Anna felt peace less sitting right next to a person she had hurt his feelings. If only she could vanish in thin air, she could've long disappeared from the tense silence which was getting more heavier and tense. She was always on the victim's side and never had she felt how heavy getting mad at by Liam could be. It was driving her crazy already.
"Ahem" She cleared her throat to start a conversation but the intense beating of her heart spoke out the fear she was feeling.
"Papi, am really sorry for what I said. Please forgive me, l-l didn't....."
Liam glanced once at her and then refocused on the road. Without saying anything. To make matters worse, he turned on the car radio and increased the volume just to ignore her.
With a sad and so pained face, Anna turned her head over at the window, blinking back the tears. She kept observing the place they were driving through she hadn't known before. Looking more closely at the beautiful fashions and designs of all the houses and nicer roads branching all through the premises, she was left in awe of how rich people indeed exist in the world. She wanted to ask him where they were heading but let the curiousity die inside her heart.
'I wish I reside among these wealthy men and women one day. But wait, what if Liam is taking me to their house? God, I'm not ready to meet his parents yet.' Anna thought, she was still panicking when she noticed a familiar place.
'Whew! Thank goodness we're going to Max's, otherwise my heart was about to pop out of my chest.' She thought, 'Eh! Max is surely rich, look at this paradise he resides in. I can't wait to give him my sister. She will be the luckiest to fall into this much wealth if only she behaves and...'
Halt!
Anna looked over at Liam to find him typing something on his phone. All the sadness that had left when she had concentrated on the view and her own thoughts came back when she saw him still avoiding her and purposely ignoring her.
"Are you not going to...."
"Get out" Liam said emotionlessly avoiding eye contacting her.
Anna glared at him this time, sadness was quickly replaced by anger. She got out and furiously banged the door shut. She dialled Nancy's number for like fifteenth time but she didn't pick up still. She decided to text her instead.
*Please Nancy, come and pick me up. I don't know why the fuck you're not picking up my calls. I need you right away.*
As soon as she sent the message on What's app, it was blue ticked but no response came.
"So, even this bitch is ignoring me like this bastard right here? I don't need you either." Anna murmured to herself.
Liam who was still sitting in the car muffled his laughter. He wanted to film her frustration but then saw her going back to the direction they had come from.
"Where do you think you're going to" Liam asked and she ignored him also. He just caught her hand and dragged her to a vast black gate opposite the familiar maroon gate Anna knew and had expected for it to be their destination. Before they stepped inside, a gate keeper clad in all black with an AK-47 stopped them.
"I need your signatures here before you get in, miss."
Anna signed whatever the documents were even without going through them to know what they were about.
They got inside the gate and into a spacious sitting room of the house.
"My friend resides here but I can't find him" Liam said, "I will go look for him outside. Wait for me here"
Anna just rolled her eyes angrily and sat on the clean couch with folded arms.
"Wait when we get home," She murmured glaring at his retreating figure. "I won't give it to you even if you cry blood. And I don't love you anymore."
She fetched out her phone and started pressing on it to make herself busy in order to ignore Liam when he comes back but in actual sense, she was on calculator doing nothing.
Two minutes turned into three and three to five but there wasn't anybody coming. Neither Liam nor the house owner.
"Where is he now?" Anna murmured under her breath, "Did he bring me here just to toil with me? Who leaves alone in this kind of big house with no children and pets anyway? It's too silent for somebody's home."
She started feeding her eyes with the surroundings.
A well designed circular wide crystal chandelier in the middle of the ceiling was beautifully lit, it's glow reflecting on the white ceiling and the white marble floor. The light from the small bulbs on the edge of the ceiling was majestically lighting on the brown coloured walls all around the room accompanied by the lapms.
"Wow!" She exclaimed getting up, "Everything in here screams excellence. Look at this now!" She said heading towards a floor to ceiling well designed built in bookshelves with a very wide TV screen Anna has ever seen; in the middle and under it was an electric fireplace.
"Oh my God! This is explicitly nice. Why haven't I noticed this before?" She said to herself, "I was perhaps angry. I wonder if the owner is a guy and is single. I'm for sure likely to give him all my other sisters to choose a wife for himself; only if the person is he and not she. Whew! Rich people really exist. I wish we also own one in future, maybe after we wed."
She kept on shamelessly and so curiously inspecting everything that impressed her closely until her eyes glimpsed a familiar face on the wall.
