#TENDER_BEAUTY_2 (Life after the wedding)
EPISODE 16
Richa-rd sat in his office, feeling very excited. He had enjoyed every bit of last night. The dinner out was awesome but the conclusive p@rt of the day had been simply mind-b!owing. Belina had been so tired and sleepy this morning, un-derstandably so, that he had made breakfast for her in be-d. They had prayed together and he had prepared for work.
Richa-rd was expecting Doctor Felix, in order to receive reports of how the hospital was after his dep@rture. He was considering the prospect of ma-king him his as-sistant now that Oyinade was gone. He responded to the knock he received and Doctor Felix waltzed in, in his usual manner.
Richa-rd gestured a seat and listened as the doctor gave a detailed account of the welfare of the hospital.
“… the patient in ward 9 by name Mr. Kelvin is now out of coma” he said after some minutes.
Richa-rd ‘s interest was pricked. “Wow… when did that happen?” he asked, sitting up.
“About 5:23pm yesterday sir” he responded, and then took his eyes away from the book, looking at Richa-rd .
“Sir, do you know the man personally?” he asked, although he alre-ady knew the answer to that; Richa-rd ‘s behaviour when the patient was to be treated showed it. He did not expect their relationsh!pto be a plea-sant one, though.
“Yeah. Yeah, I do” Richa-rd said, letting out no emotion.
“Obviously… The patient was restless when he found out that he was being admitted in BRH and more so when he was told that you attended to him” Doctor Felix said. “He bec@m£ so violent that we had to sed@t£ him. He tried to escape around 3am this morning but we caught up with him and since then had someone to monitor his room”
Richa-rd bec@m£ worried and his face portrayed this but he knew that only one thing can make someone that restless – guilt. He sighed and stood up. “I am going to see him now, you may go”.
********************
I arrived at Prisca’s boutique and was greeted by all the smiling workers. They all looked beautiful as usual, in beautiful clothes and nice br@ids. I looked around, admiring all the beautiful clothes surrounding me.
“Sweetheart” I was j£rked from my window-shopping when I heard Prisca’s voice.
“You make me feel as though you wanna buy everything here”. She said, coming over with a smile. She faced one of her workers and g@sped. “Did she drop a mouth-watering cheque?”
Everyone laughed ha-rd , including me. I walked up to her and gave her a cool hvg.
Prisca and I proceeded into her office where I was served a very cool drink. I looked round at the beauty of the office. The office has changed since the last time I c@m£ which was about a month ago.
“So, how is my nephew doing?” she asked immediately we sat.
I scoffed. “What makes you think I am bearing a boy?”
“My instinct tells me Richa-rd is much more stronger than you are” she replied with a grin.
“You would be surprised” I replied cheekily.
“Have you gone for scan?”
I shook my head, sipping my drink. “No. Richa-rd is too over-pampering; he won’t allow me lift a f!nger. If he knew I stepped out of the house today, he would explode” I sighed visibly.
Prisca laughed. “Can you blame him? It is his first child we are talking about here”
I scoffed. “Was it this terrible when you had Pat?” I asked cynically.
“Of course, weren’t you there to witness most of it?” she asked, frowning in remembr@nce and I grinned, remembering her rants and complaints. She sighed. “it can’t be this way forever though”
I smiled. “I can’t say I don’t enjoy the pampering at times.”
She laughed. “corrupt soul. Anyways, I think he is just trying to make up for the serious incidents of last week. That Oyinade girl is a witch”
I hissed. “don’t mind that harlot. I have not had her time”
Prisca shook her head. “thank God Richa-rd fired her before she did any more damage”
I opened my mouth. He hadn’t told me that. Prisca took one look at my stupefied face and deduced what I was thinking.
“he did not tell you?”
I shook my head. “not a single word”.
“I shouldn’t have then” Prisca said, obviously saddened that I had to hear it from her. I pestered her but she refused to say any other thing. I resigned. Richa-rd obviously has some explaining to do.
