The Perfect Gentleman ✔

34: Beautiful alliances

Karen woke up from her beauty sleep, stretched lazily and yawned. It has been almost two months since Lucas returned to Lagos but she was nowhere nearer her goal of trapping him to her in marriage than she was five years ago when he was married. Heck, she might even have had more luck then than she did right now, she mused.

Climbing out of bed, she strolled to her bathroom to get refreshed and up for the day. After an hour, she was dressed in silk jumpsuit with white polka dots. This did not qualify as her killer look, being a former beauty queen and all, but she was only having a girl's day out. At least, that's what she called it, seeing that she had a meeting with her partner in crime cum boyfriend later in the evening. They made a great team while working together to reach their individual goals and Calabar trip was nothing but a success. Donald was smart, she had to give him that and since he said he knew how to hurt Lucas and extricate him from his ex-wife, she was all for it as well.

She was smiling as she strolled down the steps, her hair bouncing off her shoulders in waves when she heard her mother, Susanna, talking in loud tones with her uncle, Priye Archibong. He sounded angry.

"That stupid boy! How could he be so ungrateful? I brought him to this business, I gave him this deal. Heck, I personally introduced him to our society and this is how he repays me?!" He fumed.

It was always in his nature to burst out in steams of anger once something doesn't go his way, but something about this discussion made Karen pause at the steps.

"You have every right to be angry, Priye. I understand how upset you are but you simply cannot fold your hands and do nothing. You are a member of the Lekki association council. Use your power and do something," coerced Susanna.

Susanna Thomas was the only sibling he had that always lent a listening ear to all his rants. She also gave good advices too. Perhaps that was why he took Karen as his daughter and pampered her rotten when the biological father couldn't be bothered to do so. Heck, the man had gone passive after the death of his two sons, Karen's older brothers in drunk driving. Actually, they were too drunk to realize they had run into a container truck and went flying off the third mainland bridge when Karen was still in high school. So Jude Thomas, Karen's father had sworn he would not let his only surviving child to get spoilt like his sons. But the fates were against him, terribly.

"You're right, Susanna. I will do something about this. I won't let that boy born yesterday to go over my head concerning this deal."

Karen turned and walked into the living room, deciding to make her presence known. She really wanted in on the conversation.

"Uncle Priye. You're here," she greeted, smiling cheekily at him. He always treated her like a little child and that worked very much in her favor especially when she needed his help to get things done without stress.

"My beautiful baby girl! How are you?" She accepted the embrace he offered. "Your mother said you were tired from your modelling career work yesterday."

She winced at his words. That was a lie. Actually, she had tried for modelling months ago and decide she couldn't do it anymore. It was tiring when she went through it for her Miss Nigeria pageant training and she absolutely hated it. Her only aim for wining that pageant was for the attention, nothing more. Using the modelling was her excuse when she didn't want her nosy mother asking too much questions. She was going to need it again for today.

"Yes, I'm trying out modelling classes. Amanda, Lucas's sister, is so good at it, she's making lots of money from it, and I thought I should follow in her steps." Mentioning that family in her pleads always helped her cause.

Not today, however.

"That stupid Caspian-Asiegbu! Hearing his name makes me so angry. He's mannerless!" bellowed Mr. Archibong, looking grim.