Mona's howls attracted the house serving staff to the scene. James totally panicked. He wasn't even looking at me as he pulled off his coat and tossed it to the side along with the other two coats before he dived into the lake to save his damsel in distress.
I was frozen with amazement as James clambered out of the waters with Mona draped in his arms like a fragile princess.
"Call the family doctor now!" he ordered as he put the three coats (mine, his and Mona's) across her shoulders to keep her warm. She was crying pitifully.
"I was just asking her why she didn't bring a coat and she just pushed me," Mona moaned.
"Argh, James, she's lying?" I yelled, sick of her pretence. Of course James did not believe me. He stood up and strode towards me with a determined gaze. To the horror of all who were watching, he cruelly pushed me and I fell into the lake. I struggled to stay afloat.
"Don't you know Mona can't swim? How could you be so callous? Stay there and think about what you've done."
With no hesitation whatsoever, James carried Mona. She grinned at me over his shoulder. A smile only I could see because it was meant for only me. To Mona, she had won.
When everybody was gone, I climbed out of the lake, wet, cold and shivering. Adding to the mess, my phone had fallen in and was probably resting broken and waterlogged at the very bottom. I would be unable to find it without help.
As I passed, everyone was fawning over Mona in the living room at James' behest. They barely paid any attention to me as I slipped past them into the guest room. Within the space of when I left and now, all my clothes had been uprooted and rubbed in the dust so that none of them were wearable. Covering my nose, I dug through my luggage and was relieved to see a stash of hard cash and a physical copy of my flight ticket. I put it in my small purse and hid it under my wet dress. It was all I was now leaving with.
"Stop!"
I halted at the main doorway. All eyes were boring into me.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to get some cold medicine."
James gave me a long look. I could sense a debate raging in his mind. "Stay, I'll send the driver to get it."
"I can get it myself," I said hurriedly. I wasn't going to any pharmacy. I was going away for good. I didn't need anybody following me.
"Well, at least put on something dry," James said with a scowl. I opened my mouth then closed it for want of words. He was not going to believe that I had nothing dry to wear because a vindictive person had dragged them all through dust.
"Oh Jimmy boo, just give her one of my coats."
The irony was that Mona's coats were initially my coats. Mona took off the white cashmere like a gracious saint. She had everyone fooled by her act. Just not me.
James pushed the coat into my arm. "Look how Mona is being so good to you when she doesn't need to," he whispered. "How about you grow up too? Anyway, make sure you show up for my father's birthday with appropriate gifts tomorrow. He is finally handing over the family business to me and I don't want any hitches."
This wasn't the right time to counter him. I dutifully nodded instead. Better to let him keep believing that I would show up. James hesitated.
"Maybe the driver should take you."
"No! The pharmacy is only a short walk away. I need to clear my head besides, you know. Think about what I've done."
Outside the villa, I reached the nearest phonebox and dialled my contact's number which I had committed to memory.
"RONICA!" His urgent sultry voice boomed through.
"Just what on earth are you trying to pull? What happened to your phone this time?"
"I have some cash and the flight ticket but no phone, no car and I lied I was going to the pharmacy. Please can you come get me?" I spoke hurriedly before the cold could break my voice.
"Hold on Ronny. I am on my way."
***
It was the next day already. It was Patrick Simmons' sixty eighth birthday. The man had always had high hopes for me. He had wanted me to get pregnant again. It was all he talked about when he was with me which was why he would not be meeting me on this special day for both of us.
He would fume that I had not shown up to his exclusive birthday party and James had shown up with another woman by his side, Mona. Knowing James, he would not dare tell Patrick who Mona really was, not when his inheritance was still hanging on the line.
While I rested in a comfy bed all the way on the other side of the country, James had no idea I was about to upheave his life in a monumental way. As monumentally as he had cheated on me with Mona.
There was a knock on my bedroom door. "Come in," I said. A young twenty five ish reporter barged into my room. She looked at me like she was staring at gold or at a rare painting.
"Ronica Medol! I'm sorry. That's Ronica Simmons now. I am Amy Gold. Oh my God, I can't believe it's really you. It truly was a sad loss when you quit your career to marry James Simmons. Are you really set to return?"
I had sent Patrick Simmons three gifts to abate the hurt of my absence. He would be opening them by now. The first one would please him greatly— a quilt, painstakingly knitted for months by my very own hands.
"The first exclusive I have for you is that I am reviving my music career," I coolly announced as Amy furiously typed away on her laptop.
The second gift would make him wary. It would make his guests wary. It would unnerve James. It was an eight hundred years old mahogany flute. The marriage gift Patrick had given to me with his own hands to commend my bravery for choosing his son over my career.
"The second exclusive is…," I leaned forward conspiratorially. My father in law's hands would be shaking now. It is with impatience that James would rip my third present open and when he sees it…
God! When he sees it.
I wondered how he would react to me serving him divorce papers. That was my third and last present to Patrick Simmons. I began to tell Amy all about my second exclusive.