Nathaniel sat on the arm chair opposite Toun father. He was still staring hard at him. And he made it hard for him to read him because he wore a blank expression on his face. He promised himself before entering the office that he will never stoop low in front of him. The man doesn't deserve his humility.
"I asked you to come because I have heard of how you manipulate my daughter into marrying you because you need her money. Am I right?" The elderly man asked confidently.
"If I tell you no, you won't believe me. So believe whatever you want sir." Nathaniel answered the man.
As much as he want to gain the favor of the man and also the fact that he was the father of the woman he loves, he can't help the feeling he have for the man. And that was anger and hatred. He just couldn't help it. What he did to him that day was enough for him to hold grudge against him forever.
He laughed. "I see you lack manners. Is that how your so called mother taught you?" Nathaniel gave him no reply but clenched his hand on his thigh. As much as he want to tell the man what he have in mind, he just couldn't.
The old man continued. "I don't have time to keep sitting with you here. The reason I asked you to meet me here is because I need to tell you to leave my daughter alone."
"I'm sorry sir. You can't decisions for me. I love your daughter. She is now my wife and the mother of her child. Very soon I am going to come pay her bride price to you to fulfill all righteousness." Nathaniel said to the man.
The man laughed mockingly. "Bride price to who? Me? You are a big fool young man. That is my daughter and she is never ever going to be your wife. That thing you called a wedding that you did is just a joke. A big joke. I'm going to tell you this young man. You can never have my daughter. You don't worth her. Do you even have the money to pay for her bride price? Who do you think you are and how do you want to pay a bride price for my own child? Don't fantasize too much young man. It's useless to do so."
Nathaniel felt like a knife had been pierced into his heart at the man words. And he felt miserable.
"So I am going to tell you again, LEAVE MY DAUGHTER ALONE. And don't expect anything from me because you won't recieve a penny. You have exhort enough from my daughter already."
"I never exhort any money from your daughter sir. You can ask for yourself. I never did that. I love your daughter so I can't do that." Nathaniel replied and the man scoffed.
"Oh really?! So leave my daughter alone and go look for a miserable pathetic woman in your class to get married to and not my daughter."
"I love your daughter and I already swore to be with her in sickness and health. I made a promise to her and I am going to fulfill those promises. So I am sorry sir, it is impossible to leave my wife."
"SHE ISN'T YOUR WIFE. SHE IS MY DAUGHTER. MY DAUGHTER WILL NEVER BE YOUR WIFE. NOT SOMEONE AS USELESS AND WORTHLESS AS YOU. NEVER." Mr Joseph wailed, slamming his fist on the arm chair.
Nathaniel stared at him blankly. "That is our decision to make sir. And moreover you are talking like she is a thing that you can control. Do you have to stand in the way of our love? You know that we love each other and that I will never hurt her. But you just don't want to give your consent. Why do you hate me so much?" Nathaniel asked the man, with a clenched teeth.
He just couldn't understand why the man hates him so much. Why he doesn't want to give him a chance.
"That's because you are worthless. You are a no body. You can't even afford something good thing. You are miserable. You are a disappointment. Imagine you finished as an engineer in school and here you are with no hope for the future and mere factory worker. And you think you are worth my daughter. My daughter was given the best things of this life. She deserves the best things. And you can never afford that. You can't. You can never give my daughter a good life because you are from a generation of useless people that no one knows." Tha man replied him. And Nathaniel felt his heart shattered into thousands pieces. His words had touched him. He felt defeated and pathetic that someone could think of him that way. He felt tear pool at thr back of his eyes from the pain he felt in his heart. He closed his eyes and he tried to hold the tears that threatened to fall.
"So leave my daughter life. I can never someone like you in my family. Never." Mr Adebiyi finished.
With a shaky voice, Nathaniel said.
"I don't care if you hate me so much but can't you think about your daughter? Do you ever think about what she want? What would make her happy? Do you? You never even ask her what she want. You gave her material things but do you know if she is happy with the life she is living. She loves you and her mother so much. And all she wanted was to please you. But you guys didn't think of what she wants. It took a lot from her to make a decision without you. Do you know how sad and horrible she felt when you and her mother could not attend the wedding and lieing to you? But she have to do what is best for her. She have to think about herself and what will make her happy. And even if you hate to admit that, you know that I am the one she wants to be with. I am the one who makes her happy. And you want to deny her that happiness because you hates me so much."
