Liana was in a bad mood and when she was like this, she went on a shopping spree. This was her therapy, it took her mind off stress to browse in high-end stores and shop till she dropped.
She picked up her phone and made a conference call with her girls since she had no gig on her schedule. “ Get ready girls, we are going shopping”.
Liana was an only child born to a university professor in one of the leading universities in the country and her mother was an assistant manager in a leading insurance company.
Even though they were termed as middle class, Liana had caught on earlier in life to mingle with the rich in society and imitate them. This, coupled with her parent’s spoiling her turned her into an arrogant snob who expected the world to revolve around her.
She had always had her eyes set on Richard Wayne, the wealthiest bachelor in town, and did everything possible to catch his eye. One great advantage of this relationship was that money was never a problem for her and she could purchase anything, anytime she wanted to without breaking a nail because Richard provided for her every need.
Megan had just finalized taking stock of the packages that had arrived in the morning and was going through the pre-ordered list. Some clients preferred ordering straight from the catalog and having their packages delivered to their homes.
Liana sauntered into the store with her two friends in tow. The two ladies had their hands full of packages from the various stores that they had already visited but they were not complaining. Shopping with Liana meant getting freebies as they would not use a cent of their money to buy things.
She knew that there was a limited edition wristwatch that had just arrived that morning and she wanted it because there were only three of such in that season.
At that moment, Megan was the only attendant that was free and got up to serve the client only to see Liana.
“Good morning and how may I help you?” this was her workplace and she had to act professionally regardless of who it was.
“Well, look who's here”, Liana said as she sat on the couch.
“Do you know her?” one of her friends asked. She looked like a lap dog who wanted to please her mistress.
"Aah, she is just a nobody"
“You” Liana pointed a finger at her. “First of all get us some fresh orange juice. All this walking has gotten us parched” she said, a large sneer on her face.
Megan turned to one of the hostesses that were free and gave her the order. It was not part of her job description to get drinks for clients.
“I asked you to do it so why as you ordering someone else?” Liana always felt that Megan was an eyesore since she stuck on to Rich and refused to grant him a divorce.
“I am sorry Miss but I am here to help you with your order so feel free to go through our catalog and let me know if anything interests you.” She was trying to be as patient as she could, not wanting to ruin her job.
Liana lifted her nose in the air. “This thing doesn’t seem to know her place,” she told her friends. She then flipped the catalog to the page where the wristwatch was and pointed at it.
“Get me this and hurry up cause I don’t have all day”
Megan looked at the watch and shook her head. “I am sorry but this watch was pre-ordered and has already been packaged to be delivered to the buyer”.
“What kind of a stupid attendant are you? I want this watch and I want it now.” She said loudly, bringing attention to them.
“Please select something else as what you are asking for is impossible” Megan was losing her calm.
The hostess had already brought the glasses of juice and handed them to them. Standing up with the glass in hand, she poured the contents on Megan and before she could recover from the shock, a hard slap landed on her face.
“Do you need me to teach you your job, you useless piece of shit?” she screamed at Megan. She had been longing to slap her for a very long time and she now had a chance to vent her frustration.
“What is wrong with you? Why did you slap me?” Megan was holding her cheek as dregs of juice ran down her face.
The shop had come to a standstill with the other shoppers and attendants looking on. None of the attendants could step forth to help their co-worker cause they all knew that Liana was a famous model and nobody could mess with her.
“And I will slap you again if you don’t get me the wristwatch,” Liana said and with a huff went back to seat with her friends who were still in shock. They knew that Liana had a hot temper but that did not justify her snapping at the attendant who was only doing her job.
“Liana, that is too much, she is only doing her job,” one of them said.
“I don’t care. I get what I want so she had better know that”.
Megan snapped. She took a glass of water from a passing hostess and poured the contents on Liana who was too shocked to dodge.
“If you ever dare to lay a hand on me again, I will rip your face off,” she said menacingly, making Liana freeze.
She had never seen this side of Megan and thought that she was just a mousy woman who knew nothing but to cling to Richard.
“You….you just wait and see,” she said as she took out her phone.
"Babe, I need you right now." She sobbed into the phone
Rich who had just come from seating in the conference room felt a headache coming up. Liana knew that they were supposed to be seen less in public together until Megan agreed to grant him a divorce so what did she get herself into now?
"What is wrong? I am just coming from a meeting now so I will send one of my bodyguards."
Liana heard this and started wailing loudly, shocking everyone present.
" I am being bullied so I need you here right now" she yelled as she gave the address of the store and hung up.
"Let's see where your bravado will take you now" she looked up at Megan who had a sinking feeling.
If Liana had called Rich to her rescue then she was done for.
