"You mean Mr. John Corns?", Wallace asked stuttering. He looked at his friend in disbelief. "Who in their right minds will give up their daughter for marriage with a grandfather-like man?", Wallace pondered on this as he stared at Mitch like he was crazy and indeed, it looked like he was, and then he uttered the words.
"That girl is no daughter of mine!"
What did that even mean? Wallace had observed over the years that Mitch did not like his eldest daughter much and he made no effort to hide that at all, but this, … this was on a whole different level. He waited to see if his friend would give him a semblance of an explanation this time … and he did not have to wait for long as Mitch did just that.
"Yes, the same John Corns that you know" Mitch started, and Wallace gave him his full attention because, at the back of his head, he knew no explanation would suffice for this.
Mitch continued his 'explanation' without noticing the weird look that passed on Wallace's face as those thoughts went through his mind.
"He, I mean Mr. Corns, approached me with the 'landscape project'. You know that the person that gets to implement this project will gain millions! right? He would like one of my daughters for himself. He also promised to finance my current project as well", Mitch stated factually.
Wallace looked shocked. He thought to himself, "I don't know which one shocks me more…"
"The fact that he agreed to it or the fact that he stated that Amanda was not his."
He would be bound legally to him from the following week after the engagement between Ella and Eddy was finalized. Eddy would also stand the chance of inheriting their business since the two men planned to merge them.
Frankly, Wallace would have preferred Eddy to wed Amanda instead as she had a better attitude and approach to people that would have helped their businesses in the near future, but Mitch was somehow adamant and was able to surprisingly convince Eddy of this.
It was public knowledge that Mitch had always wanted a male child. In fact, many people thought that, that was the main reason for his divorce from his wife, but they never understood why he never remarried for the male heir he so desperately wanted.
"Is the project the only reason Mitch?", Wallace queried.
"Hmm," Mitch seemed to be in deep thought and finally raised his head to look at Wallace.
"I'll tell you about this incident that I have never told anyone about but since we are to be family, it should be okay," he added the last part to himself as if he was convincing himself that it was okay to tell it out.
"Thanks for trusting me on this my friend. You can have confidence in me on this. After all we are already family".
Mitch nodded and started…
"When I met Yvonne, she was the most beautiful woman I had ever met. You know that our courtship was not for long but what you do not know is that she would not let me touch her no matter how much I tried. Since I loved her so much, I proposed but, on that night, she told me that she was a virgin and had never seen any man, intimately before." He paused slightly as if recalling a painful memory which made Wallace doubt if his friend was sane.
Because he did not see where the problem was. If his wife was a virgin when they had married or even when he had met her, he would have been over the moon as would most men that he knew, so what exactly the heck was Mitch driving at? He wisely remained quiet and waited for Mitch to continue.
When Mitch had his composure back, he said surprisingly the most ridiculous statement ever:
"Who would marry a virgin?!"
"I do not like them. I always preferred experienced women!"
Wallace: "…..." his mouth hang open as he stared at the ridiculousness of what he was hearing. He could not think of any words to bring out so he just kept mute and let his friend continue.
"So, I thought that as I had already proposed, I needed to 'fix' the issue so I planned it out. I had a business dinner scheduled with quite a decent man I would say. I invited my new fiancé to the same dinner and gave them both some 'Molly' and…"
"Molly? What is that?"
Rolling his eyes, he responded, "The love drug?"
Wallace, "…"
Sighing, Mitch said almost frustratingly, "ecstasy!"
"Oh! okay", Wallace said as he now understood what Mitch was referring to but then,
"Ecstasy! Why would you…" and then it dawned on him what Mitch had done to his fiancé even before Mitch finished the narration. To say that he was disgusted and irritated was an understatement, but he had promised to keep the secret, so he wisely held his sentiments to himself for his friend to finish the story. By now, he was not sure he knew the man in front of him anymore.
Mitch continued, "I tipped off one of the staff members to put it in their drink and then he made sure that my business partner entered the 'wrong room' which coincidentally already had my fiancé already in it.
"I think you can sum up the rest now …right?"
Wallace just stared at Mitch as if he had grown horns on his head.
"Did you love her?", he asked suddenly
"Of course. Why would you even ask me that?"
"I'm wondering how you felt when someone else touched your woman … that's all".
Mitch just shrugged nonchalantly.
"But Mitch, are you sure that he touched her? I mean, how are you so sure of that?"
"Simple, she thought it was me so we scheduled the wedding about a month from then when she realised she was pregnant".
I took a sample of the man's hair (for DNA purposes) for future guarantee and tested it against Amanda. She definitely is not mine!
"Why do look angry then, if you planned this".
"Because of the unplanned variable… I mean the pregnancy!"
"I didn't expect the pregnancy at all and she didn't want to terminate it when I asked her to."
Wallace, "…"
Did you ask her to t-t-erminate the pregnancy?
Instead of answering the question asked, Mitch rather stated in despair, "I became responsible for the unplanned variable!"
Wallace, "huh?"