The Betrayal

7 YEARS AGO

"Happy birthday dear Jumy, happy birthday to you," my parents sang, smiling lovingly at me as I sat in the expensive dress my boyfriend got for me.

It was my sixteenth birthday, which meant I was allowed a car and a little freedom.

Jake, my boyfriend, smiled at me as he watched my parents sing, he was doing that thing he always did when he was in a hurry, he was bouncing his left leg real fast. Jake and I had a lot planned; firstly, we were going to have dinner in this fancy restaurant, then we were going to attend a fancy party with a lot of rich people and rich snacks. I really loved Jake's family because they knew how to party.

"Mom, Dad, I love you both so much, I'll be back soon" I kissed them on their cheeks.

"If she doesn't return though, she'll be safe in the house, my mom loves her anyway," Jake joked and we laughed.

"Take care of her," Dad told Jake, tapping him lightly on his shoulders.

Jake and I had been in a relationship for two years now, and it was awesome. Most people always talked about how overbearing and arrogant Jake was, but to me, he was the sweetest person. They always said they knew we would break up, but we never did. He always did the most thoughtful things; he even respected my decision to not have sex with him until college, but of course, that was only an excuse to get myself fully ready for tonight. I was going to have sex with Jake, he had been the most patient person, always telling me how it didn't matter that we weren't having sex and that loving each other was what mattered the most.

Jake's parents, on the other hand, were very happy to meet me, everyone was just nice to me, so much that it felt too good to be true, I mean how do you get people to like you so much without doing the bare minimum? I was still shocked.

"Let's go Jums," Jake grabbed my hand, leading me out of my house. My parents weren't rich, but we weren't poor either, we had everything we needed when we needed it, and growing up like that made me content with what I had. Jake had told me countless times that he liked that about me, and it wouldn't hurt if I asked him for stuff, but I never did, so he just bought stuff he thought I needed without me asking, which I didn’t mind at all.

Jake led me into his white shiny Benz and drove off with speed, to the restaurant. We got there, placed our orders, ate, and talked a lot; but I noticed something, Jake was spacing out a lot, and he looked like something was bothering him.

"Are you okay?" I asked him, placing my hand on his.

"Yup, I'm all good. You look too pretty," he smiled, I didn't believe him, but I smiled anyway. After dinner, we drove to the mansion his family owned. It looked nothing like the mansion I knew and was used to. The decor was immaculate as usual; Mrs. London, Jake's mom, really knew how to prepare for a party.

"Oh, my lovely girl, happy birthday darling" Mrs. London hugged me, placing a peck on my cheeks.

"Thank you, the decor looks amazing as usual," I told her; she had the brightest smile in the universe in response.

"Come on, go in. Jake, take her to her cake, make sure she makes a wish before blowing the candles, and take pictures for me, okay?" She told Jake; he rolled his eyes at her.

"She's my girlfriend ma, not yours," Jake scolded and she laughed.

"Okay fine, I'm sorry" she smiled. I laughed at the two. They were my source of entertainment, all day, every day.

Jake and I went into the house and straight to the kitchen to see my massive six-layer cake. I screamed in excitement and ran to it, closing my eyes briefly to make a wish.

"No, you have to make a proper wish," Jake stopped me from blowing the candles.

"You know me so well," I smiled and closed my eyes again, this time, making a proper wish.

"I want to get married to you!" I wished and opened my eyes.

"What did you wish for?" Curious Jake asked.

"Something and I'm not telling, so don't sweat it," I kissed him on his cheek and blew the candles.

Jake took a couple of pictures of me and then we went to join the party. Jake and I said hi to a few family members and friends; somehow it felt like we just announced our engagement and people were congratulating us; I mean we already looked the part, totally in love and clean. Two hours into the party, Jake told me to wait for him while he goes to get something from his parents' room. My stupid ass assumed it was a gift.

Thirty minutes later, Jake was nowhere to be found, so I decided to check on him. For some reason, I felt like I was walking into a scene of a drama where the girlfriend finds her boyfriend cheating, but I shook that thought from my head immediately. Jake has no reason to cheat on me, if he were going to cheat, he wouldn't go through all these lengths for my birthday, and there hadn't been any funny behaviors from him, so it was not possible. But like Nigerians like to say, "Men will shock you!"

I went to Jake's parents' room first, he was not there; on instinct, I went to the guest room on the same floor, I opened the door and was met with Jake's dick in a girl's mouth. Her dress looked familiar from where I was standing; turns out she was one of the many people Jake and I said hi to.

"Jums, wait, I swear I can explain" Jake started.

I smiled at him and ran outside to the fountain in the backyard.

It was not on at the moment, so the lights that came with it weren't on either. I sat there wondering what I did that made Jake do that to me. I mean we were happy, he wasn't in a foul mood, we didn't argue about anything, so what the hell.

"I think it's pretty depressing to see a young girl out here like this when she's supposed to be having fun," a very manly voice said from the other side of the fountain. He scared the crap out of me. I guess he knew I was there because of how loudly I was crying.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know someone was here" I apologized.

"No, it's fine. Why is the pretty girl in a pretty dress crying?" He asked me. I got up from the side of the fountain to where he was, I sat beside him.

