Chapter 59 Big surprise

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Sandra asked her friend. She and Joana now stood in front of Andrew’s house. He had moved out of his parents’ right after he got married to one of Joana’s rivals in high school, Janet.

Joana stood on the road opposite where the house stood. She remembered when this house still had the “FOR SALE” sign in front of it, Joana and Andrew always passed the front of this house on the way to and back from school. They both fell in love with the house and planned on buying it right after they got married. Joana always wondered where Andrew would get the money, but if there was anything she loved about Andrew, it was that when he wanted something, he always made sure he got it no matter what. He had gotten this house, but not to live with her in it, he had gotten it to live with Janet. She had only been gone a year, how easy was it for him to move on so quickly?

Sandra had answered that question back at her place, saying that Andrew’s reaction to her missing case was the one that surprised everyone the most, especially grandma Jen. Andrew, her husband-to-be, in less than two weeks after he was discharged from the hospital, began to go out with Janet. Everyone thought at first that it was just normal friendship, she was probably just consoling him, after all, it wasn’t going to be any easy for someone whose fiancée had been declared missing.

Their supposed friendship went on up till the time he announced his plans to get married to Janet, this was only three months after Joana’s disappearance. Grandma Jen was heartbroken by this, as she loved Andrew like a son and never expected that he could do something like that to her granddaughter. It was one of the things that started her depression. He was supposed to help grandma Jen to be looking for Joana, but instead he forgot about her so quickly and moved on with Janet.

As Sandra told her everything, Joana’s heart stinged upon hearing about his betrayal. She found it hard to believe that the same Andrew, for whom she had been busting her ass just so she could be with him for the past one year, was the same person that had done this to her with his eyes wide open.

When she asked Sandra about Andrew’s parents, Sandra told her that they were in full support of his decision, and never questioned him any day for the reason why he left Joana. No wonder they treated her that way when she asked about him.

While they were still in Sandra’s house, she read her mind, and she knew that her friend was telling her the truth, she just wanted to come and see things for herself. And now here they stood, in front of Andrew’s house.

They went to the door and rang the bell. A pregnant lady opened it shortly after, it was Janet.

“Joana!” Janet gasped upon seeing the both of them. She looked back and forth between her and Sandra, holding her bump, unable to hide her shame and mask her guilt.

“Why did you yell like that? Who is it?” Andrew asked his wife behind as he joined her in the doorway, he jumped out of his skin upon seeing who it was at the door.

“Joana!” His mouth remained wide open.

“You look like you’re seeing a ghost,” Joana said, giving him a disgusted look.

“I looked for you Joana, I swear, grandma Jen she….”

“I know all about grandma Jen, Andrew, and don’t you serve me that ‘I looked for you’ bullshit. Sandra told me everything.”

Andrew looked over at Sandra who wouldn’t spare him a glance. She remembered how he treated her when she went to his house persuading him to join in the search for Joana, he humiliated her while his parents watched. It was payback time now. The only thing she was happy about was that her friend wasn’t dead, and had come back to see the disgusting man she would have gotten married to.

“Go inside Janet,” Andrew said to his wife. “Joana and I need to talk privately.”

Janet did so, and Andrew turned to Joana to give her a beckoning look, his eyes towards Sandra. She then turned to her friend.

“Sandra dear, can you give us a moment?”

“Ok honey, I’ll be standing there when you’re done,” she then scowled at Andrew before turning.

“Thank you,” Joana said as Sandra crossed back to the opposite side of the road to wait for her. As soon as they were alone, Andrew began to speak.

“I know, you have every reason to hate me darling, but I have a few things I want to say to you first.”

“I’m listening, and don’t you ever call me that!” Joana said impatiently.

“Janet means nothing to me, Joana, you know you’re the only one for me.”

Joana began to laugh. It was like she was seeing a totally different Andrew from the one she used to know. She might have been surprised by his parent’s behavior, but his was way worse.

“She’s your pregnant wife,” goddammit Andrew, Joana said to him.

“I know, but I just needed some comfort and a way to clear my head when you were declared missing, and Janet was right there beside me.”

Some part of her wanted to jump on him right there and then and feast on his blood. Kill him in fact, people like him didn’t deserve to be alive, but she had to tread with caution. Dana and the others weren’t aware that she had come here, and it wouldn’t be good for her to cause another scene here, besides, his poor pregnant wife still needed him. Even though he deserved it, she wouldn’t do that to him. She didn’t know if there was a way you could multiply the word ‘evil’ by a million times, but if there was, that was all she saw him as now.

Although she was heartbroken, a big part of her was glad that she had been able to see the real Andrew before getting married to him, and now she knew that even if she returned here, she didn’t need anyone to tell her that she wasn’t going to marry him.