The Marvelous Elijah's Return novel Chapter 1

The sound of the tick and tock from the clock had Elijah's feet bouncing on the tiles of the dining room floors as he stared at his watch, a sense of nervousness creeping into his chest.

It was Ten-thirty, and he had been staring at this same watch for hours now, still no sign of his wife.

Even though it was like her to come home late, He didn't expect her to do so on their birthday since she knew how important today was to him.

Looking away from his watch, Elijah sighed and glanced up, the clock showing Eleven pm. Then his gaze directed to the phone, lying on the table, in front of him.

"Will she not pick up again?" Elijah asked out loud, his voice low and soft.

There was a brief pause before he reached for the phone, his fingers fumbling with it as he tried to dial Melina's number.

"The number you have called is currently unavailable..." A robotic female voice said on the other side of the line, causing Elijah to drop his head backward on the chair, a frown plastered on his face.

"Is she not going to answer me anymore?" He muttered in slight disappointment.

"Eleven Fifteen," The clock on the wall read, and Elijah continued to be patient, hitting his foot repeatedly against the tiles.

Eleven twenty-two and still no sight of his wife. It has been the whole day since she left this morning that he had not seen her, and it was starting to worry him.

Elijah's eyes wandered back towards his phone, then up to the clock again, watching the minutes tick by one by one until eleven-thirty.

That's when Elijah finally had enough and woke from the chair, abandoning the table filled with food that he had made for Melina, and left the dining room.

The feeling of love is a heavy burden that weighed on Elijah's heart for years since he married Melina and started living with her as a stay-at-the-home husband.

Respect was not something she would give to him often because of his low status in life, being a man who had no job and just lived off her.

But his love for Melina was something that Elijah has never given up on. His affection for her came first than anything else. She was the most important person in his life, and he felt like it was time for him to be honest to her about a lie he had been telling all these years.

The romantic dinner he set up back in his dining room was not only to celebrate both of them thirty years old birthdays, but he was finally going to be truthful to her.

The cab came to a stop in front of a five-story glass building, and the driver looked back at Elijah and said, "We have arrived."

Immediately, Elijah snapped out of his thought and gazed away from the time on his watch, which was twelve on the dot now, and reached his hands into his pocket.

After paying his cab fare, he pushed the cab door open and stepped out, and walked slowly towards the doors, not knowing if anyone was in, even though the building was bright with lights.

When Elijah reached the entrance, the security stopped him, flashing his flashlight in Elijah's face, and then furrowed his brow as he let out, "Mr. Elijah Hayes?"

"Hayes," Was his wife's last name, and people usually looked down on him for taking her surname.

But he could care less about what they think or say, even though most of them said he was doing so to use Melina for her wealth and reputation.

However, Elijah always knew better than to get involved in such petty arguments with people he did not want to associate with because they knew nothing about him and spoke out of ignorance.

"What are you doing here at this ungodly hour?" The security questioned in an irritated tone, eyeing the watch on Elijah's wrist as if looking for something that wasn't there.

"I'm looking for my wife," Elijah answered plainly, making sure that the guard knew who he was talking about.

There was silence between the two men as the security continued staring him down, his cold demeanor hardening, as well as the boldness in Elijah's expression.

"Are you kidding me?! Is that damn thing on your wrist not working?!" The security exclaimed, glaring at him as if Elijah was some criminal. "Don't you know how to tell time or something? If you weren't Mrs. Hayes' husband, I would have kicked you out of here myself!"

Such rude tones did not bother Elijah that much because after marrying Melina, his worth in the eyes of others had changed drastically because he was a stay-at-home husband, and people saw that as him being a useless man who leeches on the wealth and power of his wife, instead of being a successful businessman like other men.