The Next Wife

　　PROLOGUE

　　"Get out of this house, woman!" Fred Maklaw, the 32-year-old man barked at his wife, Mina Maklaw.

　　"Excuse me?" She huffed, getting to her feet from the vanity's chair.

　　Mina wasn't as surprised as ever because whether or not she admitted it or affirmed it to be true, she could tell that this was going to happen someday but she didn't expect it to be today.

　　Fred had just burst the door open by pushing it with an audacious force, storming towards her then stopped only a few feet away from her, and just hollered his whole life out at her.

　　He furiously held her by her arm and started to storm out of her room, dragging her roughly with him.

　　"Fred," she cried, "you're hurting me."

　　Fred didn't reck to hearken to her voice which was as equal as infuriating and killing to him. He was only interested in getting her out of his sight, house and mostly his life.

　　He tugged her all the way down the stairs then took quick steps to the door in which one step was equal to three of her steps so she had to run to catch up.

　　"You know you need to calm down and stop this drama." Mina spoke convincingly. Desperation was evident in her deep voice. She was as desperate as ever to stop him from throwing her out of the house.

　　The doors were already open widely so he easily pulled her forward and pushed her out of his mansion.

　　Mina lost her balance and harshly fell to the floor of the vestibule. With her so-called smartness, she was quick enough to prevent her forehead from smashing to the floor.

　　Her elbows and knees got bruised due to the friction on sliding against the floor.

　　She sharply turned her head to Fred. She had flown off the handle already and wasn't going with her pretence nature this time.

　　Getting to her feet, her body ached like hell from Fred's roughness on her.

　　"How dare you throw me out of 'my house'?!" She roared, advancing towards Fred that was boiling and mentally calculating what was the next step to take.

　　"You're so unbelievable. Your house?" He spat. A vein popped on his neck as his chest rose and fell to further express his furiousness, as well as the intense crumpling of his forehead.

　　"No matter how much you might or might not hate me, the sweetest part of it all is that I'm still your legally married wife." Mina permitted a shit-eating smirk to play on her lips, jamming her hands to her hips.

　　"Why the fuck are you sending me out this time? Be precise, please." Her question was something she ought not to ask, knowing fully well that if there were to be a list of the possible things that resulted to this, it could amount to an entire book as big as a book containing everything there needed to be known about Physics.

　　"You definitely didn't ask me that question right now, did you?" He said rhetorically, with a snort.

　　"I'm fed up with you and I don't want you in my life. You'll just end me if I remain with you." He spoke venomously.

　　"Not only are you unable to bear a child after five years that we've been together, you're a really terrible person to be with and you're ruining my reputation, my business as well as my life!" He latrated.

　　"No, no, wait. What?!" She exclaimed. "Scratch that shit, we're both aware of the fact that I'm totally fit and able to carry a child."

　　— "why then have you aborted about seven of them or even more?" He groaned frustratedly through gritted teeth

　　"Oh, you found that out too?" She forced a smile. Fred couldn't tell whether she was angry or excited or whatever emotion it was she was feeling but one thing he was sure of, Mina was damn crazy.

　　"Well, I don't think I want to carry those little demons in my belly for 9 whole fucking months. Geez, that's torture." She sounded so serious.

　　Fred raked his fingers through his hair and bit his lower lip intently that it was almost at the point of bleeding.

　　"Just leave, now!" He ordered.

　　"I'm going nowhere." She retorted.

　　He couldn't take it anymore. She just had to leave or the last screw of his brain was going to lose.

　　Fred called for his guards and ordered them to take her out of the house, never to let her step foot in his house again.

　　"Fred, I promise you that you'll never find a new wife!" She yelled as they held her arms.

　　She threw her legs in the air as they lifted her from her feet, taking her away.

　　"No one will cope with your stupid self. You'll run back to me, I promise you. I'll come back to you, no matter what!" She continued to yell on the top of her lungs.

　　Fred fell to the floor, sitting on the floor nonchalantly.

　　He felt relief wash over him.

　　Mina was finally gone. Was this real or was it just a dream? He wondered to himself.

　　He let out a chuckle, then another, then another before bursting out into laughter.

　　He laughed so hard that his eyes watered and he had to lay on his back on the floor with his hands on his stomach as he laughed so hard.

　　He was finally free from her. What a testimony?

　　What he had to do was to make it legal, divorce her. Then, find a new woman to wife, a better one that wasn't a demoness.

　　"Good morning." Jeremy Hem, Fred's personal assistant/Manager greeted him over the phone.

　　"What do you have to say?" He replied crankily, getting into his room from the balcony that was extended from his room.

　　"You're to meet Miss Jayda Black this afternoon." He informed him.

　　"Okay, so?" Fred replied uninterestedly with a shrug, knowing fully well that Jeremy couldn't see him shrug.

　　"Okay? So? Is that seriously what you're going to say?" Jeremy barked. "You're really crazy, man."

　　If you're wondering why he was being so insultive to his so-called boss, it wasn't a big deal.

　　Jeremy and Fred were childhood friends. Fred didn't know exactly what position to give him in his company because Jeremy mostly did everything for him. Not necessarily everything, but he did a lot of things for Fred and he was really grateful about that.

