When my eyes open again, I find myself in a bathtub and although my eyes are kind of blurred, I can hear the voices of both Rebecca and Judith and hands all over my body, washing and scrubbing me. Fear rises in me, not for being naked or being washed, but for what I might have done subconsciously. My body shakes violently and I struggle to get out of the tub even when I see nothing.

“Mr Hilton, please stay still. We are almost through with bathing you.” Judith’s voice comes up to say as she fetches a bowl of warm water and pours it onto my head without warning me and I gasp out taking deep breaths and almost choking.

“Queste persone vogliono uccidermi (These people want to kill me),” I mumble out.

I wipe my face open quickly to ask, “Where’s Vary?”

“Mrs Hilton said she had a meeting with the board and we should bathe you and help you sober up,” Rebecca explains, taking the towel and rubbing my cheat and going down my waist and then down below to my crotch.

I grab onto her hand before it can touch me there and get up from the tub, hissing out in anger, “You will not harass me in my home! Did Vary put you two up to this? Seduce me so she can feel less guilty going out with that guy, that actor right?” I yank a dry towel from the hanger close to the tub and I wrap it around myself.

The two maids shake their heads in denial, wearing an innocent look on their faces.

I’ll be damned if they are innocent. They are the devil in disguise! They want to torture me and Vary permitted them to.

“The warm bath is to help you sober up, sir. You were drunk, and you threw up, before passing out.” Rebecca speaks in a quiet voice, “Mrs Hilton felt worried you might get sick so she asked us to give you a bath before leaving.”

I felt guilty and hissed. I throw my face away, suddenly remembering everything and feeling ashamed because I know I should be better than how I acted.

I didn’t mean to turn to whiskey, but I had somehow overcome my troubles and it was my last resort.

I don’t want to be like one of those men that spend their whole life drinking; I want to be better. And I want to change.

“Leave the two of you, I want to be alone.” The girls nod and walk out of the bathroom. “Go to the bar and help me take out all the alcoholic drinks.”

“Okay, sir,” they both replied before leaving.

I must have made a mess of myself before Vary; I have embarrassed her with how I acted this morning, and she probably hates me with all her might. My eyes shut in pain, partly for the headache I’m having and for the feeling of being lost. I’m pretty sure that after this morning, Vary now has a good reason to go out on a date with someone better and to leave me.

After spending the next hour regretting my actions and thinking, I arrive at one way to get Vary back.

When I hear a knock on the door, I walk out of my room to the living room. Downstairs is Rebecca talking with George and there’s a smile on her face that I can understand and it only comes one way, so George is flirting with her or he’s flirting with her.

“She’s under my protection, George,” I tell him and he looks up the stairs and sees me watching him.

He grins widely, “Hey, Mr Hilton, I am just telling your maid here how pretty she is.”

“She doesn’t like nerds.” I point out with a stern voice, Rebecca may be my maid, but she’s also my responsibility and I will not leave her vulnerable and unprotected so guys like George, who is neither cold nor hot, can prey on her naïve mind.

“I’m not-” he protests.

I roll my eyes at his childishness. “Are they with you?” I ask instead.

“Natasha couldn’t make it, but April, Tina and Lauren are with me.”

“Okay,” I nod, “let them in Rebecca.” Rebecca nods obediently and steps away from the door and George and his other three friends enter.

“Can I just say this, your house is beautiful.” April, the girl with the red hair who looks rather familiar, gushes once Rebecca is out of sight and the rest agree with her.

I arch my brow at George. “Did you tell them why they are here?”

He nods, “Yes I did.”

I smile, feeling a little happy that something good is finally happening on this bad day. “Well, who’s the hacker?”

“April is.” He says, pointing to the red hair girl.

Her face looks familiar and I have to take my time to process her face and why it sticks to my memory. “You helped me with my phone at the hospital, right? I never really got to say thank you”

She nods, with a quick shrug, “It wasn’t a big deal we had to help and I’m glad I could.”

