6

The whole table is covered with a lot of papers to work on, and in the middle of the day, someone knocks on her door.

" Get in. " she gives permission.

The door opens, exposing Bridget.

" Madam, there's an invitation card for you," She says.

"From who?" She asks.

" I haven't opened it yet.".

Rachel takes it and opens it. "Looks like it's from a family friend," she says. She sighs. " Thank you. Anything else?" She asks.

" No madam."

" Okay, you may go."

Bridget takes her to leave.

" Time to wear my new dress." She smirks.

On the other hand, Caleb was lying on his bed, waiting for the night to see if he will have any clients. Obviously, he will have one, or two maybe. He has become more popular these days. His phone on his chest buzzes with a new message. He takes it and opens it. From Madam Ariana.

~ There's a wedding ceremony we are going to attend in 2 hours. Prepare yourself. Wear the best suit you have.

"So that's the work of today." He says it to himself. He wakes up and goes to the bathroom. In less than an hour, he was ready to go. After making sure everything is ready, he goes to Madam Ariana's office. She was ready as well, except she had pyjamas since she wanted to finish her paper works first before she could wear her elegant dress. How she looked at the moment made Caleb laugh.

" Don't start with me, Caleb." She laughs too.

" Anyway, I'm done with the papers." She puts her pen down.

" I need to get ready now."

" Why didn't you prepare yourself at home?"

" Because it's far from town." She explains.

" You should come one day, son."  She says as she goes to a room connected to her office.

Son, Calebs thinks for a while. It has been quite long since he heard someone called her 'son.' His mind is slowly taken to the memories of that specific woman who would call her son.   Those memories make him wonder if ever he made the right choice leaving her like that. Something always brings inner conflict within him. What if she too was a victim?

Those thoughts are suddenly driven away as the door opens and the madonna of the night comes out ready. She looks more beautiful than ever in her extremely shining black sleeveless dress that riches just below her knees. The dress goes well with her black high heels covered with shining little silver stones.

" Wow! You are like a different person. You look beautiful"

" Thank you. Now let's go. We're about to be late."

* AT THE PARTY

" You look beautiful Rachel!" Almost everyone she knew said that. With the long shiny milky dress which is super stylish, everyone barely took their eyes off her.

The venue was beautiful.  It was the last floor of the building where You can see the whole city when you were on it, plus every decoration was perfect. More guests were arriving and one of them of course happened to be Melissa and her son who had no idea that Rachel would attend the party as well.

As Rachel was having a chit-chat with one of the guests she knew. Melissa interfered. Just as it would be predictable.

" What are you doing here?" Melissa asks.

" It's a wedding ceremony. What else would I be doing here? Dear Mother-in-law?" Something which makes Rachel's friend laugh. She thought they were joking with each other. If only she knew.

As melissa keeps talking nonsense to both of them, suddenly Rachel's friend's attention turned to someone behind them. The unusual feeling and a smell of a familiar Perfume hits Rachel. Now Melissa is officially talking to herself. Rachel silently hopes it's not the person she thinks he is but sadly her prayer doesn't come true when she hears a woman a bit old calling the person by his name 'Caleb'. Dang, it! She silently curses.

And now melissa's attention was turned to where Caleb was.  Immediately she leaves Rachel and her friend to quickly reaches Caleb. Every part of her body excited, she quickly goes to hug Caleb, the type of hug which would make people think otherwise had Melissa not been an old mama.

" How have you been? I mean both of you of course."  She greets as she looks at him and his madam.

" Good. Just good. Enjoying the ceremony? " Madam asks Melissa.

" Yes, now that the people I can enjoy with are here." She smiles. Rachel rolls her eyes and walks away. Somewhere his effect can't reach her.

Suddenly someone from behind hugs Rachel. Same old bad feeling, David.

" Hello, wife." He smiles. Rachel pulls herself from him.

" You didn't tell me you'd be here." She tries her best not to look surprised as she fakes a smile

" Do I owe you any explanation? Anyway, I've been here for quite some time. Oh by that I mean in the country and I slept at our famous hotel." He smirks. " Need more explanation?"

Rachel takes a sip of her red wine.

" Answer.." He starts holding her hand harassingly when Rachel stops her.

" Don't tell me you are going to beat me here, while everyone is seeing us." She says as she's not looking at him.

Caleb saw and sensed what was actually happening. His blood became too painful to pass in the veins as it was mixed with a heavy feeling of anger that he was already preparing himself had Rachel not stopped David from harassing her.

" Anyway, I don't expect to see you til we get home," Rachel says.

" And I don't expect anyone to touch you. Especially your delicious exposed thigh. I mean it." Rachel rolls her eyes and takes her to leave to explore other parts of the venue, especially the open space.

Finally, after all the drama, the groom and the bride arrived and it was time for every guest gathers in the venue and pay attention to them. The wedding wasn't enjoyable anymore, since all she thought of Was the two guys who are capable of making her life a mess. At least one of them made her smile from time to time.

Her attention goes back to the bride as everyone starts clapping hands for how beautiful she looks. Her elegant dress. Her beautiful hair. Everything about the bride looked extremely perfect and she looked more beautiful than anyone. That's a fact.

Forgot to mention the Groom, he looked handsome of course. The black tuxedo he wore made him look even more handsome plus being tall gave him more credit. What would this couple miss to have a good life? They looked happy most importantly and it was Rachel's wish that they remain the same. Most people would say til death separates them but as for Rachel. Not even death would be able to break them apart was her wish.

The glamorous entrance of the centre of tonight was now over and every guest is about to take his|her seat. Rachel takes hers as well. After two hours of different entertainment happening Rachel decides to go outside to breathe as there were lots of guests concentrated in one big venue in which most of them were not known her but knew who she was.

