Chapter 3 Three

Athaliah was eating her dinner when she heard cars drive into the compound, she forced herself to remain calm while trying to finish her food and not throw up. She couldn't let him know that what he did had hit so much and she was very much affected by it.

The door opened and Callum stepped inside, she slowly turned and watched him walk towards the dining room. One of the reasons why she managed to enjoy her marriage was that Callum had a ridiculously handsome face. He oozed so much sexiness without doing anything and it always drove her crazy

but unfortunately, the man wouldn't even share a room with her.

His custom-tailored suit clung to his body, the grey colour of the suit giving his sexiness another aura. Her eyes travelled from his long straight legs to his torso and she could almost literally draw those lines she somehow got a glimpse of months ago.

Athaliah grabbed the jug and poured herself a cup of water, gulping it and pushing down the waves of nausea rushing up her throat. She grabbed the brown envelope and flung it at him.

"What's this?" she asked wearing a frown. Calum stared back at her somewhat taken aback. He bent down and picked the envelope up chuckling lightly.

"What do you mean? You know exactly what it is" He replied handing his suitcase to Bala. Athaliah watched him remove his suit jacket flexing his muscles as he rolled up his sleeves.

"You didn't even let him be laid for twenty-four hours before doing this?" Athaliah asked tears threatening to roll down her cheeks again.

"I know you despise this marriage, I know you don't like me, I know that I in every way and manner disgust you but you had exercised patience for two years, couldn't you just exercise more patience for a few days? A week? A month?" Athaliah shot at him again.

"You just had to show me over and over again that I despise you" she added biting down on her lip to prevent her tears from running down her cheeks again.

"I despise this marriage?" Callum asked his brows furrowed in anger while Athaliah stared at him in surprise.

"I don't like you? You disgust me?" Callum asked again, his voice going notches higher while Athaliah continued staring at him in surprise. Callum had never, not even once raised his voice at her throughout their two-year marriage. He was always calm, collected, and reserved like he had everything in control. He always did. And it was the first time she was seeing him display the most emotions.

"What do you know? Who are you to tell me my emotions?" he asked again.

"You were the one who never wanted this marriage. Your father told me what you said when they informed you that you were getting married to me" Callum revealed and Athaliah stared at him in shock.

"Oh c'mon, don't give me that surprised look" Callum continued.

"You've wanted out since Day one and here I am, fulfilling your wishes for you. What else do you want?" Callum asked his voice barely above a whisper. Athaliah stared at Callum frozen for a few seconds before sticking out her arm and pushing Callum's shoulder with little and zero power with her right middle finger.

"What do you know?" she asked as tears ran down her cheeks. She couldn't hold them back anymore.

"Fulfilling my wishes?" she asked laughing. "Do you even know my wishes? Do you know what I want and what I don't want?" she continued asking.

"What do you even know about me?"

"You are so mean, so mean" Athaliah continued.

"You couldn't even let me take a breath. What did you want me to say? Out of the blues, I was told I was getting married, should I have thrown a party?"

Athaliah asked chuckling.

"I may not know what you want or what you like or whatnot but you have shown me that you want out of this marriage and that's one thing that I know

I'm going to help you with it" Callum replied and Athaliah smiled.

"That is what you want. That's what you've always wanted. You are the one who went to work on our wedding night without saying a word to me. You are the one who leaves the house before I wake up and come back when I'm asleep. You are the one who treats me like a plague, someone you can't stand for a long time, and you've done that for two years Callum and now you dare to stand in front of me and tell me I showed you I wanted out of this marriage" Athaliah said shaking her head.

"How dare you?" she asked bringing her hand to her forehead and rubbing it.

"I have work to do, I'll leave you to your thoughts" Callum replied bringing his jacket and heading up the staircase. Athaliah watched him go before managing to sit down on one of the chairs. She stared at the brown envelope she had flung at Clalum on the floor and bent down to pick it up. A wave of nausea hit her again and she rushed towards the sink emptying her bowels for the third time that day.

"I'll call the family doctor" Bala announced and Athaliah waved her hands negatively. She rinsed her face and hands before turning to Bala.

"I'm fine" she replied walking towards her own room.

*****************************************************

Athaliah stared at the ceiling of her room deep in thought, her eyes were still red from crying earlier. She cried in front of him, showed her weakness, and showed him how much he affected her. She promised herself not to show him, but she did. But then again, Callum had played the responsible husband, he hadn't used it against her. The thoughts made her chuckle while rubbing her glabella.

Kate's question popped up in her head again and Athaliah swallowed hard.

"Athaliah, there are a million of things I don't know about your marriage with Callum, but ill tell you something. You have to ask yourself if you can go on like this if you can keep living this kind of life till you grow grey hair and maybe have kids who have no emotional connection whatsoever to their father. If you are fine being on your deathbed reminiscing your life and you are not going to regret it. You have to think about it hard and long, whatever your answer is, you'll know what to do"

Kate had said those words to her two months before when she had confided in her about Callum divorcing her after his grandfather died. Athaliah sucked in a deep breath trying to play out the question in her head again.

