Chapter 5

"I need you to make sure My mother, Shannelle and Danielle have no contact with Adele for this entire day. Keep a close eye on them until the wedding is over. Am I understood?"

Jamal asked the four guards standing before him in his bedroom.

That day was his wedding day with Adele and he didn't want anything to go wrong or happen to her. His mother and sister have been bitter towards Adele the entire week and he was scared that they would do something to her, so the only way he could think of was to keep them supervised.

The only person he trusted with Adele at that moment was his grandmother, so he told her to stay with Adele until everything was over.

"Yes, Sir!"

"I swear if anything goes wrong, I will make your lives miserable, so if you know what is good for you, you will go out there and do your jobs like you are supposed to do." He warned in a deadly tone and the four men looked at each other nervously because they knew he wasn't bluffing.

Jamal Dominick was not the type to give empty threats. If he tells you he will make your life miserable, then indeed he will make your life miserable!

"You are dismissed"

The four men left the bedroom and he walked over to his mirror stand to inspect himself.

He never knew the day was ever going to come when he would marry Adele.

He first saw Adele eighteen years ago when he was nine years old. The family was having dinner when his grandma walked in with Adele in her arms. He could never forget how white and pale she looked. Her clothes were torn all over and her hair totally disheveled. She was crying in his grandmother's arms and he had felt really bad for her.

He stepped down from his seat to go and comfort her, but his mother stopped him.

He remembered the heated argument his mother had with grandmother over Adele. His mother demanded Adele to be returned to where she came from, but grandma refused. In the end, grandma won and Adele stayed.

They lived together for five years and during that time, he tried to get close to Adele, but his mother would not let him. She would punish him everytime she caught him playing with Adele and even though he was still a little boy, he started growing some resentment for his mother.

When Grandma saw that the drama in the house was beginning to affect Adele psychologically, she sent her to England to live with her sister and she only came home for short holidays.

Still, they could not get close because of his mother.

He found out he was in love with Adele when he was twenty years-old and he had kept that secret with him for seven years.

He was the one who told Grandma to force Adele to come back home after college and he was the one who suggested the arranged marriage to grandma.

She was more than happy to get them together, so she agreed to act like it was all her arrangement.

He had no idea how he was going to tell Adele all that in person, but he knew he would someday.

The most important thing was that she was going to be his wife and nobody could stop that from happening.

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"Grandma, I'm really scared. Do you think this is the right thing to do?" Adele asked, frightened. She was in her bedroom with Grandma and a few designers and make-up artists that had been hired to make her look pretty.

She couldn't even sleep all night because she kept thinking about the marriage and all the things that could go wrong if that marriage did not work.

"Why do you ask?"

"Grandma, Jamal and I hardly know each other"

"What do you mean by that? You two have known each other almost all your lives!" Grandma said in a careless tone.

"I mean personally. Grandma, do you know that it was until last week that Jamal and I had a proper conversation ever since I came back from England? Granny, he doesn't love me and I don't…"

"You two will learn to love each other. Jamal is a good man and you are a good woman. You two are good for each other. Now, stop being such a crybaby and be strong. Stop worrying about unimportant things on your wedding day" Grandma cautioned and Adele pouted her lips as she turned to look at herself in the mirror.

The person she saw in the mirror did not look like her at all. She had stressed on the fact that she did not want too much make-up, but the make-up artists seemed to have done the exact opposite.

Her face was caked up in layers and layers of make-up as she felt like telling her to wipe it off and do another one, but she did not want to act like a spoiled brat.

Nevertheless, she looked really stunning in the make-up and she could only hope that Jamal would be impressed.

"He asked me to keep the marriage a secret. Why do you think he said that?" She asked, looking at Grandma once more.

"Jamal has his reasons for saying that and  I trust that they very good reasons"

"Good reasons? What if it's because he is ashamed of me?"

"You talk a lot of nonsensical things at times Adele. Now shut your mouth and put these shoes on. It's almost time"

Grandma cut her off as she assisted her in putting on her silver heels.

Everything she had on her body had been ordered from France and they all looked so expensive.

Part of her was nervous about the marriage, but another was happy about the whole arrangement.

In the end, she had mixed feelings and she could only hope that things would go well.

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Everything happened so fast.

It was just a simple wedding involving only the members of the household, but Adele was shocked at how sophisticated it was.

Throughout the day, she dared not to meet the gazes of her mother and sister-in-law because she knew how they hated what was going on. But they seemed to have no choice.

She clicked her phone to check the time and she was surprised to see that the time was already seven pm.

"Where are you going?" She heard Jamal ask.

They were both  in the hallway where their bedrooms were located and she was walking towards her room.

"I'm… going to my bedroom" she told him as she pointed over to the door.

"On our wedding night?" He asked and adrenaline washed all over her body.

Wedding night.

How come she had not thought of that all day?

"I'm… I…" she stuttered "I… I'm just going to change my clothes." She lied smoothly.

She wasn't going to take her clothes. Now that he had mentioned it, she was just going to get into that room and lock herself up till the next day.

"You don't have to do that, your clothes have already been transferred to my bedroom" He reported as calmly as usual.

"What?"

"Do you want to see before you believe?" He asked with a raised brow and Adele stood there, dumbfounded. She looked at her room door and back to him several times before deciding to follow him to his bedroom to see for herself.

When she got there, she was awestruck by the sight of the bedroom.

It was just as big as hers and had the same form, but it looked more sophisticated because of how everything in it had been arranged.

She gaped at the couches in the sitting area, to the king-sized bed located at the center of the room.

The mighty smart TV that hung on the wall awed her to the core and the most amazing thing was his wall at the side of the room that was made of glass. It gave him an amazing view of the garden in the mansion.

After ogling, she came back to her senses and walked straight into the closet to check if indeed her clothes were in there and behold, they were there, neatly arranged. Even her mirror stand and make-up table had been transferred there too.

"Do you now believe me?" He asked, walking towards her and when he noticed that she took a step backwards, he stopped at a safe distance and looked at her.

The last thing he wanted was to scare her.

"Isn't this the moment you say thank you to me? I saved you a lot of stress."

"Thank you very much" She responded with a gloomy look at Jamal and was not pleased at all.

He hated the fact that he was making her uncomfortable, but he had to do what he was doing.

"Take your bath and rest. I'll be spending the night in my study" He announced as he turned to leave.

"In… in your study?" Adele asked, confused.

"Yeah, I didn't go to the office all day. I have a lot of work piled up  and I  have to get done with them before tomorrow "

"Oh… ok"

She felt sorry that he had to work all night, but she was relieved that nothing would be happening between them that night.

She needed enough time to get herself acquainted with him before sleeping with him.

"Congratulations, Mrs. Jamal King" he deciphered with a cheerful smile before walking out of the bedroom.

Adele stood on the spot, shocked to the bone, not because he had addressed her as Mrs. Jamal King, but because he had just genuinely smiled at her.

That was the first time she saw him smile in ages.