CHAPTER ONE
CAROLINE
I walked into my one-room accommodation, dropped my bag on my DVD player, and walked towards my bed.
God knows I hated the hellhole I lived in. I had tried to make my one-room apartment look more welcoming by decorating it with items I picked up from the second-hand store down the street, yet the room still looked awful.
The walls had little dots of blood, which I presumed to be the blood of mosquitoes, and this wall is in great need of a fresh coat of green painting.
My once flowery blue carpet needs changing because it now has bad patches on almost all parts of the floor.
The door needs fixing. I can no longer lock the wooden door because the lock is not functioning. I tried to live without any fear of the unknown.
I had carpeted the ground with a flowery blue carpet and partitioned the room with a blue curtain, but now it all looks too old and lacks fancy.
I just wondered why things don't last.
Most of the things one picks from fairly used stores.
The TV stand is in one corner of the room. Sitting next to it is the DVD player on a stool.
I piled my CD on the DVD player.
The electric stove and cooking intensities are on the other side of the room.
These are the only things I had left of my apartment when the rent expired, and I had no money to renew it.
Daniel has rendered me too broke to survive. I had sold all my other belongings and used the money to pay for the rent of this hell hole.
I pulled off my clothes and hung them and the bag on the wall with the others.
My shoes are on one side of the room, clinging to one another. The shoes I bought so expensively now look like rags just in a few months.
While they survived beautifully in an all-air conditioning room, they all get spoiled in a hot room.
That is the fate of most of my shoes and bags now. I have almost nothing left.
God! How I wished and waited for the day I would do my carpentry jobs so I could lift every one of my things off the ground.
Well, that will come if and when I can get a better job or get my old one back.
The bank where I worked in the past had relieved me of my duty.
The manager had promised to call the instant there was a slot for me, but I knew the back calling me may never happen, so my aunty got me this job at a flower shop as a production manager.
Huge job title, but little pay that can't feed me, let alone get me out of here.
I sighed again as I began to tidy up the room a little, arranging and rearranging my poor shoes and other things on the floor.
I knew I should let go of my worn-out shoes, but I couldn't bring myself to throw them out.
I bought this thing far too expensive to lose them this fast.
I must bring myself around to do the needful.
Work was tedious today.
I had to sell a life flower that the florist had produced woefully.
The red rose and the white Lily were ready to give up.
It was the millions-stones with the fillers that gave the production a facelift.
I was surprised I sold it off. However, I will not be surprised if the flower dies tomorrow and we lose the customer forever.
The flowers were new delivery. It shouldn't have died that quickly, except that silly florist forgot to shut the cold room tightly.
The silly girl can't work without supervision. How can I explain this?
I had closed early to handle my stuff, leaving the florist in the office to fix the next day's orders.
The next day, I got to the office to see that the arranged flowers looked dead, and I had to deal with this loss.
"I need to talk to Regina. She needs to keep the cold room cold at all times before I lose this job again," I said, talking to myself.
I know Aunty Bunmi wouldn't be happy with me if I lost this job without a good plan.
She single-handedly pulls muscle for this low-paying job to work.
I am so grateful that my broke ass is not on the street as Daniel had planned.
Daniel is the one person I want to kill If and whenever I have the chance to.
I am yet to believe how stupid I can get, giving my life savings to Daniel to start what he called our business.
How foolish of me to trust him with my money, believing he loved me and was willing to marry me after proposing to me.
Can you imagine it? the mother-fucker proposed to me, and gave me a grand engagement party, and dropped a gorgeous ring on my finger.
I told him we would start the business after the wedding, but he insisted it was better before.
His excuse was that we might spend too much money on the wedding, hindering our immediate start.
I saw reason with him because I know I don't spare anything when throwing a party, and my wedding party should be the boom.
I need not say.
He promised to take care of all the wedding expenses while all I am to do is just throw my savings of eight million into our business as he is going to throw in ten.
I believed him; I didn't know it was all a charade to get my hard-earned money.
GOD! I wished I had waited for the marriage before investing.