"I think my boyfriend and I just broke up," I sulked.

The man was Asian, he looked way older than I was, and he was very good looking.

"You know, I never thought he'd ever do that to me, I mean we were so happy," I cried.

"That hurts, doesn't it?" He asked me. I nodded, crying even harder.

"You shouldn't cry though. I don't think he's worth it" he said.

"I don't even know why I'm telling you this" I cleaned my tears, rubbing my wet hand on my dress.

"That's because we'll probably never see each other again," he said, and I smiled. I liked the thought of telling a total stranger things that you wouldn't tell anyone, hoping you'd never see them again. So, I decided to tell him more.

"That's true, I mean I thought he was going to marry me; I wished for that tonight! I mean we've been dating since I was fourteen!" I threw my hands above my head.

"Oh marriage, and how old are you again?" He asked, clearly amused.

"I'm sixteen! You know I almost let him pop my cherry this night" I didn't know why I said that, but I blamed the heartbreak and tears.

"Your che... wow that's a huge step" he nodded his head, looking at me like I had two heads.

"Why won't he want to get married to me? I mean you would get married to me, right?" I asked him. The man was not handsome, he was beautiful, too beautiful. He looked like an angel in his black tux, with his pale skin shining like the moon.

"Yeah sure. If I get married to you, will you stop crying?" He asked. He had an abused smile on his face. At that moment, he looked carefree; like the burden he had, that showed evidently on his face a few minutes ago, had been lifted.

"Really?" I jumped, he nodded.

"Yes, I will. Marry me" I smiled.

"Okay, let's go get married," he said.

"Wait, give me a moment," I told him. I wasn't thinking, my mind and heart were in two different places, so I just went with whatever.

I ran into the house, and to the kitchen to get my cake. What is a wedding without cake? I had a hard time lifting it, so I got one of the workers in the mansion to help me. The guy carried the cake out for me through the back door and to the fountain.

"Woah, are you allowed to take that?" the man asked me.

"Yup, it's mine anyway," I smiled.

We got into his car and drove to a tattoo parlor that I suggested. We didn't have rings, so we were going to get matching tattoos.

"What do we get?" I asked him.

"Not something big, I don't think your parents will be proud to find out that you got a massive tattoo with a stranger," he said, and I nodded.

"Let's get the number 16 with a heart beside it, between our ring finger and middle finger," he said, and I nodded immediately.

I smelled like cake, Hell I had cake all over my body. I couldn't wait to eat it, so I started in the car. It was a good smell, so I didn't mind, and I don't think my husband did either.

"Wait, what's your name?" I asked him.

"Yu Bin" he smiled.

"Call me Jums" I smiled back.

We got out matching tattoos and said our sloppy vows, then Yu Bin drove us to a field where we had a lot of cake and water, while we talked about everything and nothing.

By 9:00 pm, It was time to go home. I really didn't want to go home because my parents would ask about Jake, and I didn't want to tell them I broke up with him and married a stranger, yet. I wanted to keep it to myself for a while, but I didn't have a choice, and I couldn't follow Yu Bin home, so he drove me home.

"Thank you for the ride," I smiled at him, holding what remained of my cake in my arms.

"Byeee" I managed to wave.

"Bye, sleep well. Don't you dare cry again, remember you're married now" he joked, and I laughed.

I was the happiest I had ever been all my life, that night. A lot of wrong things might have happened, but I was thankful for the outcome, at least I got to smile and do something I never would’ve done.

I was able to escape my parents without having to answer any questions. I went to my room, took a shower, got dressed in my nightwear, and collapsed on my bed.

I admired my new tattoo that hurt like a bitch, but it was worth the pain. When I slept that night, I slept with a gigantic smile on my face that no one could ever replace no matter how hard they try.

7 YEARS LATER

I woke up to the sound of my infuriating human alarm, Eric, shouting stupidly in my ears, as he shook my body.

"You know what? There is no point waking you up; don't bother going to work, you’re late anyway," Eric hissed.

My eyes widened immediately, as I registered what he just said. I practically flew into the bathroom.

Eric and I have been friends for almost six years now, I met him shortly after my 17th birthday. He had just moved into the house opposite mine, and my parents decided to go say hi. Eric kept his eyes on me the whole time, and when we finally had time to ourselves, he said he liked my tattoo. I was shocked because the thing was not bold and it was in a hidden place, so how the hell did he see it?

Eric thought I was some sort of bad girl and, of course, I let him believe that for a while until I felt comfortable enough to talk about my "marriage".

I used the marriage to keep him away from developing feelings for me, but it turned out he was dating this chick and I wasn't attractive to him. I'm still not attractive to him to this day, not that I want to be or anything.

I rushed out of the bathroom after taking the quickest shower.

"Did you even scrub well?" Eric teased. I flipped him and ran into my room to dress up.

I had finally gotten a job, after an incident that made me lose almost everything and everyone I cared about. It took a while and a whole lot of changes to get the job, but I did, and I was about to be late on my first day.

I slipped a pair of jeans trousers and an almost crop cardigan on, and then a brown coat. I grabbed my bag, collected the pancake Eric was about to stuff into his mouth and an apple, then I ran out of the house.