I head for my study room and they follow behind me. When I get in; I allow April and George to set up their laptops on the desk and they power them on. Both of them dive into the different login and patterns on their laptops, which I quite can’t understand because it’s neither medicine nor is it business. I’m sure if Rory was here, he’d understand what there are doing and would have asked for his help, but he’s been preoccupied with wedding preparation and I don’t want to be the selfish best friend who always puts his needs first.

“So if you guys are paparazzi, what do you need a hacker for?” They all give me the ‘you know what’ look and my eye widens, “That’s how most things get leaked into the internet! That’s nasty. Should it be illegal? You could go to jail for that.”

“Yes we would,” George agrees, tilting his head from side to side, “if there’ll ever catch us.”

“Well, good for you all, but I’ll hang your balls any day that this gets to the public.” I threaten him as I walk over to where he sits.

He gulps quickly, panic coming to sit on his face, “Sure, bro, I understand.” He replies, feeling a little intimidated and scared by both my height and voice.

“According to this, Alfred Enoch made an online reservation three days ago at the Glam point restaurant,” April speaks up and I walk away from George to her seat to stare at her computer, “and the form filled out here is for today, tonight.”

I grind my teeth and ball my hand into a fist, angry that he’s busy making reservations for a woman that’s mine!

“What are we going to do with this?” George asks out almost confusedly as he looks up at me from his laptop.

I smirk mischievously, “Well, I’m going to need a favour from the manager of the restaurant.”

An hour later...

“This is a bad idea,” Lauren the Mexican sighed deeply. “What if I get fired or worse?”

I give her a small, reassuring smile. “That’s the whole point.” I turn to April, “Have you written it out?” she nods and hands me a piece of paper with writing on it and after reading I give it to Lauren. I show her a small camera in my hand before handing it to her. “This is going to be their seat and you’re gonna plant this camera very close to their seat so that way I get to see what that cocky bastard plans to do to my wife and I’ll see how he plans on winning her heart.”

I take Lauren’s hand and gently pat it when I notice she is still tense and a little worried. “I promise you won’t get into more trouble doing this than you do following famous people around and stalking them.” She says nothing, which is good because it helps me continue, “Meet Ben Wesley, he’s the assistant manager of the Grand square restaurant, he’ll help put you through. Roberto will drive you there.”

My plan for Lauren is to have her act like a waiter at the restaurant to plant a camera in a safe spot in the restaurant where I will see Vary on her date later today. Our initial plan was for April to hack into the restaurant security system and access their cameras, which she did, but she said that the only camera capturing their angle was not close enough to give us a proper view of them, and here we are.

Lauren walks out of the study room and shuts the door. Tina, who has been silent the whole time, speaks, bringing all our attention to her. “What is my role in all this?” she asks with her brow arching and she crosses her hand over her chest.

I walk over to her and run a quick hand over the dark skin of her cheeks. “You are here because I want to know how the mind of a black woman other than my wife works.” I withdraw my hand from her cheek and walk away from her to George. “Anyone hungry?”

Hours later...

The door opens and I watch Vary walk in through the door, shrugging off her jacket and hanging it up on the hanger.

“Hey,” I say and she looks up to stare at me as I climb down the stair. “How was work?”

She smiles brightly at me, “It was great, thank you.” She raises her hand and gently strokes my chin as she gets to where I am. “how are you feeling?”

My hand goes to hers on my cheek as I stare into her beautiful brown eyes. “Yeah, I am. I’m sorry for the mess I must have created. It is embarrassing to even think about.”

Her eyes soften as her smile grows, “It’s okay, I’m sorry I didn’t stay around, we had a meeting I had to be in-“

I crash my lips hungrily down on hers as I silence her words and pull her closer to my body. I pull away from her and she opens her eyes. She wipes her thumb against my lip, taking off her lipstick stain. “I hope work went well though.”

She licks her bottom lips and nods quickly, “The meeting went well.”

