Chapter 2: Chapter 2
Life without the love and warmth of Richard was not easy. Still Monica found the way to pull herself together and immerse herself in her work, running her business empire with all the enthusiasm she could find after the painful break-up. She tried exceedingly hard not to remember him. Especially his laughter and the unforgettable moments they spent together in each other’s arms. His sweet kisses, thrilling touch and the impressive and explosive sex they had had together. And of course, how she had also picked him up, a struggling and a dirty commoner, and transformed him into a handsome, suave and genteel man. If she had to think of all those things and Richard’s cold-hearted betrayal and ingratitude, then she would grieve for him all her life. And even commit suicide. Rather she resolved to fill her mind with work, good and uplifting music, laughter and cheeriness, as she hoped to find true love this time.
Yet as hard as she tried, it still did not work out perfectly. Richard was determined not to let sleeping dogs lie. Two weeks after the acrimonious break-up, he cast a shadow on Monica’s fragile happiness when he sent her a wedding card. Richard was getting married to Jane – the treacherous Jane, her friend and Richard’s curvilinear wife to-be. It made Monica’s skin crawl. When Monica received the wedding card, she held it tentatively, staring at it steadily, as she looked at Richard’s handsome face: his beards were still long, straight and shimmering in the card, his face with the fuzz on his upper lip was still the same, with his goatee looking freshly trimmed. Richard’s athletic body and eye-catching flat stomach made him a lady-killer and any woman’s dream. And Jane had snatched him right under her nose. Richard was leaving her for good and was marrying her best friend that looked African. And he even had the nerve to send her a card to come and watch the cursed and perfidious wedding. The stark reality of his leaving for good slowly came home to Monica, and not finding the bottle to hold back her tears, she yelped on the leathered chair as searing tears seeped from her eyes.
Throughout that week, Monica remained at home staring into space, looking at the ceiling, muttering quiet words, playing poignant and melancholic music of love and betrayal; drinking alcohol, sleeping late at night and eating paltry food. She crept back to the doldrums and became incredibly thin. Helen wept for her and feared for herself. But she feared more for her daughter’s life. So she talked more to her, pleaded with her, pampered her, showered her with more love and prayed even harder that Monica would get over the hurts of the betrayal and her craziness for Richard and regain her cheeriness for life again. But it appeared like God was tardy in answering her prayers.
Richard’s wedding with Jane was colorful and chic. It was the talk of the town. It appeared on the front pages of glossy newspapers and was aired on the television. The pair looked exceedingly happy in their photos on TV and on the newspapers. Monica looked on and grew exceedingly thinner and sadder. Then rumours began to fly, throwing more woods in the fire. The tongues of the people were wagging that Jane was already pregnant with Richard’s child and that Monica who was an arrogant and fiendish woman would have been incapable of bearing children for him. The gossip also said that Monica was lazy at home chores and could not even cook a proper meal. Which of course were the reasons Richard dumped her − the wealthy but spoilt girl. However, Monica did not care much about the smear campaign about her. She was only pained by Jane’s pregnancy. It made her ponder over a lot of things: if Jane was already pregnant, then it only meant that Richard had been cheating on her all along, and had been sleeping with Jane for a long time behind her back, and she had been foolish and unsuspecting of them. It clearly showed that at no point in time, did Richard ever truly love her.
Oftentimes, she cried in her miserable and silent bedroom in the cold and lonely nights, clutching her stomach and wishing it was her that was pregnant with Richard’s child nestling in her womb. Still, whenever she thought of his betrayal, she would pull at the bedsheet and hurl the pillows on the glistening wall and groan loudly. It appeared like she would never get over the pain, the betrayal, the heartbreak; it made her wish she would just die and put an end to her pain and misery.
However, after some lifeless weeks past, Monica made a feeble recuperation and resumed work in her office. She still looked resentful and thin; her collarbones sharp and jutting out in her loose-fitting gown and strangely blonde hair; and after the noise and tongues that wagged and whispered about Richard’s wedding with Jane started to trail off, she could still see the fragile and condolatory way her staff talked to her, dealt with her, stared at her, and murmured behind her back. It made her feel scandalized and stigmatized. But most importantly, their actions made her yearn desperately for the time when she would truly find her Prince charming and her knight in shining armour, that would give her true love and happiness and take away Richard’s and Jane’s betrayal and shame from her sad face forever.