Unbridled Obsession -Love & Secrets

Chapter 2

"Hey, baby!" his voice came in from the other end.


"Liam, how dare you?" Why would you make such a decision without telling me? You already chose my dress? Can you be that mean?" 


“Easy sweet, catch your breath, your uncle came to me with the proposal and I accepted. I mean, I love you so much and want to be with you. Why should I wait on that? I can’t wait to be with you my princes…” I didn’t wait for him to complete his statement before I hung up and saw Audrey hanging by the door.

My gaze was fixed on my dressing mirror opposite the side of my bed, and I peered at myself. Did uncle say he owned me? Never! Never! It would have been preferable to move in with my late mother's sister, who owns a brothel, rather than living here.

Living with my uncle after the tragic passing of my parents to a fatal accident on their way to my graduation at age 15 has been hell. The news came as a shock, one in which I haven’t been able to recover from. That wasn’t all, our house, villa, my dad’s executive cars, my mum’s wine shop were all burnt down to the ground aside from my dad’s company.

Their death surely wasn’t a coincidence, it was surely carried out by someone, someone that had ruined my life up until this day. I haven’t been able to focus on my studies because it still tormented me and I wished I was in that accident with them. At least we all would have been together and at peace together.

Even in the present day, at age 22, my dad’s younger brother still despised me like I irritated him at any convenience. Audrey, his beloved daughter, is the only one that makes me comfortable whenever we come back for the holidays.

Imagine calling me a failure, always in front of his colleagues and considering me weak just because he didn’t want me in my father’s company. Funny right?


Yet I kept designing websites and software for them. Can a failure do that? I really don’t see what he sees as a threat, I have no intention of running the company in anyway, It’ll only spring in thoughts of my late dad and might probably end up killing Me which is something I clearly wasn’t ready for.


I only wanted to have fun and work from the comfort of my home. That’s the real gig now.


I cursed quietly as I continued drowning in my thoughts and felt a warm tap on my shoulders. Bringing my thoughts back to the present.


"You have to be calm, Cari," Audrey’s soothing voice muttered. I was upset at everything her father said, but I can't possibly blame her or dump all of my rage on her and I drew her into an embrace and cried in her arms.


"What did I do to deserve all of this cousin?" I asked as I sobbed softly.


"I'm not certain on what to say, but I'm here, Cari, and I'll always be here," she said, pulling herself away from me and gently brushing off the steam of tears off my face with her fingertips as we sat next to each other on the bed.


"Can we go clubbing tonight?" I blurted suddenly as a bright beam instantly became visible on my face.


“Sure!” Audrey responded, giving me a surprised look.


"What!!!"Oh! Please don't give me that, you know that's where I go to whenever I'm like this" .


"Really?" She chuckled and said, "I'll go get us something to eat."

I watched as she stood up and walked out. She is older than me by a few months and has always loved me.


I grabbed up my phone to text Anna, my best friend, and fill her in on what my uncle had said.


***


I’m almost ready, I blurted out busy applying my make ups in front of my dressing table as Audrey called in from the stairs. 


It's 7 p.m., and Audrey was already set for us to go out, she had been waiting patiently for me to get ready but it takes almost forever for me to get dressed and I already had it in mind to get hooked tonight so I needed to look hot.

Even if I contemplated it, it wouldn’t be a bad idea after all. I spent another 20 minutes in front of the mirror.

I could hear her footsteps as she approached my room from the corridor and posed at the door. Her face was furious, but it quickly turned into a bright smile as she moved inside and placed her palms on my shoulders.


“Here you are! Pretty little thing, I see why you've been biding your time; are you going there to get hooked Cari?” She inquired noisily.


“Hell no! But, if you ask me, that wouldn't be a bad idea”. My hands paused just before applying my lip gloss, and we both giggled.


I was finally ready and we stepped out to hail a taxi to the club.


