Chapter 3. Settle Your Debt

Vanessa's POV

"That's ridiculous! I don't have that kind of money!"

"Well, then I guess you'll have to find a way to get it, won't you?" he smirked.

I felt a surge of anger rise within me. This guy was impossible. Not only did he get me fired from my job, but now he was demanding an outrageous amount of money from me. I couldn't let him get away with this.

"I'm not paying you a dime," I said defiantly. "You can take your demands and shove them up your ass."

He looked taken aback for a moment, clearly not expecting such a response. But then his expression hardened and he grabbed my arm again, this time with even more force and I struggled to break free.

"You bitch, I said you're paying, and you will. I will make you."

"I already to you I won't give you a dime, quite stressing, I lost my pay check because of you." I accused him.

"You're giving me the $50,000 and I want it settled from now till the next two months, everything."

***

Andre POV

"$50,000!!! I can't even earn that much in ten years!" She paused for a moment, squinting her eyebrows, "Your car and ring cannot cost this much!" She yelled at me, stomping her foot frustratingly like a spoilt child, she is such a stupid girl. 

My yellow Ferrari costs at least $400,000 and the maintenance was more, I have no idea how she aimed the glass so well.

"Do you know how much my car is worth?" 

"This scrap car is no more than $10,000 and I wouldn't give you a dime, I never asked you to be blind."

"My ring costed more than that, ugly. And yes, you're paying for the windscreen and my ring, get ready for a lawsuit, mad woman."

"You cannot threaten me, I lost my job because of you and your bad luck made me lose my paycheck, all in one day, Why did you propose to me in the first place? Did like look a chew toy to you? What do you see me as?"

"You're a cheap bitch who thought she was going to get rich overnight after getting a false proposal from a billionaire."

"What do you take yourself for, c'mon, you're not that beautiful that I should fall in love with you at first sight, to be honest, there's nothing that attracts me to you. Did you look in the mirror before coming out this morning? Poor people will always be stupid." Noticing how calculative she was becoming, I held her hand firmly so she wouldn't try to escape, not without paying for the damage.

"You're not leaving here unless you settle your debt. You'll pay for my car's windscreen and then my ring which you sold, I don't believe you threw it away you shrewd woman."

"Kill me then, I have nothing to give you." She was right, she was worthless but I wouldn't let her off so easily, I looked for the smallest thing I could take from her, her bag. Perhaps there must be something that she values in there.

I forced her bag from her, pouring everything inside on the floor, scattering through them until I found her already bashed phone. It was the only useful thing here, the rest were a bunch of junk.

"Give me back my phone!" She yelled.

"No. You owe me a fortune." 

She held my collar, squeezing my beige Dolce and Gabbana long-sleeve shirt. She had ruined the first one with water, I wouldn't let her do the same to this one, I peeled her fingers off my shirt, pushing her away. "Don't freakin' touch me." 

I went inside my car, brought out my business card, and pushed it into her fingers, "When you're levelheaded, come to me, and then we'll talk." With that, I entered my car and drove off annoyingly.

On the way home, Ethan, my closest friend who was with me at the restaurant called my phone, at first I didn't want to pick up since I was still furious and after some hesitation, I decided to answer the phone.

"What's up bro," he said to receive no reply from me.

"I think I left something at the back of your car, where are you, I want to collect it or my girlfriend will strangle me."

"You don't want to know what happened to me today, Ethan. We'll talk later, I'm hanging up first." I said and hung up quickly. He called again and I did not bother to pick up. He didn't look like he was going to give up because he kept on calling knowing how pissed off I would be after receiving many missed calls. 

"What's wrong with you?"

"I told you I left my stuff in your car. What happened to you?"

"That shrewd girl. She damaged my car!"

"What girl?" He asked.

I quickly sent him pictures of the car which I had taken earlier on to send to the insurance company, and then asked him to check his SMS. After seeing the damage she caused me, he didn't waste time calling back.

"What the??? Who did this?" 

"It was that bitch from earlier, from Taylor's kitchen, she broke the glass with a stone."

"She must be fierce to go after you with a stone. I told you to not take the bet earlier on, didn't I? Who's going to pay for the damage? She doesn't look like she has that much to pay, we're talking about your Ferrari here, that car you wouldn't even let me use."

"I lost taste in it now. I know she can't afford that much to pay for the damage. I will make her life miserable so she knows not to cross me, EVER!" I sighed deeply, "I'm going home, we'll talk later." That was all I said before ending the call.

I hit on the horn continuously until the security guard opened the gate. Seeing the state my car was in, he must have been shocked, his mouth was opened in awe as I drove past him at speed. I dropped the car in front of the entrance to the mansion, signaling the driver to take it to the garage before going inside.

The first person to greet me was my assistant, Stanley, "Welcome back sir, did the lunch go well with the madam?"

I stopped in my movement, turning to him, "How can you ask me that question when you see what state I'm in? How does my shirt look?"

