A Wife for the Billionaire
Chapter 79: RICHARD

Chapter 79: RICHARD

A lot of things have been said about heartbreak. A lot has been written about the subject and I used to think people unnecessarily hyped the experience until...

I sat nonplussed at the sofa wondering how I was supposed to break up with someone who has taken over my heart in all entirety. Someone who a day without feels bleak. Someone whose presence I couldn’t do without.

It was impossible. And I couldn’t even bring myself to think of the possibility of a world where I wasn’t in speaking terms with Melissa Borders.

Claire had scrambled away after I almost landed my hands on her, the look she threw at me from the stairs, pitiful which was rather odd because I expected her to be mad.

I don’t know how long I sat , pondering the possibility of changing my father’s mind and dreading thoughts of the inevitable.

My mind came up with various options, running away, going public about our relationship to the extent that my father would have no choice, but to let us be, try reasoning with my father again, or renouncing my name for love.

The options were good, but they were inviable. How could we run away without Edward seeking us out, the man dealt with shady stuff and I doubt there’s any place we would go without him finding us, heaven knows, he had the means.

I could afford us running away, but what happens when he goes after Mel’s uncle and his family?

And what happens when I tell Mel that I wasn’t destined to live long? That my days were numbered? Would she still want to go? How about when I require a transplant, what then?

My mind railed and railed until I crossed off the option of running away.

Then about going public like a social media announcement on the official Wellington pages with over hundreds of millions of followers. That held the possibility of helping, but how do I keep the post available so that it would generate enough reactions to sway my father who had the right to demand that a post be taken down immediately?

And even if the post manages to stay online enough to get people to rally to our side, to force my father to remove himself from our relationship, what then?

Will our after be happy? In the shadows, will Edward really let us be and who’s to say he would keep his words?

Like the first, the second was crossed off. Leaving the third and the fourth.

Reasoning with my father again was like a bonus thought just added to the others. Edward was as stubborn as a mule and trying to get him to change his mind was a serious waste of time.

And there was sacrificing my name and all that it came with for love.

That one held the prospect of getting me what I wanted. Knowing Edward, he wouldn’t allow me renounce the Wellington name. As his heir and only son, he wouldn’t allow me to do it.

But will he simply let me have Mel? Of course, he wouldn’t.

Whichever way I looked or thought of it, there was only one option... let Mel go.

Now that I even recall all these, I feel rather stupid and so naive. Thinking about renouncing my name and all that shit.

I don’t think I slept that night. Sleep just evaded me or perhaps my thoughts were too active for sleep to take over.

Dawn came and I still didn’t have anything, any plan at all on how to save our relationship besides doing as my father threatened.

Then came the issue of breaking up with Mel without breaking her healing heart.

Before Edward left that morning, he made sure to remind me that he always made good on his threats and as such, I shouldn’t even think of crossing him.

Without a choice, I resolved to tell Mel what my father had declared.

"She would understand. She will" I had kept muttering those words as I was driven to school.

The resolution and whatnot disappeared as soon as I saw her.

I still remember what she wore, a short jeans skirt that showed off her sexy legs, a cream lacy cotton crop shirt with buttercup hands and lace trimmings. Her hair like burnished gold flowed down her back in curls. And like stars, a pair of crystal dots twinkled on her ears.

That day was a battle between deciding to tell her about my father’s threat and finding the right time.

I tried to tell her severally, but one look at those green eyes and my lips were sealed.

The day rolled by without me telling her, the next day as well and on the third day, I promised myself that if I didn’t tell her that day, then I’m not coming home.

We had celebrated our one year anniversary, but we were yet to profess our love. We loved each other and it kinda felt irrelevant voicing it out.

That day as we sat alone on one of bleachers of the basketball court, I began,

"Mel, I have something to tell you"

She had been looking at the hoop, and at my words, she turned to look at me,

"And I also have something to tell you" she had said.

"But by all means, go ahead," she quickly added.

"No, ladies first, tell me"

"No, don’t use that basic excuse that the world has come to think is chivalrous, just tell me"

But I couldn’t, I wanted to but I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t break her heart and mine.

If I told her of Edward’s plans, I know she would agree for us to stop seeing each other. She would try to be brave and all macho as if she wasn’t hurt.

"Well?" She intoned, eager to know what I wanted to say.

"Fine, I erm... I wanted to um... I_"

"Is it really that bad?" She interrupted.

"No, it’s um, just tell me yours first"

"Okay, alright. Richard, I think I love you"

That knocked the breath out of me, and my words dispersed like dust in the wind.

"Are you alright? You look shocked and you know you don’t have to say it back if you don’t want to, but I just wanted to say it" she queried, concerned.

I remember standing, my heart pounding so hard that I couldn’t breathe.

"Rich, are you alright? You are scaring me, say something, talk to me" she had been saying, but it seemed her words were coming from far away.

I tried to regulate my breathing, but it felt like I had no control of my body, the world seemed too bright and tilting to one side.

"Oh God, you are having a panic attack, sit" she tugged at me until I faintly felt my butt settle on the hard bleacher.

"Now breathe, close your eyes and imagine your breathing like drops of water from icicles hanging above a still lake, drop, drop, drop, that’s it keep going" she had tightly gripped my hand, holding it to her beating heart.

The image she wanted me to picture was serene and no doubt helpful, but that wasn’t what I thought about. I focused on the soft bounce of her curls as she walked in slow motion and the faint beating of her heart I could feel from my hand to her chest.

I forced myself to align my own heart beat to hers and that was how my breathing returned to normal.

Slowly I opened my eyes and there she was hugging me with tears in her eyes.

"You are alright, oh thank goodness, you are fine"

At that moment, I knew that if I didn’t let her go she would suffer more, Edward would surely make her life miserable.

Pushing her away, I forced myself to say,

"I can’t do this anymore, Mel. I really can’t_"

"What are you saying, Rich?"

Standing, I forced my face to a stone expressionless mask and my heart, frozen rigid like the lake at Central Park during winter.

"You love me right? Then this is over. I have gotten what I wanted, there’s no need to continue this charade, I have won the bet"

"No, you don’t mean that, no, that’s not true" her voice broke as she sank to her knees, " tell me it’s all a joke, that you are lying. Tell me, Richard, tell me!"

I couldn’t even watch, I felt my stone expressionless mask slip at the sight of her in such a manner, my cold frozen heart cracked.

But I had to finish it, I was almost done.

"I’m afraid, but it’s true Mel, I had a bet with my friends where they had dared me to make you fall in love with me. They thought it was impossible, but wait till they hear of my conquest."

Each letter, each syllable, each word and punctuation was a cut, not just for her, but mainly for me. It had hurt, like an incision on my heart.

"I don’t believe you, you wouldn’t go through all that if it was fake, you wouldn’t" she said, tears still streaking down her cheeks.

Turning away from her lest she notices the lapse and cracks already appearing in my stone cold expression, I replied,

"You’d be surprised the length a man would go to secure his image and maintain his reputation"

I turned to leave.

"You are a monster!" she hurled, "you are just like them, shame on me for allowing myself fall for your lies"

Her words and the intensity of it, halted my steps and I almost turned to tell her that I didn’t mean any of it, but as I recalled Edward’s words, I forced my lips to form,

"Indeed it’s a shame, try to protect yourself and your emotions better in the

future."

A step after another, I made myself walk away, my already thoroughly and entirely broken heart, shattering completely.