This is a work. It is a fiction and purely imaginative. I hope you enjoy it...

CHAPTER ONE

It's been almost two years now since Bella left him and yet it seemed as if it was yesterday. The event was still fresh in his memory; every detail. Jude Okota wondered why everything was still stuck in his mind so deep in it that he had not succeeded in forgetting any part of it. Two years was not two months for crying out loud and now he wondered why people say that time heals everything. He himself had used that saying on others. He looked at himself again, he didn't seem in any way like someone that was healing despite the time factor involved.

Why was he not healing? Why was he still stuck in this painful past of his? Why was he not letting go? Why? But he was only asking these questions again not because he didn't know the answer to them all, he just wanted to find another answer to these questions other than what he already knew because he had told himself that the answer he had was not true even though it was.

It was an answer that he was not ready to accept simply because it would show him the kind of person he really was. A man that loved his pains. He did not want to tell himself that. He would rather regard himself as a positive, smart as well as a jolly good and at most, a self motivated and positive minded fellow but to regard himself as a chronic melancholic? A man attracted to and caged by his pains? No, he would not admit that to himself. He must not, because if he did, it could crumble that upon which he had built his career.

His career required him to motivate people and inspire them to see good out of the bad they had experienced, to see hope even in their hopeless situations. He would do that for others and get paid for it but he couldn't for himself. He couldn't motivate himself. He couldn't talk himself into seeing hope in his hopelessness. He couldn't talk himself into finding happiness after what had happened to him. He couldn't convince himself to leave his pains and his past and move ahead in hope for better days. As much as he would like to keep asking himself as to why he had had not moved on, just because he needed something or someone outside himself to blame, he knew the answer had always been there. He had not move on because of himself, because he didn't want to.

And as usual, he let himself sink in again into his memories of her until a tap jolted him.

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CHAPTER TWO

He didn't know how long he had gone and let himself get lost in his pains. It was one place that he never entered with his watch. Time was of no essense there because it was the only place he could see Bella, his sweet lovely Bella. Bella, his late wife. His Bella that was taken away from him by the cold hands of death.

And now he was shocked that he had not noticed when someone walked into his office for a counseling session. How could he have allowed himself go searching for her again at this time? He missed her, it was true but it was not the best time to let himself get lost in his memories of her. This was work time. This was the time to put on his 'motivational speaker and counsellor look and mood' not the time to get melancholic. It was the time to put on the happy look so as to show others what happiness looks like when worn so they can also wear theirs.

But then, he was also angry. Angry at who this person was who had tapped him. Didn't he or she know that a knock on his door was appropriate? Why barge into someone's office? What if he was having a session with another person or in a compromising position. He knew the last one was not possible. He just thought of it to use it against whoever it was that had pulled him away for Bella. His Bella. He was almost about to let himself fantasize the memory of their first kiss together and then this tap that had disconnected him from it all.

Did this person know what that meant? Been kissed by an angel like Bella. The privilege, the sweetness of it? He was going to shout at this person and show how much irritation he had because of his or her action. Damn what effect his action would have on his job as a counselor. He didn't care. Counselors are humans too. They could snap out too and loose it sometimes like every other humans do.

As he raised his head, all his plans to shout at the person, confront the person and make the person feel a touch of hell evaporated into the thin air. Who he saw standing before him was someone who must have been sent from the other world. Beautiful. Innocent. Elegant. Lovely and there seemed to be more. He couldn't put his finger on it, on what exactly it was but there was something about her that was like his Bella.

And then, there was that lostness in her eyes. That pain. That feeling of been lost. She was like him. And it was that look that he saw a lot during his wife's last days at the hospital. The cancer that wrought all it could and had left her with a thin thread of life and a feeling with he could see in her eyes. She felt lost to life, most to its battles and lost from him. He knew she had fought bravely to stay alive with him, to make him happy as her husband and the love of her life but he knew that what was fighting his Bella was stronger than she was.

