House Of Secrets🏘️🏘️
Episode 15
Are you kidding me?’ Rose scoffed, she felt stupid for even havin
S£x with him earlier, he didn’t have the courtesy to let her in on
his eloping plans.
‘Bastard’ she spat angrily.
‘Mum’! she rushed back to show her mother the letter.
***
It was like a dream to me, I still couldn’t believe Mark had R@p£d
me, I trusted him completely and he treated me like an object.
My hands shook as I washed the dishes, I couldn’t tell anyone
what had happened to me, if only I’d listened to my mother, no
I’d lost my vir-ginity in the most appalling manner and I had so
many fears, what if I got pregnant? what if I got R@p£d?
So many things ran throu-gh my mind, I was so scared, I pause
and inhaled de-eply, everything in me screamed I should leave th
house and return to my village, but the quest for revenge
swallowed the inner voices.
I couldn’t let Mark go scot free, I had to hurt him as much as he
hurt me, even his whole family, they had to pay for what Mark
did.
What if he’d R@p£d Grace too? Was that why she wanted to run?
had so many questions yet no answer.
I peeped out of the window into the garden as I heard Rose
screaming for her mother, what had happened? Had she
discovered her mother’s affair with Nelson?
I shook my head in disappointment, these men of God had a lot
of skeletons in their cu-pboard.
I prayed to be strong, I couldn’t cry now, I couldn’t show Mark I
was weak, I nee-ded to fight for myself, I wouldn’t be used and
discarded like an old doll, I had my plans.
‘Ajunwa’ the all too familiar alto called my name.
Normally, I would’ve been scared of her, scared of her pres£nce,
but I felt nothing as I swirled and faced the woman who was
married to a pastor and was equally slee-ping with her driver.
Suddenly, all my fears disappeared and I felt more courageous
than before.
‘Goodmorning Ma’ I replied coolly.
‘Morning, prepare some food, something spicy, you’ll tend to m
husband today, I have a very busy schedule’ Helen gave out the
orders and was about to leave when her daughter rushed into th
kitchen.
Before that, she noticed something different about Ajunwa, the gi
ha-rd ly ever looked her straight in the eye but she did right then
and that made her uncomfortable, that wasn’t a good sign, she
waved it aside and decided she’d deal with the rat later. She had
more important things to deal with, she nee-ded to meet with the
church elders and she nee-ded to pay Oliver off for his services.
She had sle-pt like a baby throu-ghout the night, she had never felt
that much peace, knowing the only person capable of leaking her
secret and tearing her family ap@rt was dead, she couldn’t have
wished for more.
‘What is it Honey’? Helen replied coolly.
‘Mum, I found this, it seems Nelson has gone’ Rose handed her
the note.
My ears were £r£¢tas mother and daughter conversed, why
would Nelson run? Afterall he had access to his boss’ b©dy and
she must have taken good care of him.
‘What? What’s the meaning of this? How could he just leave
without telling me’? Helen complained.
‘Mum, I think we should call in the police to find him, he was
responsible for dad’s accident and now he has gone, I think he
took our kindness for granted, Mum plea-se you nee-d to arrest
him’ Rose suggested. What hurt her most was slee-ping with him
and he just bailed out on her like nothing happened.
‘No dear, we nee-d to think this throu-gh, we don’t nee-d the police,
since he’s alre-ady gone, there’s no point’ Helen replied. How coul
Rose say something like that? Bringing in the police would destro
her plans.
‘Mum? Why are you defending him? he hurt father, your
husband, he confessed in this note that the accident was his fault,
then what are waiting for’? Rose asked, her mother was acting
weird, she noticed Helen’s eyeba-lls were dicey, she was hiding
something.
‘I am not defending Nelson, this isn’t the time to call in the police,
let’s support your father, once he is on his feet, we call in the
police and deal with him’ Helen replied.
This was getting interesting, first, Grace wrote a note and
vanished and now Nelson? I scoffed as mother and daughter
argued till Helen’s idea overshadowed Rose’s.
‘Good morning all, what’s the noise about’? Mark swaggered into
the kitchen and my heart raced as I recalled what he did to me.
It took willpower to control my shaky hands and the urge to strik
his face with a ceramic, I nee-ded to hurt him so badly.
‘I was just telling mother about this and I feel we should bring in
the police, what do you think’? Rose showed Mark the note.
‘Uhmmm, not a bad idea, Mum he just confessed, we should
report him for running, what if dad never recovers’? Mark asked.