On the second floor, there is an open space made specifically for some fresh air.  There's a bridge made of glass and it connects two buildings, one which has different parties including Emily's wedding ceremony and another building which is rented to different people for office purposes.

As she keeps exploring the bridge, accidentally, or maybe intentionally depending on why he did it, Caleb spills a drink on Rachel's dress literally out of nowhere. Rachel struggles to dry herself with her handkerchief and Caleb takes that as an opportunity to stare at her. She looks at him in disbelief, as if choking on something.

" Can't you at least say sorry?"

" You are the One who came my way so.." Caleb rolls his eyes.

" Oh really?" She gives a devilish smile as she's about to do the exact same thing he did to her, making Caleb open his mouth in awe.

" Well have a nice day." She smirks and starts moving, but his hand stops her and brings her back to that one place both of them knowingly, secretly want her to be, in his arms.

Their eyes meet, making his arms hold onto her small body even more. Her heart stops the beat while his body gets hotter.

" I didn't know your heartbeat belongs to me." He licks his lips.

" I didn't know I could raise the temperature of this place just by touching you." She looks deeper into his eyes. Yes, she's nervous but she won't show it, not in front of him. The one guy who is capable of changing her heartbeat and surprisingly they met within a very short while for that to happen already.

" Just be together already. I've never seen such a reality show quite as good as yours." She smiles. Both of them look to their left side where the voice is coming from. They didn't realise the bride of the night was watching this whole time.

" Emily!?" Rachel.

" Finally I am noticed." She rolls her eyes.

" What are you doing here instead of being inside?" Caleb asks.

"I also need my air. There are lots of people I don't even know in there. I feel like a guest in my own wedding ceremony. Don't worry you'll understand when you marry someday." She smiles.

" Anyway, I'm Caleb."

" Oh  I am Emily," she gives a hand as she looks at Rachel. " Is he my future friend in law Rachel?" She asks with an excited face.

" Emily we are just friends." She whispers.

" I am not sure if I should believe that." She points her index finger towards Rachel.

" And what are you doing with my wife?" Suddenly someone asks.

Caleb was still holding Rachel's waist and did not let go even as David is on his way to them. Not even he knows where he gets such courage to do something like this.

" Trouble is on the way." Emily's whole body trembles. She's never had matching blood with David.

" Caleb let me go," Rachel begs.

" I won't," Caleb says.

" You don't know what he's capable of."

"Well then, I wanna see it today." Caleb sighs.

" So he's still your husband." Emily nods to herself.

" She's not yours."

" She's not a property," Caleb smirks.

" And who are you to say that?" David

Caleb laughs for a while.

" Don't tell me you don't know who I am, or what I am popular with!"

" And you are proud of that? David"

" Isn't it better than to be rejected by every woman including sluts?!"

" That's it! I've had enough of your SHIT!" Finishes the last word with a hard punch on Caleb's face to the point he almost falls. The girls try to stop him from going back to Caleb but repeatedly fail.

" Please David don't fight anymore!" Emily's heartbeat rate goes higher. Rachel is startled, not knowing if stopping them is a good idea. A  place is now filled with people. Two men step into the fighting scene and take David away from Caleb whose face is covered with Muddy blood.

" This is not over yet! You moron!" David

Caleb pulls himself up from the ground as he laughs.

" So this is the only pain you can give? This makes me wonder if there's any reason why people should be afraid when you threaten them." He smirks.

" Stop everyone! If fighting is what you feel like doing right now please leave. The rest please let's go back in." The groom announces.  Everyone goes back to the ceremony.

After some time of people going back to their positions, the mc announces what follows next.

" The night is still beautiful and a lot of events have happened, well including the unexpected ones." Everyone laughs.

" Anyway, that one moment everyone usually waits for has come. A moment for the groom and the bride to have their speeches. Ladies prepare your handkerchiefs for you might cry."

Everybody gives a round of applause as the groom and the bride step down.

" Ooh thank you! Baby, would you like to start?" He asks.

"No baby you start." She says.

" Thank you, baby. " He sobs.

" Okay um..." He thinks for a while.

" I am so happy to the point even words aren't capable of explaining exactly how I feel right now. You see I never expected she would accept me. I was such an irresponsible person. So she offered a deal, and I achieve something of my own she accepts me, I don't she doesn't. It was that moment, for the first time I had a direction for my own life. Now I understand why she made such an offer, others would say she's a gold digger but I say she was and still is the shaper of my life. Women can be a blessing or a curse depending on how you want them to function in your life. They can make you love yet others can make you greedy and lose everything you ever had. So here's my advice find the right woman, treat her like the queen that she is and she will give you the love, care and blessings you deserve. Sometimes even more than you deserve. My last piece of advice to men, we should love, respect and care for our women. They are the real angels. We make them go through a lot yet they stand beside us. "

He turns to him his wife, who also looks at him.

"Emily my love, this is a new chapter of a book we have many pages to fill. But here's my desire, I hope this chapter will never be closed. I hope there'll only be several parts. I pray to God to give us kids that have their daddy's anger and their mother's tender heart. "

Some people laugh others to give their round of applause.

" I hope, we raise them together and lastly... I hope we get to grow old together. I love you, my queen." He leans towards her until their just an inch apart, they both look at each other and press their lips against each other.

The heart-touching speech yet a killer one. Many men looked down, the reason is obvious. What Emily's husband said was true.  Many people lose even humanity. Then comes losing everything and that's when they start realizing what they had on their plates. Despite other men seeing what happens, they still make the same mistakes and the same regrets come.

***************

FOR EVERYONE WHO HAS READ THIS CHAPTER, THANK YOU SO MUCH AND I HOPE YOU READ THE UPCOMING ONES.