Secret Heiress revenge

Prologue (An office) The CEO of the Alphonso Construction company sat in his office with his mind busy with meditation rolling in circles on his swivel chair. He was lost in thought when a knock was heard on the door of his office.

"Yes ,who is it", Mr Alphonso asked.

"It's I, Cherry", the lovely tender voice of mine said.

"Come in", Mr. Alphonso said sternly.

"What is it? Have you handled the documents I gave you properly? And have you sent the mails I asked you to send to our clients?"

His whole face was covered with seriousness . My boss had always been strict from the day I had worked as his Secretary.

"How would I tell him what is on my mind."My thoughts were all occupied.

"Yes sir. I have done all of them. I just sent the emails to our clients yesterday night" I said with my smile almost looking invisible which was covering the fear I had after saying that.

"Just yesterday night!"He shouted with a strong frown on his face.

"How incompetent can you be? I gave you an mail to send to my clients in the evening and you just sent it in the night. Can you just imagine?"He yelled.

Mr Alphonso could be inconsiderate sometimes. The mail had just be sent to me the previous day during in the closing hours to send to his client which was at an ungodly hour. If he wanted the mail to be sent on time, he would have given me in the morning or during work hours not closing hours.

"Yes, what are you here for ?"Mr Alphonso asked. I thought to myself if I would be able to tell him what I had came into his office to tell him. I tried to summon courage thinking to myself that asking for whatever I wanted would not cause me to lose my life. The worst is that he would decline or maybe shout at me.

"Yes? Answer me on time. I don't have the whole day, please. "Mr. Alphonso spoke with his scary face. "Umm-mm" I stuttered .

"I just want to ask you for a favor, sir."

"Okay, what is the favor." He asked.

"I just want to ask you if you could pay me my salary in advance. I need money urgently. I have sought money from where I could, but I have not seen anyone who can render me any assistance. I need the money for my mother's kidney transplant." I said.

"She is the only one I have now because I no longer have a father and I don't want to be an orphan at this stage of my life." I said with tears covered all of my face.

"The money is just $32,000 to cover all of the expenses for her surgery and medications. I promise to work harder than I have ever worked. I wiped away my tears.

"Haha!", he laughed.

"You say "32,000".Where do you expect me to see such? Do you know how much the company needs to spend on expenses? You must be kidding me. I don't have money to give you ."

"Sir, Please I promise to pay you back from my salary or I will borrow from anyone I know to give you back. My mother is in a critical condition and it is so urgent." Mr Alphonso laughed again and stared at me while crying.

That was the first time I would ever see him smiling for the three years that I had worked as his Secretary. As he continued to smile, I felt excited that he was ready to assist me. "Cherry" he called out my name.

"Sir" I replied.

"Do you know you just made me laugh by what you just said?" he asked.

"It is the way the effrontery for you to say you would pay me back or borrow it. My question is; "How would you get it?"When you don't know who you would borrow from? And come to think of it; you only work for me or do you work for anyone else?" he asked and I gave a negative nod.

"You see, why I can't offer you any assistance?"He said with a smile while my eyes were covered with tears. I felt the smile was to make fun of my misery. I guess my boss must not only be arrogant but a sadist.

"But, sir....." I tried to talk before Mr Alphonso interrupted me on purpose.

"Make sure you help me to inform the members of the board office that we will be having a meeting this afternoon. I also want to give you some correspondence for you to handle for me. So that's all I want you to do .You can go now."He ordered.

"Okay sir."My face was covered up with tears. Nothing was pushing me to still beg him or ask for his assistance because I had lost all the courage I had.

"I would be taking my leave, sir." I said with tears almost well.

"Yeah, lock the door after going,please."All his attention was fixated on the file that was in his hands.I turned my back and was already leaving his office .

I cleaned my tears and catarrh I was that was coming out of my nose. I had already gotten close to the door. "Cherry!" I turned back and saw Mr Alphonso's serious face glaring at me. I was already shocked at the spot I was standing. I was already thinking of what I had done wrong.

"I am willing to offer you more than the $32,000 you need for your mother's treatment if you would do my biddings".After he said that, I had a smile on my face without asking what his biddings were.

"I want you to act as my wife for a year and I would pay you $35,000 for accepting my proposal. I just want you to see it as a fake marriage. After a year of the marriage, We would get a divorce. But during the marriage, there would not be any form of intimacy at all. So it would be a contract marriage. When it is already a year, I would give $150,000 by the time we are about to be divorced."

After he had said that already,the smile on my face dropped and tears began to fall out of my eyes.

"Why? Why do you have to offer me a contract marriage? Of all people why does it have to be me? This seems to be hard for me, sir." I whined.

