"Do you two know each other?"
Together we said, "No we don't." he knew we were telling lies but for some reason, he didn't ask any more questions. After taking the water as he insisted I started to ask my questions because I had no idea how a poor man who slept under the bridge became rich in less than a year. Even if he started selling narcotics, he wouldn't have made it this fast especially to buy a villa of this kind. There are two ways, someone could get what I saw the old man have that day. The first was through inheritance and the second was through years of hard work.
All those two were highly impossible, the first was impossible because how would a man inherit a villa of this kind and be sleeping under a bridge for the past nine years and the second was not a choice at all because he had a weak heart to do any hard work and I was with him for the past eight years. I couldn't wrap my head around the situation so I asked "Sir who are you?"
"I'm Oliver Bance, a multi-millionaire businessman and this is one of my houses."
Sorry if I sound rude, but this doesn't make any sense, Sir. Why would a millionaire leave his palace and sleep under a bridge for years? Maybe I'm just dreaming... Nicolas, try hitting me so I can wake up."
I hadn't even finished my sentence when he smacked me on the head. "Ouch! So you hit me?"
"As you can see, Jasmine, you are not dreaming and my dad is telling the truth."
"But if you're so rich, why did you sleep under a bridge for nine years? And if you were rich, why ask me for 50 dollars the first day we met? Why pretend to be poor all these years?"
"Jasmine, I know this is hard to understand, but I had my reasons for doing what I did, and I promise I'll explain everything to you"
He told me the story of how he caught his wife cheating on him with his late brother and how he started to hate women after that incident. It was a sad sorry with lessons but it still didn't answer how he lied about his life.
"After going through this experience, I didn't want my son to go through a similar situation so I decided to come out of my riches to look for a wife for him. Luck being on my side I found the right person."
Ignorantly I asked, "Who is this lucky girl that you had to go through all this stress for?"
"It's you, Jasmine, as you can see, that is Nicolas, my son. I believe you guys would be one of the best couples in the world."
"Dad I can't marry her; I won't marry her. She is nothing like the future wife I dreamed of, she is not light-skinned, she doesn't have dimples and most importantly she has a flat bum. I want to hug my wife every morning from behind so if I marry Jasmine, I would be hugging a bone which will result in early death."
This guy's words were punching me in the face, on a normal day I would have thrown a punch back but because I respected the old man I had to pretend to be okay with his words.
"Sir please I am not ready for marriage right now, I need to get a job and settle down as a medical doctor before I can think of marriage moreover I won't marry a guy who disrespects women and doesn't care about their feelings."
"Nicolas, how can you be this rude, was this how I trained you? Jasmine, I am sorry for his words, he is not normally like this but are you sure you guys are strangers? The Nicolas I raised is very polite." I answered with a nod which didn't convince him. I left the villa after a few drinks. He told me to visit him more often since I knew the villa now.
When I got home I processed everything and called Bela to give her the gist. Bela became a renowned prosecutor and a mom with two beautiful kids. I went Job hunting the next day, walking under the scorching sun I felt dizzy but I had no intention of giving up because there was a promise I made to myself after high school that I would be successful in life to put my dad and Crystal to shame.
I opened my eyes and realized I was in a hospital bed. A nurse walked to me saying I needed rest so she gave me some drugs.
"Jasmine! Can you see me? What happened?"
"Sir! How did you know I was here?"
"The doctor told me you overworked yourself and it would affect your health if you continue. I don't trust you will take care of yourself and as my future daughter-in-law, I won't take the risk so you are moving into the villa till you get better."
With the look on his face, I found it hard to reject his offer but I tried to make an excuse of getting my clothes from home. He smiled saying "Don't try to be smart besides I have already called one of my boutiques to get you some set of clothes."
We went to the villa and the first creature I could set my eyes on was a man with a shapeless head who had no respect for women. I knew my stay wouldn't be peaceful seeing how he squeezed his face with his twisted mouth. I knew it wouldn't be good to stay under the same roof. He was shocked when his dad said,
"Nicolas, won't you welcome your future wife? She will stay with us until she gets better."