'Welcome ma'am', Bruno who had been anxiously awaiting her arrival said as he carried in her luggage.

'Thank you, Bruno, where is your boss now?'

'He should be in his room ma'am, should I inform him of your presence?' he asked as he took her luggage into the room that was always kept specially for her and which he had made sure to ask the cleaners to clean thoroughly.

'No, not to worry. I shall announce my presence to him myself I want to surprise him. I hope it would be a pleasant one'.

'It can be no less than a pleasant one. You know how my master loves and cares for you deeply. I have never seen such bond as the both of you share, if you will pardon my imprudence'.

'Its okay Bruno. You spoke the truth, there is no need to apologise for that. Go ahead with your chores and leave the rest to me. I am here now and must make sure there are changes'. She vowed.

Bruno did not doubt it and was glad he had thought of this.

Sally went in and found her brother sprawled on the bed, a letter lying close by.

He opened the blinds and the air and sun rays streamed through the window into the room.

The stench of alcohol though faint was evident.

A protective feeling for her brother washed over her. But she did not wake him immediately, though he had changed position to hide his face from the sudden light that streamed into the room.

Sally, picked the letter and read and she was filled with rage.

She had asked her brother not to marry that girl. Not because she had anything against Rebecca but she had seen her as a gold digger.Someone who was too materialistic for her liking but when her brother had insisted and she felt that marrying Rebecca was going to make him happy, she had given up and given her consent for their marriage.

When they had been together for some years without any complaints, she had been happy that she was wrong. Now this.

She looked at her brother with pity and gently called his name.

'Jason? Jason'

He turned round to the direction of the voice and saw her. He thought that he was hallucinating. Sally could not be here now could she?

He rubbed his hands over his eyes. He was suffering another hangover and had a splitting headache.

'Sally, is that you?'

'The very same', she said smiling.

He got up and she hugged him.

'Am I glad to see you'.

'Same here. It has been quite a while'.

Then he saw the letter with her and looked at her sorrowfully.

'You now know everything if you read that letter'.

She nodded.

'But I am here now. And we shall deal with the situation together and shall come out victorious. Do we have a deal?'she asked cheerfully...

'It is a deal', he said wistfully.

They smiled at each other. This was how they had always tackled difficult problems in the past before either of them got married and some time afterwards and had succeeded most of the time.

'Now the first thing is for you to get over this hangover. Bruno!'

'Yes, ma'am?' he answered immediately as though he had been behind the door all the while which indeed he had been not because he was eavesdropping or wanted to but because he felt that they may need his services. He was as loyal as that to his boss.

'Get a glass of lemon juice for your boss', she instructed.

'Right away, ma'am', he said as he left immediately to get it as well as a mug of hot coffee.

He placed these with cups on the table in the room and Sally made sure her brother drank the lemon juice, while she watched him. She drank the coffee and liked the way it had been made.

'Would you like coffee?' she asked her brother.

'Later, maybe. I am okay with the juice for now'.

'That's okay. The next thing to do now is to have a hot bath. Can you manage that?'

'Why not?' And he got up and went into the bathroom.

While he was gone, Sally's face changed again

She had put on a cheerful, carefree appearance just for her brother. Now that he was not in the room, she looked as angry as she felt. She felt like strangling Rebecca and that Terry. She had suspected that Rebecca was not who she appeared to be but she had trusted Terry. How could he have done this to someone who was no less a brother to him?

She read through the letter again and her anger increased.

'My anger isn't going to help matters. I must just see how to get Jason free from the clutches of alcohol and then see how I can introduce him to some descent girls who would consider themselves lucky to have his attention

She was determined to help him recover from his heartbreak and near addiction to alcohol by all means in record time.

And once she set her mind to do something, she always achieved it.

Jason came out dressed and refreshed after his bath, by which time, Sally had made sure that the table was cleared and the room tidied up by one of the servants.

She had also instructed them to make Jason his favourite meal.

She asked them to go downstairs and the smell of bacon and scrambled eggs was very inviting.

They sat to the delicious smelling breakfast.

Jason ate very well. It was obvious that he was ravenous.

Sally wondered if he had been eating at all since the incident. But there was no cause for alarm because whether he had been eating well or not previously,she was going to make sure he fed well from there on out.

She had not broached anything with him yet. She wanted him well fed and rested so that he may be in a better mood for what she wanted to say and do to him.

After the meal, Sally and her brother Jason retired into the Library.