　　Jeremy and Fred were like brothers from different mothers. They shared their secrets with each other and were always there for each other since they were very little children.

　　"I know. Anyways, where am I to meet her?" Fred chuckled silently.

　　"I'll text you the address. If you arrive late, I swear I'll kill you." He threatened.

　　Fred only rolled his eyes and hung up on him, throwing his phone to his bed.

　　Today was going to be a long day for him. He was totally certain about that.

　　***

　　Seth Jones, one of Fred's drivers drove him to the address Jeremy had texted him.

　　It was a coffee shop. Geez, how much he hated coffee, she decided to meet him at a coffee shop?

　　Getting out of his car, he held his phone and envelope in his hand and slid his free hand into his sweatpant's pocket.

　　He got into the shop then scanned the whole place for Jayda.

　　From her back view alone, he could tell she was the one.

　　He cleared his throat then walked proudly to her.

　　"Good afternoon, Jayda." He greeted, snapping her out of her thoughts pool as she flinched.

　　"Oh, Fred." Jayda forced a smile. She stood to her feet then extended her hand for a handshake because she just felt it was important.

　　Fred reluctantly took his hand out of his pocket and accepted her handshake with a small smile on his lips.

　　"How're today?" He said and elevated his smile to a grin which helped in advertising his beautiful dimples.

　　"I'm really good, you?" Jayda was quite nervous but she certainly hid it with a smile.

　　"I'm good as well."

　　Fred couldn't help but notice and admire how hot and dashing she looked.

　　Jayda was dressed in a black, knee-length dress that hugged her body and showcased her curves pretty well.

　　Jayda had bold grey eyes, long eyelashes, thin lips that were colored with magenta purple lipstick. She had to crane her neck upwards to stare directly into the eyes of the 6 feet three inches Fred Maklaw. She had an average height.

　　She had her seat after Fred sat on the seat opposite to hers which was separated by the table in front of them.

　　"It's really nice to meet you again, woman." Fred started, making sure to sound so mocking.

　　Jayda gulped, not in fear but in annoyance.

　　Jayda and Fred had met two years back, in a club.

　　Jayda was ready to wash away her pain after her harsh breakup with her boyfriend whom she had been in a relationship with for three years. He had cheated on her with the woman they had lived with, claiming for her to have been his sister.

　　Jayda had gotten herself totally drunk that night whilst Fred had gotten himself totally drunk as well because he was frustrated by Mina.

　　Mina had taken a very huge amount of money from him, insulted Fred's business man, thereby making him lose a very huge opportunity from the man, then she had left for six months, only to return with her clothes torn, with a few people that were threatening to beat her up if he didn't give them a certain amount of money.

　　Fred and Jayda accidentally had a one-night stand with each other since they were totally drunk.

　　When they had woken up the next morning, they had gotten into a long argument before he dropped some amount of money for her.

　　Jayda was still mad at him though but they were able to resolve their fight after meeting a few more times after that.

　　Fred had officially divorced Mina but he was pressured by his younger sister, Cora, to get married as soon as possible because time wasn't going to wait for him.

　　Through the help of Jeremy, Fred had met Jayda once again, who had agreed to sign a contract to get married to him, on the account that she was going to be given a total sum of 1.5 billion dollars.

　　Common, how was she going to think twice before doing that?

　　Jayda had decided to be alone, mostly because she didn't find any man. Not like there weren't tons of men that were dying to have her as theirs, she just wasn't taking a step or even ready for that even though she was already 30 years old.

　　Freya Winter, Jayda's best friend, had advised her to go on with the marriage after Fred proposed the deal to her.

　　Plus, Jayda knew that there was no one else to help Samantha Black, her sick mother, with her treatment as well as drugs, foods and things she needed to stay healthy.

　　"Are you sure you're ready to go on with this?" Fred asked Jayda that was totally lost in her thoughts.

　　She simply nodded positively.

　　Fred took the documents of the contract out of the envelope he had with him then handed it over to Jayda.

　　'Am I really ready to do this?' Jayda thought to herself.

　　She shifted in her chair then collected a pen from Fred.

　　She started to look through it.

　　"What?" Fred said suddenly and Jayda sharply looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

　　"What, how?"

　　"I mean, do you seriously have to read every single word before you sign it? Are you scared?" He chuckled mockingly.

　　"Scared? No way." She replied gruffly with a quick roll of her eyes. " It's not some child's play so I have to read every single bit of it. Just stay calm till I'm done, okay?" She declared.

　　Fred rolled his eyes then brought his phone to his face.

　　While Jayda read and signed on each page, Fred got busy on his phone; responding to his emails, replying messages and sorting things out till she was done.

　　"I'm done with it." She announced, dropping the pen on the document.

　　Fred took the pen as well as the document then returned it into the envelope.

　　"I'll send you the photo copies." He informed her. Jayda nodded then placed her sweaty palms on her lap.

　　"So, we'll decide the date of the wedding?" She inquired.

　　Fred nodded, "yes, it'll be very soon. I'll let you know." He smirked.

　　Wedding, here we come!

　　***