Chapter 3 Issues

Ellen stared at her husband in bed, who turned his back on her while asleep. That wasn't a usual thing, he normally cuddled with her or smooch around her breasts all night. Maurice was that clingy! But then, everything suddenly turned sour between them. She had tried to resolve this unknown issue between them, but he kept giving her silent treatment.

She had never seen her husband turn into this being he was now , because of something she had done. Now, this was the fifth night since all of these started and she wanted to just talk things out with him.

Tapping his wide back and at the same time caressing the area he had a tattoo on , she leaned on his shoulder and whispered ;

"My love, please wake up. I want us to talk ." He didn't respond, but slowly shifted from his position a bit so that she wouldn't lean on his shoulders.

"You're awake? Baby, why are you doing this? I just want us to talk, please" Ellen pleaded. This wasn't the man she had grown to love. He had changed. This whole cold attitude started a week after she came back from Italy and it just began in a weird way.

"Maurice, please! What have I done wrong? It's been five days now and this is not fair anymore . You are beginning to get distant from me day by day!" She was getting teary at this point.

Maurice turned to her and just as Ellen thought he wanted to talk out things with her, he smiled wryly and the smile immediately disappeared.

"Get distant from you, you said? I want to be away from you forever. You disgust me, Ellen " he spat coldly and turned his back at her again.

Pain was indeed an understatement to what Ellen felt at that moment. She now disgusted her darling husband? Tears slowly streamed down her fluffy cheeks as she laid her head on the pillow.

The next morning , Ellen was woken up with persisting ringing calls in her phone. Maurice was still asleep, so she moved to the balcony to take the call. It was her mother, why had she called five times already this early morning?!

Moving to the balcony, she called her back and an incessant scolding followed suit;

"How dare you, Ellen? Why would you embarrass our family this way, on social media for that matter? By the way, I've been calling you since morning. Are you just waking up?" Mrs Barbara yelled.

Ellen found it shocking for her mother to yell at her this way for no said reason.

"Yeah mom. I'm just waking up. What embarrassment are you talking about? What have I done?" She calmly asked, although anxiety was written all over her.

"Don't you dare pretend! What's the link up between you and Lorenzo for? You actually went to Italy to reconcile with that guy even though you're now married? And now, your pictures with him are all over the net as his reconciled lover? How could you do such a thing to Maurice, Ellen? Just so you know, if anything ever happens to your marriage, don't ever think of coming back home. I can't believe you went back to that guy ! Tell me, is it because he's now popular in the movie industry? You're such a disgrace, Ellen. Both of you should take down those ship-looking photos before your husband sees them "

Mrs Barbara hung up immediately, without letting Ellen say any more words . On her own side, Ellen was literally confused. She was still trying to wrap her head round the whole issue.

In as much as she was popular on the net because she's Maurice's wife, she still wasn't a social media person. It'd been weeks since she last visited her tweeter and Instagram page.

As she quickly logged into her Instagram app, the first post she saw was by a blogger who tagged her, Lorenzo and Maurice with the headline;

"Wife of popular CEO, Maurice Harrison reconciles with her ex - Lorenzo Hephez (famous Italian movie star) while in Italy "

Ellen couldn't believe her eyes. Those pictures were taken by Lorenzo's aide in a restaurant when they were both making peace and reconciling as friends .

She recalled that Lorenzo had told her , that the aide had no social media account. So how come all of these? she asked herself.

A notification popped up from Twitter and she clicked that as well.

The number one trending news was;

"Billionaire CEO remains mute as photos of his wife, Ellen Harrison, flirting with her ex surfaces online "

"Guess we have a wedding, Italy! Famous movie star - Lorenzo Hephez reconciles with his first lover ".

Ellen could only gasp! This was bad, very bad!

"No! no, this isn't happening. Lorenzo and I? who did this? Oh my God !" she muttered, her eyes rolling up and down on her screen as she read the trending news. They were all about her!

"It is happening, Ellen. Surprised that your flirting activities are all over the place?" came the voice of her husband, Maurice.

He was up already and standing before her. This explains his attitude for so long, it meant that he'd seen those posts.

"My love, I need you to hear me out. This is a set up!"

"A set up? Wow! Well, you'll give that explanation when I come back. For now, hold your peace " and he walked calmly to the bathroom, like an unbothered king.

Madame Harrison was surprisingly downstairs, waiting for her son. Since Ellen came back from Italy, she hadn't visited until this day.

"Hello Ellen. Why do you look so sullen?" she asked as she saw Ellen trailing behind Maurice like a caught criminal.

"Mum, you and I are gonna head to the company first before the other place. Stefan, I'm using the white Bentley. Let's go!"

He totally ignored Ellen and Madame Harrison didn't bother repeating her question , Maurice seemed to be in a hurry . Stefan, his driver, got the car ready in a minute and they zoomed off.

Ellen could smell trouble looming for her. She could sense crisis building up in her once sweet marriage.

She hurriedly went upstairs to prepare for work. She hadn't been at the company since she returned. She simply hoped the news, or rather rumours won't jeopardize the chances of her promotion.

Meanwhile, Lorenzo was aware of the news flying around in the media space. Somehow, he was a bit happy about it. These kind of stories brought engagements and traffic to his different pages. He wondered why Ellen hadn't called to at least do some confrontation. He hoped her husband hadn't seen it though.

However, it also bothered him in some way. Who must have done this? The person must really be someone who wants to destroy Ellen's personality because he was sure that his aide had no hand in it, neither him.

As Ellen walked into the receiving hall, all heads turned to her. It seemed she was their topic of discussion. Most of them were her juniors in the company.

Ellen, however walked towards the lifter, only to bump into her boss, Mr Ethan.

"Who do we have here? Mrs Ellen Harrison? or rather Ellen Hephez, which one?"

Why today? Ellen muttered underneath her breath