Chapter 15: Chapter 15

"Juliet? This person is your mother?" they woman asked in confusion, apparently, she knew who Juliet was but I wasn't going to back down from my motherly roles, " I know Jade very well and he's not married, in fact I'll call him now to know what is going on," she said dialing Jade's number, he picked up immediately.

" Mrs Maurice, what a pleasant surprise, how are you doing?" Jade's baritone voice sounded, the call was placed on loudspeaker so I could clearly hear what Jade said.

" there is a situation, there's a black imposter here with your daughter, claiming to be your wife and she was harassing my children," she told him

Jade bursted into laughter, "let me speak with her please," he said

" Jade, I can hear you," I said

" honey, what's going on?" he asked

" this woman's kids were bullying our girl, they were telling her that her mom is dead, can you imagine? And now instead of her to make her children apologise, she's picking a fight with me because I look young," I replied still glaring at her.

" did you guys get what Juliet needed?"

" no not yet,"

" I'm free from now till noon, I'll come over right away. please tell Mrs Maurice not to worry, we'll settle everything when I'm there" and he ended the call.

" I'm sure you heard that, so if you'd excuse us, we came here to shop," I said and left with Juliet to check for the music box." How about that one over there," Juliet said pointing upwards

"This one?" I asked touching the box I assumed she chose and she shook her head

" ok, is it... this one?" she shook her head

" how about this one?"

" no mommy, the blue box"

" oh, this box", she nodded

According to what was written on the pack, it could play 10 different songs, the box was in it's pack which was sealed we couldn't open it, we only knew it was blue because that's what was written on the pack.

we moved to another section to get wrapping paper and ribbon, went to the counter and paid for the items we took. Jade called to let me know that he'd just pulled up at the store's parking space and that we should come out, Mrs Maurice and her children were standing outside probably waiting for us to come out of the store.

Immediately she saw us leave the store, she came to us and used her hand to block our path, " I clearly heard the child's father say you should not go anywhere until he's here, where do you think you're taking her to? come on, answer me?"

" Look here Mrs Maurice, my husband is waiting for me and our child at the parking space and I'm going over there to meet him, what is your problem with me?" She couldn't say anything and I continued, " you know your actions make me wonder if you had tried getting Jade to marry you and he refused, and now you find it hard to believe that he's already married to someone you never expected he'll be married to. Now let me make it clear to you that Mr Jade Kale is taken by none other than me, I may be young, I may be a black girl but he chose me, so back off. I am warning you now Mrs Maurice, don't you ever bother me again, you'll know this little kitty has claws and they're not friendly one bit"

I pushed her hand and walked away with Juliet, maybe I'd gone too far but anyone with brains could see that she was bothering me, even if it means acting as a mother for a day, I won't let anyone talk nonsense with Juliet.Mrs Maurice didn't back off, she came back, held my shoulder and turned me with force, "excuse me?" I asked getting really annoyed

" look here girly, what gives you the right to talk to me in that manner, maybe that's how it's done wherever you come from but this is America and I could get you arrested and thrown back to wherever you came from. Do you..."

" hey honey?" Jade's voice interrupted her, he came over to me and gave me a peck on my cheek, my eyes widened, was he really enjoying this husband-wife thing? I quickly changed my expression to that of a loving wife, happy to see her husband. " I'm I interrupting anything?" he asked

" oh no, I was just inviting your wife to join our book club, y'know, as a wife to a renown person like you, she needs to get exposed. So Mrs Kale, what do you say?"

" you're a big fat liar! " Juliet shouted " don't believe her daddy, she was saying bad things to mommy", she added. No body said anything, Mrs Maurice looked away in embarrassment.

Jade broke the silence, " honey, I know you're still finding it hard to believe that we're now a couple but please next time you're going out, don't forget to wear your ring. When I heard what happened, I had a feeling you weren't putting on your ring, I had to go home and truly you forgot it. Maybe if you had worn it, Mrs Maurice would have quickly believed you were married. Anyway, here's your ring," and he slipped a shiny wedding ring on my finger. It felt cold and strange around my finger, this was getting too much for me, pretending to be a mom and standing up for Juliet was already hard to handle and now this. " thank you so much darling, I was in a haste that I forgot it. Come on, we're done here, let's go home," I said.

Mrs Maurice stood there with her mouth open, watching the scene before her. Jade turned to her, " Mrs Maurice, let me introduce you to my wife, Mrs Ukpono Kale, she's a Nigerian, we just had a small wedding in court and so many people are not aware of our marriage. I hope next time you don't bother her about being married to me, we'll be going now." He lifted Juliet on her left hand and held my hand on his right as we moved to the car.Jade kept Juliet at the back seat and closed the doorbefore I could go in. instead he opened the passengers seat and beckoned on me to go in, " Mrs Maurice is looking, if you're going to do this then do it properly to the end," he said when I didn't get in immediately.

We drove in silence, I didn't know what to say to him. It then dawned on me that Hannah must have gone to the toy store to check if we were still there, to save her the stress of going there, I decided to call her. The phone rang for sometime before she answered, " Miss Udofia, is anything the matter?"

"no Hannah, I just wanted to let you know that Jade has picked us up, there's no need for you to go to the store and you can let Scott know that there's no need for him to come pick us up. we're on our way to the house now," I replied

" Alright UK, thanks for letting me know. I was just going to the store now, see you later," Hannah said and I ended the call. I waited if Jade will say anything about me acting as his wife but he must have been waiting for me to speak up first.

I was about to remove the ring when Jade stopped me, "what do you think you're doing Mrs Kale?"

"Jade it's just us, enough with the pretence", I told him. "I thought you liked it?" he asked, " I only did this because Juliet asked me to. it was just to protect her from all the nasty things Mrs Maurice's children were saying to her." I said

" so you mean to say Juliet just told you to be her mother and you accepted? I can't believe it, last I remember you never wanted any relationship with me and now you're suddenly my wife because Juliet told you to." He sounded bemused

" that woman's kids were harassing her, telling her that her mother was dead and she was crying. I was a bit surprised when she told me to act as her mother and besides, it's just for today so you don't have to worry, by tomorrow you'll be as free as the wind," I explained.

" Really? so that means throughout today you'll be my wife?" Jade asked giving me a flirtatious look.