He had wished he could be the one in her place. Take her sickness, take her pains. He had knelt by her bedside some nights at the hospital and prayed that God would let him have her sickness and all but she would speak weakly whenever she heard him, "stop praying that sweetie. Its not good for me". It made him wonder what kind of a woman he was gifted with, a woman who would not want any pain to come to him, a woman whose joy was in his well being. He cried and told God that his wife was not deserving of such affliction, that she was an angel, that she was someone with a good heart and that He should take away such form her but he never got answers.

He fasted and gave to the poor and needy. He attended more church programs and did all the good things he felt was needful but he still lost Bella. Death took her. And since then, he left God since he felt that God left him. If God could not understand with him and help him when he earnestly desired him to, what use was Him to him? What obligations had He any right to demand of him?

As he looked at the lady standing before him and the amount of lostness and pains in her eyes, he got softened. He felt his Bella was back in another person and wondered why she would come back to him still with pains. Why could pains not let her be? And he determined to help this one, maybe he could save her. He didn't need God to help. He was done with Him. He would do the saving himself now.

"Sit down", he motioned to her.

She was so beautiful, so beautiful and for a long while, he felt drawn to a lady. Since, he met Bella, he had not had that feeling until now. And somewhere in his mind, he rebuked himself for feeling that because it seemed to him like cheating on his Bella. His heart would only be for one person and that would be Bella and not even this lady before him.

He put up his professional voice and form and asked, " What can I do for you please?"

She was quiet for a while. He observed her and decided to ask for her name.

"I am Jude. What's your name please?". He has always been polite in dealing with his clients so it was not an extra thing attached to her.

"Bella", she answered.

Nice One
FTC

CHAPTER THREE

It had been almost six months since her husband proudly announced to her that he had a child he would be expecting from another woman. He had always denied her accusations of infidelity on his part and had at first, told her that she was just imagining things and when she claimed she was told, he accused her of listening to gossips from people who were bent on tarnishing his image and destroying their marriage. Even though she knew her sources were reliable, she willed to believe him. She hoped he would act differently from what she had been noticing about him, she wished he would change and give her a reason to doubt all the evidences of his infidelity and believe him for claiming that he was not cheating on her. She was ready to believe him over everyone else. He was her husband and it was in her place to trust him. She would stand with him against the world. He was her man. She would do anything for him except give him a child, which had made her feel so depressed and less than a woman. Yet in all, he never give her a reason to doubt everything that was brought to her that pointed to him as cheating on her.

They had been married for three years and it was not even that much but he would not let her enjoy the marriage they had. It seemed that from day one, he had been talking about having children and it was alright at first because it was natural for a newly wedded couple to talk about the children they would have but with time, he became obsessed with having children, so it seemed. And she knew where the pressure he was passing to her was coming from. It was her mother in law. She had never liked her. She was not the person she had wanted her son to marry but Martins Adila would not listen. He would not because he was as he thought, in love with Bella Salim. She felt he loved her but unknown to her, he was just infatuated about her. It was more of a game to him. A game that had gone too far.

Martins Adila....infatuated? No way, not Martins. Martins was a casanova, a man with a special 'thing' for anything with curved hips, big bums and big busts. He was into women big time and he had all the money to get them as well as the looks. He looked so masculine, six feet plus tall, huge biceps and triceps and a broad chest and shoulder. He looked too fine and was like one well sculptured work of art. He knew he was handsome and he used it to get the ladies falling at his feet.

He was not only handsome, he was also wealthy. His dad was a senator for twelve years and got so much money embezzled that would feed many unborn generations. Politics in this part of the world was indeed a dirty game. It was the way the voted and elected use their positions of power to steal from the ones that voted them into power and hide themselves under the 'protection' of the law. So, Martins had wealth available to him and he was also a big time investor. He invested in real estate, hotels and recreations and in drinks. Money was coming in and he knew that he had what he needed to get any lady he wanted. He had the looks, he had the money. It was like a two edged sword. He had swept ladies off their feet and got them longing for him and he was the master of the game until he met Bella Salim.

