CHAPTER 5

Cats and Dogs

Sarah was the first to spot Ade and her face changed into a sneer. "Ade what are you doing here?"

Ade turned to see the three of them and the temperature of her mood dropped immediately, but she didn't show it on her face.

She was not going to let them see through her. To let them know that they affected her; that the sight of them made her reel with sadness.

So she kept a nonchalant face. "I came to get a pet."

James scoffed, stepping forward but still wrapping his arms with Violet who was excited with the gesture---anything to shove shit in Ade's face.

To make her jealous.

"A pet? So I leave you alone for a moment and you are trying to live your life anyhow? You think you are independent enough to be a rascal now don't you? I told you no pets, and now you want to disobey everything I said just to ridicule me isn't it?"

Sarah sighed," you know things have been a little rough for James, Ade. Can you be a little less heartless? Daniel has not had it easy on him since the company stocks took a hit. Daniel keeps calling him 'useless' because of what you did."

" I don't see how that is my problem?" She was here to restart her life. To take back 'herself' from everyplace she had lost it in choosing what someone else wanted above her own desires.

She didn't see how that, was hurting anyone?

Violet huffed. "She's so bold and daring isn't she? Denying that you didn't do anything to the Cleland Family business is so shameless of you Ade. You should be very ashamed of yourself."

Sarah looked to the man who was beside her, giving him and his wrappings a once over. But she didn't think he was with Ade, maybe a customer who just wanted to catch in on the fun so she left him alone and looked back to Ade.

After all, everyone had gathered now to watch the ongoing drama, so it was a nice opportunity to humiliate Ade. For slapping her and bringing disrepute to the Cleland Family business brand, she needed to teach her a very big lesson. And everyone was welcome to see it, including bandaged men.

"I can't even believe that you'd still be like this," a hurt demeanor decked Sarah's face as she put on her best acting skills. " I and my family are still recuperating from the devilish attack you orchestrated on us. You put out evil news out there just because you wanted all of us to go down. Why did you do that Ade? All we've ever wanted was to see you grow. We took care of you for so long, and this is how you repay us!"

Her voice echoed loudly, bouncing off the walls of the pet shop so much that the animals stopped their noises and watched, curiosity twitching their muzzles.

Murmurs broke out from the crowd.

"Why would she do that to them?"

"Are they her family? Who does that to their own family?"

" Hmmm. Some people can be so ungrateful and wicked."

Ade closed her eyes and reopened them. " James, you've chosen Violet over me, why not just let me be? Why do you still follow me about? I merely withdrew myself from Cleland companies; if what followed was a crash in stock then it clearly points to my contributions in the Cleland Family. It's all over the news. It's not like I am making anything up. All of you know that, so why won't you leave me alone?"

Their countenances squeezed as the truth of Ade's words clubbed them in the face.

It was more shocking to them that Ade could respond back this way.

James wondered where the timid obedient girl he had been with all these while, had gone to?

Ade couldn't even talk back all the times he would lash out at her and point out her frailties and flaws, but now she stood her ground.

It made him uncomfortable in ways he couldn't express. The more he saw this side of her the more his stomach riled with grief, with regret.

Should he have let her go? Why had he been so restless since she left? Why had he considered countless ways he would have prevented her from seeing those text messages from Violet so that she would have stayed.

As if realizing what he was thinking, Violet tightened her grip on his arms, thinking it would stop him from looking at Ade that way.

But that only helped keep her in James' good graces, as for the audience they were beginning to mutter again.

"So he had actually left her for another woman?"

" She's not from their family then. She was right to leave and remove herself from them."

" Is the new woman the one holding on to him?"

Violet felt a little self-conscious now. Shame struck her like a bullet and she wanted to hide behind James as the eyes of everyone in the room shifted to her, but there was no room for that.

If she did so then her actions would show she was admitting to their claims.

Ade was never meant for James, she was too low class to keep James' attention.

Violet was the only one James had pined after, and rightfully so because she had all the qualities and qualifications.

It was just that she herself did not rate James like that. In fact the only reason she was in the picture right now was because she was interested in bringing Ade down.

Ade had always acted like the one who had it all, thinking she had James for herself.

Violet hadn't been happy that James stopped chasing after her and tolerating her BS, and going for Ade instead.

She wasn't happy that Ade was doing everything right, pretending to be such a good woman, a great lover. It irked her so much when she thought James had found someone better than her.

So that was why she started pestering James all of a sudden, wanting him back.

She was planning to dump him again after their kiss, but she couldn't turn down the chance to see the gloom on Ade's face. And if she was being honest, this whole situation was beginning to make her a little endeared to James--just a little.

