Natalie Jackson was the illegitimate daughter of her father. She was set up and married off to Franklin Howard. She wanted to file for a divorce but Franklin changed. Do you think Natalie will forgive him and accept him back by giving him a second chance. Find out.
Chapter 1 01
Natalie Jackson;
It was a Saturday evening, and I had just finished preparing dinner in the kitchen. I stepped out to the dining table to serve it, but to my surprise, I saw that my elder sister Amelia had visited us.
I watched as my husband, Franklin Howard, laughed heartily with Amelia. What pained me more was seeing the way he got along with her. Franklin had never laughed like this with me before, and here he was, laughing loudly with my elder sister in the living room.
Amelia Jackson was my elder sister. We had the same father, but different mothers. My mother was once a mistress to my father, and because I was the unwanted child, my family didn't like me. I had three older brothers, James, Asher, and Felix, who all doted on Amelia.
Amelia and I were agemates, with her being only a month older than me. We were both fair in complexion, but while she was tall, I was short and chubby.
Franklin is a billionaire in this part of the city where we live, and he never really liked me, his wife. It was all a mistake that led to our marriage, a mistake that I shouldn't have accepted.
Going back three years, my father and Franklin's father were best friends. During a business party at our home, where my father had invited various tycoons, one thing led to another, and Franklin and I were caught in a compromising position in my room.
I knew Amelia was the one who had set us up, but no one believed me. Even Franklin didn't believe me. He felt that I was the one who had drugged him and lured him to my room so that he would sleep with me.
We were forced to become a couple to hide the embarrassment, as Franklin's family was also disappointed. Everyone knew I was the illegitimate daughter of my father, and they would be wondering why my father had kept me instead of kicking me out and allowing Amelia to marry Franklin.
After our wedding, I discovered that Amelia had a hidden crush on Franklin. She regretted drugging my drink, as that was what I had served Franklin on that fateful night.
Many guests had come with their adult children, but none of them had come to speak to me. I was already 22 years old then, naive, and caught in a compromising position with Franklin on the bed. We got married while Amelia wept, as Franklin was supposed to be her husband.
Franklin didn't like me. After that night, we didn't sleep with each other, and I didn't conceive either, even though it was my first time. We were living like neighbors who hated each other, and now that Amelia had graduated, Franklin wanted to divorce me to marry her.
How shameless of a sister to want to date her younger sister's husband? Amelia is so shameless. Franklin is five years older than me, and as I'm 25 years old now, he's 30.
I watched as Franklin, wearing a white singlet that revealed his masculine abs, as he loved to gym. He was fair in complexion, more handsome than any other man I had seen. His skin glittered like the sun, and I saw the way Amelia was drooling over him.
Franklin is very tall. His arms are bigger, and so are his thighs. I am not even up to his chest, to tell you, I'm a shorty. Although, I have an hourglass shape.
Franklin doesn't find me attractive in any way.
"How was your studies, Amy?" I heard Franklin asking Amelia. He had switched from calling her Amelia to Amy, as her shortened name.
Amelia blushed as she picked up the glass cup of wine that Franklin had refilled, while I sat at the dining table, setting up our dinner.
We have no maid at home, simply because Franklin mandated that I wouldn't be going to work when I don't have any meaningful certificate.
As the illegitimate child of my parents, I didn't further my education and was forced by my stepmother to learn tailoring, while Amelia went to the university and became a certified accountant.
I wasn't even allowed to sew, as Franklin felt it was a useless profession, and that of becoming a fashion designer.
He calls me ugly and says that I'm not fashionable.
He doesn't like to take me out to hang out with his friends, nor does he give me money for upkeep.
I only managed to get money for my upkeep when he gives me money to restock the house with foodstuffs. Only then do I manage to see money to save for my personal use.
"It was fine, Frankie," Amelia replied. I hated it as Amelia and my husband were calling each other pet names.
This was my matrimonial home, and Franklin only calls me "Natalie!"
In short, he shouts my name with so much rage, as if he doesn't want to see me.
"Natalie! Is the dinner ready?" He asked me, just as he settled across from Amelia on the next black couch in our exquisite living room.
I had finished preparing the delicious African delicacy of pounded yam and vegetable soup.
I looked at the food that I had prepared and at my husband and my half-sister.
"Natalie! I'm talking to you!" Franklin shouts at me again.
"Hmm, no food for you both," I replied and covered the food that I had already served.
Firstly, I didn't invite Amelia to my home. Neither will I serve her any food. She should get out and return to our father's house and look for her own husband to be calling pet names with.
Franklin immediately rose from the couch and dashed up to meet me.
"Where are you taking the tray of food to? Have you lost your mind?" Franklin slapped me as he approached me and collected the tray from my hand.
I looked at him irritably and at Amelia, who smiled and rolled her eyes, as I knew her target. She wanted to collect my husband.
She had sent me a text message the previous month, telling me that she was coming back to collect everything that I had stolen from her, including my husband.
"Frank, you slap me because of what? I cooked this food, and you cannot eat it," I sobbed.
"Why? Didn't I give you the money you used to prepare the meal? Did you work for the money? Move away and get me a bowl of water to wash my hands, and don't think I'll apologize to you because of the slap. Come, Amy, don't mind your sister. That's how silly she behaves," Franklin calls out to Amelia, and I watch as she seductively stood up from the couch in her brown dress that made her look like a model, as the brown dress accentuated her hips and bosom.
Amelia walked up to the dining table to sit down, and I stood there watching as Franklin served her the delicious plate of pounded yam and vegetable soup that I had suffered to cook.
I know Amelia is my sister, and I wasn't supposed to be jealous. But Franklin has never served me any food before, not to mention the one that I cooked by myself.
Franklin also saw that I didn't serve any bowl of water, and he went to the kitchen by himself and brought a bowl of water for Amelia to wash her hands.
He sat across from Amelia, and Amelia was blushing, not caring to ask me to join them in eating.
"Frank!" I shouted and walked toward the plate of soup that I had served out for myself, as that was the exact portion that Franklin had served for Amelia as her own plate of soup to eat.
"What's wrong with you, Natalie? Should we leave this food for you to eat? Come, Amy, let's go out to get something more palatable to eat," Franklin said, standing up from the dining table, and I hated it whenever I suffered to cook, and my husband would have to go out of our matrimonial home to eat.
"Frank!" I tried to stop him, and he warned,
"Stay away from me, Natalie. Just go and eat your food since you don't want your sister and me to eat it. Who knows if you have poisoned it."
"What?!" I frowned as Franklin's words broke my heart. He quickly took the stairs in our duplex mansion and dashed upstairs to his bedroom.
Yes, Franklin and I have different bedrooms. I looked back at Amelia and shouted at her, "You shameless slut, aren't you ashamed to be dating your sister's husband? As beautiful as you are, you cannot use your beauty to look for your own husband!" I cussed at Amelia, and she hissed.
"Get out of my house!" I was enraged, remembering that Amelia and her three older brothers never liked me. They mostly maltreated me, and while I had thought that getting married would give me my own happiness and family, yet this very same family that doesn't want my happiness wouldn't let me be.
As I rushed to push Amelia out of our house, she fell down and pretended to be hurt.
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