Chapter 3

Richard stood at the entrance of Debbie's private ward and watched as a woman who looked oddly in her mid-forties, made her way down the hall to where he stood.

Once she stood close to him, she smiled brightly but softly and once again, Richard fell into contemplative thoughts as to how his wife resembled her especially in the manner in which she smiled.

They both had this dimple on their left cheek that made their soft features more softer and kinder but Richard felt that it suited Debbie more and why wouldn't he? He only had his wife in his eyes.

There was another reason as to why Richard had that sort of thinking towards the lady;

"Richard," the woman cried out in gentle surprise, "I didn't think you'd come. I was only expecting my daughter to fly over since, you know, you don't have the nicety in you to visit your motherland, talk more of your mother-in-law."

Lami had to be the most beautiful middle-aged lady he had ever seen and not for obvious reasons like the fact that she resembled his wife or that she was actually his mother-in-law. In fact, it was completely unrelated to that. And no, he didn't have some weird fetish or something like that.

Lami was once a very popular and successful interstate model. She then found love and got pregnant with the first of her six children and got married to the father of her kids after the third. By then, she had become a national super model, built a successful brand and made a solid name for herself home and abroad.

After marriage, however, Lami juggled being a part-time model, a full-time business woman and being the mother of six kids. She expanded her business in the entertainment industry, in turn producing many big names in the industry.

Later in life, her last born breathed his last after battling with cancer at a very young age and Lami retired from modelling and took up business full-time. By this time, her current last born, Deborah, was in her second year of college and was secretly courting a non-residential Nigerian while she studied abroad.

When Lami's business had fully established, she gave shares to all her children, who already had independent and thriving businesses of their own in various business sectors, in different parts of the world.

Soon, Lami's kids had all grown up and had given her grand children. All except Debbie, who was still secretly courting Richard even after she was slowly acquiring her mother's company as she was the only child interested in the entertainment industry.

As she proposed a wedding partner to her last child, she was hit with heavy news, Debbie was seeing someone and, to top that, she was pregnant with the b*****d's– ehem, the man's child.

Lami saw red and nearly aborted the child, not before wanting to c*str*te the fool who had gotten her baby pregnant before marriage, but after Deborah successfully blackmailed her with her past and her dead child, Lami caved in but didn't hide her disdain for him even after he had given her five lovely grandkids.

Lami was the embodiment of the thriving African business woman. Proportionally fit figure. Appropriate body fat and impeccably outstanding: physically and financially. She was, however, unbelievably annoying. Only to him though. She had made that clear to him on more occasions than one.

"Good morning to you too, mama." Richard greeted, emphasizing on the word 'mama' on purpose.

Lami smiled gently and took off her tinted glasses as she looked straight at him and then sighed in regret. He knew what she was doing and she knew that he knew exactly what she was doing. They were each other's enemies after all.

"All right, Richard." Lami said in gentle voice that was filled with pure venom. "You've been vying for my attention and now you have me looking at your ugly countenance. Do you have something against me, boy?" Lami said, emphasizing on the 'boy' with a condescending tone and a matching gaze but never did she raise her voice. She was more than that.

"Of course..." Richard said dragging out the statement while staring down at his mother-in-law with a smirk, "...not. You're my wife's mother, mama. I would never have a beef with you."

"Then why do you keep on irritating me by calling me mama? Are you insinuating that I'm an old woman?!" Lami said with an edge in her voice. She hated being called aunty, mama or old woman. It was a social weakness that made her crave blood but Richard wasn't scared. He was married to her daughter who was in love with him. He was sure that he won't be harmed in any way.

'Of course you are.' Richard mumbled internally with an eye roll but kept up his facade outside as he leaned his back against the wall beside his wife's ward. "What?! No mama." Richard said and he saw her eyebrow tick. At this point, he was sure that his smirk had almost widened into a face splitting grin.

"You have to be the most enviable middle-aged woman there is out there." Richard said truthfully but his next words made her brows cock in amusement. "It's all due to my respect for you, mommy." Lami burst laughing at the last one. It was filled with sarcasm and Richard hated how she still looked and sounded so composed and elegant even after such hearty laughter. Then again she wouldn't be the respectable supermodel who created more of her kind and better if she was unorganized.

Stopping her laughter while the excitement and amusement still burned passionately in her eyes, she turned to him and said, "Respect?" She asked with incredulity as though she were looking at something's totally unbelievable and foreign yet, new and amusing.

Richard nodded with a little less excitement as Lami's eyes kept on shining more and more, and her smile widening into an elegant and bright one. She asked one more time and Richard had a feeling that after this nod of approval, his excitement was going to die completely. He wasn't wrong.

"Darling," Lami started without losing her amusement. "If it's respect you'd wanted to show, you'd do it with sincerity without touching my pet peeve. If not for the fact that you're Nigerian and even the CEO of a very successful tech company, I'd have gotten my daughter to divorce you eons ago." Richard winced at her choice of words but he knew that she was right.

Deborah adored her mother to a fault. If she asked for anything, even to kill, Debbie would never question it. Her mother was always right in her eyes. Why else did she agree to come down to Nigeria without even seeking his approval or an explanation from him?

"Two," Lami demonstrated with her index and middle fingers before dropping them down, "you don't have the rights to call me your mom. Neither have you earned it, nor do you understand such a relationship. I, in no wise, resemble your mother, darling." This venomous woman was attacking his orphan origins again!

"Third, if you think, for a second, that my daughter is an insurance for your existence or relationship, think again." Lami said. All expression on her face was gone as she exuded an unrivaled, calm and suppressive aura.

"There's always a replacement for everyone and I could always take care of the kids with her. I did raise six kids on my own after the demise of my husband and I could always teach my daughter how to. That's why I'm her mother."

"Are you threatening me with death, mother-in-law?" Richard asked in disbelief and exasperation.

"So what if I am? What are you going to do about it?" Lami asked deadpanned.

"I could have you arrested for attempted murder, you know?"

"My lovely boy," Lami came forward and stroked his cheek, to which he visibly flinched, "Doing that will only be accomplishing my goals. I have connections that will get me bailed the second I get into the vicinity of the station. Nigeria is a good country you see." Lami smiled widely and beautifully but said nothing more.

"And besides," she continued, "if my beloved daughter hears that her poor and innocent mother who had done nothing wrong was falsely accused and arrested because of her petty husband, what do think would happen." Lami said with a pitiful expression and a few tears fell down her cheeks. The sight was enough to make a few people who passed by misunderstand and give him accusatory glances. Then what would happen when she told Debbie...

Shaking off the thought, Richard glared down at Lami with clenched fist and fiery eyes, "You're are one crazy woman, Mrs. Leticia."

Lami smirked with her tear stricken face at the sound of her son-in-law calling her by her business name. She could make do with this.

"Now that you know what I'm capable of," Lami stepped forward and shoved him aside. Looking up at his anger filled face gave her contentment like none other. "Don't cross me. The ending doesn't benefit you in any way." The woman pushed him aside and walked in.

Richard stood, rooted in place. That woman...! Ugh if she wasn't my mother-in-law!