My Dream Marriage

I am in our bedroom resting on the couch watching some news. It has been a long time since I watched the news because I am always busy and when I am free that is the time I take a rest.

Edward enters the room with a file in his hand. “Hi Edward.” “Neera, I gave you enough grace period, now, I want you to tell me your decision. Either you proceed with what I had told you to do because I have already talked to the doctor or you see the other side of me that you haven’t.” He says even without any greetings.

“Edward, I had already told you my decision earlier. It still remains. I am keeping this child no matter what and no one, including you, can change my mind.” I say standing up from the couch. He raises his left eyebrow at me, “did you understand what I just said?”

“Yes, perfectly well I am not backing off.” I say and this time my decision is stronger than ever, I don’t know where I found this kind of courage from, it should be from this little being that is growing inside me.Exclusive content © by Nô(v)el/Dr/ama.Org.

“Alright then, I will bring my lawyer later and you will have to talk to him. I am not going to spend any penny on that,” he points to my stomach, ” and you won’t get anything from me after the divorce.” What?

“Divorce, Edward? I won’t divorce you, especially this time that I am carrying your child. What has come over you Edward? You think you can marry me and dispose of me just like that? No Edward, you are my husband and this,” I hold my belly, “belongs to both of us.”

“Neera, this is not mine and you know what? Since you clearly want me to take care of another man’s child, I will show you what it means by unfaithfulness. I am going to make sure you won’t even leave this house to go for prenatal clinic appointments until you learn your lesson. Ben?” He calls and a well built man comes in. “This is Ben and he will keep a close eye on you so that you won’t be able to play games with me. Ben, if she misbehaves you are fired.”

“Noted, sir.” He has a deep voice and he looks at me with raven eyes. “Dismissed.”

“Am I some kind of a prisoner here? For crying out loud Edward I need some air but I have been restricted to go out of this house, why? Is it because you are jealous of Edward? Surely I thought you were better than this Edward. You can’t keep me here forever.”

“That is why I want to divorce you.” He must be joking. “No you won’t and I am going nowhere,” I say but I can’t even bring myself to look directly in his eyes. I am a little scared of him. “I know you have nowhere to go.” He says and that feels like a low blow.

“Edward, I had a home before I came here and you know that,” was I living on a tree before. “That scrape is what you call a home? Can you compare it to this one? You are so ungrateful, that’s why you had to do what you did behind my back. Can you see what you brought upon yourself?”

It seems this topic will never end, he makes sure to go back to it in everything that he says, especially any conversation that we share nowadays. “Don’t call my home like that and why don’t you man up? I am not going to do what you want me to do and there is nothing you can do about it,” I say and he turns his full attention to me. “You say?” “Edward, I said you can’t do anything about it. I am your wife and that gives me the right to decide what is good for us.” He chuckles and smirks, “you are testing my patience Neera. You think I can’t do anything because I am letting you trash talk me? You are mistaken and you are going to regret ever crossing my limits.” He comes and stands inches away from me and narrows his eyes, ” tonight when I come back, I want you to take your filthy self out of this room. Your clothes and anything that belongs to you should not be seen anywhere in this room by the time I return.” He is not joking, I know when he uses that kind of tone he means business.

“Why? Where do you want me to go?” “Sure you have nowhere to go but you should be thanking me that I am not throwing you out of this house. Find somewhere else to be using as your room. This house has more than enough rooms.”

“I thought that this is our room…”

“You thought?”

“This is our room, our matrimonial bed and we vowed to stay together,” I say tears starting to well up in my eyes. “Don’t even start with the vows, you were the one who broke them and you have the audacity to remind me of something you can’t keep, you are so vile.”

“I didn’t break any vow and I am using it against you because you are clearly forgetting what you promised before God and man.” “Says Neera the saint. What happened to the vows when you clearly spent quality time with another man and forgot about your husband? Were you thinking about that or they had disappeared into thin air the moment you were with him? Don’t be a hypocrite.”

“Whatever you say, I want to know why you are chasing me out of our room.” “Simple, I can’t stay with you in one room or better still on one bed and be looking at you and be reminded every single time of your loose character. I can’t even think of touching you.” Please, can someone tell me that I am not dreaming? “For how long are you planning for us to stay like that?” “Neera, I am never going to touch you again if you are going to keep that thing in your stomach. Be wise.”

