CHAPTER NINE

The 18th of July. A date Astra never thought she could forget in a hurry. About twelve years ago on that day, she tried Sam's line but it wasn't going through so she went to his home instead to ensure everything was fine. Sam always picked her calls unlike that day. The door to Sam's living room opened the moment she gave the door a slight push. His parents were probably out and Jean his younger sister was playing with her friends at the park behind. She dashed to Sam's room and hit the door with so much frustration after the moanings she heard made her run mad with rage. Sam her highschool boyfriend was on top of Clara some random girl from her class as Sam asserts. Clara was butt naked while Sam had his boxers on. After she hurried home in tears, she imagined Clara bending over Sam's abdomen giving him a blow job while he screamed in pleasure as she heard him say to Clara "You handle me so well." She was heartbroken. The tortuous scene she encountered back then made her vow never to love genuinely again until she met Nicholas Michaelson.
As she sat in her bathtub with her head on the sink top, she wept like a child who just lost his mother. 'Why is life so unfair to her? ' Astra thought. 'Wasn't she destined to love? ' she wondered. "Why are all the men in her life this cruel? She lamented. At least with T. J her other boyfriend before Nicholas, she never really loved him but was always around him to keep up her dating manual and have fun. So when they broke up, it didn't really matter to her. With Greg, it was just sex while he paid her bills but when she met Nicholas and began growing in love with him, the fear she had always had of any man she loves leaving her or cheating on her vanished. With Nicholas, she called it True love. She loved Nicholas genuinely. More than she loved Sam and probably more than she could ever love anyone. He was her ride or die. When they got divorced, she still held on to the fact that a part of Nicholas still yearns for her. She had a strong conviction that he still loves her. These past days when they got really close and almost intimate, she could swear thier love was still as hot as coal but now, everything she belived in is turning out to be a lie.
'How could Nicholas do such to her? How could he forget her so soon? Is Five years enough to move on? Did he really loved her? What if he was having the affair while they were still married as Thompson alledged? These were the random questions going through Astra's mind as she lay in her bath tub like a corpse. 'Maybe I am too selfish. ' she told herself. Nicholas had divorced her so he had the right to move on. 'How can Nicholas move on so quickly while she hasn't even forgotten the scent of his clothes. She remembers the first time they met like yesterday. Their first kiss and the first time they made love. She cupped some water from the tub and washed her teary face. She was burning all over from the inside and her heart was aching terribly. The pain she felt when she caught Sam and Clara having sex was nothing compared to what she felt now. She had always considered Nicholas as the love of her life and now, she needs no prophecy to be reminded that she was alone. She had been trying to forget him for the past five years but there was no day that she didn't think of him, his touch, his kisses and the great and passionate love they always made. She turned to the other side of the bathtub and was crying uncontrollably. She felt dejected and unfortunate.
It then dawned on her that it was Nicholas she saw going into the baby clothing store with his mistress or perhaps wife the other day while she was having breakfast with Stephanie. It was never an illusion but a reality she was quick to shove off. She then remembered Nicholas admitting to her face that he fucked the woman and has a child with her. She cried the more. On their wedding night while Nicholas was penetrating into her, he had vowed to her when he whispered into her ears that she will be the only woman he ever goes into. She and Nicholas will wake up at dawn and talk about making babies when they were ready. She promised Nicholas that she would give him a Nicholas Michaelson Jnr while he laughed and said a junior Astra would be better. Now, Nicholas had a junior and it was not from her. She tried to imagine Nicholas going into the blonde lady and cried as she moved from one side of the tub to the other. She hates the blonde lady now and wondered if she was living in the mansion with Nicholas. Does he serve her breakfast in bed the way he has been serving her while they were married? Does he kiss her every morning before leaving for work even if she was asleep? Does he place her on the kitchen large table and run his fingers around her? What if he takes her to the movies every Sunday night, cooks for her or plays with her in the shower? Astra chuckled as tears flow down her cheeks and she muttered to herself "You are so dumb Astra. No one owes you anything. " Her mother would always tell her. "Astra no one owes you anything."
In the neighborhood Astra grew up, life was tough for her and her pairs. Parents struggle to make ends meet for thier children. She was raised in what seemed like a squalor and had been a survivor of hardship and abject scarcity. Her mother was a cleaner at the Life Line Clinic at the end of their street. Back then when she was fourteen, her father was bedridden with diabetes and was home till his demise. They couldn't afford the hospital bills so they took care of her father from home. The income her mother earned from her cleaning job wasn't enough. They had to pay for her father's medication, they needed groceries, there was the water bill, light bill, school fees and lots of bills. Astra's mom had to work double shift at the clinic. She leaves home before 6:am and returns at 10pm every day. Astra stays back at home and takes care of her father. She does the chores, takes lunch and dinner to her mother and returns home to look after her father. She had to quit school for some months before her father's sister Becky came over. When her aunty Becky came over, Astra returned back to school but would work as a shop keeper after school. She had been doing so till her dad died and her mother never knew because she came back before 6:pm, earlier than her mother. Only her aunty Becky was aware that she was working. From her job as the shop keeper, she was able raise fees for her next school year and when she presented the money to her mother, her mother was taken aback. "No one owes me anything. " she told her mother.
"You are a strong woman Astra. " she told herself. "You deserve all the happiness you can get. " she said to herself again as the wave of reinvigoration consumed her. To hell with Nicholas. To hell with the law firm she is working for. She pondered as she wrapped herself in her large blanket. Meanwhile, Jared had been calling her phone but Astra wouldn't lift a finger as she watch the phone vibrate between minutes. "Poor Jared. " she mumbled. It was late evening. She had been in the bath tub for hours sulking, weeping and cursing fate. She had been miserable but not anymore. 'No one owes me anything. ' she assured herself . When Nicholas threw her out, she thought hell was unleashed on her. She lost herself and had to rise from the ashes. When she was in that fire accident, she thought all hope was lost but rather it was the dawn of a new era for her. She will not let life subject her to so much torture. She will no longer allow Nicholas dictate to her what to do. She will be no ones pawn. Not Nicholas, Thompson or even her boss. Tommorow, she shall call Trevor Abby her boss and inform him that she is quitting. She will leave the job. Nicholas Michaelson can't continue to ruin her life. First he threw her out now he wants to control her career? She has a choice and she will not work for the man who took everything from her. She shut her eyes and slept like a child.