“Good,” I murmur, against the corner of her lips before claiming them once more. My tongue swims into her mouth and my hand goes down to squeeze her butt gently.

She touches my chest as she catches her breath and she nuzzles me back, “I need to get ready, he will be here soon.” She awkwardly murmurs in a low voice.

I nod understandingly even though I hoped she would decide to cancel, but seeing as she is still ready with her plans, I showed my support and encouragement.

She glances up the stairs and her eyes squint in confusion. Following her eyes; I end up meeting April, George and Tina on the up, looking down at us. They smile and wave at us and Vary steps back and she holds my shirt tightly, for fear or instinct I don’t quite know, but I wrap my arms around her.

“Who are they?” she asks in a low but demanding voice.

“Friends, they are helping me with work,” I say quickly, “you should go dress up okay?” I kiss her forehead and she nods before going up the stair.

Thirty minutes later...

Vary walks out of her room looking nothing but beautiful. She is wearing a long black lace gown that holds her firmly and also showcases her full curve and she’s wearing silver-coloured three inches high heels. Her hair she makes into a one-side ponytail and her makeup is light, but her lips had a shade of black at the bottom and nude at the top, bringing out their full form. I’m dumbstruck with amazement at how she keeps getting beautiful with every little thing she does and all I want to do is take her back into her room and show her all the many reasons no other man deserves to be graced with her presence.

Her beauty is like a trap, which is a lot to keep every male in a dangerous corner.

I dread what Alfred Enoch might want to do to her when placed in such a corner.

I grow green and look away as she climbs down to where I am and just as I’m about to open my mouth and speak; the doorbell goes off.

Vary quickly tries to reach for the door, but I stop her and with a gentle smile I tell her, “Let me.” I open the door and there stands a young black man, probably in his mid-twenties, standing there and I now understand why she refers to him as young because he is young compared to me. He’s in a black four pieces suit and black jeans trousers. His hair is way too curly for a typical black man and inspecting, I realise he’s mixed race.

He looks handsome. Vary picked him well. I’ll give her that.

“Hey, good day sir,” he greets, and his voice, which is thick and deeply tainted with the British accent, is the first thing I notice as he speaks, “is Varisha home?”

I dramatically place my hand on the door, “Yes she is, who might you be?”

“Alfred Enoch, her date.” he stretches his hand and when I refuse to accept it, he awkwardly withdraws it and pockets it. “Who are you again?” he asks with a slightly raised brow.

I smirk, feeling happy he finally asks, “I’m Keenan Hilton, her husband and-” my words shorten when I’m pulled back in by a pair of soft hands and smiling to the gentleman before me, I mouth, “give me a moment” before purposely slamming the door to his face.

“What the hell do you think you are doing?” Vary whisper-yell at me once I turn to her.

I roll my eyes, “Getting to meet your new boyfriend. What does it look like?”

“It looks like you’re interrogating him.” She snaps with a pissed-off tone, “And he’s not my boyfriend.”

“But you like him more than your husband, so he’s your boyfriend.” I stubbornly persist.

She scoffs in disbelief, “Now you’re just being plain childish.”

The painful feeling in my chest returns, this time much more powerful. “Because I’m jealous,” I admit, because now more than ever, I feel there is nothing else to lose.

A strange emotion flicker in her beautiful brown eyes before they fade away. “I need to go, Keenan.” She says, trying to go for the door, but I stand in her way.

“What if I don’t want you to?”

Her eyes grow cold and almost challenging, “You can’t tell me what to do, Keenan.” She replies, trying to hustle me out of the way.

I cross my arms over my chest, “What if the date goes wrong?”

She frowns in uncertainty, clearly not getting where I’m coming from with the discussion. “If it goes wrong, then I’ll listen to whatever you have to say, but if it goes right-” she begins with a sure tone and I don’t let her finish.

“I’ll sign the divorce papers,” I complete and she nods, and I let her walk out of the door.