Once James and Chioma saw their mother approaching, they dropped into acting and frowned deeply. Diana was surprised that their mood didn't lit up even when they saw and heard her calling them.
"Indeed... They're angry at me. They'd never been angry at me to this extent!" Diana thought and hummed.
When Diana reached, the first thing she observed was the absence of John,
"Where is your brother?" She immediately asked,
"He went to pee-" Chioma responded with her frown and then rested her head on James' lap.
Diana's facial expression changed, even though she was standing before her kids, it felt like her relationship with them was completely severed and crippled. The affinity they used to have was practically not there anymore.
She walked over to the two and sat close to them, the kids averted their gaze away from her emotionally filled sharp stare.
Before Diana could open her mouth to say what she intended to, John came and called out, "James! Chioma! Let's go play hide and seek!"
Once his brother and sister heard that, excited, they got down from the chairs and left their mum to join their big bro. Meantime, they felt a bit apprehensive Diana may find the laptop hided under the flowers.
Diana's felt dispirited once they left. The next moment, the beeping of her military pager cut through her daze,
"Your first meeting with the grandwar masters is in an hour time!" The military pager reported in it's AI female voice.
"Woah... I just arrived in these base few hours ago and my children are already giving me headache and distracting me from the reason I was sent here!" Diana complained as she stood up.
Meanwhile, Anamika and the attorneys were conversing and deliberating about the military contract marriage at the restaurant.
Anamika sat opposite them as she listened to the attorney stating the pros and cons of the marriage contract subsisting between a a bloody civilian and a military personnel.
Afterwards, the attorney general brought out the contract form from his briefcase shortly after Anamika paid him a king amount.
"What's this?" Anamika asked in confusion when she saw the form.
The contract form was supposed to be a paper inked with the necessary details with a place to sign both parties name and append both parties signature to make it official... Why is he bringing a 50mm × 50mm round graphite coin inside a box?
"Ms Anamika. The contemporary legally signed marriage contract form can be averted by the five star general if ones city or country operates a military rule of government....." The attorney general spoke with intention to explain further.
"And so what? I don't get it..." Anamika asked, her curiosity getting fanned.
"You want your marriage with him permanently sealed right?" Sancho, her lawyer interjected swiftly to calm her down and make her see some sense.
"Yes!" She answered.
"Then, take this ancient contract form. Both sides of the coin has a place to blood thumbprints. After he thumbprints with his blood on the head of the coin, you're to do the same but on the tail of the coin. With that, You're already in a military contract marriage with him! And he won't be able to avert it, no matter how much he tried unlike the contemporary form of contract that he can avert...." The attorney general boldly explained.
Anamika was flabbergasted. She used to think this form of military contract marriage had been abandoned centuries ago!
The essence of it is that, this contract was universal and once both parties sign by thumbprinting on it on the right places with their blood, it would be impossible reverse.
That was what Anamika wanted!
An irreversible and irrevocable contract marriage with General Derick!
She took the box containing the round ancient graphite coin inscribed with some symbols and scrutinized it,
"Indeed..." She heaved a sigh. "One of a kind!" She said in her mind.
Afterwards, she closed the box and thanked the attorney general.
"Don't forget to inform me once the contract is signed by both parties!" The attorney general reminded Anamika.
"Yea sure-" she said in response, in a grateful tone.
A minute time, the meeting ended and they went their separate way.
Once Anamika walked out of the restaurant with the box containing the contract in her possession, the thoughts of how she could get General Derrick to sign it assailed her.
First, she needed to get closer to him.... if he would ever sign it.
Anamika was hell bent in making him sign it, either by hook or by crook.
In front of her was her Lamborghini Aventador and her personal driver waiting for her.
Once the driver saw her approaching, he quickly opened the back door to let her in.
Once she was seated at the back seat, she picked up her phone and called General Derrick right away.
Derrick was still gracefully seated at the backseat of the limousine heading back to the military base when his phone rang,
On picking up the phone and knowing the caller ID was Anamika, he answered,
"Hello!" He said as gently as possible, once the phone call connected.
"Hello sweetheart. Are you less preoccupied now? Can I have a dinner with you tonight? " Anamika asked, her voice painted with negative expectations. She thought Derrick would probably say NO!
"Okay. No problem. Book a restaurant and send me via sms!" General Derrick agreed without hesitation. It's been a long while he had a dinner with her, plus he felt a need to make her feel welcomed and not bad. All to assure her!
"Alright. Thank you. Talk to you later!" Anamika was excited. Maybe, just maybe she could get him to touch her tonight.
"Hold.. how is your mum doing now?" Derrick gingerly asked as if he cared,
"Well.... Talk about that later.. Goodbye!" Anamika said and hung up, her excitement dropped when Derrick reminded her of her mum's condition.
For seven years now, she is not been bothered about even making her relationship with General Derick official because she got whatever she wanted, but now that Diana had returned, she needs to hasten it up and make it official and ensure they don't recognize each other. Another reason was that, if she gets into the military contract marriage with him, she could get Diana to treat her mum as one of the benefits she now would get.
Derrick made an utterance by exhaling audibly when the call finally ended. Anamika's face appeared on his mind for some reasons he couldn't decipher.
For some reason, Derrick felt something was misplaced as Anamika really didn't feel like anything like that woman from that fateful night, seven years ago.
Although it's been long and she probably had underwent some significant changes, it still felt wrong to Derrick and he was not even able to fathom why.
Ever since he agreed to Anamika's condition for her forgiveness and took her in, he is been unable to give out the order for the marriage to become official. He only announced Anamika as his fiancé.
Derick too couldn't vaguely remember the woman from that night and every evidence he had pointed out to Anamika, why would he even doubt her? But, the feel of the woman from seven years ago carried positive shockwaves and emotions and her body had a faint sweet fragrance unlike Anamika's body with tense cosmetic fragrance.