Chapter 8 Web of Betrayal

In the morning, as the sun rose, Damian woke up and sat on the bed. The alcohol had helped numb his thoughts from the previous night, but when he woke up, his thoughts and worries about Diana were still there.

"Honestly, Diana has hurt me so much. She couldn't even remember where we came from! No! I have to involve her parents in this," he thought.

After thinking for a while, he jumped out of bed, quickly put on his clothes and shoes, and without even washing his face, he went to the living room where he found the housemaid, Sonia, cleaning.

"GoodMorning, Sir!" Sonia greeted him.

"Morning,Sonia. Ah, I'm leaving for a while, I'm traveling to the village. If anyone comes looking for me, please tell them I've traveled. Okay?"

"Okay. When will you return?"

"Maybe after a week."

"Alright, have a safe trip."

Damian's maid was a 20-year-old girl. She was kind and cared for Damian deeply, even more than his wife used to. She wanted to help him with his problems, but she couldn't talk about them for fear of interfering with her boss's marriage.

Two days after leaving Miami, Damian arrived at his in-laws' home. He was warmly welcomed, they cooked for him, and he witnessed them slaughtering a cow as a sign of respect for him. Damian realized just how much his in-laws loved and respected him.

"How is everything back home, son?" Diana's mother asked Damian after the greetings.

"Everything is good, and we're doing well, Mother!" He found himself unable to explain the true state of his marriage.

"How about your wife? Is she okay?" Diana's father also asked. That question made Damian to lose his composure. His sadness returned, and Mr Albert noticed the sorrow on his face.

Damian tried to hold back his tears, but they broke through, and everyone in the room could see it.

They were all shocked, sensing there was something very wrong back in Miami. They looked at Damian and started to question him, but he didn't respond. Instead, he continued crying.

"What's wrong, my son? Please tell us, you're really worrying us!" Diana's mother asked.

"Has Diana been in an accident? Is she dead? Please tell us, we'll accept the truth!" Diana's father continued asking Damian.

With that question, Damian had to pull himself together and speak, his voice choked with sobs and anger swelling in his chest.

"Mother, Diana is no longer in the country! Diana left me, she was taken by President Daniel and has been given a diplomatic position in Egypt!" Damian said, then broke down in loud crying. They tried to comfort him to explain more, but it was impossible.

"She came here and said you supported her in this. What happened?" Diana's mother asked.

Damian didn't speak any further. He quickly rushed out, entered his car, and drove off quickly heading to the next village where his grandfather lived. Mr Albert and Diana's uncles followed behind, wanting to understand the full details of the situation.

When they arrived, they found Damian's car parked, and it was clear he was inside. They knocked and were welcomed into the living room, where they found him sitting with his grandfather, crying.

After greetings, Mr Albert asked Mr Rogers, Damian's grandfather, to share what his grandson had told him. The old man did not hide anything; he told them exactly what he had been told.

Mr Albert was left speechless, exhausted, and ashamed. Diana had embarrassed them all greatly.

Later, Mr Albert returned home and shared the information with his wife. Both were saddened and sympathized with Damian.

Damian did not stay long at his grandfather's village. On the third day, he decided to return to Miami.

His heart was somewhat calm now due to the comfort he had received at his grandfather's place, and he felt a sense of relief in his heart.

At his home, he was greeted by his housemaid Sonia, who informed him that his friends had come to check on him, but they hadn't found him.

Damian called his friends, and they came over to his house to check on him. He updated them on his conversations with his in-laws and also how he had talked with his grandfather.

"Grandfather told me to let go of everything, and now I'm fine. But honestly, I don't want Diana to marry President Daniel, and I'll make sure it's not happening!"

With the fame Damian had in Miami, news of him losing his wife spread like wildfire. Almost everyone in Miami had already heard the story, and it was no longer a secret.

*****

Diana had become the new Ambassador to Egypt and the first female Ambassador of the People's Republic of Bentaz in any country worldwide. With the education she received in the United Kingdom, she performed her duties well, and her life had changed significantly. She was no longer the Diana from the village, and her love for President Daniel grew stronger with each passing day.