Unfortunately, there were no available taxis and I forgot to order an Uber. I was starting to feel like someone had it out for me! I was going to lose my job on the first day. Talk about sadness and frustration.

I decided to make use of my legs as I couldn't get a taxi. If it was back home in Nigeria, I sure would've used a motorcycle to work, but it wasn't, and there were no available motorcycles anywhere. I ran so fast like my life depended on it because it did.

As I got to the crossing, the sign still showed red, but there weren't any cars coming, and I was late, so I made my way across the road, when a white shiny car honked so loud, I almost lost my hearing. The car stopped, but I didn't have the time to.

"I'm sorry!" I yelled.

"You should watch where you're going, you won't get to work if you die!" He added, but I didn't care, I just kept running.

Finally, I could see the building of the elementary school I was going to work at as a teacher. I smiled and increased my pace, sprinting through the halls of the school, until I bumped into someone I shouldn't have.

"Miss Kyeks? What's going on? Why are you all sweaty?" The shabby-looking principal asked me.

"I—I spilled water on my face, on my way here," I lied.

"Good morning Mrs., Chadwell," I faked a smile and went around the woman.

For some reason, the school looked empty, I looked around some more and went to my appointed class, it was empty, and there was only one explanation: I was early.

I pulled out my phone from my bag and looked at the time, it was 7:20 am and school starts at 8:30 am.

I dialed Eric's number immediately.

"Hey princess, or do I call you Usain Bolt?" He laughed over the phone.

"Hahaha, fuck you!" I told him and hung up.

The clearing of someone’s throat startled me, it was Mrs. Chadwell. She had that judgmental look on her face. I blame myself for being early.

"Is there something you need?" I asked her like I didn't just swear in a no-swearing environment.

"Miss Kyeks, was it?" She asked, I nodded my head.

"You're aware this is a school, yes?" She asked and I nodded.

"No swearing! I'll let it go because you're early," she said, and I smiled.

"Did you cover what we talked about?" She asked looking at my left hand.

I rolled my eyes in my head. Mrs. Chadwell had seen my tattoo and asked that I find a way to cover it if I wanted a chance to work at her school. I nodded my head immediately because I needed the job, if I didn't, I would've told her to fuck herself!

"I have a concealer in my bag, I'll do that right now," I smiled at her. She nodded and left my office.

I took a deep breath to settle my fast-beating heart before finally pulling out a few makeup products from my bag and hurrying to the ladies to get my face right.

I put on light makeup on my face and applied my concealer on my tattoo. Conceal don't feel, don't let it show; those words ran through my mind as I concealed my marriage mark. Of course, I was proud of walking around with it, I didn't just feel comfortable telling people what it meant, plus Mrs. Chadwell said something about other teachers presuming that I was a bad person because apparently, only bad people have tattoos; the amount of backwardness baffled me. Having a tattoo has nothing to do with anyone's behavior, when are people going to learn?

Some minutes later, small humans started trooping into the class, looking at me like I had something on my face; well at least they were quiet.

"Hi, good morning everyone. I'm Jumy Kyeks, your new teacher, feel free to call me when you’re having any problems, okay?" I asked, smiling lovingly at the six years olds, hoping to God that they'd like me.

"Nice to meet you, ma'am," they said in unison. I did a small happy dance to their response, in my head of course.

There were about thirty of them, and while they looked like crooks, they were surprisingly respectful, I liked that.

Hearing the bell for the final class gave me more relief than the children, that was for sure. Immediately I heard the bell, I stopped talking and relaxed on my desk, and of course, the little brats laughed at me, it was all good though. It was better than trying to make my life miserable by pranking me, I wouldn't survive.

All the children ran out of the class as expected, or so I thought.

Two Asian children were sitting in a corner, a boy and a girl, they looked alike so I concluded they were twins; they were the ones with the hard names to pronounce.

I walked over to them slowly, smiling as I took every step.

"Hey," I smiled.

"Hi," they answered in unison, definitely twins.

"Aren't you guys going home?" I asked them,

"We are supposed to, but we don't know who's coming to get us," the boy said. Wow!

"Okay, uh—what are your names again?" I asked, just to take their minds off the topic. They were clearly having parental issues and I didn't want to pry.

"I'm Ri On," the boy said. Oh, cute.

"I'm Ri Jin" the girl answered shyly. Ri On put his hands over his sister's shoulders, scowling at me. Protective! That's cute.

"Okay, you guys can call me Jums, but only after school, okay?" I told them. I wanted them to be comfortable around me, children needed that type of stability, right?

"Do you guys want me to—" I was easily cut off by the sound of a strange soothing voice that sounded at that moment.

I looked at the entrance of my class and I froze, I couldn't move.

"I'm so sorry I'm late," he said, smiling at the children.

"Daddy!" The twins ran to him. Daddy?

The fuck? I mean, he was looked daddy alright, but the fuck?

I shook my head to be sure I was seeing right. Standing by the door of my class was the man I had married some years ago, in a tattoo shop, Yu Bin.

"Hey, you're the roadrunner from this morning, aren't you?"