JoyceOrtsen

“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Tell you what, Richard? What would you have done?”
“I don’t know. Apologized sooner? Bought you a burger to make up for it?”
Her eyes lit up with fire, “You think what you did to me… you think a burger can make up for it?” her eyes twinkled like she was fighting tears. Did I hurt her that badly? I was just a foolish teenager.
“Nita, I am sorry. I was young, I was stupid. I wish I could take it all back and tell you how I feel instead of being a constant jerk to gain your attention.”
“How did you feel that would justify what you did to me?”
I paused for a minute, finding the words. “I had a huge crush on you at the time. And I didn’t know how to express myself. I was full of myself, I was the school’s ladies' man and the one girl I had eyes for didn’t even care if I existed,”
 “And that justified what you did to me? Richard, you broke me. I can forgive you for ‘accidentally’ spilling your ice cream on me, or throwing my due assignment in the toilet, or the gum in my hair, or the glue in my chair but tell me how can I forgive you for what you did that night? Tell me!”
“What night? Nita, what are you talking about?”
“Remember when you asked me if I knew who sexually assaulted me?”
I nodded, but what does that have to do with anything?  The more we spoke, the more confused I became.
“You did and I cannot believe that you would stand there and pretend like it didn’t happen!”


Nita has spent years trying to forget the torment she endured at the hands of Richard. When her family’s financial ruin forces her into an arranged marriage, she is horrified to find out the groom himself was her bully.
Richard, a charming and successful businessman meets the first woman to be repulsed by him. Intrigued, he proposes a deal of a one year marriage of convenience.
Navigating life as a couple, old wounds reopen, buried memories surface. As Richard learns more about his wife, he finds that he has enemies that followed him from his past to continuously cloud his wife’s judgement.
Will Nita believe the truth and bury old wounds or will the pain of the past prove too strong to heal?

In Love With My Bully

It took me a couple of minutes to calm down from my sputters of laughter.

"You're mad over this?" I asked again with an incredulity to my voice.

"Richard, I'm getting even more annoyed."

"Okay… okay…." I stopped laughing and gestured on the bed for her to sit down. She sat at the edge of the bed, her guard still up.

"I thought you were mad over something else. I warred with myself all the way back from Atlanta if I should tell you or not, when I got here and I saw you, we were happy, I wanted it to stay that way."

"You still aren't making sense, Richard."

"I was surprised to find her at my door. She had told Martin that I invited her. He didn't think anything of it. Well, she got into my room and well… she … she tried to kiss me--- I pulled her by the arm all the way down and got her in a car for Martin to drop her off at the airport; which is the part of the photos taken."

I finished and gave her my best 'you're-an-idiot' look.

Secrets Unveiled