‘You know what Rose? I nee-d to see you in my room’ Helen
ordered and strode out of the kitchen with her daughter, leaving I
and Mark.
‘Baby….’ He neared me and encircled his hands around me.
‘Get your dirty hands off of me’ I screamed as tears welled up in
my eyes, but I controlled them, he couldn’t see me as weak.
‘Why the anger? We shared something special last night’ he tried
to k!ssme but I sl@pped him. how dare he?
‘You are a devil Mark, you f0rç£d your dirty self on me and now
you’re telling me we shared something, are you okay? Did I
offend you in anyway? Why did you m©l£stme? Is that how you
R@p£d Grace? Tell me, was that why she left you for Romeo?’ a
tear sli-pped from my eyes.
I noticed the surprise in his eyes as I mentioned Grace.
‘Romeo? How did you know about him? what do you know’? he
dragged me closer to him, his eyes brimmed with tears.
‘Let go of me you psycho, I knew that’s what you did to her, but
am not Grace, get that into your thick skull, I would pay you bac
go and write it down’ I pushed him backwards and ran out of th
kitchen.
‘Wait Ajunwa! I am sorry, plea-se don’t leave me’ he cried but I
was gone.
His heart raced as he cried, what had he done? She was right, his
problems started with Grace when she fell in love with another
man, how could she have chos£n another over him?
He had noticed a certain young man whom she hung out with
after church service, she had told him his name was Romeo,he
had fought ha-rd to win her love before she escaped and brou-ght
pain to his world.
***
‘I saved you from the police, I buried your secret in my garden
and you dare question my authority in this house, how dare you
Rose’? Helen poured out her anger at her daughter’s irritable
behavior. Who was she to give her orders?
‘Mum, why do you always have to bring that matter up? why
can’t you ever let it go? Why do you make me feel like I can’t
correct you when you’re wrong simply because you helped me
that day. Remember I didn’t ask you to cover it up, I was scared
and broken, cutting her into pieces and burying her in the garden
was your idea, you had a choice to call the police but you dragge
I and father into it’ Rose screamed angrily at her mother.
‘How dare you? You little ingrate, should I had reported to the
police, you wouldn’t have had the guts to stand before me,
because you would’ve been dead in jail, your father’s reputation
would’ve been tarnished, I helped everyone, I cleansed us all and
you’re so ungrateful’ Helen scowled.
‘Cleansed us? You’re the one who nee-ds cleansing’ Rose scoffed
and turned to walk away but Helen dragged her and offered her
sl@p which s£nt her reeling on the floor.
‘Excuse me? I’m the one who nee-ds cleansing? When you
murdered Grace in cold blood for a reason I’d never know’ Helen
chuckled.
‘I know your secret mum, I saw it in the garden, you think you’r
a saint? Wait till dad gets well and I tell him about you and your
lover, I would tell him how you sneak him into the house and
Fork him, just wait on me’ Rose staggered.
‘How could you’? Helen sm-irked. How could her own daughter
whom she saved speak to her that way?
‘So it’s the truth afterall’? Rose arched a brow.
‘I only sle-pt with Nelson because your father lost interest in me
and had no time for me, he buried himself in church work, why
should you judge me, you’re no better’ Helen exhaled.
Things were falling out of place, if only she knew she would’ve
reported Grace’s murder to the police, now the daughter she
spared was now challenging her authority.
‘You sle-pt with Nelson’? Rose was shocked, so her mother was
having an affair with Nelson, no wonder she was reluctant to
report him to the police, that did it for her, she would work
straight into a police station and report Nelson’s elopement.
‘Just get out of my room, I buried your secret in the garden and I
regret every bit of it’ Helen dismissed her.
‘Whatever’ Rose hissed and walked away.
‘God, I’m dead’ Helen sank into her be-d, truly, there was no peac
for the wicked, if only she knew, she wouldn’t have spared Rose,
now everything would fall back on her.
She hadn’t closed her eyes for a five minutes just to take a short
nap, when her phone beeped and she checked it, it was a
message, one whose words left her terrified and she wished the
earth could crack open and swallow her up.
‘I KNOW WHAT YOU DID, IT MAKES ME SICK, I AM GOING TO
TELL. A SECRET IS BURIED IN THE GARDEN’.
‘Lord save me’ she cried and buried her face in the pillow, Oliver
had shown her the text before, someone was after her, she coul
feel it strongly.
