Till Life Do us Apart ...

Chapter 2: The Ugly Truth

Adira wanted to go to the hospital to see Aryan, she promised him about loving him in next lifetime, but she did it just to make him feel better, she wanted to clear things with him once he would be fine, now that he was taken to hospital, she was relieved. He would be fine eventually and should not have any misunderstandings. Then again, she did not believe in re incarnations and re births.

She read the address sent to her by Bane and decided to meet Aryan the next day, It was almost 6:20 pm , she hailed a cab and hurried to meet Bane . She didn’t want to keep his family, her future in laws waiting. On the way she prepped her make up and look again, ready to face her future in laws.

At Bane’s Mansion:

The cab stopped at the huge gates of the mansion that was nestled amongst thick greenery, the gates opened once Adira informed the reason of her visit. This was the Woodson mansion, Bane was the third son of the Woodson family, a respectable family. Adira felt honoured that Bane had chosen her to be his future wife, though she knew many of her friends did not like Bane, like Kia, as they felt he had a fishy character and was untrustworthy , but here she was to meet his family, this showed that he was a genuine , sincere person.

Though the mansion stood in all its majestic glory, Adira still felt that it was somehow enveloped in an air of some kind of darkness or .. gloom maybe, she just couldn’t name the feeling that crept over her body.

Shunning her weird thoughts she gingerly stepped into the hall way, Bane was already informed that she had entered the gates so he stood there to welcome her.

“Bane, is everything alright?” she asked as he looked a bit worked up

“Adira, you love me right?” he asked impatiently as he grabbed her wrist and walked inside the mansion, literally dragging her behind him

“Of course Bane, I do love you, thats why I am here, to meet your family , my future in laws.” she reassured him

He stopped walking suddenly when he heard her, then continued walking

“If you love me then I have complete rights on you, correct?”

“Umhmm,” she replied

“You are mine and I can do whatever I want to do with you, correct?” he stopped again and turned to look into her eyes, searching for a reply

“Um... Hmm,” she smiled coyly as she thought about what all he would want to do to her in bed once they were married

He got the answer he wanted and finally hugged her, “Oh Adira, I am so glad I found you, I love you so much baby, Thankyou for confirming my rights on you, bear in mind though.. now there’s no turning back.” his tone switched between relieved to authoritative.

Adira blushed as she felt warm in his hug, she was just 19 and had never been close to any man, she felt lucky to have met Bane.

“Bane, where are your parents and family members, I’m looking forward to meet them.”

“Uh! Oh ya, come let’s go, everyone’s waiting for you.” they began to walk again as the mansion was huge.

Bane pushed open a large door that almost looked like a small gate . As soon as he opened the doors, loud music blared from within, Adira stepped in behind Bane and was shocked to see the place.

It was like a mini club house, dimly lit, neon colorful lights played around and the room was filled with smoke and liquor smell. Adira wondered why Bane bought her to this kind of setting to meet his parents, but she attributed this to his family being open minded, plus she was at his house so she didn’t have to feel awkward. There were many people inside, she could not see clearly due to low lights, Bane held her hand tighter as he pulled her more fiercely.

At one side of the area, as she could not call this a room, it was a huge place, was a large stage with a DJ console. The Dj played the music. Adira began to feel unnerved as she saw skimpily clad women moving around with drinks and smoke trays serving to people who were mostly men.Adira’s heart began pumping hard as she wondered why was such a setting present at Bane’s house while his parents were around, “rich families really are too open minded,” she thought, but more than that, she suddenly began to feel heavy all of a sudden.

Adira felt strange sensations in he body all of a sudden. like blood rushing to every cell n her body, her skin began to itch and her heart was filled with an ominous presentiment. She just wanted to turn around and escape, her eyes were going red and she felt hot with a weird feeling of anger, yet she suppressed it, attributing it to this sudden change in environment.

“Bane,” she shouted on top of her voice as the music was deafening, he did not hear her little voice

“Bane,” she tugged his hand and he stopped to look at her

“What are we doing here?” she moved closer to his ear and shouted.

Bane looked at her, his eyes had a weird expression , Adira could not understand what was going on, he looked different.. very different from her Bane.

He waved his hand up in air and the music stopped, the lights were turned on. Adira adjusted her sight as the lights suddenly were switched on. She looked around to find Bane’s parents but was nonplussed at the sight.Her discomfort only intensified as did the weird tingling and itch on her skin. She tried to calm herself down, ‘Relax my sweet body, its ok, we’ll be fine’ she coaxed herself. She had this habit of communicating with her body to heal it, like whenever she had high acidity or any pain, she would simply talk to her body to heal itself, and magically, her body would be fine, people found it weird, but for her, it always worked.

She looked around, the place was filled with few people , mostly men, about 10-12 of them, there were 2 women apart from the waitresses who sat at the far end corner, away from others. Adira thought they would be Bane’s sisters, they had a smile on their lips which could not be called a friendly one. Adira felt stumped and she moved behind Bane as he turned towards the crowd.

“Bane,” Adira spoke softly, “Where are your parents? I thought we were to meet them.” her discomfort was on a rise already.

Everyone broke into laughter, “Sweetie, meet me, I am Bane’s second uncle , Uncle Mak,” a middle aged man spoke from amongst a group of people who sat around a large round table, they were playing a game of cards and there were wads of cash and some documents beside each men.

“I am Bane’s third uncle, uncle Tom,” piped in another man next to Mak , he looked Adira from top to toe as he spoke, this way a few of them introduced themselves to Adira as Bane’s uncles and cousins and friends.

“and I am Bane’s father,” a strong thick voice spoke and all were quiet, Adira turned around to look at Elton Woodson, Bane’s father, all white hair, he was stylishly dressed in a white blazer, he looked quite young, though he must be in his late fifties. He had just entered the room.

“Hello Mr. Woodson,” Adira greeted him politely as she smiled.He was to be her father in law. She began to ease out a bit.

He acknowledged her and walked up to the table to join others in the game.

Adira felt relieved when she learnt that all the people present here were Bane’s family members, but she had still not met the 2 women. She took her seat next to Bane as he joined in the game, her bodily discomfort was somehow becoming unbearable. She continued talking to her self to ease down but she could not deny that for the first time her body refused to obey her.

The men sat around the table and continued playing cards, well, gambling was the word, and Adira realised there was some serious gambling going on. Bane ,with Adira next to him, began playing.

“Hey Bane, you’ve almost lost everything now, you better watch out what you gonna bet on,” spoke one of the cousin.

Bane looked impatient and pissed off, Adira couldn’t quite understand why was he taking a game with family members so seriously.

He lost the current round they were playing and Bane was so frustrated that he banged hard on the table.

“I’ll play another round.” Bane’s knees bounced fervently like he was nervous.

“Dude, what you got on offer, we already have your office, your villa and your new Bentley, ?” asked Uncle Mak

“How about Tania?” spoke Eric, one of his cousin brother

“Shut up you Son of a b*tch, don’t you dare mention my wife,” Bane stood up to punch Eric

“Clank”

everyone looked at Adira, whose glass of juice fell down, she had a look of disbelief on her face which had gone pale.

‘Did he say Wife..’