Two years later...

"What on earth is wrong with you Constance?" He drew a deep breath, "Can you at least stop walking and listen to me?"

It was hard walking as fast as he could down the long flight of stairs, trying to talk his wife out of walking out that front door with the chauffeur pulling her large box in front of her, trying to get it to the car first as she pushed herself from even listening to him. She was hurrying right down the stairs pulling her two year old daughter with her.

"Give me a second to explain, please." He repeated hurrying now to stand firm in front of the stairs before she took the last Stair down.

He looked at the light skinned woman standing in front of him in a long, yellow African print dress and a yellow scarf wrapped neatly on her braids. She glared at him for a second, her brown eyes staring right into his dark eyes. Trying so hard not to be lost in them and his thick brows, those brows, they matched perfectly, highlighting his tiny eyes, carved perfectly to fit his perfect hair cut.

The frown on his face detailed his chin and his jawline perfected his masculinity. She watched him raise his hands to his nose bridge, right where his tiny god mark sat unbothered, close to his right eye. He itched it for a second while his muscles flexed themselves, trying not to push themselves out from the sleeves of his clean white tee shirt.

He was perfect and maybe, just maybe, if she wasn't so upset and determined to walk right out of that house, she would have thrown all that determination to leave away the moment his hand grabbed hers earlier, before she stormed out of the room in the first place.
She pouted her perfectly perked lips, trying not to look so hard at him, while holding on to her little daughter with one hand and her bag with the other.

He took a soft frustrated breath

"Can you please just listen to me?"
He finally asked her opening his eyes again so he could look her right into hers. He dropped his hand from his face the moment she scoffed.

"Why?" She asked him "So I can listen to all your silly excuses again? No way Rafael, I'm done. I'm done with all your excuses, I'm done with all your lies and I'm definitely not doing any of this right now."

"Come on-"

"You told me it was the last. You told me you were going to stop practicing and you'd finally take your place at your father's company. You said you wanted this trip to just be for our family, no work,"

Rafael could see the anger in her eyes with every word she said.

"I actually thought you meant every word. I actually thought for once in your life, Kamsi and I would mean something to you, something better than your work. That we'd come first,"

"Of course you do."
He slowly reached for her hands. Surprisingly, she didn't stop him
"Constance, you and kamsi mean the world to me and you know it."

"Then why is it so hard for you to put us first?!" She pulled her hands in disgust. "Is it so much to ask? Why do we always have to be the ones begging for your time? Why did we even come here? To watch you work? Does being a lawyer mean so much to you? Much more than us?"

He stopped for a minute and turned to his two year old daughter who just stood there with her tiny hand, engulfed by her mothers. She looked so scared, like she had no idea what was going on.

"Can we at least talk about this upstairs?" He turned back to his wife "We don't need to do this in front of Kamsi."

"Why not?" Constance snapped "She's your daughter, our daughter, I think she needs to know just how important she is to her father don't you think?"

"Constance please-"

"I'm sick of you Rafael, I'm sick of this." She let out a sarcastic chuckle "I don't know why I ever agreed to this vacation in the first place. If only I had known you just wanted Kamsi and I to be here because you needed escorts for your business trip, then I'd have stayed in mother's house, rather than spending hours on a plane halfway across the continent, God," she scoffed in disgust "Don't you even pity your own child? Don't you get sad when she literally has to beg for your attention all day? What on earth is it about this job that you're willing to give everything away for it?"

"Nothing." Now he was being defensive.

He just wanted her to listen to him, to understand him. Being a lawyer was everything to Rafael, it was all he had ever hoped and dreamed of since he was a child and not just any lawyer, one of the bests in the continent. There he was, he was almost there but for some reason Constance wasn't entirely the happy wife in the situation. The idea that her husband constantly risked his time, life and all their safety every day he stepped his feet in that court room terrified her and he knew that.

Rafael exhaled

"You promised! you promised your previous case was going to be your last." Her eyes glittered from the tears that hung in them. "You promised that this was going to be a family vacation, that we were coming here to spend time together as a family. When you chose South Africa, I was confused at first, why here of all places? But I agreed to be here because I felt it didn't matter where we went, as long as we were together as a family but you tricked us, you brought us here so you could attend your silly convention!"

"Okay, okay, fine." He really didn't want to push it any longer. He was tired of fighting. It was like all they ever did since he got that promotion and the certificate he needed to start up his own firm, was fight.

"I just need tonight," he reached for her arm.

