77
It wasn’t the first time in his life he told someone the story of his birth and everything he had been through, but it was the first time he told the story as it was without making himself the victim of circumstances. He told her facts, plain and simple and her face animated what she thought about his story. When he talked about the death of his mother she mourned for her and held him and when he talked about Fredrick selling him off her eyes showed her anger. When he talked about Tshepo, her eyes had widened in surprise.
“You know that GHIA man?” she asked in astonishment.
“He is like a brother to me.”
“Yeah, I got that. You did kind of grow up together in a sense.” she was amused. “No wonder he was so concerned about me. He is very protective of you.”
“Vera said the same thing,” he confessed, burying his fingers in the curls of her hair. He enjoyed the feel of her soft body pressed against his.
Rachel rose on her elbow to reward him with a questioning glare. “Vera?”
“Ah, I see I have omitted something. We had a long talk and she encouraged me to see a therapist.”
“Oh,” Rachel said.
Nate raised his brows as he regarded her with amusement. “Oh?”
“Well, what do you want me to say? I never knew you both became friends after everything.”
She bent her elbow again and when she laid on his chest again she didn’t touch him. Nate grabbed her hand and leaned down to look into her face with a smile. “Are you jealous?”
“What do you mean am I jealous? Of course, I’m not jealous! Why should I be?”
He laughed at her and tilted her chin up. “I hear jealousy. I smell it.”
She wrinkled her nose impishly. “You smell it? Where?”
“Right here,” he kissed her lips and went he drew back she was pouting prettily. “Vera and I are friends, okay? I think she’s fine with that and so am I.”
“Right.”
She didn’t sound like she believed him but she rubbed his chest and rested her head on him again.
“I love you.”
Her hand paused on his chest and she rose on her elbow again to stare at him. A slow smile spreading on her lips. “What was that you said?”
“I love you.”
She bit her lower lip and hid her face in his neck. “You are such an idiot. You know we both are still in danger, right? You can’t go about spouting nonsense about loving me and…”
He shifted so that she was beneath him and he tilted her chin up effectively cutting her flow of words. “I don’t care about the dangers to my life. If I die today I want to do something right by letting you know how I feel. You are a charming, funny, woman who is not afraid to speak her mind and stand for what she believes in. I am most likely obsessed with her but if there’s anyone I want to be infatuated with, then I’ll choose her over and over again.”
Rachel stared into his eyes, saw the sincerity in them, and her eyes began to water again.
“Wow,” she laughed. “This woman sure sounds incredible.”
“She is.” He kissed her forehead and her cheek and her mouth then he lifted his head and frowned. “Is it just me or are you crying a lot more than usual?”
“It’s the hormones,” she cried, dabbing at her eyes. “It’s the stupid hormones. I can’t seem to stop crying every time.”
He laughed and kissed her again, his hand trailing a path to her belly and there he gently caressed her soft belly, his heart expanding with love for the child within her, amazed at the strength of child after everything both mother and child had been through, he knew there was only one thing to do.
“Marry me.”
Rachel was crying as she wrapped her trembling arms around his neck. Nate rubbed her naked back and thigh. She wasn’t saying no and her reaction was the affirmation he needed.
“You’re such an idiot, Nathaniel Madden. If we live to survive this yes, I’ll marry you.”
He couldn’t squeeze her close enough but he feared he would hurt their child.
Suddenly the door was thrown open and their naked bodies sprang apart.
A every surprised Mabel stood at the door holding bags of groceries in one hand with the other on the door handle. Her mouth dropped open.
Both Nate and Rachel tried to cover themselves but there weren’t many clothes to cover themselves with.
“Wow,” Mabel said incredulously. “A few seconds alone and I come to find you both naked and frolicking? Rachel?”
“Don’t you know how to knock, Mabs?” Rachel asked trying futilely to help Nate wear his trousers.
“Knock?” she laughed. Then her eyes fell on the discarded spatula. “Do I even want to know what you did with that?”
“No you don’t,” they answered in unison.
Mabel narrowed her eyes at Nate and he blushed red. Never in his life had he been caught in such an embarrassing condition.
“I see you wormed your way into my sister’s life again. I don’t know how you did it but you might want to get your things and leave now.”
“Mabel! He’s not leaving.”
“Really? I’ll like to know why you support him now after all he did to you.”
“We talked and we made up.”
“You surely did more than talking and making up. But I’m curious, what stories did he have to tell you to make you open your legs again?”
Rachel wanted to tell her sister to shut up and mind her business, but Nate – now half-clothed – held her hand. She looked up at him.
“You may not like me, Mabel and honestly you have every right to hate me but I love your sister and I want to marry her.”
Rachel watched her sister’s face become animated then she suddenly started laughing.
“Wow. That’s something.” She closed the door and dropped the groceries. “I see. So…Rachel you want to marry him? After what happened between you and Jacob do you think you are in a good place to judge Nate after everything he did to you?”
“Mabel!”
Nate held Rachel. “It’s fine,” he whispered to her. Turning to Mabel again he said, “I understand your concern for your sister. I would be protective too if I thought my sister was making a mistake. I do not deserve your sister but I am a changed man and I am willing to do anything to be a worthy man for her.”
“Hmm, I see. Rachel?”
“I love him too. I told you already! And I am willing to give him a second chance. I care about what you think and that’s why I want you to give him a chance, please.”
Mabel said nothing for a long time. To Nate, this was the kind of reaction he had expected from her older sister anyway. The woman was protective of her like a mother to her daughter. He would have more trouble convincing her of his honest intentions than he had trying to win Rachel back.
Finally, Mabel answered. “I will put him on trial. I’m watching your every move, Madden.”
And he was going to do his best not to fail.
But Mabel wanted to know what was happening outside of the town they stayed. There wasn’t much to know. They had no TV, Tshepo had taken their laptops and anything that could lead to Jacob finding them out but he had given them a small phone to use in case they were in danger and the only number they could call was his.
Nate told them about Jacob’s new accusation. His inheritance, he told them of the possibility that he might be his half brother and he told them why.
“Jacob is just a lucky bastard, even fate seems to be on his side. Do you think he knew all these while that you were his half-brother? Why didn’t he straight up accuse you of theft rather than go through the pains of plotting a faux murder and my sister’s death?”
“I think he is a methodic man. The chain of events started when Rachel caught him with Gabby, that wasn’t supposed to happen. If that hadn’t happened he probably would have remained under the radar until the coast was clear before launching an attack on me, an assassination would have been easier then but I still don’t understand how he would have hoped to get his hands on my money since I willed it to the orphanages in Gabore.”
“And when I discovered his cheating ass, I may have set the wheels of our demise in motion. First, I accepted your offer. If there’s one thing I learned about Jacob while living with the real him for three months,” Rachel said, “it’s that he never misses an opportunity. For him, there’s no such thing as bad luck and that may be right given his excess abundance of luck. He saw me as the perfect bait to lure you in which was why he took me. I don’t think he wants to kill you straight up, I think he wants you to watch him take your inheritance knowing you are powerless to stop him.”
“That would explain the faux murder plot and the defamation that came after. You’re right, Rachel, he is a slow poison.”
“Nailing him wouldn’t be easy either. Tshepo is convinced he had tentacles reaching as far as the Supreme Judge, which would explain how he could go unnoticed by the GHIA for too long.”
All three sat in silence as the considered the hopelessness of their situation. It seemed the only way to stop Jacob was to shoot him at point-blank range but the chances of doing that themselves were very slim.
