(Continued from Pitfalls of Love IV)
Charlotte is relieved when Jacob hands the pregnancy test back without saying anything. She is not pregnant, she was simply banking on the fact that very few men know how to read pregnancy tests. And he fell for it. But while Jacob does not know how to read pregnancy tests, he will certainly tell he was lied to if she doesn’t get pregnant soon. So she needs a baby in her womb as soon as possible.
She made several attempts this weekend in Maasai Mara by keeping him busy in bed, and she will keep trying. She has already stopped using the pill. The tricky part now is ensuring that he stays in the house and doesn’t move out. As long as he is in the house, she is confident that she will get pregnant within a month.
Yesterday he did not want to sleep with her, so he moved to the spare bedroom. She let him settle in then went in and got into the bed. They ended up making love. That boy is hopeless when it comes to resisting her advances. And this morning she woke up early and made breakfast. She also ironed his clothes, polished his shoes and then dropped him to work. Or rather, she let him drive all the way to his work place before taking the car and driving herself to work. And this evening she intends to pick him up and let him drive home. Then she will make dinner and surrender herself to him.
By the time she is done with him, she will not only be pregnant, he will be begging her to marry him.
*
Today is Jacob’s first day working as the Operations Manager of Ufungu Bank Westlands Branch but he is finding it difficult to concentrate. He applied for this job over six months ago but didn’t get a response. The pay is better than that offered by all the other banks in the country. He had assumed that the bank had hired other people, but last month he received a call inviting him for an interview. He went for the interview and a few days later, he was informed that he had passed and since they knew he was working elsewhere, they would give him a month to clear with his current employer. So he submitted his resignation to Equity Bank and served his notice period. The notice ended on Friday, the same day Charlotte took him to the Maasai Mara. It was an excellent way to celebrate his new job.
That trip to Maasai Mara is actually one of the reasons he is having trouble concentrating at work today. His mind is all over the place. He knows he wants to marry Jedidah. But the truth is that he doesn’t really love her. He wants to marry her because he thinks she will make a “proper” wife. You know, the woman who can cook, clean, iron and have babies. The woman he loves is Charlotte. But he is apprehensive about marrying her because he knows she sleeps with the highest bidder. She is fun to sleep with, but when it comes to a wife, he wants a faithful woman.
But things are now different. Charlotte is carrying a baby. Presumably his baby, although he is still not so sure about that part. And she is excited about motherhood. Which is strange because Charlotte always struck him as the kind of girl who would find pregnancy to be an inconvenience.
In addition, she is acting like a wife. She prepared breakfast, ironed his clothes and polished his shoes. And let him drive to work. He couldn’t help but notice the looks of the neighbors as he pulled out of the estate in the maroon Nissan Juke.
Of course it bothers him a little that she acquired these things by sleeping with other men, but it still felt good driving that car. If he marries Jedidah they are going to be terribly broke together. Or is there a way he can play with both of them? Charlotte needs him, so he can use that window to enrich himself. He can toy with her emotions, giving her mixed signals so that she continues showering him with gifts but keep her relationship with Jedidah intact. If Charlotte makes money sleeping with men, then he can make money sleeping with women. And he will start with her. She will make him rich.
He went to see Jedidah over lunch time today. They had talked earlier on phone and she had told him that her mother would be gone over lunch time and would come back later in the afternoon. So he grabbed the chance to see her. He went with a banquet of flowers and a box of chocolates. The plan is that when the mother comes she will see the gifts and Jedidah will tell her they came from him. With time the old lady will accept him as a potential son-in-law.
He is still thinking about Jedidah when Charlotte calls him.
“Hi babe, what time are you leaving work?”
“Why?”
“I wanted to pass by and pick you so that we go home together,”
“Are you controlling my life now?”
Charlotte takes a deep breath. She knows he is spoiling for a fight, but she does not want to fight him. She is going to be a perfect wife until he puts a ring on her finger. After that he will pay dearly for all these humiliations.
“No babe. I just didn’t want you to take a matatu and there is a car here that you can use,”
“I am going to have a drink with my friends and I might stay out late. If you really care then you will give me that car,”
It is Charlotte who introduced him to alcohol years ago and he has since become an expert. Jedidah does not know that he takes alcohol. She still thinks he is the saint she met in Western Evangelical Students Organisation (WESO).