***
He had tried a number of businesses but none worked out well
than that of blackmailing people and getting them to pay heavily
for it. He had blackmailed lots of Nigerian politicians, most of the
made the mistake of being mean to their domestic staff, and that
was the easiest means to get to them.
‘Why didn’t you take pictures, how could you be so stupid? Now
we have no evidence, she could easily deny it and claim nothing
happened’ Kachi Romeo yelled angrily at one of his agents.
He not only owned a blog, he had numerous connections with
different secret cults as well as as-sas-sin groups, so anytime a big
fish ordered for the death of someone, he knew, except for very
t©p officials. Helen was not close to the t©p, she pla-yed into his
hands very easily.
‘Take a picture after shooting him? she was right there and if I trie
that she would’ve killed me too and buried me in her sweet little
garden’ Oliver scoffed.
Working with Kachi Romeo was good business, most times they
both connived and blackmailed those that had hired him to kill.
‘Bury you? You were the one with the gun’ Kachi poured himself
drink.
‘So what? There are many ways to kill a man, trust me, Helen Ita
is a very dangerous woman. Nelson was foolish to have S£x wit
her even after you’d revealed to him the woman that had s£nt
men after his life’ Oliver replied.
‘Well Delilah killed Samson, how much more a smaller fool like
Nelson?’ Kachi scoffed.
‘You call him a fool, but what about you who is in love with Rose
a woman that fv¢ks her own dad, who does that’? Oliver
grimaced.
‘In love? I used to love her once, but now, I see her as a means t
a very rich end,this would be our biggest job, a family with
secrets, each would pay to keep their abnormalities from the
world’ Kachi laughed heartily.
‘What about Helen’s son? Mark, he seems to be clean, you have
not said a thing about him’ Oliver asked.
He’d worked together on the Ita family case with Kachi for a long
time.
‘Mark is no angel, in fact, he is the reason Grace really opened up
to me, we’ll talk about some other time, now I nee-d all the
information to find Grace, I nee-d to know she is okay, she helped
me very much’ Kachi sighed, Grace had really suffered, she had
gone throu-gh hell in that cursed house, he was glad she had
opened up to him.
‘Nothing much, the pastor is still in the hospital be-d, and I think
Grace has returned, I saw her last night serving the Ita’s’ Oliver
replied. He was sure of it, the girl that served dinner was Grace,
he’d seen her many times when she met in secret with Romeo.
‘Are you sure about this? Then why didn’t she contact me? Why
are her numbers not going throu-gh, this would be the greatest
news ever’ Kachi dialed her numbers but they weren’t reachable.
‘I swear it, maybe I could go back to the house, and instruct her
to meet you’ Olive suggested.
‘No, that would be dangerous, stay away from the Itas, now, we
have to get evidence that the pastor is slee-ping with his own
daughter, we alre-ady have a voice note of Grace telling me how
Mark R@p£d her a lot of times, after which I convinced her to fix
this a tiny video c@m£ra in the house to catch Helen and Nelson i
action, which she did, now all what remains is our biggest fish,
Pastor Ita and Rose’ Kachi cl@pped his hands excitedly.
‘You’re very smart, but I think we should take on just one person
too much of everything is bad’ Oliver advised, he wasn’t too
comfortable with Romeo’s idea.
‘No, one person wouldn’t make me as rich as I want, so we take
them all down’ Romeo replied not too plea-sed with Oliver
countering him.
‘I still don’t support it, I say we take the pastor down, he was
what to lose most, he has a ministry,we have to think very
clearly’ Oliver insisted.
‘Since when did you start giving me advice on how to run my
business’? Romeo snapped angrily at him.
‘Well, mind the way you speak to me, we’re still in this business’
Oliver warned.
‘p@rtners’? Romeo scoffed, he knew how just to deal with Oliver,
with the snap of his f!ngers, the fool would obey him.
‘Of course, I do your dirty work’ Oliver replied.
‘Well that’s because you’re dirty, you’re a pig and I am the clean
one, next time you challenge me, I shall leak your secrets and
trust me, the Nigerian police would treat you just find and all the
clients you blackmailed’ Romeo hissed loudly and walked out of
the room.
Romeo’s words stilled Oliver and scared him too, he suddenly
discovered he was a slave to Romeo like everyone else whom he
blackmailed.
‘No way, I wouldn’t be your pawn’ Oliver rose to his feet, he
nee-ded to get out of Romeo’s cli-p, and he knew just how to get
out.
TBC