But right now Ade was trying to shame her and embarrass her in front of these people and she could not let her.

She had to do something.

CHAPTER 6

Man Snatcher

"Have you lost your mind Ade? How can you stand there and insinuate that I took James from you? He was mine from the start. You knew he was into me and yet you went after him? How disgusting can you be?" Violet sniggered in contempt. "Like what exactly did you expect would happen? That he would leave me and come to you?"

"So this is James, the small man who cheated on you?" the man beside Ade finally spoke up.

His face was cold, bland and emotionless, his voice a deep timbre.

Sarah, Violet and James could have sworn a dreadful shiver went through them when this man spoke.

If not for how ridiculous he looked in his wrappings, they'd have taken him for a high elite, a global figure because of the raw powerful aura he emanated.

But they knew better so they decided to confront him too.

"You call me a small man?" James was the first to take offense, his face reddening with the insult. He didn't want to accept the fact that indeed he was small, compared to the man who towered over him.

The man indeed made him feel small, including the fact that he was more handsome. But James consoled himself with the fact that he was a bandaged cripple in clutches, so definitely he couldn't come close to him in ratings.

There was no way such a thing could happen. The man was a white-haired circus chimp that had grown excessively in height.

Sarah and Violet on the other hand scratched the surfaces of their fantasies with thoughts of how this man would have been so hot and perfect, if he wasn't crippled, someone any woman would have flung themselves at, but with his appearance he was just a laughing stock.

It'd even be more laughable if him and Ade knew each other. Which clearly seems to be the case.

"Only a small man cheats on his woman," he replied indifferently.

James' face looked like it had just been stoned with fecal matter. He tightened his fists so tightly it hurt.

Now a cripple was talking to him anyhow? All because of Ade!

How much humiliation was this girl going to bring him?

Ade quickly went beside the man and wrapped her arms around his. "Honey don't mind them. We came here to get a pet. Let's just focus on that."

" So we are the ones who didn't come to get a pet ehh?" Sarah sneered. " We came to get a cat for Violet. Something to welcome her into Cleland Family as James' woman.They'll be the talk of town soon enough; and the news about you and James ending things will become obsolete."

" Tell me something , who is this man? Your new boyfriend?" James asked. There was a bad nudging in his chest about this man. He absolutely disliked everything about him, including the way Ade's arms were wrapped around his.

It angered him greatly and he was doing his best to rein his emotions in.

"Yes Ade! Tell us who he is!" Violet huffed. "I guess someone here knows how to jump from man to man."

By the time she was done with Ade, she would never in her next life try to humiliate her in front of other people.

Sarah shook her head, tsking as she added her voice. "Truly I feel for you. It pains me that no matter how we try to help you, and salvage what you have already destroyed, you have proven that you don't want to help yourself. Your miserableness is so laughable, because you can't see it for yourself."

" She lacks self-awareness," Violet added.

" Exactly. If that's not the case then tell me why you'd leave James, a normal looking human, and go for a cripple?" Sarah said and James and Violet laughed.

More people had entered the shop now, making it crowded and the shop owner was happy about this new development.

That was why he hadn't intervened with this never-before-seen drama that was taking place in his shop.

If more people hadn't come in, being drawn to the squabble and trouble, he would have asked the dramatists to leave and not unsettle the peace of his vicinity.

But now he quietly receded to his table and counted the amount of sales he'd be making today, according to the number of heads that were in his shop.

But he quietly ushered the kids out, in case things got messy and a fight broke out.

"Isn't that like going from good to worst?" said Violet.

" I wonder ..."

Ade tightened her hold on him. " Yes we are dating, and at least I am not a man snatcher."

Her words made the smirk on Violet's countenance drop to below zero degrees.

"Ade, you know better than to tell silly lies. You know that is not true." She chuckled nervously, watching the people who were keenly listening.

"If it is not true, then what were you doing with a man who already had another woman? Are you saying James was playing the both of us then? Lying to the both of us and cheating on the both of us with each other? It aches my head to even think it. How can a man do such a thing?"

Violet gritted her teeth, her heart pounding with anger. This woman! She had pushed her into a tight spot now.

And even James who was feeling the heat, removed his hand from hers, and was about to straighten his shirt to talk but the crowd followed up.

"So there are still men who behave like neanderthals?" a woman spoke first.

" The cave men wouldn't even go this far. At least they had honor and dignity. How can such a man be so disloyal and degenerative like this? Playing two women? I feel so sad for them," said another.

" I can't remember the last I saw such a person. He ought to be a societal castaway."

" To even think he had the guts to come here and attack the innocent woman he cheated on."

James wished the ground would open up and swallow him whole.