“I don’t think it is a good idea for you to drink and drive babe,”
“Then leave me alone Charlotte. I don’t even want you in my house,”
Charlotte takes a deep breath. Is this fool really worth it? Is it that she cannot find a compliant young man to marry her? A man she can control? But even this one she can control. She can trim the horns that he is growing.
“Okay, Jacob. I will have people move my things out of your house tomorrow. The same people will return your pathetic belongings back in,”
She is bluffing. She has no intentions of going anywhere. She knows he enjoys the good things in life and will not want to lose the “upgrade” he has received when she brought her superior household items into his house.
“That will not be possible, Charlotte. I didn’t ask you to bring anything into my house, so whatever is in my house is now mine,”
“And how do you plan to stop me from taking my things?” Charlotte asks, her voice rising.
“I already changed locks in that house my dear. You no longer have access. Besides, I have already told the estate guards to stay alert so that no strangers come into my house,”
“They saw me leaving with you in the morning. You were driving my car. I am not a stranger to them,”
“Those ones have already been fired for letting your goons into my house over the weekend. The company has sent new ones with strict instructions not to let unaccompanied strangers into the compound,”
“You don’t know who you are messing with Jacob. You will pay for this dearly,” Charlotte says and hangs up.
Jacob smiles. He was bluffing. He did not change locks and no guards were changed. He was just messing with Charlotte’s mind. It is good to keep her on her toes. He does not know that he has just made a costly mistake.
*
Jacob, in his newfound braggadocio, has forgotten that Charlotte is a very connected girl. He does not know it but Charlotte’s sponsor is the Chairman and largest individual shareholder of Ufungu Bank. It is true that Jacob did not make the shortlist when the bank advertised for the position of managers and operations managers. It is Charlotte who leaned on the old man to get him the job. Jacob does not know that either.
The old man had actually been pleased with the idea of giving Charlotte’s boyfriend a job. He wants her to get married so that his new wife Lucy can stop acting all insecure, and so that Charlotte herself stops the whining she has been doing ever since he married Lucy. He chose Lucy over Charlotte because according to him Lucy is more mature and less self-centred. But he actually prefers Charlotte when it comes to bedroom affairs. So while he wants Charlotte to get married, he wants her to marry a boy he can control. Because she is, after all, still his woman. He just doesn’t mind sharing with someone under his influence.
He knows about this boy Jacob. He has always known, through his team of private investigators. He knows the main boyfriends of all the girls he sleeps with. When Charlotte suggested that he gets the boy a job, he was delighted. There is no better way to control someone than to be the source of their livelihood.
So he is surprised when she calls him saying she wants him fired.
“What is going on doll? You asked me to give your friend a job and now you want him fired?”
“Yes darling,”
“Why is that?”
Charlotte pauses. She does not know that the old man knows that Jacob is her boyfriend, so she has to get creative in her answer.
“You have to trust me babe. He is mistreating another friend of mine and I need to teach him a lesson on behalf of my friend,”
“Okay. I hope you know what you are doing pumpkin,”
“I do hun. And thank you. When am I seeing you next? I am already missing you,”
“How would you like to visit Paris over the weekend?”
“Paris? Like French Paris?”
“Yea, I have business to transact there and I would love to be with you,”
“Oh babe that is so sweet. Of course I would love to go to Paris. It is every girl’s dream,”
“I will see you over the weekend then, baby girl.”
*
Jacob is approving a routine transaction when his computer suddenly tells him that he has been denied access. He calls the IT guy to sort out the issue but the guy tells him that he has received instructions from the branch manager to lock him out. Jacob storms into his immediate supervisor’s office.
“Why would you lock me out of the office system Ms. Thuita?” he asks the branch manager.
“Those are orders from above, Jacob. Apparently you have been fired. You are supposed to report to headquarters tomorrow to collect your dismissal letter,”
Jacob almost faints. He studies the Branch Manager’s face hoping that she is joking but realizes she isn’t. This must be the work of Charlotte. She must have pulled strings somewhere behind the scenes, and now she has him where she wants him: jobless and at her mercy.
(Continued Here)
Image Source: https://pixabay.com/photos/ladybugs-ladybirds-bugs-insects-1593406/
*
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