She couldn't. She really couldn't. She wasn't the social or the party type, she wasn't extroverted and neither was she introverted. She liked having her own kind of fun, she liked giggling and laughing watching funny French romcoms. She wouldn't be able to stand having sex with someone who took it as a chore, having children with no emotional connection. Worse was she going to live this kind of life till she grew white hair? The thought made her chuckle into the night.

She certainly didn't want that kind of life.

And that was the cue; flipping the duvet off her body, she got out of bed and brought out her boxes, and started packing her clothes and stuff intentionally making sure to leave everything and anything Callum had bought or gotten for her.

By 4 am, she was done packing. Looking at the number of boxes and the things she was leaving behind, Athaliah realised that in a span of two years, Callum had gotten a lot of things for a wife he claimed to despise so much. Way too many things. The closest was still as full even after packing, it was as though she was going on a vacation, except that she wasn't coming back from this one.

Athaliah sat on her bed staring at the gifts Callum had given her, he never gave her directly, either sent it through her secretary or she got home and met a wrapped box on her bed. She tried to imagine how he would act around someone he liked, would he also spoil her with gifts? Would he give her all his attention? The questions in her head made her laugh.

"They don't matter so much now do they?" she asked the night wing smiling and shaking her head.

She tried to sleep but she couldn't, she tossed and tossed on the bed and she still couldn't sleep and Athaliah didn't know why. By morning, she had called for a private car and she walked down the staircase looking around for the last time, she grabbed the brown envelope on the table, it was exactly where she had left it even though the maids had cleaned that morning.

She brought out the stack of papers and went through them quietly, her eyebrows were slowly raised at the alimony Callum had chosen to give her after the divorce. She chuckled lightly digging her hands into her pocket and bringing out her pen.

The rims of her eyes were red but Athaliah didn't notice. She didn't know how long she stared at the paper, at where she was supposed to sign. She had agreed to divorce him, she didn't know why she was so hesitant to sign it. She closed her eyes and took a few breaths trying to calm herself down. By the time she opened her eyes, her crisp and neat handwriting was over each page of the paper. She slipped the pen back into her pocket and turned to find Bala standing behind her.

"Please give this to Callum when he comes downstairs and please them move out the boxes in my room" Athaliah muttered trying to wear a small smile while Bala stared at her without a word.

"I'm leaving" Athaliah started breaking the silence.

"I agreed to divorce him. I just signed the papers. You won't be seeing me again" she added and Bala nodded his head without a word. Another bout of silence ensured between them again.

"Thank you for all this while. I'm so glad I met you. Maybe someday in the future, I'll treat you to lunch" Athaliah said choosing to break the silence again.

"Madam..." Bala started while Athaliah stared at him urging him to continue.

"Callum... he... he..." Bala continued while Athaliah smiled and shook her head.

"It's okay, you don't need to worry. You don't need to apologise for him. We aren't so compatible you know" Athaliah muttered wondering why she was defending Callum.

"We weren't so close but he did his part. He was responsible for me" Athaliah added and Bala immediately shook his head.

"You don't know how responsible he was, you'll never know" Bala whispered and Athaliah hitched closer.

"What did you say?" Athaliah asked and Bala shook his head.

"There's no need" he replied waving his hands towards one of the maids.

"Please pack the boxes out of Madam's room" he instructed and the maid looks stunned for a moment and turned to Athaliah who had a mild smile on her face before nodding her head and walking away.

Athaliah watched as the maids moved the boxes to the car that was already waiting outside. She could see the maids, and every other worker clustering together and whispering. She didn't dare to try to eavesdrop. She didn't want o hear what they had to say at all. She turned to Bala as soon as the last boxes were brought down.

"Thank you again, Bala, thank you for everything," she said trying to keep a smile on her face. She wasn't going to cry again. She refused to cry again.

She nodded her head at him and walked out of the house. She opened the door and froze, turning to take a look at the house she had lived in for two good years and the large horde of workers that had gathered in front of the house.

"It was my honor to serve you Madam" Bala yelled bowing his head and Athaliah watched as every other maid, cleaners, gardeners followed suit bowing their heads. Athaliah's hands flew to her mouth hiding the sob that escaped her lips. Her eyes turned red again while trying to muster a smile.

"Thank you, everyone," she said getting into the car and closing her eyes.

'Let's go" she whispered. She couldn't afford to look back here, if she did, she didn't know if she would burst into tears or regret her decision.

Bala walked back into the house to see Callum seating on the staircase still in the suit he wore the day before. He looked worn out and unshaven. A blank look covered his head ad he turned to Bala with a lost look in his eyes.

"She's gone?" Callum asked his voice hoarse. Bala nodded his head.

"Hmmm," he replied watching as Callum nodded his head while closing his eyes.

He really couldn't understand this couple. Callum had sat in front of Athaliah's door all night after serving her divorce papers. Whenever he came home, the first thing he did was to check up on her, and stared at her for hours whenever she was sleeping, before he left the house, he would check if she was still sleeping. His care came in various forms that Bala didn't understand.

When he questioned him, Callum had refused to give an explanation for why he never showed his care openly and would rather do it secretly.

"Call Silas, ask him to book me a flight to Venice, and cancel my schedule for the next two weeks"