CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

DAMIEN

Where the fuck is she? Doesn't she know she is a married woman for goodness sake? It's nine o'clock and she still hasn't returned, which irritates me even more.
After returning from the hotel reception, I immediately went to the gym in my apartment to work out to relieve my stress and rage because, if I had sat and waited for her, I would have gone insane.
My thoughts then shifted from Tamara to my father as I punched and kicked the punching bag one, two, three times without pausing to breathe. My father is an inept fool who believes he can do whatever he wants and get away with it without consequences; this is why he nearly lost the company when I was fresh out of business school. If it hadn't been for my grandfather and mother, I would have locked his ass up a long time ago.
There were several reasons why I held back telling him about the wedding in the first place—I was sure he would find a way to ruin it, and I was right—even though I didn't invite him, he still showed up and made me look bad. My blood boils as I think back to what happened. Today alone, I had to bribe and intimidate a lot of news outlets to stop posting or writing about what had happened with my father and Tamara because if I didn't it would come back and bite me in the ass.
I tried calling my mother, but she didn't answer, which means she was dead serious about not speaking to me until I made amends with Tamara. I didn't even bother calling grandfather because I already knew the outcome. I ran my hands through my hair in frustration, resting my head on the punching bag to catch my breath. I then picked up the towel I'd left on the bench to wipe the sweat off my face, then drank from my water bottle.
I knew it was time to stop because I could feel my body reaching its limit, and if I continued pushing myself, I might pass out, so I decided to take a shower and rest.
As I walked out of the gym, I overheard Amina;my house help was conversing with someone. I wasn't expecting anyone, was Tamara back? I thought as I put on my shirt and walked into the living room.
My gaze fell on the person Amina was speaking with, and it was no other person than my dear wife Tamara. She was still dressed in the gown she wore to the reception, and a few pieces of her hair had come undone from her ponytail.
"Look who we have here, it's the prodigal wife," I said, which caused her to frown and glare at me. However, I ignored her rudeness and turned to face Amina, my housekeeper, saying, "Amina, you can go home now."
She picked up her bag from the chair beside her and said her goodbyes to Tamara and I "Good night, Mr. and Mrs. Kingston'' before leaving the room then I turned to face Tamara
"Do you know that I have been looking everywhere for you? I have spoken to your parents, but they are unaware of your whereabouts, and your mother tried calling Alex, but he has not returned her calls.
"You didn't have to, I was obviously going to come back after I calmed down," she said nonchalantly, fueling my rage.
"I didn't have to you say, Do you know what I went through after you your dumb brother and his friends carried you off?" I yelled, and her gaze became cold.
"First, don't yell at me like I'm a child, and second, don't call my brother and his friends dumb Mr Kingston, it wasn't their fault I had a panic attack, actually it was your father's fault, so if you want to blame anyone blame your father," she said as she turned to walk away, but I grabbed her hand and prevented her from walking away.
"Let go of me, Mr Kingston," Tamara said angrily as she stared at my hands, but I didn't let go, I wasn't done talking.
"I'm not done talking Tamara, so you don't get to fucking walk away from me," I yelled, and she flinched slightly as my grip on her hand tightened.
"My mother and grandfather are beyond pissed with me, and it's all your fault, how would I know you were having a panic attack?"
"Do you want me to apologize to you, Mr Kingston, for having a panic attack?" Tamara questioned her angry gaze on me, and said, "If you expect an apology, you must be insane to think I would give you one; if it hadn't been for your father, none of this would have happened." Tamara sneered
Yes, my father might have been to blame, but it's also partly her fault because she failed to inform me of the panic attack. "You too have a hand in what happened today too Tamara, you should have mentioned in your file that you have panic attacks then I would have known how to deal with it when it happened, you made me look like a fool when Alex came to your rescue," I said.
"First, you made yourself look like a fool when you started exchanging words with your drunk father, and second, my panic attacks were on a need to know basis and you didn't need to know, you know why Mr Kingston, because you are nothing to me, you are just a man that came to invade my life and I owe you nothing," she yelled
"Listen-"
"No you Listen, I've had enough of you pushing me around and threatening me with my mother's company, you have no right to scold me like a child, I'm a grown ass woman"
"You're such a jerk; do you expect everyone to do what you say?"
"Yes, because if they did, everything would be fine."
"You are so full of yourself, it's actually quite sad; are you so insecure about yourself that you believe the only way to get people to follow your orders is to threaten them?"
"I'm not insecure, Tamara."
"You would have fooled me, Mr Kingston," Tamara scoffed.
"Don't change the subject, Tamara; we're talking about you, not me."
"You're the one who's making a big deal out of nothing."
"It's nothing because I took care of it; if it hadn't been for me, our disaster of a wedding would have been on the cover of every gossip magazine in New York, and you know what that would have done to my reputation."
"Gosh, can you stop talking about your reputation for once in your life, I don't really care, and you should stop caring what other people say about you because your life would be less stressful if you did, Mr Kingston."
"My reputation is everything to me, and I will not let you or anyone tarnish it Tamara, so you better get your act together and start acting like the perfect wife or so help me."
"What are you going to do, hit me?"
"No way, I'll never lay my hand on a woman." I inquired, and she immediately avoided my gaze; I tried not to read too much into what she had said, as it was said in anger.
"Forget what I said, you know, if this is going to work, you'll have to trust me."
"How can you expect me to have faith in someone like you?" I directed my thoughts to her greedy father, certain that she was just like him.
"What do you mean a person like me, have I done something wrong to make you suspicious of me?" she asked, her brow furrowed and her eyes wide with curiosity.
"Yes, for example, today, where were you after you left the hotel?"
"It has nothing to do with you, Mr Kingston." She responded briefly, refusing to back down from my stare.
"See, why can't you tell me, what if you were with your lover and you're making a fool of me?" I knew bringing this up made me sound ridiculous after what I had done in the past with my secretary and Emilia, but I had to be right, she wasn't going to have the last say "You know it's stated in the contract that you are not to have a relationship outside of ours for the two years we are to be married" I inquired
"That's rich coming from you Mr Kingston, I caught you cheating twice with two different women, so don't be a hypocrite," she scoffs, taking a step towards me and jabbing a finger in my chest, "unlike you, I'm going to stay faithful even if this marriage is a sham, I'm the one who is supposed to be wary of trusting you, you broke the contract first," she said, before putting distance between us.
"Tamara, we weren't married at the time, so it doesn't count."
"It doesn't do; listen to yourself now, you're making no sense." Tamara exhaled a frustrated sigh before returning her gaze to me and continuing talking, "just forget it I'm not going to stand in your way anymore, you can sleep with whoever you want, just don't do it in this house Mr Kingston."
"It's my house, Tamara; I'm free to do whatever I want."
"Okay, then, on my way in, I noticed a pool house; I'll be staying there from now on, so the house is yours to do with as you please." Tamara said, and her casual attitude toward my cheating irritates me, and now she suggests moving into the pool house so I can do whatever I want.
"Like hell you will, I would never allow that, you're staying in this house and that's final Tamara, you don't want to make me angrier than I already am," I said as I closed the gap between us.