The Proposal
"what? When did I say that?" Alexia said, bringing her voice down. The excitement she saw on the faces of her kids was divine.
"Yay, Mommy, thank you." They said, looking so excited.
Not knowing what to do, she let out a long sigh and leaned a little closer to Bruce before whispering in his ear, "What are you hiding under those sleeves of yours? You..." She paused when she saw that her kids were staring at them. She quickly forced a smile to appear on her face before she said in a low voice while gritting her teeth,
"Yes, but we are only spending today," She glared at Bruce, who had a smug smile on his face.
She walked past him and moved close to her little girls before squatting, "Have you had anything this morning, I got some bread while going to look for things for camping,"
"No, Mom, we ate bread throughout yesterday, but you don't need to worry. Uncle Bruce took us to one very fancy restaurant, and we ate and were satisfied," Rhoda said with a very wide smile on her face.
Alexia turned to glance at Bruce before turning to face her kids, "Come, let's get into the car," She said and stood to her feet. After opening the door of the car, they got into the car while Ken and Bruce helped them pack their things into the truck.
Alexia, her kids, and Bruce sat at the back; the twins sat in the middle of Alexia and Bruce.
Lawyer Ken sat in the passenger seat at the front while the driver resumed his formal position in the car. They headed straight to the mansion without having any pause.
"Hey, so where did you plan on taking the kids to for the camping," Bruce asked. He was fully aware that there was no camping, but he intentionally wanted to irk her, and there was no better way to do that than to make her uncomfortable in front of her kids.
"I had the place sorted out, it's none of your business," Alexia growled.
"The house, I saw online that it was bought and the owner had asked all the occupants to exit the house," Bruce informed and Rhoda quickly turned to face him before saying,
"That's not true, the house is under renovation. It wasn't sold," She paused and turned to Alexia before asking
"Isn't that true, Mom?"
"That's true my darling. Your big stranger friend saw the wrong news for another home, and he thought it was for our home," Alexia lied and glared at Bruce. She hated that she was around him right now; for some reason, she could tell that her life was going to get a lot harder than it already was.
They arrived at Bruce's mansion; they got out of the car. Rhoda and Rita couldn't stop gawking,
"Is this castle? Like the ones we see on TV," Rita muttered, she couldn't shut her mouth. They have never been to this part of the city before, they mostly walk around the slums because that was where they thought they belonged. Even others who lived there could say they had good lives, but Alexia could barely feed the kids and talk less to provide a good shelter and healthy environment for them.
Bruce was stunned; his heart arched a bit; not in his wildest did he imagine that the kids would be surprised by this kind of luxury as their father swam in money.
As he gazed at their faces, he couldn't help but see the resemblance of his annoying cousin on them. Shaking the thought, he stretched his hand for Rhoda to hold and then stretched the other one for Rita to hold before leading them into the mansion.
"Wait, who the hell am I seeing here?" Sonita yelled with a mixture of excitement and confusion
"Sonita?" Alexia said, looking confused.
"What are you doing here? You know after your parents disowned you and you...."
"Ah-choo. Ah-choo," Alexia coughed. She looked down at her kids, who were too busy looking around them to even take note of what Sonita said.
Alexia lied to them about many things. She changed her last name just to get away from her past and now her past is slowly beginning to sting on her back like a bee.
"Oh, I didn't see these two, are they the outcome of the...."
"Outcome of what? Sonita, please, watch the kind of words you use; they're the reason why you got to see me here today," Alexia said and followed Sonita into the mansion. Bruce beckoned for a staff to follow him upstairs. They picked a big room for the both of them but it had only one bed in it,
"Wow, this is a king-sized bed," Rhoda said in awe.
"I want you to arrange this room. There should be two beds in the room, and it should be well-furnished, okay?" He ordered before leaving the room.
He noticed that they weren't following him so he paused and asked, "Aren't you going to follow me down?"
"No Uncle Bruce, we want to help arrange the room," They said in unison causing Bruce to pause for a secret and before arching his brows,
"What did you say? You love cleaning?" He asked stunned.
"Yes, Uncle Bruce, we want to help her set up the room," Rhoda said. The little girls were sharp and Alexia was doing a good job raising them herself.
"Okay then," Having no choice, Bruce left for the sitting room. He noticed that Sonita and Alexia were already chatting,
"Baby, you're down already? Do you want me to prepare your bath first or do you wish to eat?" Sonita asked and Alexia was stunned,
"Baby?" She muttered and Sonita turned to her with a wide smile on her face,
"Yes, I and Bruce would soon be getting married, his family already approved but this period, he just has a lot of things on the ground about work so he barely has the time to plan a wedding," Sonita explained with a very bright smile on her face,
"Is that so?" Alexia muttered in a low voice. She could still recall very well how much Bruce hated Sonita while they were in college. He never approves of Sonita and Alexia having a girl's night together. He wouldn't stop emphasizing how he sees through the smile on her face.
"Yeah, but anyway, what would you like to eat, Alexia?" Sonita said.
"Em, I'm good," Alexia said.
"That's bullshit! She'll have macaroni and cheese; make sure the cheese is more than extra, then you can add apple juice to go with it," Bruce said. He still remembered her favorite food. Alexia didn't think that Bruce would recall much about her; besides the way things were looking, she believed he had eyes for Sonita long ago.
Alexia didn't protest his words. Instead, she sat on the chair beside her and waited for the food. She was hungry and hadn't eaten a good meal for days. She eats just once so that she would have enough to give her kids when they're hungry.
In less than 15 minutes, Sonita walked into the sitting room with the food and juice in a tray. She placed it in front of Alexia and said, "I added extra cheese, enjoy."
She turned to Bruce and kissed his cheeks before saying, "I'm leaving for the mall with Carolina; I'll be back before Dust; don't miss me too much, honey," Bruce narrowed his eyes, feeling disgusted. He didn't know why she was acting in front of Alexia when she knew that he hated it when she got too close to him.
She left the house while Alexia just ate, she felt a little pained but then thought to herself, "They deserve each other,"
As she was eating, the lawyer walked into the room, Alexia thought he had left.
He was holding a brown envelope. He opened the envelope and took out some white papers before giving it to Bruce.
Alexia was absent-minded because the only thing that she was concerned about was how to fill her stomach.
"How do you see the food? Is it nice?" Bruce suddenly asked causing Alexia to pause,
"Yeah, I didn't think that Sonita could cook this good," Alexia said, causing Bruce to chuckle softly.
"She didn't cook it," He informed, Alexia arched her brows and asked,
"Then who did?"
"I did. I always cook on Sundays and make sure my fridge is stocked with good food. Then what she does is microwave whatever I want to eat," Bruce informed, causing Alexia to nod her head.
"I want to make you an offer Alexia," He said out of the blue,
"What do you mean?" Alexia asked abruptly.
He stretched the file to her and said, "Go through it,"
In hesitation, she took the file from him and flipped on the first page,
"A contract marriage proposal?" She read in shock.