He didn't say anything, just gulped downloads of saliva. That wretch squeezed and ruffled my collar because of her worthless, cheap phone. No one has ever treated me the way she did today, no one. She would pay dearly for it. I remembered her phone was still in my car, "Stanley, go to my car, bring the phone in the pigeonhole box to me." I ordered and he left.

I went up to my room, straight to the huge mirror hanging on the wall. I looked like a mess after quarreling with a woman. My face had faint traces of fingerprints. After dealing with that female monster, I would never be in the same as paupers ever again.

Someone opened the door, it was my younger sister, Louisa.

"Where have you been?" Louisa asked.

"I went out,"

"Did you go to meet Taylor?" She asked.

"I did,"

"So, what happened to your car? You look like you got into an accident. I told you that woman was bad luck, a woman who would abandon her children just because of her selfishness doesn't mean anything good for us, right?"

"You are right, Louisa, I got humiliated today, got slapped twice, then my car and I also lost my ring. So much drama has happened all in one day making me feel as if I was cursed. Maybe, I should go to church this weekend." I sighed.

"Who bashed your car? Didn't you cut off their hands? It's your favorite car, Brother." She said. 

"A female thug, someone who has more bad luck than Taylor. I plan to deal with her."

"Did she know how much your car cost before doing that? She must be very dumb then."

"She's about to find out," I said, my eyes dimmed, staring at nowhere in particular while my thoughts ran to possible methods I will use to punish that dumb girl.

"Andre, Father wants to see you. He asked me to call you,"

"Ok. I will see him after taking a shower."

"Make sure to scrub properly, you stink, did you say she laid her hands on you?" She held her nose with the tip of her fingers, "That's where the smell is coming from."

"Fuck off." 

"I don't plan on staying longer, not with that smell." She said, sticking her tongue out and then walked out of the room quickly before I could get a hold of her.

After taking time to scrub myself clean and then applying ointment on my cheek, I went ahead to meet my father.

"Dad," I called the moment I entered his study.

"Welcome back home son, how did it go?" He inquired.

"I regret going to meet her, I should have just stuck to your words. We don't need that woman in our lives, I and Louisa are have grown well under your wings. She must be so lonely that she had to remember about her children."

"Now, you would always listen to your father." He chuckled. He reached out his hands to the desk, picked up some documents, and handed them to me. "Take a look." He said.

The first document was land deeds, did he buy a new property?

"I did," he replied just like he had read my mind. "I heard from the realtor that the land was in a good spot and it would be in high demand in the next few years, so why not get a huge chunk from it?" As I scrolled the pages of the documents, he continued, "Five acres for you as my first and only son, and then two for Louisa. She is a woman and will leave soon to her husband."

"What about Mother and Leila?" 

"I plan to get them separate properties even though I don't think they need it for now, I have you to take care the both of them for me." He chuckled. 

"It's been 20 years, you should get used to your stepmother. She may not be your real mother but she loves you and Louisa just as she loves your little sister, Leila. One day, you'd be the one to take over all the responsibilities as the man of the home and then you'll have to care for your family in my absence." He said. 

"That's for that, look at the rest documents." He urged me. I read each one turn after turn. Some of them needed mg signature on them and then there was the last. The former minister of youth and affairs was inviting me to an opening ceremony for his new five-star hotel. My face cringed at the thought of why he addressed his letter to me personally even though he had been my father's acquaintance for years.

"Dad, did the former minister send separate invitations to the rest of you?" I asked. He smiled back, "You're a smart boy you know. You caught unto it quickly. Minister Gregory wants our family to have a better relationship other than friendship." Just as he was about to continue, his wife came in, accompanied by one of the servants carrying multiple shopping bags, I assumed she went shopping, that was the only thing she spent all the money Father gave her on.

She walked to where her husband was seated and kissed him on the side, "Honey, I'm back from shopping, you would love what I got today." She said.

"Elizabeth, we can look at those later, right now, we're talking about something important."

"Oh, you're talking to him about Mr. Gregory's offer?"

 She asked her husband. By merely seeing her face I got pissed off. Anytime I spared her a glance, I try to make sure she doesn't forget how much dislike I had for her, and I knew she never liked me one bit. Ever since I was little, she would always complain that I was the hardest to tame like I and my sister were dogs.

"Honey, you know he has no choice. Even if they want him to get married to their daughter today without them having a formal meeting, we will make that happen. Andre has to do it for the family's benefit." She added.

"If you want a strong relationship with those people, you can marry Louisa off, or better still, marry your high schooler off. Last time I remembered, the minister had a son of my age who is still unmarried."

"Don't say that, that family is all we need to access a higher level of not only businessmen but political bodies. Do you know how the former minister earned so many contracts awarded to him? It's because of his connections in politics. We also need that to keep our business on top. There's so much competition these days." My father clicked his tongue.

"We need to own the upper hand, which is why we have a son." My stepmother added.