Their daughter Regina had already been moved from the UK and reunited with her mother in Egypt. President Daniel's trips to Egypt had increased exponentially and were irritating the people of Bentaz. Every two weeks, it was necessary for the President to travel to Cairo without any official duties, using public funds.

President Daniel loved Diana, but he also loved ruling and being politically powerful and felt that if the citizens were to protest, he would inevitably be overthrown. To avoid frequent trips, he had to quickly set in motion plans for his marriage to bring Diana back to Bentaz to live with him.

These plans were carried out secretly by his close friends, without anyone knowing. The wedding was to take place quietly, without the citizens finding out. However, in a turn of events that even the President didn't expect, the information reached Damian, who immediately passed it on to Anneth, the President's ex-wife. They both agreed to oppose the marriage once it was announced.

"I'm telling you, they won't get married!" said this lady.

"We must put up an opposition!" Damian replied.

Just as the news of the President and Diana's marriage reached Damian and Anneth, so did their plan to oppose it reach President Daniel, which infuriated him. The first thing he did was order the Bentaz Revenue Authority to investigate Damian's business dealings with the intention of bankrupting him. He knew that if Damian ran out of money and he then offered to help him, he would have no choice but to allow his wife to marry him!

"I'll use this method, and if it fails, both of them will be killed as we planned with Mummy Regina!" President Daniel said to Mr. Boniface, his close friend who was managing the President's secret wedding plans.

---

It was a Monday morning when Damian was shocked to find his office raided by people who identified themselves as tax officials from the Bentaz Revenue Authority. They asked him to show his accounting books, and later took him along with the books to their office for inspection.

Damian didn't understand their purpose and didn't suspect that they had been sent to harass him and hinder his work. After their investigation, they claimed that he was evading various government taxes. All his shops and companies were closed to allow further inspection.

Damian had no choice but to let the tax authorities do their work, even though he felt he was being wronged because he had always paid all government taxes as required. He suspected someone was behind this, but he didn't think it would be President Daniel.

His businesses were shut down for six consecutive months, during which the marriage plans between the President and Diana continued. Damian's financial situation plummeted, and he could barely afford to eat. His friends pitied him and suggested that it might have been a plot by President Daniel. Damian didn't believe them; how could the President do such things to him when it was he who had taken his wife?

"I've suffered enough. If only the President and I didn't have problems, I would have gone to him and asked for help, but now, I can't!" Damian thought to himself.

*****

He was a president who loved sex excessively. Many compared him to President Canaan Banana of Zimbabwe, who was even bold enough to engage in sex with his fellow men. Daniel was a man who married and divorced multiple times. Anneth was not his first wife. Before meeting her, he had been married to another woman with whom he had two children! That woman died under mysterious circumstances. She was found on the beach, having been mutilated with machetes.

Two weeks after her death, the president married Anneth. This move shocked many, and some suspected that the president was involved in the murder of his wife in order to marry another woman. There had been a serious conflict in their marriage before the death of this woman, named Rose. After her death, President Daniel arranged for his children to be sent to school in the UK, where they continued their education.

President Daniel and Anneth did not last longer in their marriage; they separated eight years later due to the president's cruelty towards women. However, by then, they had already had four children, two of whom were twins.

After their separation, the president refused to give Anneth a divorce out of fear that they would have to divide their wealth. As a result, each of them decided to live their life without caring about the other. Following the separation, President Daniel chose to live his life as a bachelor, being served by his house maid.

For a president of his age to live without a wife was considered a scandal. To avoid this embarrassment, he had already decided to marry Diana, but the only obstacle was his ex-wife, Anneth. He felt that she would pose a significant challenge to him marrying Diana. His thoughts were not wrong, for the newspaper of that day, which he was reading, made him believe that Anneth would be a major obstacle.

"The President's ex-wife promises to prevent him from marrying Ambassador Diana!"

The headline of the City newspaper greatly disturbed President Daniel. He absolutely did not want that story published, and on that very evening, the editor and the director of that newspaper company were arrested and detained. The president then devised a plan for Anneth to be killed. He entrusted this task to his assassination squad, known as TUM, which stood for The Unidentified Men.