“Kneel and apologize right now!” Rich shouted at her.Megan looked at her husband, her lips lopsided in sadness. As soon as he had walked into the store, Liana rushed and threw herself at him, crying pitifully. Her shoulders were shaking as she racked in sobs causing Rich to feel a tear in his heart.“What happened? Why are you crying?” He asked tenderly, not understanding what the drama was all about.Liana turned in his arms and pointed a shaky finger at Megan. “She hit me and splashed water on me”Oooh this woman, Megan thought as she looked aghast at them. Liana had started it all but was now making it seem like she was the one who was attacked.“Then she slapped me and humiliated me in front of everyone calling me a bitch and a husband snatcher” she wailed. “Rich, tell her that we are just friends and nothing is going on between us.”Liana twisted things so that people could have a negative impression of Megan. She did not want to expose her affair with Rich but also wanted Rich
“Resign from your job!”Those were the words that greeted Megan as soon as she went through the door. She had had a long day at work and after picking Benny up from school and taking him to the park as usual, all she wanted was a warm bath before helping Benny with his assignment.The embarrassment that Liana had caused at her workplace lingered on her mind and right now seeing her seated next to Beth while holding her hand as if she had been greatly aggrieved made Megan to scoff inwardly.“Mother, I had asked of your permission before looking for a job and you were only with it. Why change now?” she knew that Liana had give to whine to her.“If all you want a reason to resign then I want you here, in the house to help me around. As you can see, I am still grieving my husband and I can’t be left alone in the house.”Megan felt that this was the lamest excuse that she ever heard. It had been months since father passed away and mother had even started attending social functions, acting
It was late at night when Megan finally made her way downstairs to the kitchen. She needed some salve to apply on her knee as it was already swollen.After heating some water, she used it in a small basin and by use of a face towel, gently massaged the swollen area while applying the ointment. It was so painful, she had to grit her teeth to stop the tears from cascading down her face.She heard the main door open and guessed that Rich was back home. As she was hoping that he would head to his room, she saw a silhouette by the kitchen door.Rich had just got home and checked the living room but his wife was not there. Ever since she started working, she no longer waited on him with a hot meal like she used to. He had even stopped having dinner with Liana just so he could come back to the meals and her company and was always irritating by not finding her.As he was about to go up to his room, he saw the kitchen was lit and headed there, thinking that maybe Megan was preparing his meal.
Lying prostrate on his bed, Rich stared at the ceiling in the dark. Megan's words still rang clear in his head, the guilt banging back and forth. Was he really about to take his wife by force? He loathed Megan but never in his wildest dreams did he think that he would be capable of such a despicable act against her.Megan in the other room was curled up in bed, her teeth firmly biting into the bedsheet as tears soaked her pillow. Her heart was been torn apart by pain but she did not want her pitiful cries to wake up her son who was peacefully sleeping on the bed next to hers.“Why is life so unfair to me?” she asked herself as her mind drifted to the past.*****Benny who was still a toddler was at his grandparents for the weekend. She was in the kitchen busy putting the final touches for dinner.It was their third wedding anniversary and she wanted to surprise her husband with a romantic dinner. She wanted the weekend to be a memorable one, wanting to reignite the fire that they once
She had to stay in the hospital for two weeks. After Dan left, she eventually crawled to where her phone was and called her Dad who rushed over. Seeing his daughter in that state, he drove her to the hospital then reported the incident at the police station.Dan was arrested while on his way to work. His lawyer came to see Megan to convince her to drop the charges, claiming that Dan was too drunk to realize what he was doing.Megan, feeling sorry that her beloved husband was locked up, went behind her father’s back and dropped the charges. For the next few months, Dan was the perfect dotting husband, rushing home after work to take care of his wife. The home was once again the perfect life that Megan had sacrificed her life for, the cheating incident totally forgotten.Her father was so mad at her. He had never wanted his daughter to get married to Dan in the first place, feeling that he was not worthy of her. She had graduated first in her class and even had an accolade.He thought t
Liana needed drastic measures to get on Megan’s nerves. She called her best friends and asked them to meet up in the afternoon. Megan had just got off work and was walking to the parking lot. It was a hot summer afternoon and she was planning on giving Benny his favorite ice cream as a treat for earning stars in his school assignment. Benny was not just an obedient boy but was so well disciplined and industrious despite the chaos in his young life. He had watched his father humiliate his mother and sometimes even physically abuse her.There were times that he would try to stand up for his mother when things got physical but due to his young age, he also ended up getting a slap or two from his father. Many a night, he would curl up in bed with his mother trying to give her comfort after such incidents occurred.His young mind could not understand why his family was so different from others as he would often see his classmates being picked up by their fathers whereas for him it was on
Rich had just come from a meeting with his shareholders. They still had doubts about his leadership and felt that he was deviating from the path that his Dad had set. Already he was accepting collaboration with companies that his father had rejected to work with in his time because of their substandard work. Rich was more interested in enlarging the company and not thinking in the aspect of whether they would make profits or losses.One shareholder had walked out vowing to sell his shares because he wanted nothing to do with the company if Rich took on the latest project. This project would end up bringing a huge loss for the company but Rich refused to see reason.Taking some painkillers from his desk drawer, he poured some wine into a glass and was about to take it when his assistant knocked on the door.“Sir, we have a problem,” he said as he came him holding his phone.“Please deal with whatever it is. I don’t want to hear it” Rich said as he swirled the chair to face the window.
Two days later, Megan was summoned to the living room. She had not fully recovered from the attack so Logan had given her some days off to attend to her wounds. During that time, she had locked herself in her room to avoid the family and had organized for the maid assigned to her to take Benny to school and pick him up in the afternoon.As she came down the steps, the first person she saw was a disheveled Liana, hanging on to Rich's hand like she was an undetachable part of his arm. With unkempt hair and a haggard face, she looked like she had just been snatched from the pits of hell. Megan sighed, knowing that the drama was about to unfold.Beth, the matriarch sat on her seat, a rocking chair that had been gifted by her late husband on her birthday last year. The chair was custom-made for her and had a therapeutic massage control for her neck and back. Cindy who always had her headset on was lying, relaxed on the sofa next to her mother. Thankfully Buckley and Aaron were missing, ma