We arrived at club vortex at exactly 9:48pm, it wasn’t really a smooth ride down, we had issues with some thugs on the way down, just a stone throw from the club. Audrey and her loud mouth, the insane driver couldn’t even utter a word. He was ready to allow them to deal with us under his nose.

Luckily for us someone intervened, someone we didn’t know. What he did to them afterwards wasn’t entirely my concern, but the expression of fear that brushed on their faces immediately they saw him was what actually made me dazed.

Audrey thanked him for his kind gestures but I didn’t. I was still filled with fear and had no guts to step out of the car.

Thank Goodness we got out safely, those guys weren’t having it and were ready to pounce on us.

“Wheew!” I let out a long sigh of relief as we stepped out of the taxi and made our way towards the entrance of the club.

We were welcomed by the loud buzzing sound of the music as clouds of smoke filled the air and the emanating smell of martinis snuffed in.

I wore an off-shoulder magenta dress exposing my cleavages with a long slit up to my thighs, with silver heels and purse giving it a classy look and I felt sexy in it. Audrey wore a short blue shirt and a white mini top with a black heel also.

We made our way to the bartender.

“A shot of tequila please”, Audrey said and he turned to me.

“What do you want ma’am?” The bartender inquired.

“I’ll have same please”

I placed one hand on the counter and rested my chin on the other as my gaze went towards the entrance, and saw the man from earlier that saved us walked in.

He looked really good wearing a light blue suit and pants to compliment. He carried this powerful and possessive Aurora with him like he is a mini-God as he walked in and the ladies around turned their gazes towards him including the shameless ones that were with their man.

I watched as he sat at the left corner of the bar and my gaze landed on a room close to where he sat with a red curtain and lights on that reflected from the curtains as cheers were heard from inside.

Curious about what was going on, I picked my drink from the bartender, gulped the entire content in the glass down my throat and made my way towards it when Audrey pulled my hands back.

“Where are you going?” She asked curiously.

I pointed my finger towards the direction and she dropped her glass in uneasiness.

‘Cari! You don’t want to go there, that’s a place where all sorts of nonsense are done”.

“Oh! I guess that's why the choice of a red curtain color. What’s the essence of having fun if I am not ready to go all in for it?”

“Cari please don’t, and you know for certain I can’t let you go in alone”.

“Then come with me, let's have fun cous”, I pulled her by the wrist approaching the dreaded room. My eyes caught up with the cold gaze of the someone that kept staring intently at us, he made it so obvious that he wouldn’t blink and like he had a thing against me.

Could it be because I didn’t thank him earlier? I was in the car and he could barely see me nor know what I looked like.

I ignored him and entered the dark room as Audrey trailed behind me.


With the lights focused on a game board, the room appears to be a different level of darkness and a different club scene. Somehow, I enjoyed the game and wanted to play, two players sat down to play while the others were up watching and jeering. I couldn't tell what was in them because of the ooze of dark shadows at every corner. Unlike us, everyone in there was wearing a mask, and even though they turned to face us, they kept their eyes on the games.

“I’m out of here sis, I don’t think this is the fun I came for, my friend is on the other side, I’ll catch you later”

“Okay sis”, I pulled over to her ears and whispered “Make sure you get hooked, that’s why we’re here” she chuckled softly and walked out.

I moved over to the game table and realized it was Blackjack.

Oh! easy, I thought to myself. Liam taught me how to and I played most of the time while in college. I was really good at it And I watched as they played and saw they weren’t as good as I thought. The loser is asked to drink a shot of vodka or get laid by their rival, the option is chosen by the winner who also gets all the cash they bid.

“Interesting!” I muttered from the crowd of viewers.

“I’ll play next!” I said and they all peered at me like I didn’t know what I was doing or that I sounded foolish.

“What? I’ll play next, who’s in charge?”

“What’s your bid ma’am?” A voice came in from behind me,

“$500? “

“That’s way below our biding fee ma’am”.

“I’ll pay you $50000”, a voice came in from the entrance, for a start. Leaving myself and the other guy befuddled.

$50,000?