"Are you kidding me right now? Where you not just crying and complaining about how you need help to save your mother from dying because you don't have money to take care of her. I am rendering you this offer, which is of mutual benefit and you are acting petty."I wondered within myself why he would ask for a contract marriage with someone like me.

"Or do you want your mother to die?" he asked with a smile. Mr. Alphonso is one hell of a mean person. He is a very ruthless and arrogant man. He is also one of every woman's choices in town like who would not want to be with a man like Leonard Alphonso, a wealthy and successful billionaire. Meanwhile, I had also had a crush on him which was because of his charming looks having a height of 6'4 inches and his charisma I would have considered it a dream being in a relationship or being married to Mr. Alphonso.

Chances were not left to me but to accept his proposal because of the risk of losing my mother.Since there is not going to be an intimacy of any such , I would have to accept this marriage proposal. Like.... I mean it's just a year.

" I have agreed to accept your marriage proposal,sir." My face was all squeezed up because I already knew what I was putting myself into something tough which was inevitable.

"Good girl. Now you are talking. I will call my lawyer tomorrow and he will bring the contract for you to sign tomorrow. I guess we have got ourselves a deal right" he said bringing out his hands for a shake. I shook his hand and accepted his offer.

Three years later

Cherry's POV:

It's been three years since I had gotten married . I would be celebrating my third anniversary the next day. I was excited and could not just wait for my husband to come from work. My whole day had been drain from making preparations for the anniversary ceremony. But I was sure I knew Leonard was in love with me and cared about the ceremony.

Suddenly, My husband's personal assistant knocked on the door while I was trying to handling the preparation .

"Alice, Go and open the door," I ordered one of my maids.

"Good evening ma'am," Kenneth greeted me.

"How are you?" I exchanged greetings.

"I am fine ma'am."He replied

"What's with the meeting today? How is my husband ?"I asked.

"He is fine ma'am. He sent me to give you these documents."While seeing my husband's secretary, I was guessing my husband had sent my anniversary gift.

I guess the documents might be for a building or land but nothing was indicated on the documents. I wondered what my husband would have given me for our third anniversary because he gave me a car for our second anniversary. "Okay, ma'am. I would like to take my leave now, If you may excuse me." "Okay goodbye," I said as he headed to the door. I sat down to check what the document contained. I was shocked by what I saw. "What?"I screamed. "What does Leonard think he is doing? One of my maids came in rushing to see why I shouted."Ma'am, I hope there is no problem at all?" She asked. "No, no problem," I said trying to comport myself. "You can go back to what you are doing it's nothing," I said trying to cover up what I was feeling. "A divorce?" I whispered . Why would Leonard ask for such? But I thought he loved me. He promised me heaven and earth. After six months of our contract marriage , we both fell in love deeply with each other. I thought the contract marriage was like a ship for our destinies to meet. I thought we were both destined to be. "Or was I not good enough?"I said to myself as my hands shivered as I held the divorce paper. I checked the documents again to see if I was seeing them properly because I did not remember any time that I and my husband had ever had any disagreement. Why will he ask for a divorce? The divorce paper already had his signature on. Did I do anything wrong? At that instant, I did not know what to do. I quickly went upstairs to get my phone in the bedroom. I dialed his number severally, but he was not picking up. I remembered after all, that he was coming home that day, so there was no need to call him. It was best to talk to him face-to-face in this kind of situation that I had found myself.Five hours later, I was already feeling uncomfortable and impatient. I took off my phone and sent him a text saying; "Leonard, why have you not been picking up my phone calls? Please I need to see you urgently." After sending the message, I heard a familiar car horn and then realized it was my husband's. Leonard is a very busy man, he does not stay at home quite often. He's always going from one business trip to another. "Thank goodness, just thinking of the devil," I said. I waited for Leonard to come into the bedroom. "Welcome back, Leonard," I said with a serious face. "Have you seen the document I sent you?" he said without greeting me back from his three-weeks business trip. "Leonard, what is this?"I asked as I grabbed the documents with my right hand. "A divorce! Why would you ask for something like this? Have I offended you in any way? Tomorrow is our wedding anniversary and you are offering me a divorce paper. Is this a prank or What?" "Cherry, it is what is it. As you can see on the paper, I have already written my signature and it is best you sign this paper on time, to finalize the divorce procedure on time. " I was surprised after he said that without emotions. He was so cold. But why would you want a divorce? Why do you choose to embarrass me when you know our wedding anniversary is just tomorrow? What do you think people would say? I asked with disappointed eyes. "Let them say whatever they want to say," he said trying to unloose his shirt button and change his dress."As for why I want a divorce, I guess I just fell out of love for you. You know just like how you drink too much water, after a while you get tired. I have never seen Leonard speak to me in that cold manner after five months that we got married. He had always been kind, loving, and caring for me. He may not always be around to show me more affection but he makes sure that he spends more of his leisure time with me. I had had a little crush on him back then when I still used to work as his Secretary. But the crush was not like love like that. I guess I can just say I liked his charming looks. After leaving together as husband and wife during our fake marriage contract after five month, Leonard started developing feelings for me. He became possessive and obsessed with me. His cold nature started to diminish anytime he was with me. He became so affectionate and polite with me. From that time, he never treated me as less or inferior to him. After he had shown me his loving nature, he asked me out. He wanted our fake marriage to become real. After he had given me his proposal of a serious relationship; I declined it at first because that was not what I had bargained for. I did not have a deep feelings for him but later within some time the feelings I had for him grew stronger. I also started having feelings for him and then we got into a relationship. This happened within the one-year contract marriage . We continued to live as real husbands and wives during those period. I just continued to go with the flow as the relationship started getting sweeter. I never for once asked him why he wanted the contract marriage. As he was asking me for a divorce right now, I started wondering to myself;" Did this guy love me in the past two and a half years of getting married? Or am I delusional?" Leonard was every girl's dream man.Every woman of high caliber wanted him but he decided to choose me from all of them, a nerd Secretary."Or was he just using me as a plaything?"I reasoned within myself. "No I can't be put to shame like this!" I thought to myself that if the media found out the billionaire CEO of the Alphonso construction company was getting a divorce, the blame would be shifted on me. People would call me a gold digger and am not one to be like that. Not even considering what people might say, I still love my Leonard and I didn't want to lose him. I could not stand watching him be with someone else and because of this, I would have to decline to sign the divorce paper. "No, Leonard! I am not signing any divorce paper whether you like it or not." I protested. "I can't lose my marriage for anything. I would stand still and make sure my marriage is protected. I am not getting any divorce." "You think you would have this easy. You had better sign the divorce paper before the end of tomorrow."My mouth was wide open after he had said that. He tried to walk out on me after changing his clothes and then turned his back before heading to the door. "Oww! And before I forget, I hope you know that tomorrow is Mathew's birthday. I would not want any of my friends to know that I am getting a divorce now .You would have to follow me to his birthday party and keep your f**king mouth shut. Understood?"he said authoritatively. "Really?Your friend's birthday party. Is that what is important to you right now? What of tomorrow, which is our wedding anniversary."I kept my gaze on him as tears rolled down my cheeks. "Urghh...?" he heaves. "You must be kidding me."He nodded and walked out of me.

