The meeting with her client went well and Emily enjoyed every bit of it. The wife of the president was extremely impressed at her design and paid her three times the agreed amount.
She was finally done with her business in France and her flight was in two days. She had gone for sightseeing with other tourists that day and returned to her hotel room in high spirits. After she had eaten and rested, she lay down on her bed and picked up her phone. She checked her messages and saw that she had received a message from an unknown number. There were two messages from that person. One was an image while the there was a text,
“How's my gift?”
Emily clicked on the picture and a scream escaped her mouth when she saw it. She didn't know how to react. As if that wasn't enough, the person sent another message,
“I've gotten my man back. Thanks for letting me have him. Get ready for your divorce and our marriage!”
Emily looked at the picture again, who knows, maybe she was imagining things but no! It was true. In the picture, her husband was lying down on the bed, while Grace was lying on top of him, half naked. His hands were on her waist and she pressed a kiss on his lips. No doubt, they were about to begin one of their regular rounds! Noah had lied to her! He took Grace to a hotel and told her he was going on a business trip. Her son, or rather, their son was sick but he didn't care about that. Instead, he was with another woman. Emily broke down and wept like never before. Three years of happy marriage and Noah gave it all away at the snap of her fingers. Because of a project that was to last for only two months, her husband brought in his mistress and started having extra marital affairs. She blamed herself for believing his lies and giving him a second chance even when the evidence was all glaring. From the perfume she perceived on his clothes, to the letter, the message and down to the picture in her phone, everything made sense to her now. She felt stupid for not recognising the signs when she saw them. She was blinded by love and kept accepting his apologies as they came. It was at this point that she knew she had already lost him. Grace even had the nerves to send the pictures to her and ask her to leave her man! Sooner than later, she, Emily, would be removed from the picture by Grace. Emily laid on her bed and cried her hearts out. She cried and refused to be consoled. Finally, gentle sleep stole her away.
When she woke up, it was already late evening. Her pillow was wet from her tears. She went to the bathroom and washed her face which was swollen from both her crying and the sleep. She returned to her bed and sat down, holding her head in her hands.
Her phone rang, pulling her from her thoughts. It happened to be Noah, the least person she wanted to hear from.
“Hello sweetheart!” his enthusiastic voice rang out as soon as the call connected.
“Hi,” she replied dryly, contrasting his energized voice.
“Sweetheart? Is there a problem? Why do you sound so downcast?”
“Because you f**king caused it and you should stop pretending. I know the truth!” she cursed in her heart and nearly said it out but she restrained herself.
“I'm fine. I just need to rest. I'm tired, good night.”
“Sweetheart? Are you sure there's no problem? It's no way close to your bed time and…”
“Just shut it and let me be!” Emily snapped. It annoyed her to no measure to see a fake person pretending to care about her.
“I need to sleep. I had a long day with my client, so I need to rest. I'll help you hang up.” Before he could call out another word of protest, he heard a beep noise and the line went dead.
“What? Did something happen to her? I told her not to stress herself out! Why doesn't she hear for goodness sake?” Noah frowned. What he didn't know was that trouble was brewing and hell was about to let loose.
Grace Shields fought the fight and won. She kept sending Emily messages after that evening until Emily was forced to blacklist her number.
The following day, her host, the wife of the president of France, sent her driver with more gifts to Emily. A lot of people who saw her new clothes and jewelleries were wowed and many of them were eager to have Emily design some clothes for them too. They were ready to empty their banks just to get a cloth from a designer as gifted as she was. The driver was also charged with the role of taking her to the airport for her flight. Her flight, which of course, was the first class flight, was paid for by her extremely satisfied client. The woman confessed that she had never gotten a designer that good and promised to make Emily her sole designer.
Her success in carrying out her job made her happy and helped to reduce the pain of betrayal caused her by her husband. She was returning to her country and this time, she was going to take care of this issue of her cheating husband once and for all. She wanted to see how he was going to deny it this time around.
The plane landed and Emily checked out and took her luggage. The airport suddenly felt empty. Normally, her husband always came to pick her up each time she travelled while she in turn did that for him. But there was no Noah today because she didn't tell him he was returning. She took out her phone, should she call him, or the driver? Or just get a cab to take her home?