IRONICAL PAY BACK

THE TRUTH UNFOLDS

CHAPTER THIRTY

Lovett

"How did you know she had that amount in her account?" Matt asked with a frown.
" She boasted about it one night when we were drinking together. Quenet and I. I am ashamed to say I got jealous, and when Quen came to me with a plan, I fell for it."
"I can't believe what you are telling me. You got jealous of your best friend?" he looked shocked.
"No, no, no, you got it wrong." I sat up, backing Matt.
"She was not my friend at that time. Just someone I hung out with. Caroline was always annoying because she carried herself as if she was too holy." I walked away from the nightstand and began to pace.
"Most times, we had to force her to go out with us or meet someone.
We had to force her to be rude to Nat, and after that, nobody can make her date anyone anymore." I stopped pacing and looked at Matt, who was encouraging me with his eyes to continue, so I did.
“Caroline would always speak up for herself, not minding the circumstance. Quen practically hates her. If there is anyone who could put a hole in Quen's plan, then it is Caroline.
I envied Caroline, then hated her, and when she lost everything, she still wouldn't take Quen's commands, but she decided to look for a job,"
I stopped speaking to see if Matt was listening. He was attentive.
“She started over even when it was not convenient. I began to admire her truly.
I went close to Caroline, wishing I could redeem my image, like be there for her when she truly needs me, but I can't bring myself to tell her the truth."e
"My God! I do not know what to say, Matt said, finally sitting in bed. "But let me ask you this. What happened?" I looked at the floor, debating if I should let everything flow, then decided that was the only way I could be free.
I let everything out of my system, or Quen might pull a fast one on me and drag me down with her.
I looked up, took a long breath, and started to tell the story.
Caroline took her seat between Safarat and Cynthia, nodding her greetings my way; I replied the same way and looked away. ‘She is here today. Miss Perfect.’ I thought as I got lost in thought, as my friends talked around me.
My mind goes back to Safarat and my best friend, who are getting married soon.
While I, on the other hand, could not hold any man down for long. They just won't settle down in my system, meaning I can’t date a man for a while to get married.
I threw them up before I had enough time to digest them properly, and then here comes one person who is not ready to try.
No matter the man you introduce to Caroline or how rich the man is, she will just reject the man on the spot.
What is wrong with her? Didn't she want to marry? And there she goes again, I thought as I heard her say.
"I won't settle with a man for his money." I looked up to confirm if I was right.
I was right. It was Caroline, Miss Perfect, who had just spoken.
I was angry, but I masked it well. Just then, I noticed Caroline was drunk perfectly.
"I don't need a man to fling and flirt with. I have my work and some millions sitting in my account to care that much for any man."
"So good for you, like how many millions are we talking about here, " I asked, knowing I would get my accurate answer because of the liquor in her system.
"8.2 million, to be accurate." she boasted, lifting her cup to her mouth. The lucky bitch, jealousy rose from the pitch of my stomach, but I pushed it down.
Jealous, I may be, but I know she worked hard for every penny she had. Quen raised a toast to her.
To the most hard-working and the richest among us." we all clicked her glass and toast to her. The night took a lighter note till we called the night over and returned to our respective homes.
I got home, and as I placed my handbag down to change out of my outing dress, my phone rang, and I picked it up.
"Lovett, it is me Quen. I need your help." She sounded urgent.
“With what, dear? I asked as I am her loyal savant.
"I need to take Caroline’s financials down so she learns to respect and obey me."
"Ok," I said, ready to take the poor innocent lady down.
"How do you intend to go about this?" I asked her, thinking I was thinking wisely.
"I am close to your house now. We need to work out the modality."   
"I copied that, " I said, smiling. Some minutes later, there was a knock on my door. I opened it and admitted Quen.
I offered her drinks, but she declined, and then we both worked out someone we thought Caro might fall for.
"Since after that guy we made Caro lose in school, she has not dated any other guy." I pointed out. 
"That's true. Caroline had rejected every guy we pushed her way. What can we do?"  Quen asked, scratching her head.
"I suggest we should work with someone that looks like that Nat guy." I chipped in.
"I think I can arrange that," Quen said quickly, clapping her hand.
"I know the right man for that job." She repeated. We made a plan to meet at the restaurant the next day.

The next day, Quen brought In Daniel, who she claimed was Nat's friend in school. Daniel claimed Nat always discourses Caro with him as he was there when they met.
I was dragged back to the present as Matt touched my hands, shaking them.
He must have been talking to me, but I was in the memory of my past.        
"Sorry, what did you say? I asked Matt.
"I asked if the Daniel you were talking about is Daniel Asewata?" I nodded, and he swore under his breath.
“Ok, continue,” Matt said a few minutes later.
I saw myself going back into the past as if it was happening all over again.

“Leave everything to me. Soon, Caroline will be eating from my hand," Daniel said boastfully. 
"The only thing you two need to do is throw a party with Caroline in attendance." Quen pointed at me immediately.
"Lovett, you have to throw that party. Don't worry, I will give you the money to do it." She concluded.
“Quen, why can't you throw the party?" I asked. "You know the answer. Caro will not come because she knows my parties are for matchmaking. Even when she comes, she does not mingle." She replied. I know that she is right.
“If I throw the party, she might loosen up a bit.”
She gave me the money, and I threw the parties anyway.
I told them all about the party. Two weeks later, I ran the party, and Caroline met Daniel.
Queen and Daniel took it from there.
Some months later, I regretted what I did and asked Queen to call it off.
I threatened Dan and her with telling Caro if they did not stop because  Daniel had proposed to Caro, and she had agreed.
Contrarily, my expectations of Caro not accepting any man were wrong. Caro engaged with Dan.
I tried to warn Caro about Dan and Quen’s plan, but the next day, I got an offer to travel aboard a private jet. I couldn’t let go of the offer as it was my only chance to see other countries.
Their terms were that I either travelled with them that night or be left behind.
I promised myself to call Caro the instant we landed in France.  
That never happened as I could not find my phone when we got to the house.
The maid in the house gave me a new phone with none of my contacts on it.
I tried to download my contacts from the cloud but was surprised that someone had deleted my contacts from my Gmail and cloud.
I demanded to go to my country as quickly as possible, but the man who brought me had left for America on a business trip, he promised to be back soon for me.
The maid informed me of a guy in the house who would take me anywhere I wanted to go. With that, I let warning Caro go, and I enjoyed France.
When I returned four months later, Caro had been rubbed off all her money by those roughs.
I confronted Queen, who promised to do me over if any of this got out, and all I could do was just be there for Caro as a friend.
I concluded the story and looked up to find Matt's angry eyes on me.
"Why now? Why are you telling me all this now?" He asked, getting up from the bed.
He walked to his reading table and sat down.
"You are Nat's friend. Nat is more powerful than Queen and Dan." I suggested to him.  
"Give me everything you have on Queen." He said, and I looked confused.
"Everything, like the name and biodata of Queen, I have that of that Daniel guy," he said, opening his computer.
I nodded, drew out my phone, and called Cynthia.
"Hello," she called from the other end.
"Hello, dear, longest time."
"Yes, thanks, where have you been?" She asked.
"I have been around. Please can I get Quen's full name and number from you? I asked her.
"What happened? You do not have it?" She asked me.
"I lost her contact, I said.
"Ok, I will send it now," she said, ending the call.
Some minutes later, I got the message notification from Cynthia and forwarded it to Matt.