Anxiety and the feeling of being miserable surrounded my thought as I was expectant of Leonard . "Won't my husband come to celebrate our third anniversary? Or was the prank not yet over already?"I thought to myself.

"He fell out of love?"What could make him fall out of love? I began to wonder Was it my looks? Or the way I dress. I dress the way a person of my age ought to dress and I still look the same way from the time we got married. Or was it another woman?

No, I know Leonard to not be that kind of man. From the three years that I had worked as his secretary, he was not a promiscuous man with the amount of women that pushed themselves on him. He does not give them a face at all. Was it that he did not love me at first but played along the three years of our marriage?

But why would he want to do something like that; to profess his love to me, if he wanted to extend the contract? I was all alone sitting in the dining room looking elegantly dressed since morning and the time was just 2:00 pm. Leonard was not there to celebrate and dine with me on our anniversary. I was seriously hungry and had not eaten because of Leonard.

I did not want to start eating without him. "Ma'am, you have been sitting all here alone and you have not eaten anything" Melissa, one of my maids said showing concern for me. "Melissa, don't worry about me. I am fine. Just go and do what you are doing in the kitchen. I will be alright."

I began to wonder what if I had invited friends to the wedding anniversary ceremony, was that how Leonard embarrassed me? I don't even have close friends. So that would not be a problem. I guess he did not invite any of his friend or even informed any of them. After waiting for about four hours later, Leonard just strolled inside the house.

"And where are coming from Mr.Man?" I asked with annoyance written all over my face. "The time is just 6 PM now and you are just coming from where God knows. Have you forgotten that today is our wedding anniversary? I have been waiting for you since morning.

Because of that, I have not eaten because I was expecting you. I even tried calling your number and you were cutting the phone on purpose. What if I had invited my friends or visitors? Is this how you would have embarrassed me.

"His action had got me as he stared at me as I was nagging . "Have you signed the papers already?" His cold nature had got me surprised. "What? Are you serious?" I began sobbing. "What has gotten into you, Leonard.

After all I just asked you,that is just what you are going to say right? But why would you lose feelings for me?" "Is it the way I dress? Or my looks... un? Answer me!" I said crying out loud. "Look Cherry, I have nothing else to say to you. I just need you to comply with what I want ,if you truly claim to love me as you said. You would sign those papers. And by the way, I will need you to follow me to Mathew's event tomorrow."