"So, this is Lewis's house all along?" She asked herself touching the photo on the wall. Her eyes moved to the next photo but as soon as she did, her blood ceased flowing and it went cold in an instance. She blinked thrice to let her eyes scrutinize all the photos in second to make sure she had seen right. And indeed, she had seen right.
Lo and behold, it was hers and Liam's photos on the wall and not Lewis's as she had thought.
"No! No! No! You got to be seeing things now" She said holding her chest with both arms. "Calm down please"
She opened her eyes slowly to see if she had seen right but since her head was a little tilted up, her eyes fell on the written red words just above the photos.
'WELCOME HOME ANNABELLE MY LOVE'
"AHHHHH!" Anna screamed holding both of her ears. Sweat and tears already dropping. "No you can't do this to me"
She ran in the direction she had seen him exit to.
"Papi tell me you're kidding me" She said crying out loud as she draw the main door curtain to step out and...
"CONGRATULATIONS!"
A multitude of people roared simultaneously. It was all her loved ones and a lot of other unknown people standing before her with wide smiles. Some holding balloons while a few others hold defferent types of cameras before her. Right before infront of them all was Liam holding a well decorated big key with a triumph smile.
As if all the the drama wasn't enough, she noticed a white man who seemed to be in his forties; well dressed in a suit come forth.
"Ahem, my greetings to you, miss Anna. My name is Travis Scott. I am Mr Salvatore's lawyer and I'm hereby notifying you that you now fully own this piece of land and all the establishments on it." He opened a file he was holding and showed her a certain paper.
It was a land agreement document. And guess what, there was already her agreeing signature. It was the document they had made her unknowingly sign at the gate entrance.
Anna felt her head spinning and the dizziness got much heavier. She staggered back with wobbly legs, holding her head. In the next few seconds, she fell unconscious into somebody's hands.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Anna lazily opened her eyes and the first thing she noticed was the ceiling. She tilted her head on her right to find herself on the bed.
'That's right, it was all a nice dream.' she thought. She tried to lift her head but a strong hand pulled her shoulders back.
"Easy there, pretty."
She jerked up to a familiar voice, "Liam! What are you doing here? And why are you not at work?"
"How wrong is it if I came back to check on my girl?" Liam asked back.
"Hmm? That's unlike you to come back home day time when I'm not sick. Or am I? I can't feel my head. Am I pregnant?"
Liam chuckled at her non stop blabbering. "You called me for this so I came running" He said running his hand on her thigh.
Till then did she realise that she was actually naked, only remaining in a panty. She covered her boobs instantly and crossed her legs.
"Pervert! I did not call you for anything. But wait, last I checked I was mad at you and I had promised not to give you anything for the whole month. Or was it also in the dream?" She said said glaring at him accusingly but the guy infront of her was only smiling like a fool.
"What dream?"
"Well, " Her brows knitted in deep thoughts. "I was so peaceful at home folding our clothes I had washed when you came and took us for lunch but you started nagging me. I remember watching a sad movie where a little boy's pet dog died and then..."
'So this was what had made you cry' Liam thought shaking his head slightly, 'So innocent and stupid.'
".....then I saw our photo where I was bitting you on your Adam's apple and you were laughing hard" She said with much fondness, "Ahh, I went out and saw Nancy, Eric, Nathaniel, Stella, Fiona, Uncle Enoch, Debby, Lewis Max, Gab, Kim, all my former colleagues and Mr Balaji, all our neighbors"
She lifted her head to look up into his eyes, "You were also amongst them and you were holding a key well decorated with a red....."
She stopped midway when she saw the key she was describing in his left hand and a hand fan in his right hand.
She looked up at him with wide eyes, "This better be a joke"
She started inspecting the room they were in to realize that it wasn't her usual single room but a spacious bedroom doubling the size of hers and Fiona's room.
"No"
She ran to the window like a mad woman and draw the curtains to check the outside surroundings.
Outside the window was Paul standing in the garden talking on phone. She ran to the otherside of the room and drew the curtains of a wide glass door to see all the people she had thought that she had dreamt of; partying on the lawn.
Now everything made sense. His rude manners earlier and Nancy ignoring her intentionally. They were cooperating to surprise her. Too much shock had paralysed her weak heart making her pass out and the hand fan meant that he was faning her to wake up.
She slid on the floor and sobbed.
"T-this is-is too much!"
Liam scooped her up from the cold ground and dressed her up again.
"You will be just fine" He assured, "Now let's go back out. The guests are waiting for you."
She buried her face in his chest and wailed loudly grasping on his shirt tightly as if he would ran away any time soon.
Liam hugged her back for some minutes to calm her shaking body till she was too good to go.