The Faceless Billionaire Celebrity Wife-Chapter 260: Her Man’s Pic.
"You don’t have to explain. I understand even to the extent you can’t imagine."
Shikera frowned, astonished at that unexpected statement from Grandma Cooper.
Since Grandma Cooper was asleep when she arrived in the afternoon, she had to wait until the old woman woke up at night before speaking to her. Shikera had wanted to broach the topic of her going to the hospital for treatment, but Grandma Cooper had been ahead of her by asking about Mignon first.
Slowly, Shikera had explained everything to her with a downcast expression. She told her the real reason why she had escaped to this island from the city, and why she had hesitated in telling Mignon about her family upon recognizing her. Grandma Mignon had been evidently shocked but she soon regained herself and asked,
"Then, you didn’t escape because your life was in danger? And your family and friends have been supportive of you all this while?" Grandma Cooper had asked.
Shikera had replied in the affirmative, to hear the old woman sigh in relief.
"If I knew this was what happened, I would have forced you back to your husband," Grandma Cooper muttered.
"Grandma..." Shikera held back on telling her about the Jordans as it was more or less supposed to be a top secret among the Mega families, so she felt guilty about it.
"You don’t have to explain. I understand even to the extent you can’t imagine."
"I’m sorry," Shikera apologized, shifting uncomfortably on the chair which she was sitting on.
Seeing Grandma Cooper do the same, she adjusted the pillow behind her to enable her rest her head comfortably, a wide smile crossing her face when finished.
"Why did you come back then?" Grandma Cooper asked.
Shikera raised her brows.
"Hold on, Grandma, did you think I told you all these because I was planning to leave?" she asked.
"No, I asked because I want to believe you are planning to leave. What else would your presence here do for anyone except causing pain to them? And to think that fate is backing you up, it turns out you really are your father’s daughter and then you find out your husband cares about you a lot—" Grandma Cooper coughed, reaching out for a glass of water on her bedside table.
"Dr. Langston told you not to exhaust yourself with talking, Grandma. Let me do the talking while you listen, alright?"
Grandma Cooper shook her head, "I’ll stop after saying this one. You don’t want to go back to your husband because you are pregnant and you fear he will be at loss because of the baby?"
"The shares...his family will have to give my father everything they own if my pregnancy is found out."
"Then why don’t we do this?" Grandma Cooper suggested, smiling as she noticed Shikera’s ears perk up to listen to her suggestion. Wanting to raise her hand to caress Shikera’s head, she sighed when she found it hard to raise her hand. It felt heavy, just as it had been on countless occasions for the past one year.
"I’m listening to you, Grandma."
Shikera’s cheerful voice snapped the old woman out of her thoughts, a beam breaking out on her face.
’I can’t take care of her much longer. She’ll be lonely for no reason, if she stays here,’ she thought in her head.
Raising her voice, she said, "If you think about it, Kera, you and your husband were completely unaware of the contract your parents signed so if this matter is really taken to court, I doubt it will go as they predicted."
Shikera nodded, and Grandma Cooper continued, "But considering how complicated your family is currently, I don’t think your fathers would sue themselves to court when they each have their contracts with them. So why don’t you sign another contract with your husband?"
"Another contract? What sort of contract?" Shikera asked.
"One that is the direct opposite of what your fathers signed," Grandma Cooper replied simply. She knew she didn’t need to stress more on her words, before Shikera would understand what she was trying to say.
"I think you should go call your sister, or is it your sister-in-law now?" Grandma Cooper laughed, "Either way, you should go call her and ask for her cooperation. Not everyone gets a sister as her sister-in-law."
"Now if you’ll leave me be, I want to take a quick nap. You can speak to me later."
★★★
Shikera settled down on the tanning chair which Alan had placed on the beach for her. It was a compensation for a favor that he had earnestly requested for, which was to place a call to Mignon in his presence.
"Why don’t you call her by yourself though?" she asked, draping a short towel on her laps. It had been two days since she returned from the city and to get Ethan out of her mind, she had been engaging in various activities with Alan and the rest of the youths and children on the island. She called Mignon at night so she could speak to her in Grandma Cooper’s presence, who as expected had refused to go to the hospital. She preferred Dr Langston treating her at home instead.
"I don’t want her thinking I miss her," Alan replied.
"Thinking? Shouldn’t it be you don’t want her knowing you miss her? Jeez, I can’t tell why people in love with each other would just want to stay apart for no tangible reason," Shikera chuckled, switching on her phone.
"Should I take it that your husband doesn’t love you then?" Alan suddenly asked.
"What?! Of course he loves me! So much at that!" Shikera eyed him, feigning annoyance.
"Then are you the one who doesn’t love him?" he asked again.
"What’s up with you today, Alan? Of course I love him! Why would you even think I don’t?" she exclaimed.
"Then why are you two apart? Grandma Cooper told me you can go back if you want; why are you still here then?"
"That..." Shikera trailed off, before abruptly changing the topic of discussion. "What? Do you want to me to call Mignon or you want to hear me talk about why I’m here?"
Alan sat up, shaking his head.
"The former of course, that’s why we’re here," he answered.
"Cool."
Shikera dialled Mignon’s number on a video call, having to wait for only two seconds before the call connected. Mignon’s face popped up on the screen and almost immediately, Shikera felt like she was staring at someone different.
"Shikera Anderson!!! You grew to be a very brave and strong girl. You’ll always be a girl to me by the way," Mignon yelled.
"This..." Shikera was confused, "Could I speak to Leah Cooper please?" she asked jokingly.
"It’s me, Kera. The thing is, I got my memories back!" Mignon announced happily.
Shikera’s eyes widened. Was that why she had felt the slight difference in the Mignon of before and the one she was speaking to now?
"Really?! OMG how?!"
Mignon hesitated a bit before answering, averting her gaze from Shikera’s as if she was scared of maintaining eye contact.
"That? I’ll tell you when we meet," she replied. In her rush to find something else to talk about, she noticed Alan by Shikera’s side and screamed, "Is that Alan? Make me see his face clearly."
Since that was Shikera’s main purpose of calling, she passed the phone over to Alan, numbing her own curiosity.
She waited until Alan and Mignon were done talking, before taking back her phone.
"Can you just tell me a little bit of what happened, Mig? Huh? You know I can’t come over there until next week. And even I come, I can’t meet you," she pleaded.
"Yeah, Kera but I can hear footsteps so why don’t we switch to text instead?"
Shikera pressed the red dial immediately to text Mignon.
[I’m here! You can tell me now!]
Instead of a reply to her message, Shikera received tons of pictures of men abs. She blinked, finding the pictures familiar for a strange sight.
"What’s this?" she sent a voice message to Mignon.
"Your man’s pics. Sorry the view wasn’t so clear since I took this from afar but...your man was flexing this cool view alone by the pool so I just thought to share it," was Mignon’s reply. Her aim was to distract Shikera and it worked perfectly well.
"Who else is there?" Shikera asked.
"Uhm... I’d say everyone else. Though they are all far from him," Mignon replied. "Why do you ask?"
"Because I clearly can’t let everyone get to see this while I can’t. You know what, Mignon? Help your little sis with something," Shikera pleaded.
"Anything for my baby."
Shyly, Shikera turned to glare at Alan who was beginning to laugh at the conversation with the two women.
"Could you move closer to him, Mignon? And take a clearer pic?"
"Alright!" Mignon’s reply came almost immediately.
"Waiting..."