"So I don't know if you would leave what you are doing now and make preparations for tomorrow. I don't want any of my friends to know that we are getting a divorce yet because I don't want any unnecessary attention." He continued.

"All of the attention needs to be focused on Mathew and not me. Take care, I am going upstairs. I am really tired."He said walking out on me. I began to start thinking of how to save my marriage because I was madly in love with Leonard. I was thinking of getting a therapist or marriage counselor.

Our marriage could still work through a good dialogue, I guessed. Yeah, I knew what to do. I would be calm and eat my food. I would relax and prepare for the event that Leonard was inviting me to because I would also not want it to look like we were having a misunderstanding. It would look a kind of way if all of his friends came with their wives and he didn't come with his.

"Everything would be alright." I assured myself. After the wedding, I was planning on calling his mother because she seemed to be the only one he was accountable to and listened to. At least ,he would listen to his mother and maybe I could give her a suggestion on getting us a counselor. On the 10th of August, which was Mathew's birthday. I woke up from bed and saw Leonard with a towel tied round his waist. I hurried up and got prepared.

I rushed into the bathroom and took my bath. After I came out of the bathroom,Leonard was already dressed. "You are dressed up already, I see. Ummm-mm,you can go downstairs while I put on my clothes. I prepared food for our anniversary yesterday and you didn't eat them,so I stored them up for Melissa to help you warm. She would just put it in the microwave "I said while trying to show concern because I do not know what he ate the day before.

"Thank you, I am not hungry. Please get dressed on time."Leonard quickly got downstairs while I dressed on time. I got downstairs quickly to not get into any disagreement with him. I was a little bit hungry but I could still endure my hunger pangs because I would be given food in the party.I got downstairs and I could already see the black limousine waiting already.

"And what took you so long ?"He questioned with a frown. "It's nothing."My face looked down. "Please can we go now" I said to the driver. We got to Mathew's mansion where the party was hosted.People of high status and caliber attended the party.It was all glamorous. Mathew has been a very good long time friend to Leonard. To sum it up, they were business partners. Most of Mathew's friends were Leonard's friends and were in the same cliques.

All of their wives came from rich and successful families unlike I,who was only the only that came from an humble background. Most of their wives became friends with me but we were not that close, but that does not mean that they excluded me or did not want to be friends with me. I made friends with the ones I could make friends with. I can say I am closer to Mathew's wife, Cordelia.

"You are welcome, Leonard" Mathew stays at the entrance of his mansion and starts to welcome everybody and he gives Leonard a shake.

"How are you, Cherry?" "I am fine, Happy birthday."We both extended greetings with a hug. After greeting Mathew and Cordelia, I and Leonard went inside to take our seats. Some of Leonard's friends with their wives came where we were sitting and we all greeted each other.

While Leonard was having a conversation with his friends, I just noticed he lost his focus on what they were doing out of a sudden. I looked at the direction he was staring at and saw a very beautiful curvy lady.The kind of gaze he gave the lady was the kind he gave me when we officially started our relationship.I felt uneasy and uncomfortable at the way he was looking at her. Vivian, a former beauty queen, is one hell out of a lady.

She comes into the party and everyone that I knew walked toward him to greet her. "Wow, she must be so loved by everyone," I thought to myself. I could not deny the fact that I was also staring at her. As I was staring at her, I did not know when that the wine I was sipping was not placed well in my mouth properly before it slipped right all through my dinner gown. It was half the drink that slipped.

"Arghh!"I screamed after I noticed the drink had poured on my dress. I felt so embarrassed that I tried to go to the bathroom to maybe get a towel or tissue to clean my dress. Leonard left where we were sitting to meet this Vivian of a lady not even paying attention to my dress.

"Well, I guess I should just go to the bathroom now." I told the people that I was surrounded with.As I tried to go the bathroom, I did not know when I stepped on my long dinner gown and fell. I guess my embarrassment was double in that way. All eyes were on me. Some of the wives of Leonard's friends came to help me to get on my feet. I could not believe that Leonard saw me as I fell to the ground and did nothing.

He did not even come to help me get on my feet. After seeing me fall to the ground, he carried his face away from where I fell and continued talking to the Vivian lady. He was still smiling at her. I was so pissed off from the way he was acting towards her. After I had gotten up from the ground, I quickly rushed to the bathroom.

"Are you Okay? Can you stand on your own? Do you want me to follow you to were you are going to."Cordelia asked so affectionate before I quickly left for the bathroom. "Please don't worry. I really appreciate your kindness."I said with a timid smile.

"I am good".Tears were about to rush out of my eyes but I had to control it so as to not look ashamed.