"Listen young man you have no right to preach to me. You don't know what is best for her. She is my daughter and I know what is really best for my daughter. And that is for her to stay away from a pathetic human like you. You have nothing good to offer her. You are just going to ruin my daughter life. So shut your mouth and stop uttering nonsense." The man answered him angrily. "You know what..." The man stood up and he walked to his desk. He brought out something from the drawer and wrote something on whatever he brought out. Then he walked back to where Nathaniel was sitting.
He threw a cheque at him. Nathaniel picked it up from his leg and looked at it. The man had wrote a cheque of ten million naira.
"Isn't that what you want? Money. Fine, you can have it. You can have the ten million naira. My daughter can't afford to give you that but I can. So I am giving it to you. You can do whatever the hell you like with it. So leave my daughter alone."
Nathaniel stared at the cheque for a long while then he shakes his head. He can't believe how low the man thinks of him.
"If I needed your money I won't have marry your daughter but just exort money from her. Your money can never buy my love for your daughter and that is what you will never understand. You think all poor men are con artists who just need your money. I don't need your money and I am not lacking money. I don't have it all neither do I have as much as you do but I am satisfied with what I have now. I know things would be better soon. And as long as Toun loves me and is with me, I will love her and continue to be her husband." He said surprising the man. Then he tore the cheque to pieces in front of the man.
The man watched the pieces of paper fell to the ground and he fist his hand into a ball in fury.
"If you really want your daughter to stay away from me, then you should talk to her. Tell her why I can't be her husband, why she have to leave me. And if she decides I am not worthy her anymore then I will gladly give up."
"Talk to my daughter? After you have charm her pervert. You already have her under your influence and now she can't think in her right sense because of you. And you want me to talk to her. Would I invite someone like to sit in my office if I can convince my daughter. You better let go of my child. You think I don't know your plan. You want me to die so that someday you will dupe my daughter of all the money and property in the name of being her husband. Isn't that your goal? But it's never going to happen." He told Nathaniel boldly.
Nathaniel could not understand why the man thinks so low of him and why he thinks he was a bad person. He have tried to convince him that he meant no harm to his daughter neither was he after her wealth. But the man is hell bent on his belief. There was nothing he could do or say to change how the man feels about him. He hates him and there is nothing he can do about it. And that hurt a lot.
It's really pain him to the bones.
"Don't bother and just take the money because I will never let you marry my daughter. You are worthless and you can never give her the life she deserves. So she will never be yours." The man spat.
Nathaniel was quiet as he listened to the man words of degradation. He saw the smirk on the man face. And he knew that it was because he had hit a nerve. And he was right. The man had done exactly that.
Quietly he told the man. "Maybe I can't give her that life now. I might be so worthless right now. I may be depending on her right now," He paused. "but I am confident that I will give her triple of everything very soon. Toun choose me because she knew I am sincere about her and I love her not her riches. She knows that money isn't love. But you are too blind to know that. You thinks so low of me because I am poor. Because I was never born with a silver spoon."
"Do you think all this stupid talk of yours does move me? I'm sorry to tell you young man, it doesn't and it won't. Ever. You're not worthy of my daughter and that is it. So I won't ask you again LEAVE MY DAUGHTER." He emphasized the last words boldly.
"I don't think that will ever happen. She is the mother of my child." He looked at the man. He saw he wasn't surprised and he guess he already knows about Annabelle but he was clearly angry and exasperated at the mention of a child. "We are married and like I said, I made an oath."
"Those are just chidish joke." Mr Joseph snided.
"You know clearly sir that it is not and that why you hate me."
Mr Joseph clenched his teeth. He couldn't believe the gut Nathaniel have for challenging him. He didn't have any intention of accepting him but he want him to cower before him. He wants him to beg at his feet. He want him to show how low he was. But all he have done since he walked in was tackle him on every words. He thought angrily how a son of a nobody can talk back at him and challenge him.
"How much do you need to leave my daughter? Is the ten million too small? Name your price."
Nathaniel laughed shortly looking at the man.
"That's a huge sum of money. And it would do a lot of good to me...."
He cut him off. "Then take it and leave my child alone."
"Never. I would never take a dime from you. My love for your daughter can't be bought by money. And no amount is worth my love for her. So I'm sorry. Your request isn't possible."
Mr Joseph locked eyes with Nathaniel and he could tell from his eyes that he wasn't kidding. He meant every words he said. He won't change his mind.
