Thomas was furious that things had not been as simple as he had thought they would be.
When he was thinking of his plans earlier, he had thought he would simply persuade Reyona that they should go over to his mom's place till she got better.
As always, she believed him when he told her that Maxwell had an interest in her.
All it took to nail that home was the clip that was circulating a few days ago about Maxwell looking all undignified at the scene of the fire while he yelled at the firemen, declaring Reyona his woman.
Idiot!
Thomas had not needed any other evidence on that end.
Convincing Reyona of her sister's betrayal was something entirely different.
Even though Reyona didn't outright disagree with him, Thomas was sure that she did not really believe him.
"The fact that she still let the bitch hang around her says it all," he thought bitterly
If only that horse-face doctor had backed him up and allowed him to take Reyona away.
When he had her away from all these hovering hawks, then he could properly set things in place.
All was not lost after all.
The fire incident was a blessing.
He was going to win after all.
Fuck them all; he was going to win.
His dear wife was going to pay up eventually; he just needed to get her away from all these meddling people.
According to the law of Kayooma, even after the judges have granted the divorce of a couple, they are not fully divorced until two weeks later.
Kayooma started out as a close-knit community that spread out to become a city.
Divorce was frowned upon in the community right from time and even as the community got bigger and things changed, "till death do us part" was one of the sacred things in Kayooma, so the clause had been in place for ages and it has been passed down through generations.
Despite how liberal things had gotten in Kayooma and all the modifications that had been made to many of the old Kayooma laws, that particular clause had not been changed.
Kayooma early settlers believed that married couples don't just easily decide to give up on their union. In the case of confusion, there was still a chance that two weeks after the divorce had been granted, the couple might realise they had made a mistake and want to get back together.
Thomas had researched things like that since the first time that balding Gibson served him the first paper.
Of course, he had not thought he had the chance then.
But things are different now.
He just needed to get Reyona away first, so he could explain to her that they actually got a divorce a week ago because he was tired of her constant demand for kids.
He would let her know that he had realised that he loved her too much to let her go and now he wanted them to go back to the judge so that he would declare the divorce null.
The scenario was so perfect in Thomas's head and he was just waiting for the right time to talk her into going to his mother's place.
He had seen Reyona's reaction to Maxwell and he knew that it wouldn't take much to convince her to leave the opulent mansion.
Thomas, for one, wished he could stay for a while in such a place, eating fine-ass food like the one he just had earlier and being waited on but his plans awaited and he couldn't wait to put them in place.
Also, the look in Maxwell's eyes when he said, "You have made your choice," made Thomas restless.
They needed to leave.
Which they would do if he could just get his goddamn wife to himself for a damn second!
That stupid sister of hers made it impossible, of course, and soon enough they were joined by the small woman making silly faces at the stupid cooing baby.
Don't they all have enough sense to go somewhere else?
Thomas had mentioned that maybe they should all leave so that Reyona could rest.
The woman had only looked at him without an expression, then she turned to talk to her baby in that silly voice, "We know who should leave, Athena, don't we?"
"Yes, baby, we do. Yeah, we do," she responded to the baby's cooing sounds.
And of course, his stupid wife had backed them up by saying that she was fine. She needed company.
"In fact, can you bring the baby closer? I think she brought me back," Reyona had said.
As the small, richly dressed woman and her baby went closer to the bed, Thomas could see Toria's mocking gaze, as if she had caught on to his game.
"I will have the last laugh," he thought to himself as he fantasized about how he was going to make Reyona pay double this time around for all his pain and humiliation.
There would be no finesse this time; he would take his reward and he would take it now.
As he went to the window to tune out their gooey, happy sounds, he could see that dusk was fast approaching.
"Shit," he thought to himself.
Whatever he needed to do had to be done now.
He knew he would be at risk if he slept at that place that night.
Leaving Reyona behind too would be too dangerous for his plans.
He was sure they would find a way to scrape off whatever was clouding her memory.
No, he had to act first.
Though he had pulled a fast one on Susan's brother, that surprise wouldn't last long.
Before he launched a counterattack, Thomas had to get Reyona as far away from him as possible.
Reyona, without her memory, was just like a vulnerable imbecile.
He would be a fool not to exploit that.
She had cost him a lot.
Now was the time for payback.