“If keeping my child means that I am being stupid then so be it.”

“Suit yourself and remember what I told you, by the time I come back, I don’t want to find you here, in this room.” He says and leaves. I am not going to leave this room. He will come back and find me here the way he left me here. I want to see what he can do, surely he can’t just throw his wife out of their room, we are supposed to stay together. I lie back on the couch and close my eyes, I am too tired after this argument.

***

“Neera, wake up, you are going to fall off the couch,” Martha’s voice makes my eyes flutter open. I can see the morning sun entering the room through the curtains. Wait, did I sleep here? How did I sleep that long without noticing? “I don’t know how I managed to sleep on this couch for this long,” I say because I don’t really understand. “Neera, you should know by now that you are experiencing another side of life that you haven’t, so you are bound to experience what you can’t even imagine,” she says. “I know.” “So you have to be cautious about everything you do.”

“I feel so hungry, I need to make some breakfast. At least Edward isn’t here to make me wake up early to make him some, I swear I wouldn’t have managed,” I say. I still feel tired. Edward rarely stays in this house nowadays. He usually comes during the day but he goes back after dinner or sometimes doesn’t come at all so once or twice a week he sleeps here although I am used to it. I can’t even ask him why he does so because I know he will use my pregnancy as an excuse. Where he spends his nights only God knows.

“Martha, can I ask you something?” I don’t know if she has an answer to that or maybe she does given the time she has been working for this family. “You can ask me anything, if I know the answer I won’t hesitate to answer you.” She assures me. I hope she does because that will put an end to my worries.

“Does this family have any other mansions apart from this one, maybe that is where Edward stays because his once in a while visit to this house is worrying me.” I hope they have other houses because I sometimes feel guilty that I am the reason he stays away.

“Not in this city, but don’t worry about where he stays because he has a newly constructed mansion where he usually stays.”

“For real? How do you know that?” He has never mentioned anything about building a house. “I went there the day you were kidnapped although it isn’t fully done because the furniture is still not fully stocked while the fence and garage need some renovation. I was assigned to do some cleaning there since he had one of his friends stay there with him, an architect or engineer friend of his who helped him design the house,” she says.

“Why would he stay in an unfinished house when there is enough space for him in this house?” “I can’t say it’s incomplete because it is only the outside that has a bit of work remaining so it is done in my opinion.” If his friend can stay there then the house can’t be incomplete, that makes sense. But why wouldn’t he tell me about it, am I not his wife? No, easy there, he might be planning a surprise for you, I think so. ‘You wish,’ my subconscious scowls at me.

“Did you say his friend stayed there? Do you know his name?” Maybe Martin or Garvy, I don’t know which one of them could be an architect since I couldn’t get what kind of project they were doing in Marina.

“It wasn’t a man. Her name was Valnet or something,” she says, making me gasp in horror. “Valen? That witch?” I can’t believe my ears. Edward, what did you do?

“Do you know her?” Martha asks when she notices that I have gone silent. I just nod my head because if I talk my tears will be like a dam that has broken its barriers. I feel my insides constrict and bile rising up my gut. I get up and run to the toilet to empty my stomach. I feel disgusted and everything I see around me turns to look like her face and I can’t bring myself to stop throwing up until there is nothing left apart from the gasses that continue to make me wretch my gut and feel pains in my lungs and stomach.

Martha comes into the toilet and holds me steady as I sit on the floor with no energy left to make me leave the toilet. “It’s okay, it will be fine. The nauseousness will eventually go away, it happens in the first few months,” she says and I nod. I know as much as my pregnancy is concerned, Valen’s name always triggers something in me that I don’t take well. I know she has this massive crush on my husband and given that Edward stayed with her, only the two of them in that mansion, I know for a fact that they have at least shared something there, a meal, a chair or a bed! I feel the urge to throw up again but given that I have nothing left in my stomach, I only feel pain when trying to do that again.

“Neera, you should freshen up, I am going to prepare something for you. Or should I help you?” “I will be fine Martha, thank you for your concern.” I say struggling to stand up. “What would you like to eat?” “I don’t know, something that won’t make me go back to this state again,” there was this soup she made for me, I hope she remembers it. I don’t even know if I will be able to take it in because right now, everything looks and feels disgusting.