Once A Useless Son-In-Law

David raised the bunch of flowers he bought from the florist with both hands to his face and gave it a passionate look.

He kissed it with a very wide grin. It was all for Laila, his adorable wife.

It cost him half of the total money he has, both at home and in his pocket.

Whatever was spent to please a wife who is a real wife is no waste.

David's love for Laila could only be compared with Paris's love for Helen before their elopement.

She was the wife after his heart. The bunch of flowers was for their third marriage anniversary and to compensate her. Three days to the third anniversary of their marriage he had bought the flowers. Why? He did not want another competitor to be the first. He wanted to show her that she was the only one dominating his mind and in him, he wished by the effect of these blossoming flowers, in her heart and his heart, so would their love blossom.

They had met during David's graduation from the University and because of David's handsomeness, Laila's brain was spun and they had sex that night, super sex that made them cleave in passion, in desire, in Oath. Name them and David became an adopted son-in-law.

His family had arranged a wife for him whom he would marry after graduation. A girl from another royal family but he ran away with his angelic Laila.

He waited for a cab. He had never boarded one for a long time but to preserve the flower's health, he used the last dime on him to pay for the casing and cab fare.

Despite rolling up the glasses of the cab, the Territory A winter of Denver seemed not to abate.

Would these flowers that cost him all the money he would have used to go to work tomorrow, do the magic again? Laila to surrender herself to him again?

The cold permeated his skin as he shivered

The cab pulled up at Anderson's home and David came down hopefully, with the beautiful casing containing the bunch of flowers, finely banded together with its small ceramic vase.

The gateman opened the gate. He was the only worker in the Anderson's household that does not make a jest of him.

"My guy. Welcome," Phillip said to him.

"Is my wife in?" He did not know if Laila was back from the office because he had no credit on his phone.

"Sure!" Phillip nodded.

He was happy as he walked briskly in.

"Hey! Evid, come here!"

His mother-in-law from nowhere called him. His heart jigged:This witch. What again?

Nothing she said now that will be so damning. "David, I cannot run away from my wife because of her family!" under his breath he said so.

His parents died in an auto crash on August 22, last year and he did not attend the burial because they were opposed to his marriage with Laila. So, what is it again to fear?

Evid stood before his mother-in-law who had chosen to call him 'Evid' instead of 'David' because both cannot have the same 'D' starting their names. Her name was Dina.

" What is this? " Her face was contorted as David tried to explain why he bought the flowers.

" Hehehe!" She clapped. "What a fool you are?"

She snatched the flower case from David and had a look into it.

"So, this is your own money?" She raised her face to look into David's face.

David was cold and creased his face.

"Come down, my daughter is sleeping,"

It was on the staircase she stopped David. He wanted to match up to his room and Laila's.

"I said come down!" she commanded."Church rat!" she named him.

David came down to the first step. He shared a bedroom with his wife. He wanted to go in at least to wear something for the weather.

"Go now and do your laundry before you go to your useless work tomorrow."

She did not just say it. She pointed at the laundry shed.

David checked the water he added yesterday in the electric iron to spray some on the stiff dresses. Her children deliberately complain of poor ironing and to avoid anything that creates a problem for him, he was determined to be ironing their starched clothes to shine more than an army General's uniform.

The imp entered, looking at him. He knew trouble had entered. He makes war for his elders to fight.

"You didn't iron my dress well, yesterday. Fuck you!"

Tim said. He was five years according to Laila.

David silently cursed him, widened his eyes, and gritted his teeth and he ran, crying.

Selena briskly came in, towing him along. "What did you do to him?" she asked. Others in the family hated David because he was poor but her reason was more severe.

So sexy, with a good mass of flesh behind and firm protruding breasts, she had wanted a fling with David. So, because of sour grapes, she spits at David and calls him names more than a church rat.

She shifted a rubber chair in the laundry shed and sat. " Go," She eased Tim away and said. " You ain't ashamed loving who doesn't love you."

"No problem," said David, eyes now glued to the dress he was ironing.

"David."

David refused to look her way having seen how she sat.

She got up. " Gold digger. If you ain't, why then do you act like a fool."

