THE REMORSEFUL BILLIONAIRE

I stood still like I had seen a ghost. The man in front of me was no other person than Felix, the man I once loved and almost married, the same one who dumped me on the altar three years ago. He is back, standing and smiling broadly like nothing happened.

“Mommy, who is there?” Olivia said, running towards me.

Still speechless, I held her in my hands as Oliver joined us.

“Mommy, who is this?” Oliver asked, looking up to me for a response.

“It’s, it’s a frie-nd of mine” I managed to say, stammering

“How are you kids?” he said, waving and smiling at them.

“Fine”, they chorused.

“What are you doing here?” I managed to ask with a straight face

“Judith, can I at least come in?” he said, still smiling, acting friendly.

“Come in” I moved aside as he entered.

“Go inside your room and play with the video game. Let me attend to my friend, and I will come read you a bedtime story”, I said as I watched them go into the room.

“Let me get you a drink, I said, heading to the fridge. I served him a glass of fruit juice.

He took the drink, sipped a little from it, and then placed the glass on the table. “I guess you still love fruit juice”.

“Why are you here?” I asked coldly, ignoring his remarks. “I don’t appreciate you coming into my home unannounced”, I said in a low tone, while trying not to let the kids hear me.

“Are those children from the rape incident?” he said carelessly.

“Are you crazy?” I said. “Don’t you ever say that again,” I warned while scanning the room to ensure the kids weren’t listening.

“Relax Judith. I don’t mean to get you worked up. I’m just here to apologize for what happened. I honestly don’t know what came over me that day, that made me dump you” he said apologetically.

“It’s fine, I guess we aren’t just meant to be after all, I have moved on, so it’s absolutely fine”, I said, giving him a reassuring smile.

“You have moved on? As for me, I have not moved on. I still love you and miss you, Judith, and I honestly hope we can continue from where we stopped”, he said, taking my hands, which I quickly withdrew.

I looked at him for a while. “is he kidding or just clueless”, he did seem serious and confident that I would jump at him and just pick up from where we left off”, I thought and I suddenly burst out laughing.

He became confused and gave me a questioning look “why are you laughing?”

I placed my hands over my mouth, trying hard to suppress the laugh “I’m sorry Felix but you are so funny”.

“How?”

“You seem to think the world revolves around you. You left for three good years without a call. All you left me with was a break up message and embarrassment. Now you want us to start from where we stopped? I didn’t know you had always been this selfish?” I said

“I didn’t mean to embarrass you, Judith”.

“You didn’t mean to embarrass? Why didn’t you call after a month? After a year? Now you come back to say bullshit”, I asked angrily

“I waited for your call every day, not because I wanted the wedding to happen, but because I thought I deserved an explanation even when I knew what went wrong. I thought our relationship was worth more than just a break up text. I thought our love was something we could discuss and arrive at a sensible decision like adults”, I said, sobbing.

“I’m sorry, Judith”, he said, moving closer to me to console me. “Trust me Judith, I didn’t mean to make you cry”.

I dried my face and moved away from him. “You can see I have children now, and even if I didn’t, there’s no way we are getting back together again”.

“I don’t mind you having children, I really don’t”, he declared.

“You can’t withstand me getting raped. You won’t be able to withstand me having children too. I know you Felix. I knew we were going to keep having issues in our marriage but I went on with the wedding anyways because I didn’t want to hurt you, not knowing you were going to hurt me without thinking twice about it”, I said.

He just bowed down, all his confidence vanished. He must have been so confident and hopeful that I will get back with him.

“Please don’t come here again. I don’t want to see you again, you are my past and you should remain there” I said sternly, gesturing for him to leave.

Immediately he left I called Vanessa because she’s the only person I can talk too. Mother have always been worried about me being in London all by myself, I don’t want to bother her again.

“Hi van”, I said immediately she picked the call

“Hi Jud”, she giggled happily.

“Guess who was here?”

“Who?” She asked me in low toneContent bel0ngs to Nôvel(D)r/a/ma.Org.

“Felix” I said.

“Felix” she shouted loudly. She must have been shocked; I was too. “Why is he there?”

“I narrated everything to her without leaving out a single detail and, she listened keenly”.

“Just imagine, he must have thought you’d be jumping all over him”, she said and sighed.

“I don’t even know how he knows where I live. London is too big for him to just find me like that”.

“Don’t mind him. I’m sure he’s not going to come back”, she reassured.

I ended the call with Vanessa, still bothered about Felix. He seems to know so much about me. He knows and seems so sure about the twins.

“Felix being in London and coming back to apologize is not exactly what I would call a good thing. He seems different from the Felix I knew; somewhat arrogant and annoying. I spent the rest of the night worrying about Felix return”.

“Not a good thing, not a good thing”, I muttered as I drifted off to sleep.