve done in the past will bite you in the ass is quite high. The man is just reaping the fruits of his labor.”

By then, I was utterly confused and wondering what it was exactly about. I wanted to join the conversation so bad so I simply gave in. I knew not a lot of people knew Craig was my brother so I decided to ride on that advantage. The chances that they didn’t know that he was my brother was high because they had the audacity to talk about it within my earshot.

"Hey Lina.” I decided to go with the ash blondie. She looked more approachable. "What is it with Craig? Did something happen with his wife?” I asked as nonchalantly as I could.

"Oh, you haven’t heard? He’s been hot topic for the past week! His new wife got implicated. An anonymous came to the media with a story of how he met her on a hookup website. The media has been going crazy for the past days. The speculations are quite high. Some people believe the story is quite scanty because it hasn’t been corroborated by anyone else while the rest of the crowd just think that it’s quite deserving for a man who has literally left a string of broken hearts after him in the past.”

The shock on my face must have been lost on her because she simply just carried on with her speculations, analyzing public opinion, giving her hot takes. While I just sat down there trying to figure out who was trying so hard ruin Kim’s image.

Years back when Kim had first shown up at the Craig mansion, I had immediately antagonized her. First because she was extremely pretty and had a cool overall self absorbed vibe that pissed me off. She was just a contract wife that my brother had acquired for a purpose and for all I cared, she was non existent to me. I was bidding my time for when she left only to start noticing signs that my brother was falling for her.

I almost went beserk. My brother knew that the person I wanted for him was Cheryl and I thought their separation at the time was only going to last a short while. Imagine my surprise when Cheryl and I realized how affectionate Craig was being towards her. My only thoughts was on how to get her as far away from my brother as I could.

I was so elated to find out one of those mornings that she had escaped from the house without Craig’s permission. Craig had been withdrawn for days, rarely speaking to anyone. For a minute I almost regretted my part in making her leave. My brother became a shadow of his old self. He was rarely eating.

At some point I thought he was going to self destruct and I was quite scared. I started asking around to know if anyone had seen her around but my efforts were all to naught since neither Craig nor I could find her. It took Craig a full year and some to get back to his normal self and when he did, I figured he had gotten over her and wasn’t making any more efforts to find her. My surprise when she came back to the house and with a child, my mind was completely blown.

Craig had improved so much. There was a part of me that was kinda happy that she came back. I still wanted my friend to be with Craig but I also realized that the chances that would ever happen was close to naught. Eventually I had removed myself from that delusion and low key started rooting for them so when Cheryl told me she was seeing Nicholas, I was really happy for them.

I racked and racked my brain for any details of anyone who could have released that level of information to the press. The only option that came to mind was Nicholas. I knew he was scorned but I only assumed that getting with Cheryl would have been enough for him. Clearly, it wasn’t.

I was calling Cheryl before I even had time to fully process what I was doing .

“Hello princess, how are you doing?” That was too cheerful and Cheryl picking in the first ring? It was legendary.

“ How has it been? How are you settling in with new contract job?” I asked, pursuing other things that were not my immediate concern.

"I’m doing really great. The staff here are really nice and they’re taking time to give me celebrity treatment which I love,“ she gushed.

“Heyy, really glad you’re settling in well. Did you see the article about Kim?” I asked hesitantly. I was really confused about how to pursue the matter.

"The one about her being a slut?” She asked with a derisive tone that told me all I needed to know. Nicholas and Cheryl were behind the release of that publication.

For the first time since we met, I felt a distinct form of hatred for her. How couid she do that to someone she had claimed to love in the past?

“Yeah, I saw the article. It’s only fair everyone knows the kind of woman Craig married including Craig himself because he was carrying on like he had finally dug up gold.” The urge to end the conversation was overwhelming and so I simply gave an excuse about being called for my next shot at my shoot session.

For the rest of the day, I had an overwhelming desire to protect Kim from everyone including her husband. I knew somehow that she was innocent. I also knew she felt despaired since my brother refused to speak to her since they returned from their honeymoon.

I wanted to warmly remind her that she was loved and that Craig would eventually come around because I knew how much he loved her. With a new sense of purpose, I wrapped up my shoot session for the day and headed home .

Kim took up decor roles since she got back. My guess was that she wanted to get her mind off things but she was really doing a great job with the new decor at the same time. She had gone minimalist mode and all the clutter was gone. The vibrant hues around the house had slowly turned to ivory and white. I was totally loving the new vibe and I hoped Craig was too regardless of how he had been feeling lately. I made a mental note to check in on her before dinner. I prepared myself for her initial shock because I had been nothing but mean to her since she arrived at the Craig mansion.

About an hour later, I was at her door knocking gently and hoping she was not exhausted from all that work she did on the house.

“It’s Rhona. May I come in?” Silence. Then silence again.

It took a whole five minutes before she finally got to the door. She looked put together but I could sense her surprise.

“Surprise, surprise.” That was the dumbest shit to say in that moment but I couldn’t resist it, plus nothing was coming to mind. How exactly did you handle hating someone for the longest suddenly wanting to be friends with them?

“Yeah, do you want something?” Kim asked coldly. That stung, but I could hardly blame her for wanting nothing to do with me.