"Who is that, Selena?" asked Laila, coming out of her Dad's sitting room.

She had barged into the sitting room and whined to her Dad that her Mom squeezed her flowers.

Hearing what Selena said, she told him to go to their Dad's sitting room.

In the sitting room, the Andersons were seated. They want to use the beef the squeezing of the flowers created between Laila and her mom to finally tell Laila to divorce David or be disowned.

". Laila" her family called her. For the umpteen time, we the Andersons don't want a handsome son-in-law who has no money and we are the ones taking care of him. Are you with us? Fine. Dr Pat is whom we want. With him as our son-in-law, assurance covers your career, and our family business will be connected to AB Corp.

Laila climbed up and flopped on the bed.

"Laila, what is it again?" asked David as he came in. She whined, and tears dropped.

"David. For my career."

"Tell me." inquired David. He knew without being told it was about what her family said about him.

But what else would they say that he is poor and useless?

His ears had been accustomed to their gossip so they were wasting their time thinking that would make him leave.

In the morning, he matched on, wobbling in his movement because the soles of his shoes were not flat and one was higher.

At work, there was Mr Manfred, a lodger.

He beckoned him "Hey, my friend."

"You are back sir." He shook his hand

Manfred nodded. " Come to my room."

He took David to his room and gave him money." Good guy!" They shook hands again.

The first tip, a clock with gold studs, which he gave to Laila was the only thing Laila could believe she had ever gotten from him. Now, what she does is each time there was a misunderstanding due to her parents' involvement in their relationship, she would ask 'Do you want your clock back?'

With this one hundred dollars, he proposed what to buy for the third anniversary for her since the mother had squeezed the flowers.

No no...He changed his mind. "When we go out for the anniversary," he said.

Reaching home, Dina and Fred saw him coming in and handed him a divorce letter.

And there was silence. Like the silence after a cease-fire.

David twitched his nose scanning through the letter. He said he acknowledged their message but he won't sign it until his wife sees it

"Your wife?" Dina almost punched him if not Fred who held her hand.

"I said I will call her!" David spoke strongly. It is once a man dies.

He was not interested in the clause in the divorce paper. What is a car to a man deprived of his love?

He called Laila on the phone.

"Are you in support of the divorce?"

"My family said you don't have money."

"Your family. You don't have a choice? David. I had a choice when it was my turn to show you love."

"I loved you because of your handsomeness but now your future is not bright"

" Laila...it was not about money. Remember our love."

"Something more than love has come up. Sign the divorce paper." Laila told him with finality

.

So, it was the outcome of their gathering in the sitting room?

David brooded and went to his shed, his laundry shed where he performed the mandatory task of washing and ironing clothes for the entire family before he ate.

He did not know he could do the tasks and still go to work. But it has been a year since he had mastered combining his hotel work and laundry.

He entered his shed. It was wide with four industrial fans and

family-sized washing machine stationed in there for him.

The housemaid dragged in a basket of unwashed clothes.

"Can't you allow me to finish ironing?" he asked her.

"Am I madam?"

"Okay. Go."

"Is it wrong to see Evid?" the maid asked

"Idle creature," David muttered and she laughed hysterically:Idle graduate, useless son-in-law."

She lumbered out of the shed. She was heavy and rounded from the ground.

Laila was coming in.

"What's that Helen?" she asked.

She waited for David in the room after arranging the visitor's room for him. He has to sign the paper and for the time being, no more sleeping on the same bed. That was her conclusion.

David rounded off his ironing."I will not sign this." David told himself "Signing it means it is over. Over? Marriage that cost me the love of my family, that made me a fool in this house?

The door opened above, it was Laila.

"David come this way. To the visitor's room. That's where you will be sleeping for the main time." she said.

" Let me crash with you nau?"

"No, David!" Laila spoke with all seriousness

For my career, I'm in love with the son of our director. With him, I'm getting promoted soon and our family business will be connected to AB Corp.

"Okay. What of our outing tomorrow?" asked David.

"I will call you for that," she told him

He woke up early to do some ironing before going to work.

.

