This chapter is dedicated to Mehoyi_Christelle, LalaineLM11, Ginger95, Sorangel_serrano. Thanks very much for the powerstones, guys!
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After dressing herself up in the exact clothes Raine picked for her to wear, Shikera walked out of her room. Though the clothes, a pink off-shoulder cropped top and blue jean trousers, were not the type of clothes she usually wore since they exposed her belly button; she agreed to wear it since they fit her perfectly well.
She walked to the living room to wait for Raine as per their earlier agreement but she had not waited for long when Esther ran into the living room from her own room, stopping dead in her tracks when she saw Shikera's back view.
"Mom?!" The little girl screamed, recognizing the clothes and physique of the person before her. Her loud scream in the quiet mansion made everyone, except Raine who was still dressing, come out of her room.
Apart from the scream, the particular word they had heard made the urgency in their steps increase as they all came to the living room.
Meanwhile, Shikera who had heard the voice behind her, turned to see Esther standing there with her mouth hanging open and her eyeballs like they would fall out of their sockets the next moment.
She looked around the room to see if there was anyone there besides her, that the girl could have been talking to, before her gaze came back to settle on Esther.
"Did you just say Mom?" She asked.
She didn't receive a reply from the girl and when the others started arriving one by one, she noticed how they looked at her before glancing at Esther with an understanding gaze. Chris was the only one who talked to her when he arrived; the man being the last to arrive before Ethan.
"Are you going somewhere, Shikera?" He asked, noticing the way she was dressed. Like the others, he could immediately tell why his granddaughter had mistaken his son's wife for her mother. With the way she was dressed, even he would mistake Shikera for Esther's mother anytime.
Just as Shikera was about to answer him, Ethan walked into the living room. Though the scream had attracted him, he had taken his time in coming out because he thought Esther might have been pranking them.
"What's going on here?" He asked, seeing the way Esther was standing, before his eyes caught Shikera. And why was she dressed that way? Just like Mignon.
Enoch was the one who answered his elder brother, since he was the first person to arrive there after Esther.
He replied, "Esther mistook her as her mom because of the way she's dressed."
That was possible, Ethan thought. Even though he would never mistake Shikera to be another person no matter how she dressed. He walked towards Esther as he pulled the girl into his arms, hugging her lightly before releasing her.
"It's alright, Esther," he whispered. When he let her go, the girl trudged back in the direction in which she had run from earlier, her back posture showing how sad she was.
Ethan finally turned to Shikera, sucking in a deep breath before he talked. This was the first time he was talking to her directly since that night in his Villa and he felt it was extra hard talking to her casually, considering how beautiful and sexy she looked right now.
"Where are you going dressed like that?" He asked, walking towards her and as he did that, the others retraced their steps back to their room, leaving the couple alone.
For the second time in five minutes, Shikera looked around the room again before turning to Ethan, disbelief etched on her face.
"Were you talking to me?" She asked, staring straight into the dark pits he called his eyes.
Ethan sighed before replying, "There's no one else in the room. I asked where you were going dressed like that?"
"None of your business. I can only tell you that I will be back late so you don't have to worry about your despicable and bothersome wife... Or rather, Ward!" With that said, she turned away from him and pulled out her earphones from her bag, plugging them into her ears and ignoring him.
Ethan could only stare at her as she took her seat on the couch, and ignored him afterward. She was right; he had no right to interfere in her business since she was a matured person but still...why was she wearing a top that exposed so much skin? That was the main problem here!
Hurried footsteps diverted his attention from her as he saw his mother hurrying towards them, dressed up for going out.
"Where are you going, Mom?"
"None of your business, Ethan. If your wife didn't tell you where she was going with me, then why should I?"
Shikera who simply plugged in earphones without playing any music, was quick to realize that Raine was ready so she stood up to her feet and walked to the older woman.
A smile on her face, she slipped her arm into Raine's arm before saying,
"Are we good to go, Mum?" She asked jokingly, eliciting bouts of laughter from Raine before she herself, joined in. While still laughing, the both of them walked out of the house with their arms interwhined, while Ethan stared at their backs as they left.
The scene before him brought back familiar memories and his hand balled into fists. This was the same way his mother did then, with Mignon but now, Mignon was dead and his mother...she had been affected mentally by the death. And that was the reason they could not tell her that his marriage with Shikera was fake; they feared she would have a relapse if she got to know that they would soon divorce, and that Shikera would leave soon.
He sat down on the couch, ready to complete his work from the previous day without any interruption. And he was in that position for the next three hours until the door opened and his mother came in. He kept looking behind her while waiting for Shikera to come in too but no one was forthcoming.
"Mum, where is Shikera?" He asked her, making his mother turn to look at him with a perplexed expression.
She replied him, "What kind of relationship do you have with your wife that she doesn't tell you where she's going? As a matter of fact, I don't think you know anything about her!"
"Mum—"
"I am saying the truth, Ethan. That day at dinner you didn't know she could not eat greasy food and today too, she didn't tell you where she would be going," Raine's eyes suddenly widened as if she just realized something. She walked towards Ethan, whispering, "Ethan, was it a shot gun marriage? Is Shikera pregnant?!"
"Absolutely not! Would I have allowed her to go out in the clothes she was wearing today, if that was the case?" Ethan asked his mother, or it seemed she was now Shikera's mother.
Raine nodded, the sparkling light of realization still not leaving her eyes.
"She's not pregnant? Then that can only mean there's a fight between you which she doesn't want to settle, and that means she doesn't like you enough yet," she turned to go while still speaking, "If you need any lesson from me on how to win her heart, I will gladly teach you on one condition."
Wanting to ask what the hell his mother was saying, Ethan had just started when she interrupted him.
"What—"
"On the condition that you protect her, Ethan. Don't let her end up like Mignon."
She disappeared from Ethan's view as he fell to his seat on the couch. Here was his mom, telling him to protect Shikera from herself because he had failed with Mignon. People like Shikera had ended Mignon.
—
LK Bar
—
As soon as Shikera walked into the private room they had booked in LK Bar, the room went up in an uproar. Cyprian was the main source of the noise as she was the first to start and her voice was also loudest.
"OMG, Kera! You don't know who you look like right now, do you?" She gushed, her words coming out in a rush as she stood up to approach her friends.
"What?" Shikera asked, looking at them with curiosity plainly expressed in her brown eyes.
Cyprian turned her around in a 360° motion before finally speaking.
"Girl, you totally look like MD!" She exclaimed.