Picture perfect episode 7

PICTURE PERFECT
Episode 7
That day was September 7th, a day Olivia and Kate would never forget, September 7th was not just the day Kate became a land lady and a car owner, it was also a day Olivia’s marriage with Fred hit the rock.
That day would end up being a day Olivia watched her entire life come crashing down around her. She had discovered the double life of Fred, the man he had married.
It had already been an awful marriage but still she tried all she could to make it work. Olivia was indeed in trouble. Fred, The man she loved was cruel. By the day as Olivia struggled just to make it in her business from sunup until sundown, so she could meet all her husband’s financial needs, She was unaware that Fred was also giving out all the money to Justina, his other woman or Wife as the case maybe.
Justina and Fred had been married for two years, Olivia had always been suspicious, she had always had this gut feeling that Fred was not sincere but each time she confronted him with proofs, Fred always had a way of convincing her that all was in her head and all of thier woes were somehow her fault and that she was the one with the problem.
“My love is because we don’t have own child yet, that’s why you are always insecure, once you are pregnant and begin to bear children, you will see that our little family will grow stronger” Fred would always say. And Olivia always prayed for God to bless her Womb with a child.
Being in a narcissistic abusive relationsh¡p or marriage feels like you being s-cker-punched, then looking around for the one you love to help you up and discovering he was the one who made you hit the ground in the first place. Victor and Olivia’s marriage was a marriage of confusion, surprises, of tricks and gun house mirrors, her marriage was like being in a circus that she didn’t remember buying a ticket to but waking up one day realizing the one she love was the Ringmaster.
Fred was a pathological liar and he was like vampires, he had concealed his true identity in order to better feed his need for money as Olivia was the pot of Money. In the four years of marriage, Fred had hide behind a curtain and furthers his own image through lies, manipulation, coercion, and deceit.
For four years, Fred conditioned Olivia to the point where she believed any trouble in their marriage was her own making and she keep up the façade of nothing being wrong with her marriage online while behind closed doors she was suffering in silence and shame.
But thank God for Olivia’s wonderful big brother who caught Fred red handed buying baby items with Justina at a popular shopping mall somewhere in town and he alerted his sister, Olivia was surprised because She had thought Fred was at Abuja tending to his sick mother who was hospitalized.
Olivia’s elder brother insisted that he saw Fred and he followed him immediately and then the truth came out, Olivia’s big brother pounced on Fred and gave him the beating of his life.
And then Fred returned home to take revenge on his sister Olivia, after Fred revealed the wh0le truth to Olivia, he gave her the beating of her life and he left with Olivia’s credit card, expensive jewelries and plenty cash.
” I have spent four years building a life with the man I loved who had presented himself as my dream come true when we first met. Over time, when the mask started to slip and I felt as though I still needed to put up with him because we love each other, now I know that I made the biggest mistake of my life by getting married to Fred” Olivia thought
In fact, Kate and Victor met Olivia on her bedroom closet floor, crying inconsolably, She had bruises all over her body and face. She didn’t have the strength to get up, Kate and Victor kept staring at her in disbelief that Fred could do all that to her, “He cheated on you and he beat you up when you found out about his double life?, No that’s wrong” Victor said Calmly. Kate also admitted that she saw Fred with his other woman and Olivia was shattered, She was too ashamed to also admit that Fred took her money and valuables.
Kate and Victor still took Fred for a wealthy man and they tried all they could to ease Olivia’s heartbreak and show her the way forward.
“Call his family members, they need to come in, how could he get married to another woman, got her pregnant and when you found out, instead of apologizing, he had the gut to lay his filthy hands on you” Kate said angrily as Olivia shed tears of defeat, even with the wh0le situation, she was still hiding the truth, instead she would come clean that Fred was only a nobody, who was only interested in her money.
Few months later, one sunny morning in the month of January, Olivia was sighted in a cab, From the car’s window one could see Olivia stretching her head as far as her eye could see in,side the cab. She was quiet but lost in thought. She wondered why she was unable to conceive all through the four years she was married to Fred.
“But Fred got his other wife pregnant, I’m I barren as all the years I wasted with Fred” She thought — She was heading to her lawyer’s office, Fred would be waiting at the lawyer’s office And In fifteen minutes she would be there too, In Fifteen minutes she would no longer be Mrs. Olivia Fred Wilson, she would be Miss Olivia Davids, or Olivia Onyemaechi(Who knows tomorrow) Davids —Her marriage with Fred would be annulled and she would be unattached and free!
Free for what? From what? “Fred, Fred!” she whispered, and her heart was sick at the sound of his name. She could close her eyes and still see him, dark hair and dark, puzzled eyes and hurt. She scre-med and cried
“Fred couldn’t even say sorry, he left me broken and empty, not that his
Sorry could wipe out all the pain I feel in,side, I never imagined that our marriage could end like this, Could a home end, all the things I had built, the life I had so carefully made—all our neighbors, all our friends? Our online presence Could all of it be wiped out with one word?
Olivia thought.
She was acting quite strange and that bothered the Cab driver who was staring at her through the mirror the wh0le time.
The cab driver presumed that she was losing her mind or sick in the head.
Olivia had called Kate and asked if she could come and stay with her and her husband after she was done at the lawyer’s office and Kate gladly accepted.
“I will be here waiting for you, my friend. Please be strong” Kate had told her with a warm sympathy clearly heard in her voice.
Everything between Olivia and Fred had been finalized, They both wanted to go thier separate ways, Fred had left Olivia with all her life savings and Olivia couldn’t prove a thing, The worst was that she was ashamed to admit that she was giving all her money to him.
The voice of the cab driver, brought Olivia back to reality as she heard him call out, “Madam, we have gotten to your destination, would you mind paying me off?” and she started gathering together her things from the Cab, she picked up her hand bag and suit case, she paid the cab driver and he drove off. She looked out to the office of the Lawyer, she was heading to with tears dropping off her eyes.
Olivia’s life was now a mess, She couldn’t fake it anymore, She had never taken a picture of herself for the past few months, not even a selfie,
She had deactivated her Facebook account and was ready to start her life afresh.
To Be Continued