'Tell me how this happened', she said with the belief that talking about it would go a long way to helping to reduce the hurt Jason was feeling and he would be able to face his demons head - on rather than trying to escape them through drink.

'Actually, I do not know exactly how it started. All I know is that all of a sudden, Rebecca started acting wierd.

It must have been my fault for pampering her too much and trusting the both of them so much. Much more than I trusted myself.

I would come back home suddenly to pick one confidential file or the other that I had forgotten and I'd meet them chatting and dinning in the house but because he was my best friend and the best man at our wedding and most of all because of the love I had Rebecca and the trust I had for both of them, I didn't see anything wrong with that.

Once I asked him what he was doing in my house at that time,you know just out of curiosity because I felt that he should be at work, afterall, I pulled strings to ensure he was accepted at the firm he was working but he answered that he was not expected at the office until noon and had come to see if I'd be at home but since I wasn't,he decided to stay and keep Rebecca company before going back home to prepare for work.

After that time, I never asked him anymore. I gave them both freedom not imagining that they were having an affair behind by back. Oh God! What a fool I had been. They must have laughed me to scorn' he said, his voice breaking.

Sally touched his hands to give him comfort.

'Rebecca who would initiate intimacy between us most times and even if I initiated it,' he continued, 'would respond like a wild cat started avoiding any intimacy between us. I should have seen the handwriting on the wall but I ignored all the signs. Those were supposed to be signs of infidelity but I never once thought towards that. And why would I, I made sure she never lacked for anything. She was always changing her wardrobe with the most expensive and trending cloths from Paris and London.

Her account was never depleted.

She had everything she wanted,money, attention, good life,love, everything. What more could a woman ask for?'

Sally shook her head still saying nothing and keeping her expression bland. She wanted him to vent it all off so that he would feel relieved after emptying the venom that was eating him up and causing him to resort to drinking.

'But in her letter', he said, 'she let me know that those were just the reason she married me but that she had now found love not with any other person but with my best friend. How could love be so cruel?

Dr. Manuel told me that I should count myself lucky thelat she did not do away with me to get the money for herself and her lover or that she didn't start two timing me. He said it was better thins way and that if I could get her off my mind, someone else was bound to occupy it in next to no time and he was sure that the person was going to be a better person than Rebecca ever was.

But the problem is, how do I get over Rebecca? I have loved her all my life with my whole being. I could never love another the way I loved her.

Could it be because we hadn't had a child? Maybe, if a child had been involved, she would never have acted this way', he said looking miserably at Sally.

Once again, Sally felt so furious with Rebecca and Terry. Their duplicity was appalling.

She was sure that Rebecca had always planned this. She hadn't wanted to be tied down by having a baby. A baby would have spoilt her lovely shape and bound her irrevocably to Jason and what she had actually wanted was just the security marriage to Jason gave her and his wealth that would endure that she never had any want in her life.

She was sure that she had made away with a lot of things her brother was not aware of yet because in his stupor he had not bothered to find out.

That was secondary though. The most important thing was to make sure he was up and about and stop wallowing in self pity.

'Stop blaming yourself or torturing yourself with what would or wouldn't have been. What has happened has happened and there is no denying that it was really heartless of them to do that to anyone at all, let alone, someone like you. But I believe in picking the pieces and going on with life because no matter how we may wish otherwise or think it won't, life continues.

There is no use wasti g the rest of your life in regrets and recriminations. You may not think do now, but she is not worth it. She is not worth you destroying yourself for her. She has gone ahead with her life and so should you.

I do not want to say 'I told you so', but I did make my disapproval of her known to you but when you insisted, I felt that if marrying her would make you happy, then it was worth it but she has outdone herself this time by breaking your heart and I shall make her pay for it but you will show her that you are less a man if you appear broken and diminished by drink. You have to take a hold of yourself. Because more is yet to come.

I do not think that you would like it if people called you a coward, cowing in his wardrobe since his wife left him because he is not man enough to face the world. He must have something he is hiding. If he is this much of a coward, then little wonder the wife choose to elope with a better man.

Stand as a man. Try to get over her, your hurt and their betrayal. They are not worth your tears or suffering. You are doing a grave injustice to yourself after that which the both of them have already done you.

Take charge of your business once more. If staying idle would cause you to be depressed,throw yourself into your job. Work like you have never worked before just don't give depression and self pity the time of day anymore. It is just a waste of time and energy.