Like she was targeting him, Selena came, at that hour, 2 a.m. with her clothes for him to wash. She was technically naked or half-dressed? She sat in the rubber chair, not caring to go. David rebelled like a man and walked away.

In the morning, he went to work, the one hundred dollars and the divorce paper in his pocket.

He called his wife to find out their destination in the evening.

"Have you signed the paper?"

"You will see it before I sign."

"Meet me at La Pech," Laila said.

It was a beautiful French restaurant with a single color:White.

The French window's lace curtain shielded two couples inside.

David walked in. It was Laila and a man, nestled at a table. A white card with A Happy 3rd Marriage Anniversary inscription was in a milk-colored saucer. Two golden spoons, on one side of it, two golden forks on the other side, and three candles graced the table.

David collapsed into a seat opposite them trying to see the man's face. Half of the face was shielded with cute-looking dark glasses.

David was jealous. Is this Laila or another?

He came with the one hundred dollars to fetch her anything it could afford. He would have used it for a cab since another man had afforded her everything.

Despite the winter, he was using his mouth to fan his chest.

The man and Laila meshed their fingers and where they sat, turned one side to whisper.

Let them whisper, but a smile? He will rake.

"Can't you tell him to wait outside?' the man whispered.

Laila waved her head cautiously so that David wouldn't understand.

"...kiss you here?" she asked

The man took her arms and passed them across his shoulders as they pressed themselves together and Laila, though shy, darted her tongue out for a trapping and the man's lips trapped it.

As she closed her eyes in rapture, her knees wobbling, David bolted

Laila pushed the man's shoulders back and hurried to catch up with David.

Outside, she threw her car's key to him.

David oned the engine.

"I know you are not happy," she said.

Silent, the car moving.

"David."

Silence, the car moving.

"Have you signed the paper?"

Silence.

"Once a man dies!"

He sped the car

Once a man dies! Once a man dies!...

He brushed the car in and jerked out his suitcase, signed the divorce paper, and handed it to Laila.

Leaving, she said wait, giving him a car key and an envelope.

"I don't need them, Laila.". He pointed at the clock.

"I know," said Laila. She took it from the table and pushed it into his hand.

Downstairs, his mother-in-law, and her other children were waiting.

They rushed at David ."Keep everything she has paid you. You are the one owing us."

"I didn't take anything."

"It is a lie. Laila..."

"Mom, he didn't.' said Laila, coming down the steps.

"For the foods you ate and laundry you abandoned." They shoved hands into his pockets, upturning them, and found a hundred dollars.

Dina flagged it to see if it was two."Who gave you this, Evid?"

She put it into her bra.

They saw the clock.

Laila said, " Leave him, it is his."

"This clock? It is a lie!" they disbelieved Laila.

"Take, Ma...for your food, for the laundry, and the marriage." David left the small-sized gold studded clock for her.

"Go!" Useless son-in-law. You want to marry my daughter without money!"

The scripture was right. Time to destroy time to rebuild.

And when such hours come, nothing stops them.

He lost his bearing and collapsed under a tree.

"

He lost his bearing and collapsed under a tree. His back, leaning against the bark of the tree. He reinstalled his Instagram, thinking of his Twitter account he had forgotten because his blood was hot, a call obstructed. He hit his fist."Gash!"

The call came again, came again. He swerved his index finger across the screen with fury.

"Uncle!" he gasped out,

danced about in search of who would answer the call for him to tell the caller it was a wrong number or that the owner of the phone left it here to charge.

He flopped down again. The worst moment in his life. He felt like shrinking into the earth. What would he say? That he did not hear that his parents died in an auto crash?

He placed the phone against his ear.

"David." the uncle called again and he responded.

" Uncle."

Uncle Roberts was his mom's brother, and he was his darling David who killed Goliath as he used to enthuse him, hoping that he would grow to be like his family members.

His father, now late, wanted his two children to be wealthy and politically conscious like him. David was programmed to marry a girl who was from a wealthy and politically conscious family before the wind of change blew him away from the path laid for him.

Uncle Roberts (53) with the expert eyes of an elder knew something was amiss and to bring home a prodigal son, it follows a gradual process, no blame game, or else, the prodigal drifts afar the more.

