"Always sleep with one eye open. Never take anything for granted. Your best friends might just be your enemies."
~Sara Shepard

Two days later...

Since the first night of my return, I haven't seen any trace of Eli and I should be happy right? But I'm not instead I am terrified!

Anna told me how Eli work was 24/7 and sometimes slept at the office which I understood before everything started, but a part of me wonders if he's away because he sensed something was different with me- the Anna he met that night. I can't shake off the thought and it has been giving me a hard time and barely making me think straight and my panic is almost every hour. I remember him pausing after kissing my head that night and I don't know if it's because of the twenty difference in our scent or if it was of something else, something that yelled "I am not your fianceé" over the roof.

Do you think if he knows you're a fraud he'd be the one to leave the house? I think it would be the other way around.

Anna is supposed to call today and since the day began I have been eagerly awaiting her call... if she calls. Tomorrow I will be going to work as well as returning to Anna's residence until Friday and I should be preparing myself for that instead of worry. Right?

I bite down on my fork and through my almost blacked out vision I notice Nneka giving me a worried look, my vision clears as I return from imagination land and I raise my brow silently asking, "What?"

"You're biting your fork," she points out with concern.

I remove the utensil from between my teeth and set it down on the table beside my untouched meal. Don't be yourself, Quynn. "I'm just thinking,"

"About Mr Wilson?"

My eyes narrow, wondering how she knows, "Well, you two had a heated argument so it's only fair to worry."

I can't tell her that, he's already apologized or that I'm worried about the truth so I choose to say instead, "I don't want to be thinking though, just can't stop."

"The both of you are changing and I guess it's for the better."

"Changing?" I echo more confused than ever.

"Well you've changed a little since the fight," she pointed out and my heart skips and it takes all the strength in the world to not show it on my face.

"What do you mean?" I ask, keeping my voice steady.

She mildly shrugs, "Well for starters, Eli used to be a workaholic and you didn't use to talk to me unless you need something, but here we are."

Interacting with the Nneka was one of the things I wasn't allowed to do but not everything is going as we planned, and talking to Nneka a little helps me understand a lot of things I wouldn't have on my own, things that weren't stated in any of the files. Like how Eli was a sleepwalker and though blind could make his way downstairs easily when unconscious than when fully awake and a few other things. I didn't involve myself with Nneka nor did I attempt to, but she somehow felt comfortable enough to be around me.

She takes her leave and after the little pep talk I had with her, I feel a bit better and move to eat the boiled potato I was served more than thirty minutes ago.

After eating, I spent the next hour going through fashion weekly magazine and taking note of the fashions trends and mishaps in the previous week. It is refreshing to see drama in the fashion world and I comfort myself because Anna has saved me from all that by creating a calendar for me to follow. She's smart and calculating and I would give her that.

The doorbell ringing makes me set the magazine down curious about who was at the door, Nneka opens the door to look through it before turning to look at me with an uneasy look spreading across her face.

"Who's there?"

"Mrs Jumia Wilson," she replies before further opening the door and Jumai steps into the house with a file in her hand.

I stand up from the couch and took a few steps forward, but not daring to go closer.

She's wearing a white three-piece suit and matching skirt that reaches her knee. She's in a pair of silver kitten-heel shoe which makes her outfit elegant, yet modest.

"I wasn't going to intrude, but I didn't think you would be downstairs." She speaks with a tightened voice, her eyes not swaying from me one bit.

She doesn't like Anna and neither does she try to hide that fact. I can work with that.

Nneka looks uneasy, possibly because she had witnessed the clash of the two women in Eli's life before and it wasn't pretty.

I hold my chin up to say, "Eli isn't home." Then my eyes drop from hers to the file in her hand.

"I figured when I didn't see his car around, he told me he would be home today."

"Do you need something?"

"Not from you I don't, I just need to drop these and I'll be on my way." She says about the documents in her hand.

"I could give them to Eli if you don't mind." I offer, stretching my hand out to her.

"I do mind. I don't want you doing favours for me like we are friends, Anna." Her voice is cold and filled with spite and I drop my hand, "If I remember correctly, last week when we spoke, you called me an old cow that needs to realise her time is up or have you forgotten?"

'And according to Anna, you called her a die-hard parasite who should never have been born.'

I get why Anna's rule was to stay off her path, but confusing enough, the rule also stated to get along with her.

I knead the space between my brows, before sighing, "I have not and I'm sorry for that, Mrs Wilson's but-" she doesn't let me finish.

"I brought the prenuptial agreement. Eli was supposed to take it two days ago, but for some reason, he didn't. Hopefully, he does before you two get married, because he may be in love with you and blind, but I'm not and I see you for what you truly are. A scheming manipulator, who took advantage of the fact that my son was blind and dug her claw into him," she sneers with much hatred and if looks could kill.

Jumai is as blunt as they come, but most importantly she is being protective of her son as any good mother should, Anna told me this.

She stretched her hand to the side and Nneka quickly reaches for the document and takes it from her and she takes a daring step towards me. "If you have any level of decency left in you, you will let him include the prenup and you will sign it." with that said she turns around and made her way out with her shoulder straight and I watch her disappears through the door.

She's cold and angry at Anna and also sounds very desperate and that might be because she knows she's losing her son to a woman she dims dangerous and who would be his downfall.

My fist clench and I breath out, "She hates me," more to myself more than Nneka who was still stuck in the same position she was after collecting the prenup. She seems to always have a thing for being caught in the middle.

"I'm sorry, Ms Wilson," she apologises before walking away and probably going to keep the document for Eli just like Jumai wanted and I don't even try to stop her. I want to be alone to collect my thoughts now.

Anna is a very complicated person and I knew that from the first day, but what choice did I have. I lost my freedom the minute she brought herself and into my life and as messy as this might get, I know I can't get out because I signed my soul over to the devil's younger sister.

I don't understand how most people around Eli keep away as if Anna is such a monster, Jumai especially. 'You've met her, you saw how she treated you and you know how much you hate her.'

My job, however, isn't to judge her, it is to be her completely and as much as I resent the very thought, it is reality.

I spend the rest of the day locked up in my room, trying to forget what happened between Jumai Wilson and I and instead, rehearsing my lines and speeches and repeating the appropriate gestures and moves. I will be meeting Oluchi and Francis and as well as trying to remember the few things Anna instructed which aren't written down. They were her brainstorming buddies, they always come up with strategies and ideas to better her brand and she cherished them.

They might hate me less.

My job was following what Anna has given and the ideas she already had planned out. Keeping up with them shouldn't be as difficult as the past two days in Eli's home.