********************
Ajoke popped open a bottle of champagne to the cheer of her friends. She could not believe her half-sister could be so generous as to transfer her beautiful house to her. They were just like twins even though Ronke is about five years older than her. It hadn’t taken her three hours to pack her luggage from her friend’s room. She had been squ-atting with her friend for about six months and the despicable girl never failed to remind her of that fact. She had asked to stay with Ronke but Ronke had told her that she used her house for her ‘business’ and it would be a real inconvenience having her there. She had s£nt money to her but she decided to endure the insults of her friend in order to use the money for the Ipad she had de-sired to have. When she got that call, she had packed all her belongings in a flash. Met with her sister, collected the do¢v-ments of the house and stormed the house like a real house owner would.
Not even ten minutes after her arrival, she had received a rather unexpected guest – a man, accompanied by two police men. Instantly, she knew that the c0ckand bull story that Ronke had told her was just a cover-up. There was no one interested in marrying her. Ronke had told her that a man was interested in her and asked her to live with him and that that was the reason why she decided to give her the house. she had accepted the story instantly, due to her exceeding joy of having a house in her name. staring at the police men and the raging man, she pres£nted an innocent and confused face. Now that she has a house in her name, she would not give it up so easily.
“Yes, what can I do for you” she said, closing the door behind her and stepping out. the fat man scrutinized her.
“She is not the one” he said to the police men. “Eh you, where is the owner of this house? i believe she must be your sister”
Ajoke glared at him like he had lost his mind. “Mr. man, i don’t know what has got into you ooo, this is my house” she adjusted her shi-t and squared her shoulders.
“Woman, you better cooperate with us” one of the policemen said.
Ajoke turned her smiling face at the young policemen. “Listen to me guys, i am the owner of this beautiful house, thanks to handsome guys like you. You can come and check my do¢v-ments” she said blinking while the old man was fuming. The men were wooed by her gestures. they followed her inside, checked all the do¢v-ments and confirmed it did not have the name mentioned by man, not even the surname. they requested for her National ID card and she fished it out. The old man just looked like he was dreaming.
The ever accommod@t!ngJoke brou-ght out a bottle of champagne and invited them to join her. What do you expect? The policemen obliged.
“Is this what I brou-ght you here to do?” the chief yelled.
The policemen glared at him. “Shut up your mouth old man. we-tin you expect make we do? We suppose arrest you sef. You no know the person wey you dey find. Na God catch you. Old man like you go dey pursue small babes wey we suppose dey hammer” one of the policemen ranted, sipping his wine.
The chief, obviously frustrated stormed out cursing.
The policemen had left minutes later, apologizing for the inconvenience and Joke called her friends for proper house-washing celebr@tion. This house has become hers and she would not let it go for anything in the world. Over my dead b©dy, she thought.
********************
Chief Rammon got to his house dejected. He could not believe his bad luck. He had woken up to an empty room with his briefcase nowhere to be found. The money was not even his own. Fifty Million Pounds. So much bad luck for wanting to cool his blood. He swallowed as his wife ranted and ranted about his useless life. He did not even yell back like he used to before, only walked into his be-droom like a robot, locked the door and fell on the be-d in tears.
He had hurried to Ronke’s house hoping to still find her there but he met a locked gate. He had as-signed someone who was close by to inform him immediately there was any slight movement and had received a message after four hours. Before that time, he had called and called but it did not go throu-gh.
He placed the pillow on his head heavily. “My life is ruined”.
********************
Tikes arrived Ajide Close in a vehicle with two of his guys around 9pm. Oyin had told him that the girl is a very sharp and cunning girl. He had boasted of the fact that she could not do anything but he decided not to take chances. He would do a clean job.
He checked for number 44, noting the colour of the house. He checked the picture again and made a mental picture.
He got to the gate, pressed the bell and waited. A figure c@m£ out and he immediately identified the lady as the one he had seen in the picture.
She opened the gate and he smiled.
“Hello” he said and pu-ll-ed the trigger.
WATCH OUT FOR EPISODE 17