"David come to my old office. I have a new office now." Uncle Roberts said.

It was a cautious request. Like throwing a seed of corn to the fowl.

Hearing that, he dived to go back to Laila's Mom for his one hundred dollars but withdrew.

Uncle Roberts passed a message to his driver, seeing him dragging his suitcase and the driver called him.

"Oh, Uncle has got this ride," he spoke under his breath, ridden with emotion.

It was not the car he was riding before. It was a Koenigsegg Trevita (Latest)

He slumped into the rear beside Uncle Roberts.

"...Your Dad left a will for you and your brother," Uncle Roberts was telling him some of the things that transpired in his absence as the car moved. " If the will did not favor him, you know what he would do? Ehn..." he nodded in consent to David's statement.

While they talked, the car was heading to Territory A's border town.

"This is my office, " said Uncle Roberts as the car slowed and entered the massive gate of AB Corp.

"Uncle, you said? I didn't get you." David spoke frankly.

"Why?" asked Uncle Roberts, askance.

"You said you are working here ?" David asked, bewildered, filled with unbelief. Don't blame him. Yea.

"Is it too much?" Uncle Roberts wanted to know why he doubted.

" It is my wife's company!"

"Your wife?"

"Yes!!" David nodded, with entangled emotions, not easy to decipher.

Laila, and uncle working together? Hmmmmmmm!

"What's her name?" Uncle Roberts sounded calm, and slanted his head left, in speculation, in amazement.

"Laila." David dropped the name like a coin dropped into an offering glass box.

He was rigid. His heart thumped.

"Laila Anderson?"

"Yes, uncle."

"My staffer? A member of my staff? Let us get in first."

David walked side by side with Uncle Roberts amidst head-bows and brisk movements of workers into the deserted elevator.

On the last floor, the seventh, the elevator door swung open and ushered them into a cold and silent passage into the Chairman's office: An extra-wide office.

"Take your coffee and let us talk."

A lady in a white top and blue skirt and blue scarf around her neck served David two dishes from the fast food shop too.

"What went wrong?" asked Uncle Roberts." In your marriage, yes."

" Hmm!" David extinguished a longish CO2. from the nostrils.

What is happening? He didn't want to be told to explain. He was ashamed. He only wanted to skulk home and lock himself up in the home, that's all.

Uncle Roberts was waiting for his narration. Laila Anderson was David's wife? Was she or was she not the one Mr William said his son wanted to get engaged with? But he opposed it?

"He said I am not rich. It wasn't her though that caused the divorce. It was her family." David said in clarification.

From what he knew and saw, he said it exactly as it happened.

Laila was unwilling to divorce him in the first instance.

Laila, a Sagittarius, is cool and hot in love but love is the first step in her relationship policy. A lover of low estate would lose her trust easily.

"That you are not rich?" Uncle Roberts doubted. It would have made him smile or laugh but this was a marriage that misled David. David, his sister's darling boy. His sister died with her husband and David did not come to see his parents buried!

No, silence in the marriage, in the divorce, is a crime. Even having her in his company is complicity.

Uncle Roberts nodded. He knew Mr Williams before now.

He would have taken drastic action with immediacy.

"No problem," he said. " Now, I have to call barrister Lawson. About your late Dad's will...Eat and get ready, we are leaving soon" he said

He put a call to barrister Lawson.

"Yes. The two boys will be available tomorrow," he told barrister Lawson.

David's elder brother has a young family. She was an adorable wife, an inestimable jewel as her mother-in-law used to say.

She was by her husband to hear the will.

"You are one family. One blood." Uncle Roberts and Barrister Lawson advised John and David. Accept your father's will and use it as a stepping stone to hustle on your own. Many have no opportunity as you have. Make your parents proud."

The barrister opened the document and read it as it was. The will.

"It is Okay, dear." Suzie cautioned John.

With fifty-seven billion dollars in three banks and five wonders on wheels, David was king. He has Atlas Corp as the CEO in addition. And he read Public Administration.

He sat back and crossed his leg, blew out the last trail of smoke, and slept where he sat.

Is there any danger? Is he going to be such a nice guy?