Melissa’s eyes boiled as coal. Her lower lips trembled and she wouldn’t want to curse him, even though she had done it already in her head. Hurt and ruin shot through her that she could feel the thudding of her heartbeat.
With her reddened eyeballs rolling at him she beamed, “Are you still asking me, father? Do you realize the pain ridicule and shame I go through each passing day? The trauma has never seized to recur in my mind. And you know what heavy guilt pangs my soul each time I see my rich ex husband with his wife Clara Roham. Nothing has been so embarrassing and humiliating. I just can’t stop hating myself for making the wrong decision.”
“Clara Roham?” Fanny retorted as soon as he dragged a furrowed brow at her, “Is Clara Roham supposed to be among your troubles now? Oh daughter, come off it…”
A thick, big belly jailer trudged to the side of Fanny and reminded him, “You got two minutes , Fanny two minutes to round off and return to your block.”
Fanny nodded briefly , swallowed hard and hastened his words, “Brian Patrick shouldn’t be your reason for leaving Rio Hondo. You just have to pretend he doesn’t exist and lead your normal, humble life. I guess Mike Don is just too busy to recognize you now…”
Mellissa’s jaw sagged as fury steamed in her breath, “Oh really father. Is that what it is now? Well he is too busy to recognize me because you and Lisa Bake ruined my marriage. You brought this fate upon me and today I am the mirror of myself…”
Fanny lowered his gaze to her feet and saw the cheap, worn out sandals she wore and the darkness of her skin which probably came from over labor. He swore in his breath and doubted if he was going to survive the pressure of his wickedness.
He would have preferred to be dumbfounded while she yelled on, but he just needed to say a few words which he knew were impossible, “Chin up daughter, soon I will leave the jail and bounce back as a CEO…”
Melissa chuckled mockingly at him.
He expected it and regretted saying it anyways.
“Bounce back? Did I just hear you say bounce back?”
Blue veins bulged under her neck and brow and she cursed him in her head, “There is no second chance of survival for you, father. Where are you going to start from anyways, huh? Even if you do, I will be far away in another destination where you can’t find me.”
When he stared at her, he spotted ruin and heartbreak in her expression. “Don’t do this, daughter. Please don’t dessert me at this time. Your visit to me will be much appreciated. I feel so much hurt when no one comes up for me during visiting days…” his voice died off with the murmuring that filled the yard.
She sniffed heavily, letting those tears that had clogged her eyes all this while trickle down her crimson cheeks,
“You will never see me again father, let alone visit you. I thought you would feel ashamed that a highly respected CEO of your kind is now poor and down to his last toes. But here you are proud and foolish.” She was about shuffling away when he beckoned on her.
“Melissa! Please don’t do this to your father. Divorcing Brian Patrick was a mistake and the worst we have or ever done.” He smacked his lips and winked off the tears smearing his eyes now. “But you must accept the fact that you can do without Brian Patrick. He may be the world richest man but he is not the world best man.”
She shot a go-to-hell look at him and her lips curved at his words, “Was that enough reason to divorce a man that would have announced me to the world? You and Lisa Bake were blindfolded by his momentary poverty without realizing unlimited wealth was running in his veins…”
Fanny interrupted her, “Listen to me, Melissa. The world richest man is just guffying and flexing weak muscles just to punish you…I...” he stuttered, sucked a deep breath before picking on his words again, “You just have to get yourself ready for another billionaire to marry you. It is not over with you yet.”
Melissa forced a smile which promptly subsided to a scowl. She ground her jaw as she stared dirty at her father. She was yet to believe that such words could come from her father despite their horrible experience in my hands.
“I don’t know what obsession you have for billionaires. To you no man is worthy to be called a man unless he is a billionaire, and who told you a pauper can’t become mogul tomorrow. Do you know Mike Don’s net worth recently? Would you believe if he told you he was once a poor ragged delivery boy?” Her hands trembled as she gestured at Fanny.
Fanny’s countenance fell. He lowered his gaze, let warm tears trickle down his cheeks and recalled how he underrated me and declared me unfit for her daughter because I was too poor; how he never allowed us to consummate our marriage.
He sobbed greatly now once thought of those horrible days shot him in the head; those days he would order his security to keep me outside, so that I don’t transfer my poverty to any of them; those days he took Melissa from me and wouldn’t want us to consummate our marriage.
Indeed it was horrible for me. I was visiting my wife at their mansion as though she was enrolled at some boarding school where parents visit their children once in a while.
I would nerve forget the day Fanny and Lisa Bake compared me with their mastiff. He, Fanny emphatically told me I wasn’t fit to be a man, even his dog was worth half a million dollars, but he wasn’t sure I was worth a cent…