Neither would he. No matter what he say, he will never let him have his daughter. Never.
"I guess nothing will change your mind." Mr Joseph said leaning back on his seat.
"Of course." Nathaniel replied.
The man nodded in understanding. He will have to find another way to deal with him.
"Then we are done here." The man concluded.
"I guess so." Nathaniel said standing from his seat.
"Let me tell you this again. I will never accept you for my daughter Nathaniel. Never." He told him coldly.
Nathaniel stood quietly and he held back the pain he felt from the realizations of what he just said.
"Nothing you ever do will be enough. My daughter don't deserve you. You will always remain a filthy poor man with no class. And that is not good for my daughter. You will never have her. I promise you that." The man said confidently.
Nathaniel kept pondering why the man hated him so much. Does everything means money? Does everything have to do with money? Does money show the worth of a man? It's really disappointing on how the man thinks. Nathaniel thought and he sighed accepting his fate.
He turned back around to face the elderly man still glaring at his back.
"I don't know why you hate me so much. But I love your daughter and..." He smiled. "I already have her and that's what you have to accept sir."
"You sure don't give up easily." The man said with the corner of his lips quirk up.
"Yes, I don't because I love her."
"But you are nothing and that is what you are forgetting."
The words hurt his pride but he won't show him any weakness.
"Maybe you are right. But you should at least let your guests stay in the reception than with the security guards. That would have been good to your reputation. It just prove the kind of person you are. But you disappointed me in that aspect." He turned to leave. But turn around again. The man was staring dagger at him. "No condition is permanent sir. You should also remember that."
And he finally walked out of his office and out of the almost empty building.
******
Mr Joseph sat in his dining with his wife and younger daughter. He had been quiet. And he didn't touch the food that the maid had set in front of him. Instead he have something on his mind. The two women just looked at him every seconds. Then his wife decided to speak up and ask him what was wrong.
"Dear, why are you not eating?" Mrs Mopelola asked her husband a little concern.
"I'm sorry, but I don't have an appetite." He said without looking at his wife.
"Is anything the problem?" She asked looking at her daughter as if she had an idea why her father was looking worried.
"Nathaniel came to my office today." He told them.
"Who is Nathaniel?" Eunice asked looking between her father and her mother.
Her mother replied. "It's Nathan. The poor guy manipulating your sister."
"Really? What did he came to do at your office? How dare him?" She said angrily.
"I asked him to come." They both turned to look at him. "I told you that I am going to meet him. So I asks him to come to my office and he did."
"So what came out of it? Did he decide to let my child go?" His wife asked.
The man heaved a sigh and shakes his head. "He refused. He is very obstinate. He is stubborn than I thought. He won't be easy to deal with but I'm going to let him know who I am. I have handle people worst than him. I'm going to prove to him who I truly am."
"I trust you dad. You have to deal with that bastard."
"I will. I was even ready to stoop low to offer him money. Ten million that non of his generation ever had but this bastard refused. He tore the cheque right in front of me."
"How dare him? He got gut to do that in your presence that. What is he trying to prove. The poor pathetic thing." Eunice spoke with gut.
"He even talked back at me."
"So he isn't just miserable and worthless, he is also rude. I'm sure he have no home training. That is what those stupid people do. They don't raise their children well. The poor people. And that is why we have robbers and thieves in this country. When they refuse to raise their children well. That man can never have my child."
"And he won't. I'm going to make sure of it. He is never going to have her. It's time I do something about this issue. I'm going to look for a good man... a husband who deserves my daughter. Something I should have done a long time ago." The man told his family.
"Just do whatever you need to do Joseph. I want my daughter away from that man. He have nothing good to offer her. And I can't lose my daughter to him. Do whatever you have to do." His wife supported his decision.
****
I LOVE THIS CHAPTER SO MUCH. I HOPE YOU ARE ENJOYING IT?
I LOVE NATHANIEL BRAVERY.
SO WHAT DO YOU THINK OF HIM? WILL THE ADEBIYI PLAN WORKS? WILL THEY BE ABLE TO SEPARATE THE TWO?
COMMENTS YOUR THOUGHTS. I WILL LOVE TO HEAR THEM.
RANDOM QUESTION: WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SONG AT THE MOMENT?
THANKS FOR READING THIS BOOK. DON'T FORGET TO TAP THAT LITTLE STAR BELOW. IT'S MEANS A LOT.
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XOXO.