Episode 1

“Honey, please! It’s late already and everyone can hear you,” Jerry pleaded, almost covering his ears because his wife, Missy, was whining about the food he cooked earlier for the family.

“You dare not speak to me in that manner! You are not good at anything! Anything at all!” She yelled, while Jerry tried to cover his ears with the pillow, but she yanked it out of his face and he groaned inwardly.

“What more can I do to prove my love for you? I have done everything! Everything you’ve ever asked just to make you and your family happy, but you never appreciate it,” he snapped, and Missy didn’t like his tone.

“Oh, really? If you would have just kept that job like you promised, then maybe you wouldn’t have to do chores in the kitchen,” Missy snapped back, and Jerry rolled his eyes, rubbing his temples.

“You know why I had to leave that job. Your mother is the CEO and she was making life miserable for me. She barely even paid me!” He retorted, while Missy hissed.

“Oh, please! That was your only chance to prove to the family that you are useful! Especially after proving how useless you were to your father!” She thundered, and Jerry, who wasn’t even looking at her this whole time, turned to look at her for the first time.

“Missy, you know why I did it. I had to disobey my father just to get married to you. Why are you acting like you don’t already know this?” He defended, but he was getting emotional. He didn’t like it when she spoke about him like that, but she was spitting facts.

“Well, maybe you should have listened to him then, because ever since I married you, it has been hell!” She shouted, and crossed her arms over her chest with an annoyed look on her face.

“You know… you and your family don’t make it easy for me at all,” he said to her with a shaky voice. He swallowed hard, trying not to break down in front of her, else he would only seem even weaker than he already did.

“Jerry, you had one job! Just one! Which was to keep your inheritance. Yes, your father disowned you, but I already hatched out a plan to make sure that he changed his mind, and you blew it!” She said, annoyed, while Jerry gritted his teeth in anger, but he dared not raise his voice at her, else she would dish out a pile of work for him to do in the morning. It was always from one punishment to another, just because he didn’t have a job and they had to feed him, like she endlessly reminded him every single day.

“You know I couldn’t do what you asked. You are my wife and I cannot deny you just because of some silly inheritance,” he said with a shaky voice, while she hissed at him.

“Oh, please, spare me that bullshit. You are still as useless! Your mates who built their own empires without any help, do they have two heads?” She yelled, and he bowed his head in shame.

Truly, things have never been easy for him ever since his father disowned him. But he didn’t take it seriously, because he felt he was marrying for love. He was getting married to the love of his life, and he would figure it out, but that was the exact opposite.

He suffered trials in his in-laws’ house, because he and his wife could not afford to move to a place of their own. He was spoiled, definitely, and didn’t know the basis of making real and legit money on his own.

He and his wife argued back and forth almost every night, and yet he had to wake up early in the morning to do the family’s laundry, cook their food, and wash their toilets.

“Father, please. I’m sorry. Please, I’m suffering in this place,” he remembered as he once pleaded with his father. Things were just getting messed up for him then, at the beginning of his marriage to Missy.

His father, of course, turned deaf ears and shunned him, never to call him again. Jerry was hopeless. He was often called the hopeless last son of the great Gregory Hawkins by his mother-in-law, Mrs. Johnson.

He was soon interrupted from his sad thoughts by his nagging wife. “Did you even hear a thing I said?” She snapped at him, and he just kept mute.

“Fucking useless!” She shouted, and slumped back into the bed, facing away from him and making sure to move as far away from him on the bed as possible.

He just sat there, looking at his wife. She had refused to let him touch her for almost two and a half years. She always came up with the excuse that she was tired or on her period.

It was quite difficult for him as a man to control himself, but he did. But what aggravated him the most was that he would often find his wife cheating on him, but ignore them, just so he wouldn’t do something that would make them chase him away from the house.

It pained him, but what could he do, other than to follow orders, since he was spoiled and couldn’t make anything out of his life.

All his brothers refused to pay heed to him as well, except his immediate elder brother, Tom. Tom was really good to him, but couldn’t help much either, so he was still stuck where he was.

He slowly went into his duvet and soon fell asleep, only to wake up to the water splash on his face from his mother-in-law.

“Wake up, you lazy bastard!” She shouted, as Jerry jolted from the bed and got on his feet immediately. He was panting really hard, like he just made a run for his life.

He soon stood before his mother-in-law, who was glaring at him with contempt. “How many times have I told you to make sure I do not wake up before you?” She shouted, while Jerry rubbed his eyes.

“Sorry, mother,” he said in a low tone, but with sleepy eyes, while she raised her hand and gave him a dirty slap across the face.

The sleep in his eyes vanished the moment she slapped him, and he used his hands to nurse his face. He couldn’t mutter a word, but just stared at her instead.

“What have I told you about calling me mother? Do I look like that useless cheap whore you call a mother?” She shouted, but Jerry didn’t say a word. He just stood there, drenched in water and holding his aching face.

He cursed his father under his breath for putting him in such misery. The main reason his father didn’t bless his marriage after all was simply because Mrs. Johnson had history with his father. They were to get married, and she abandoned him at the altar, just to elope with his best friend at that time, Mr. Johnson.

Whenever he remembered the reason, he got even angrier. His father decided to put his life in jeopardy because of something he could have easily ignored and put aside for the sake of his kids.

“Ah, brother! I’ve always known you were father’s least favorite son,” Jerry could recall as Tom told him on one of those excruciating calls he put to him to come save him from this hell hole of a marriage, but there was no going back.

“Are you still standing there and looking at me? Will you get out of here and go and wash the toilet in my husband’s room!” She shouted, and Jerry slowly started to walk away, hanging his head over his shoulders, when he heard his wife wake up.

“Mother, I’m trying to get my beauty sleep,” Missy said, while yawning, but her mother kissed her teeth.

“Oh, please, get up from there! We have prepared a new suitor for you, so you can finally be done with this embarrassment of a husband,” Mrs. Johnson said, and Jerry’s heart skipped two beats.

“New suitor? Who?” She asked, and her mother whispered his name, but still loud enough for Jerry to hear.

“The Clandestines,” Jerry heard her say, and he could hear Missy gasp in the background.

“But, mother! They have just one son who isn’t married yet, and I hear he’s a beast!” Missy complained, but this time, Jerry was now behind the door, eavesdropping on their conversation.

“Yes, but they are the only ones who can help with our financial crisis. You know how I’ve been visiting one hospital after another? It costs a lot of money, and now we have to replace it, but the businesses aren’t moving well,” Mrs. Johnson said, getting a bit emotional.

“I don’t like this, mother. There has to be another way!” Missy whined.