Chapter 73

Ma Cleopatra POV


The time was 9:17 am and Kharis was still asleep. It was so strange. I wondered if she was still asleep because of how overwhelmed she has been.

Just as I was about unlocking her door to check on her, Frederick called.


"Good morning ma Cleopatra", he greeted. His voice was shaking and I wondered if he was okay.


"Morning my boy, how are you doing", I asked him. It took a long while before he finally answered.

"I'm fine and holding up quite alright".


"How is Kharis", he asked.


"Hmm, it must have been so hard to bring yourself to ask about her", I said.


"You have no idea, Cleopatra", he said.


"Kharis is fine. I served her a Canadian dish last night and she felt so nauseated. The girl has to learn to adapt to different kinds of foods if she wants to travel the world", I answered jokingly.


He chuckled and said"nauseated"?.

"Hope she feels better now", he asked.


"Yes. She is still asleep", I answered.


"Wow, same as yesterday morning. She woke up extremely late, say around 10am", Frederick said.


That was strange.

"Is it normal to you"?, I asked him because I was beginning to get worried.


"Nah. Not at all. She usually gets up very early, before 8:00am", he answered.


I was beginning to suspect something but I kept it to myself first. I wanted to study her first before jumping into conclusions.


"Your wedding is tomorrow. How are you feeling about that"?, I asked him.


"I don't really think there's anything I can do about it. My parents and Ivy have made their decision and since I do not have Kharis anymore in my life, I'll be with Ivy then", he muttered slowly.


"How well do you know the woman you are getting married to, tomorrow", I asked him because my impression about Ivy was starting to change.


"Can I be really honest with you ma Cleopatra"?, He asked.


“I don’t really know the woman I’m getting married to. The only thing I know about her is her name and that she is a model. I know that she is proud, bossy and smart. I also know that she is very desperate about getting married to me. It seems like she would do anything to hear me say “I do”, tomorrow”, he explained calmly.


I loved that we were having the conversation. It only meant that he was comfortable with me.

“Frederick”, I called out to him.


“Hmm”, he answered.


“do you know how to differentiate between something that is photoshopped and something that isn’t”? I asked him.


Just as he was about to answer my question, my phone went off. I bit my lips and stared at Kharis’s door for a minute. If Frederick said that Ivy was desperate to get married to him, it only meant that she must have had a hand in the news trending on social media.


Frederick had already planned to get married to Ivy but when kharis came into the picture, he gave the marriage a second thought. So, kharis was the only thing standing in her way and she had to get that thing away by making fake videos and pictures of her cheating on Frederick. Now, kharis is out of the way and the wedding is tomorrow.



While I was trying to be a detective, Kharis ran out of the bedroom crying seriously. I became scared immediately.

“What is wrong?”I asked her.


She showed me her phone and I saw a wedding invitation.


“Is this on social media”? I asked, pretending not to know about it. She nodded her head and sat on the chair, sobbing.



“This is a wedding invitation. A wedding between Frederick Hudson and Ivy Clinton. See their pictures here, on the next slide. I can’t possibly be day dreaming”, she exclaimed.


Kharis was almost going crazy. Her eyes were swollen from excessive crying. I felt pity for her. Sincere pity!


“When I escaped from my parents’ house, I was super excited. I thought it was the beginning of my happiness. All the promises Frederick made to me”, she said softly and slowly.


“he promised to fix me”, she began screaming.


“Calm down,'' I said to her.


“Cleopatra, I am so hurt. You know what, Frederick could have just gotten rid of me. It would have been easy. He could have just looked me in the face and said it was over. He shouldn’t have uploaded fake videos and pictures of me on the internet just to get rid of me”, she said.


I didn’t like how it was going. I had so much faith in Frederick. I knew that if he was tired of Kharis, he would have told her immediately. He wouldn’t be so immature to ruin a maid’s reputation or even his own.


"It is not Frederick. He had no hand in the videos and photos of you and Lois trending on the internet”, I defended him.


She looked at me quizzically, shook her head, looked at me again, and said “you knew that he was getting married”!


She stood up from the chair and walked to the wall, she leaned on it and looked at me. I could see tears form at the corner of her eyes and fall.

“All the trips? The sweet nothings he whispered into my ear? The promises? all of these things were fake. I can’t even say he used me. What could he possibly use me for?”


Kharis was hurt and I knew that. For a while, I felt like it was all of my fault. Chris came out of the room, saw Kharis in a terrible state and went back inside.


“Maybe, if you just sit and listen to me explain everything. You would see that Frederick loved you genuinely”, I said to her.


“Is love supposed to hurt this way? she asked me.


“I and Chris have had our own fair share of hurt and pain, together, as a couple. Kharis, relationships are not easy. The longest relationships are the ones that have endured, practiced forgiveness, kindness, and commitment”, I was trying to explain to her.


“Frederick should have just told me that he was already getting married to that model”, she yelled, pointing at me.


I walked to where she stood, held her hands and guided her to a chair so she could sit down.


“I’m going to explain something to you really quick and I want you to pay attention. Frederick’s parents signed off an agreement with Ivy’s parents a long time ago. The Hudson’s have not been able to pay their debt to the Clintons. So, Frederick has to get married to Ivy and give her 5 percent of his shares for the rest of her life”, I said to her.


She opened her mouth in shock and adjusted in her seat to pay more attention. It felt good to know that she was paying attention to what I was saying.


“Frederick never wanted to get married to Ivy. His parents are poor now and all of their properties including their house would go to the Clintons if the agreement is not handled properly. It was a deal, signed in court. If you were Frederick, wouldn’t you save your parents from going to jail”?


“Frederick proved stubborn for a while but later agreed to marry Ivy. You came into the picture and he fell deeply in love with you. He stopped thinking about the consequences of his action and how his parents will survive in jail. He backed off from the wedding plans and avoided Ivy as if she were a transmittable disease. He was going to tell you about the wedding plans in Ghana but he didn’t know how to. Frederick was scared of losing you”.

“I don’t know why he loves you. You are not special. You are not wealthy or famous. But, he was going to put so much on hold, just to be with you”, I said softly.



“He woke up one morning and found photos and videos of you, trending on social media. He felt betrayed and hurt. The only right thing to do at the time was to save his family and that is why he is walking down the aisle tomorrow, with a woman he does not love”.


“Notwithstanding, he shouldn’t have lied to me. He could have just told me about Ivy. Ma Cleopatra, I didn’t sleep with Lois or even go out to dinner with him. Not once! She said.


“Frederick has no idea the things I am capable of as well as the things I am not capable of. I would never cheat on him, at least not with his driver”, she said.


“I think those photos and videos were orchestrated by Ivy”, I said to her.


“Ivy? Why would she want to do that? I owed her nothing. I wasn’t her friend, what…”.


“You took Frederick”, I interrupted her.


“This is all too much for me. I don’t feel too good. I think I might be having a fever”, she confessed.

“Have you seen your period for the month?”I asked her.


She rubbed her forehead and muttered a soft “no”. She opened her eyes widely.

“Am I pregnant”? she asked, rubbing her stomach

and crying all over again.


“I can't say for sure but you are having the symptoms already.

" I'll buy a pregnancy test kit for you today", I said, rubbing her shoulders.


"If I am actually pregnant, then, the baby belongs to Frederick", she said in a mild voice.


I looked at her and wondered what life really has in store for her.


"I have always wanted my baby to have a better father than I have