Go to the gym. Make new friends. Have new girlfriends. Have sex. Do anything that would do divert you, keep you creatively occupied and still be healthy for you. Not drink! It is harmful to your health and you just might end up destroying all you had laboured to build and that would not bring her back and even if she did come back, you already know that it would not be because of love bit to destroy you completely. To continue her destruction from where she stopped. So be wise'.

Maybe it was just that he was tired of. tying for a woman he had come to realise was not worth loving by him, or it was just time or the presence of his sister, no one could tell exactly but Jason began to take an interest once more in his life. He went back to work and all his employees were happy to have him back. He threw himself into his work with a vengeance. He did not allow his thoughts to stray to Rebecca.

His sister had made sure that all the pictures and portraits of Rebecca even the ones she and Jason had taken together was removed from the walls where they had been placed or the photo album.

She wanted to wipe the memory of Rebecca from her brother.

Jason stopped drinking and within a week, he hated the smell of alcohol. He could not tolerate it

He left a few in his bar just for formality sake, in case he had guests who preferred that.

He heeded his sister's advice and visited the gym regularly.

In the mornings, he jogged for about half an hour to an hour before breakfast and then off to work.

True to her word,The divorce papers came one morning and after reading through it, he signed it. He was going to give her the divorce so that she would be gone from his life entirely. He wanted to forget her and everything that reminded him of her and her insincerity.

He remembered how she would cozy up to him, 'Darling, you know I love you, don't you?'

'Of course and I love you too'. He would answer smiling because he knew that she was about to make one demand or the other.

'Well, My wardrobe need changing. I now wear outdated cloths and it is not befitting of the wife of a billionaire CEO like you, you know'. she would say stroking him and getting him to feel horny that he agreed. Though she didn't have to go that far because he was always ready to do anything for her and she knew it and took advantage of it at every turn but he was never bothered because he felt that he was working for her. If Rebecca did not spend and enjoy his money as his wife, then who would.

She would mention an amount that was shocking but he would not be bothered but obliged her.

At night, alone in his room, surrounded by empty space, his loneliness made itself felt with full force. He recalled how it had been between them. It had been so hot. Rebecca was a very hot woman. Sophisticated and worldly. All which had attracted him to her in the first place.

Her sexy eyes always set his body ablaze and she knew it. She knew the hold she had on him and used it always to her advantage.

When they made love, the way she twisted her body, moaned and cried like someone who was being flogged or someone who was was in the throes of unbearable sexual ecstasy which was what he had been experiencing in any case and assumed that it must be the same with her. Her response during love making was both exciting and exhilarating. There was no way any man would not be encouraged or fall in love with her after having such an incredible experience with her but why was he thinking all this? It was all in the past now and he would do well to remember that and stop crying over spilt milk.

He recalled her full firm breasts. He would always nurse at her breast, calling her his mum and imploring her to feed him with her nutritious breasts. Of course, that would turn into another round of lovemaking. Because she would moan as he nursed at her breasts and pull his head further down her breasts and wrap her legs round him and often times, she had nothing on and they would lose control and end up devouring each other. So where had it all gone wrong?

To him, those intimate moments might have been memorable but it obviously hadn't been to her. He had thought they were making incredible love but it must have been nothing but sex to her. She had said as such in her letter anyways.

He gave himself a shake. This had to stop. He got up, went downstairs and put the door to the pool in the premises for a quick soak.

He swam for sometime and got out, towelled himself and went back in. The water had been as cold as he wanted it His was supposed to bring the cold reality of his situation to the fore so that he didn't start having any illusions and it did just that and he fell asleep as soon as he got back inside.

Sally who didn't sleep much but woke at the slightest noise had heard him leave his room and had listened to hear where he would go to fearing that he was going to the bar because she could understand how lonely he must be feeling but she heaved a sigh of relief when the front door opened. Then she went to her window to see what he was up to and was in time to hear him dive into the pool.

That was an improvement. She believed that her work there was done and that she would have Togo home soon to her husband and children. She missed her beautiful daughter and handsome son. She spoke to them often since she came here but it still was not the same as being there with them.

She was glad of the improvement. She decided to stay a couple more days to assure herself before going back home to her family. She was missing her husband as well, so she understood perfectly what her brother was having to deal with especially at night.

He would have to get a girlfriend and soon too. Love can come later. All they needed was for them to be sufficiently attracted to each other. That was going to be another thing she would have to do before going back home.