Constance scoffed. It was like she saw it coming

"I just need to be at the B.A.R conference tonight and I promise, you and Kamsi can have me for the rest of the holiday."

"And after that?" She glared at him "Are you going to stop practicing?" She just had to ask. She really wanted him to say yes. The way she looked at him, she knew he was trying so hard to avoid eye contact. "Are you going to accept your father's offer to work at his company?"

She pushed her eyes to his every time he tried to look away.

"Is all of this fighting going to be over?"

"Come on Constance." He looked at her. She could see how his lips moved but he wasn't saying anything, or was he just trying to figure out his next choice of words? "Baby, I love my job and you know that. It means a lot to me when I fight for what's right."

She looked away and scoffed, exactly what she thought.

"After tonight I could get that exposure I've always dreamt of, you know, I could own my own firm, just like we always wanted, just like I always dreamed of remember-" the smile in his face was overwhelming. Just talking about all of it made him so happy. "I could be big, we could be big-"

She just stood there watching him, disbelief all over her face.

"You're so selfish" she whispered, loud enough for him to hear her.

"Constance-"

She scoffed and looked away for a second, trying to get her mind straight.

"You don't care about anyone but yourself."

"Wait, t-that's not true-" he tried to defend himself.
"Constance-" he took a step closer to her

"This was a mistake, all of it."

He stared at her

"I can't do this anymore, I can't keep acting like this is okay, like we are okay when we are not-"

"W-what are you trying to say?" His words came out almost in a whisper now, concern written all over his face.

"What I'm trying to say is I'm going back home, back to Nigeria with our daughter Rafael, and if you respect me like you say you do, you'd either come with us right now or let us go."

"Constance," he grabbed her hand.

"Please Rafael." She raised her voice, shutting her eyes for a second, trying to push the tears that lingered in it back so he wouldn't see it. She opened it again. "You have to choose, right now."

Rafael looked into her eyes. She meant it, he could see that. Constance didn't have the time to argue especially since Rafael wasn't making a move to disagree. How could he? How could he just leave? What was going to happen to his dreams if he did? The conference was just in a few hours, that was supposed to be the start of a new beginning for him, for them, the people he was going to meet at that conference could change everything. It could prove everything he had been working so hard for the past few years was not in vain, that his dreams were valid. That he didn't need anyone, not his last name, or the influence of his father, or his father's company to make something of himself. He could eventually get the freedom he had always wanted. The chance to stand for something he really cared about. Was he really going to leave? To turn his back on his dreams?

He lowered his gaze to his hands on her. She had to understand, he really wished she would, maybe she was going to get it after that night, after he returned home with his accomplishments. Maybe she just needed some space, maybe they both did. Maybe if she returned home first, maybe if she went ahead before him, she could have all the time she needed to think about everything.

He held his breath before he slowly let go of her hand, he really let it go. Constance froze, she couldn't believe it. He didn't choose them, he really didn't choose them. She scoffed.

"Just for tonight." He told her. "I'd on the first plane back home immediately after the conference."

She held her breath as she watched him say, he was nervously avoiding her really shocked gaze.

"I'd make it up to both you and Kamsi when I'm back, I promise."

She sniffed. Constance could see it now, she totally understood, she could see everything clearly now. This man in front of her chose his job, he chose his perfect dream to be self sufficient and independent of his father over them. He didn't choose them, he never was going to. She turned to her daughter and picked her up from the ground before she slowly turned back to Rafael, holding on tight to Kamsi.

"Get out of the way." She warned him

"Daddy?"
He slowly turned to his daughter

"Hey," he forced a smile over his flustered cheeks. He reached for her tiny hands. "Hey baby."

"I don't want to go, I want to stay here with you."

"Yeah I know." He squeezed her hands "Right now mummy has to head home first with you okay, but Daddy's going to be on the next flight back home right after, okay?"

The little girl hesitated for a while before she slowly nodded. She placed her other hand on his face, staring right into his eyes

"Don't be sad anymore okay," She whispered to him. Constance held her breath, and so did Rafael before he let out a sigh. He slowly reached for her hands and kissed them.

"I love you so much." He told her and then turned to Constance "The both of you."

"See you in Nigeria, Rafael."

Constance rolled her eyes and then walked away, she didn't care, she didn't care about him or what he said anymore. Rafael watched them walk out through the door right after the chauffeur, he let out a weak breath, praying he had made the right decision, they had to understand, they had to understand that he was doing it for them, for all of them but he didn't know, he didn't know that that was the last day, the last day he was ever going to see them.