Buying a wife and her daughter

It is a year since Carol moved to your apartment and took the next house. You were totally stunned by her. She was the most beautiful woman you had ever laid your eyes on. So beautiful was she that you decided to break the age-old wisdom of never dating your female neighbor.

After a shaky start to your dating, Carol behaving in every way cynical and snobbish, you made some headway. And what an incredible time you have had with her? Carol led a mysterious life that you have unraveled and you have come to understand why she was cagey about her background.

Nowadays, she is more open. She freely talks about her life, even though you feel that there are some skeletons in her closet. Your heart pushed you to date her and now you are on the verge of marrying her. But the things you have had to go through to date her...

We all make mistakes. By the time we are past 30, we all have a certain amount of baggage that we carry with us, bad decisions we have to live with and a few missteps in life that will take us longer than necessary to correct.

Carol got a baby with an insufferably stupid lawyer. She was young and naïve. The lawyer turned out to be a possessive and an unforgiving man. At 45, the man behaves like a jilted 22-year-old and very vindictive.

So petty, he had to keep his baby with Carol for security against a friendly loan he advanced to Carol. Now Carol has to live with such an indignity. But you have reached a settlement; you will pay the man, take the child and start a family with Carol.

Of course, you have your fair share of baggage that you have never bothered to share with Carol. Your campus girlfriend disappeared with your son, and you can't trace her. Not that you have tried too hard to look for her.

You are waiting for that day when your past will walk straight into your life. That kid was a chip off the old block, man! Water under the bridge.

You have reached an agreement with the baby daddy. Carol and you will settle with him and you will carry on with your wedding plans. He has promised he will not interfere and he will give you the child, but he is entitled to visiting the her whenever he wants. He loves the child, he says. That is the only humane thing about him.

You ask Carol if she still has any feelings for the man and she says no. You doubt her sincerity. It is not easy to get over a man you have a had a baby with, however monstrous and beastly he is. Maybe she is the exception to the rule. You only have one wish; the man will not complicate your lives any further. You can kill, if you have to, to keep him at bay.

Now, the next biggest headache for Carol is the dowry, and the very expensive affair of rùracio.