C5 Greed

It was ten minutes past nine before Eva crawled out of her bed and undressed. She entered the bathroom and turned on the bath taps. She stood in a black daze and watched uninterestedly until the bathtub was filled with half warm water. Then she stepped into the bathtub and allowed the water to comfort her despairing body. Her body was burning with pain. She leaned back against the bathtub and closed her eyes, her mind busy with thoughts. After a while, she opened her eyes and stared hard at the white ceiling. Her mind went back to the previous nights, and tears began to fill her eyes. How could he? How could he have done something that terrible to her? Vince had sodomised her brutally and horribly.

Two nights ago, after Vince had forced himself on her, she remembered how she had managed to drag herself into the bathroom, ran a hot bath, crawled into it like a wounded animal, and let the soothing water wash away her pain. Vince, on the other hand, had sat in a lounging chair, smoking a cigarette, a wicked contented grin on his handsome face as he watched her walk into the bathroom. He felt no remorse for what he had done to her. For him, everything that happened was all her fault. They had slept in separate rooms later that night, and the next day, to avoid any confrontation with her, her husband had left the house in a hurry, claiming he had one or two things to do at the casino he owned. It was not until he left the house that she saw her bedsheets were stained with her blood.

Instinctively, she knew her life might be dangerous, and there was a need for her to see a doctor. She could not risk getting treatment for something of that nature in Miami. The gossips would be too much to curtail. She had quickly telephoned a top-class travel agency and had them book her on a flight going to New York. Though the agony she was feeling down below was unbearable, she had quickly managed to dress, took her purse, which was stuffed with money and her passport, hired a cab which whisked her down to the airport, and a few minutes later, she was on a flight to New York. The doctor she met had asked her lots of personal questions, and she had revealed everything to him, leaving out nothing. He had then prescribed drugs for her to use and had advised her to take a good rest. She remembered his exact words to her.

"Take care of yourself, Mrs. Montreal, and everything would be alright. Of course, this thing you've told me would be regarded as strictly confidential. No one would hear of it."

Eva had been satisfied with what the doctor said. She had left the hospital and took a flight back to Miami. It was not until she returned to the house that she felt safe once again. And now, as she sat in the bathtub, she could not suppress the enormity of the rage she felt towards her husband. Vince had done to her what no man had ever done, and she would repay him. "I will fix you, Vince! I will find a way to set you, and that's a promise," she told herself.

She lay in there for a long time, and finally, when the water was starting to cool, she got out of the tub and walked into the bedroom. Though the drugs the doctor gave her had lessened the pain, the experience was still etched in her mind. Mechanically, she chose a simple floral dress from her closet and wore it. Then she walked out of the bedroom, crossed the room to the kitchen, fixed herself a breakfast of ham, eggs, and bacon, ate her meal, and washed it down with black coffee.

A few minutes later, she was out on the terrace, sitting on a reclining chair, looking out at the breathtaking view of the ocean, sky, and distant hills. She would make him pay for what he did to her, but how would she go about it? She thought. She opened her purse, took out a gold cigarette case, removed a cigarette, and lit one with a gold lighter. She drew in the smoke and let it drift down her small nostrils. But how? She wondered, allowing the smoke to calm her nerves. She began to think hard and fast. Her mind traveled back to the day she had met Vince.

She had run into Vince at a party hosted by one of her male friends who owned a big fashion house. His looks had mesmerized her. He was tall, lean, and powerfully built like a beautiful wild animal. His dark, handsome eyes had excited her, and she had felt a rush of blood through her, something that often happened when she came across really masculine men. She wanted to have him, to be laid by him as she had never been applied before in her short sexual life. They had taken one look at each other, and that was enough. It was as if they had loved each other even before they met. It was no surprise when they were both married by a priest in the country the following week.

Vince had told her then that he wanted no big wedding.

"I don't like crowds, baby. Just the two of us!" he had said, and she had listened to him even though that was not what she wanted.

After the wedding, gullibly, she had explained her financial situations to him. She had a trust fund, which was enough for her to live on comfortably, but her bulk of wealth was from a large fortune left for her by her dead parents. The capital would only be released to her when she reached the age of thirty. Vince had asked her how much the fortune was worth.

"It's worth millions," she had replied simply.

"You are twenty-nine, right?" he asked.

"Yeah! I would clock at thirty come August!"

Vince then did a little calculation in his head.

"Wow! We are now in March! Five months from this time, you'd be worth millions."

"Billions of dollars," Eva corrected. "This fortune is worth millions, and all together with the money I already have, we could be talking billions, my love. All this wealth would be ours. Everything belongs to you and me."

Vince did not believe he had married an heiress, and he even made her repeat the sum just for the sake of reassuring himself. She repeated what she had told him, and ever since that day, more and more, he talked to her about nothing except the fortune.

"Think about it, Eva! Think of what we could do with all that money. We'll own the world, baby!" he would say to her. It was then Eva began to realize that he was greedy. He was not a content man. He wanted more and was ready to do anything to get it.

A few months later, her marriage began to crumble when she started to suspect that her husband, who claimed to love her, was also interested in her for selfish gains. She had been so often disappointed with their lovemaking. Though there was foreplay, he did it mechanically, as though it was a duty to be disposed of. He was more demanding, less giving. He was only in love with her money, and his attitudes and behavior over the past few months were a witness to her suspicions.

It first started in a small, harmless way. She would be expecting Vince home for dinner, and when he came, he would shout at her, telling her he was not hungry. She would inquire from him what the problem was, and he would complain to her about the fortune she was to inherit.

"But you've got enough money, darling," she would tell him.

"Yeah! I have got enough, but I want your money, Eva! I want you to give me the chance to be able to control all your wealth. Think of what we could accomplish. It's not bad to want the money of my wife, or is it?" he would say to her.

Eva was terrified. She had not even inherited a bulk of her fortune, and her husband was already demanding it. Her husband was a greedy man who was only interested in her for her money. She had never believed that the word gold digger could be used for a man. But there it was; her stinkingly rich husband was the real epitome of the word. For months, he exhausted every argument he could think of. He cajoled, raged at her, and offered her more love, but she was not moved, which was when the beating started. He would complain of any little thing, and when she confronted him, he would shout at her and beat her up. The pulse got worse when he found out she was cheating on him, a sign of retaliation on her part. Eva could no longer hide from herself that she was not in love with Vince, and their marriage had been a terrible mistake. She had suggested to Vince that they should break up.

"We ain't breaking up, baby. I love you, and I'll kill any man that comes near you!" he would threaten her.