Bella Salim made him feel small and insignificant. She made him feel like a nobody. She never went after him. She never seemed to notice him. She never gave a damn about him.

What was wrong with him, he asked himself for the first time in his life. He had always thought that everything about him was right and that the Creator gave him as a blessing to the women folk but when he met Bella, he began to wonder why she never gave any attention to him. She ignored him as if he never existed. He thought that something must be wrong about him for her to avoid him and ignore him even when others especially her friends were dying to have him in their beds. The way she ignored him made him feel like a disease. And so, he thought he was going to get Bella and get her to show him what was wrong about him, if anything was at all.

He wanted to feel like himself again. Bella had stopped him from feeling that way. Where was the self confident Martins? Where was the man that turns women on? Bella had messed up his mind. He was going to get her to bow like every other lady and prove to her that she was nothing and that there was nothing special about her. He was going to redeem himself and when he had done, he would drop her by the side in a way that she would feel how worthless she was to him. And so, he set himself to work. A man must redeem himself, he thought.

But the more he tried, the more difficult Bella proved. Bella knew the kind of man he was and such kind of men made no atom of appeal to her. Proud men who feel that their looks are what women need to stay alive. She had seen the way he looked at her, that arrogance in his eyes, that 'I can have you if I want' look. He was never going to have her. Never. She was going to prove to him that not all ladies fall for the looks and the money. She needed a man of value not a flirt. Not a man that would not have the ability to control himself and his libido. If he could not stay with a woman, then he was of no importance to her. And so Bella Salim made things difficult for him.

As time went by, he got so frustrated and approached her again and she declined him politely as she had done before. It was necessary she did that politely. He would think she was a novice and so naive on such matters. He would not see her as a threat. She would not give him the reason to. He must not know what she had in mind. She must make him wonder and maybe come down and beg.

Bella Salim was not an extraordinarily beautiful lady like some of the ladies flaunting and throwing themselves at Martins were. These ladies had banging bodies with the proper enlargements at the proper places. Works of hours of exercises for body modifications and some, surgeries. Some had the body of models. But Bella was more different. One might not successfully describe her beauty, her kind of beauty because it was rare. It was as not an every day kind of beauty. It was not the kind of beauty that the ladies and girls on magazines covers, fashion run ways and televisions possess. It was something else...more like an African beauty. There was nothing artificial to it. It was pure like the sun, filtered and real. She was an African natural beauty and her body was like that of an African goddess, an ebony queen. It was perfect. Her lips. Her hips. Her bosom. He backside. Her waist. It was all African. Nothing American could be seen except for her clothes...and that was something that Martins had never seen. How could someone be this natural and beautiful without sophisticated make ups, without bodily augmentations?

He went after her and after several attempts, he decided to humble himself and she tested him and he gave her the results she had desired, the results he knew she would like to see- a humble, down to earth Martins that was not obsessed any more with his ego and class and flirtatious lifestyle. Martins was now what she wanted and unknown to her, she fell in love with this new Martins. This was the man that had stooped low to conquer her. This was the man that could do anything to be with her. But unknown to her, while she had ended her game, her plan of making him let go of his pride and become a better person, he was just starting up his in another dimension. He was now enjoy this his new found ability to pretend and be who others what you to be and make them feel they had control while to gain their trust and get what you want when they least expect. He could now pretend and it was fun. Everybody felt he had indeed changed. His friends too. Even his mom, and she did not find it all good a news to hear. She was a woman of control and had planned out Martins life and who he was going to marry and now, this new girl seem to be the hindrance to her achieving what she had willed out- the marriage of her son to her business partner's daughter, Cynthia Chida.

talk2saintify:
Nice One FTC

Thank you

Vivid, your depiction of Jude's pain. Well done

Thanks for the mention, now am on track wit u Bumper to Bumper.

Thanks for the invite