THE TURNING POINT

CHAPTER 1

Ryan was busy cleaning the centre table in the living room when Alicia emerged from her bedroom. He was in an apron and could be seen sweating profusely despite the full blast of the air conditioner.

Alicia frowned her face when she saw him in the living room.

“Where is my sister?'' She asked angrily

‘‘Oh you mean my wife, she has…''

‘‘Don't you ever ever regard her as your wife'' Alicia cut him short even before he could complete his response

‘‘I'm sorry ma'am, your sister has gone out with her friends.” Ryan hung his head low and mumbled.

Now are you done cooking lunch?" Alicia asked, still angry.

“It will be ready in a few minutes, I will serve it as soon as it's ready" Ryan replied in a shaky voice wiping a drip of sweat off his forehead with his thumb.

“Better hurry up," Alicia said arrogantly as she climbed the stairs back to her bedroom.

Ryan stared at her back view and wondered when he was going to get out of this mess. He doesn’t even know his origin.

…….

Ryan was a contract son-in-law for the Williams. He didn't know much about himself. He grew up in the house of the Williams. All he knew about himself as he was told was that he was from an orphanage after they saw him near the beach when he was a few months old. He had been living all his life in the mansion of the Williams.

As a contracted son-in-law for the family, he was married to Adriana, the last born of the family and the apple of her father's eye.

Nobody knew why Mr Edward Williams, the father of Adriana, did that.

Nobody knew the answer and Mr Edward had passed on, so Ryan remained in the house.

The mother of the siblings had little or no say in the affairs in the house as she was old and was always in her room.

…..

He snapped out of his thoughts and left the living room to the kitchen to check the food he was cooking.

Just when he was about to enter the kitchen he heard a car honk. He immediately recognized the car to be that of

Geraldine, Adriana's sister.

He hurriedly took the remote for the gate and headed out.

He pressed the remote on reaching the compound and the gate opened automatically. The black land cruiser drove in and parked in the garage.

Ryan hurried to go help her with her bag. She signalled him rudely not to dare.

He went back inside to continue with his chores.

After he was done cooking, he served the food in the dining room and went back to the kitchen to eat his own food.

Although he was legally a member of the family, the William sisters banned him from using the dining room. According to them, he was a cheap orphaned son-in-law who was not even worthy to step foot in the family garden and less of their dining room.

A few hours later, he was in his room contemplating his life when Adriana came into his room with a piece of paper in her hand, she threw it to Ryan with the words “Read it and do what it says”.

Ryan was surprised, not with the paper or her words but with her attitude.

He stared at the piece of paper in his hands, Adriana always expressed her words to him on note whenever he wanted to talk to him, but she always did it very calmly.

For the reason she just threw this paper at him in a mean way, he could not tell.

He opened the paper and read aloud.

“Go and wash the clothes in the laundry, clean the house and prepare, I will be having a visitor in the next three days, make sure the whole place is clean and don't make any mistakes”.

“Visitor,” he murmured.

“Adriana is having a visitor? Who could it be? Why was she so rude to me? I know the Williams sisters don't like me but Adriana is not like that, or did I do anything wrong?”

As he sat down thinking of what just transpired and the words on the paper, he heard his name being screamed from the living room.

As he neared the living room, he strained his ears to listen to what was going on but he only heard a group of ladies laughing. He peeped to catch a glimpse but his name was immediately screamed again from the living room, this time louder than the first.

He quickly descended the stairs and went to the living room.

There were about nine ladies there.

He politely greeted them but the greeting was ignored.

He quickly screened the ladies, The three Williams sisters and six of their friends, two of whom were more like family friends.

Ryan recognized them immediately but still didn't understand what was going on. As he stood there in thought, Alicia barked his name bringing him back to life.

“Johnson Ryan, what are you staring at, or are you now dead and dumb?” She thundered, Geraldine giggled and the rest of them burst into a peal of hilarious laughter, Ryan came to his senses.

“I'm sorry ma'am ”, he quickly apologized.

“Sorry for yourself ”She fired.

Now I hope Adriana has told you what to do, she asked.

Ryan nodded in affirmative.

“Now get us wine from the fridge and bring nine glasses for us” Ryan nodded and left the living room to the kitchen.

He heard a comment from one, a giggle from another and laughter in the living room. He ignored the comments and remarks, after all, he hears bad comments and stupid remarks every day from the Williams sisters.

He removed the drink from the fridge, got the wine glasses, placed them on a serving tray and headed to the living room. While he was headed to the living room he heard the voices of the ladies once again.