When Sumbo got home in the evening after a long day of battling with her thoughts on the kind of man she was living with, she was exhausted mentally and physically. She’d shed her private tears and though Lara seemed to be fine and act fine, her girl was not fine. She was a victim and lived like that for years. Making the wrong choices and acting in ways she had often wondered if she had raised her.
A year she’d been away and her husband had taken advantage of her daughter in ways she could not even imagine. She blamed herself too. She should have taken her child with her when she stayed away but Chief would not even allow it. A woman like her did not get the chance to take her child away from her husband’s house at the time. She came from a wealthy family as well, but Lekan had the upper hand. He’d ruled her life ever since she was married to him. He became wealthy and they made him chief. Women were attracted to him because of the security they felt he could provide them due to his chieftaincy title and the features he deceived them with. He’d been the one she thought she couldn’t do life without till he started cheating and hurting her and she felt she could not stay and watch him continue.
Lara was young then and she couldn’t interrupt her child’s life or school. Her husband had hurt her but she never imagined he would go that far and hurt their daughter.
Or was it a rumor?
She closed her eyes. If it was a rumor, Lara would have denied it. But the girl did not deny it. She even looked scared, like she had done something wrong.
How could she feel she did something wrong when she was the one her father had hurt?
And Aisha? She thought they were friends and their friendship had turned sour because of Soji Bello. But to go this far? Why? Why would the girl reveal secrets the secrets Lara shared out of trust?
But why didn’t Lara tell her anything? Even something at all? She was her mother. Yes she was young, so young and petite and had this innocent aura and angelic oval face. Something that she had used to take advantage of people as she grew older. Lara was never that way. She was the girl that bounced on her knees when she was a child. She would giggle when she tickled her and blew air into her belly button. Her hair in ribbons bounced around her face and her best friend was Ikenna.
She had been biased towards the boy then, especially when they would often hold hands and spend time laughing, throwing jabs at each other and talk for hours like they were the next best things that ever happened to each other. At the back of her mind, she’d wondered if they would become childhood sweethearts and get married. If they had refused, Lara was a chatty child that loved to have her way and might have eloped with the boy and had kids somewhere.
But right now, that option sounded better than what was currently going on right now. How would they look at her daughter right now? How would society see her? Who would even want to marry her? She had not heard from Soji her fiancé and when she mentioned him, Lara had grown distant. Was she scared Soji would reject her after everything he’d heard about her?
Dapo had said he would find a way to let the news be passed across as a rumor. By tomorrow she knew her husband would have found a way with his money to ensure the news died fast enough.
The calls had been coming through ever since and she refused to pick. All she wanted to do was soak in a warm bath and drink herself into a coma only to wake up and be told it was all a dream and everything was fine.
But it wasn’t. Reality laughed into her face when she got home and found her husband helping himself to a glass of wine in the bar. She felt her heart constrict as she searched for words to throw at him. Horrible words filled her head and images of what she wanted to do to him flashed before her eyes as she watched him like a pathetic fool who could do nothing else but drink. If it was his plan to get drunk then he could as well knock himself out.
She couldn’t believe she had lived with this man for years, even shared the same room with him. A man who was brazen enough to hurt their child. What kind of man was he?
He stood when he saw her. “Sumbo…”
She ignored him turning to Samira and the other maid who were staring at her, waiting for instructions from her. She shook her head indicating she did not need them to see to her tonight and headed straight for the stairs while her husband followed behind her.
The house suddenly felt cold. Though warm, she suddenly felt the coldness of what the house did to her. She doubted her daughter would come back here. She would get people to help her pack her things to Dapo’s place. Or she could go to her sister’s place at Abuja and stay there for a while.
“Sumbo…, will you at least look at me?”
“Haven’t you done enough?” She spat angrily. “And you think you can talk to me and everything will be okay? You abused our child Lekan, our daughter. What did you see in that little girl that you couldn’t get from your tramps outside?”
“You believe I would do that to her? Did Lara tell you this herself?”
“It’s all over the news. That’s enough proof.” She hissed angrily heading for her wardrobe. She doubted she could sleep in their bedroom ever again.
He turned her to face him while she struggled to break free. When she saw she couldn’t struggle again, he told her. “Ask Lara, I would never do such. I’m her father. Why would I hurt my own daughter?”
“She told her friend Aisha…”
“She was a child. Aisha came into her life and everything changed from there. The girl probably wanted her to lie against me. Make up stories, they sent emails and all sorts. Have you ever wondered if Aisha was the one who did that to our baby girl? You chose to believe rumors instead? You choose to think your husband was a sick pervert…”
Sumbo looked into his eyes then and a flash of doubt crossed her mind. Lekan looked sincere. Was he lying again, like the way he lied to her in the past about his mistresses?
“I want you to do something, get Lara alone. I know Dapo must be upset now so don’t let him be there. Get Lara and probe her about these things. You know your daughter. If you want her to swear, let her swear, even if it’s before a courtroom. Lara will tell you I never touched her. I carried my baby girl and loved her like a father would. Some other guy or Aisha is responsible for abusing our daughter, not me.” He coaxed.
“But the mails…, why would she say such about you? It doesn’t make sense that she would frame you up and send it to Aisha.”
“I’ve told my men to dig up Aisha wherever she is. They won’t stop till they get every lying word from her mouth. Lara called me this evening to apologize…”
Sumbo frowned. “Lara called you?”
He nodded allowing one of his hands slide down her arms while the other caressed her neck. “She was calling to apologize about what happened. She knew I wouldn’t do such to her and she felt bad that she would make up stories.”
She shook her head. Her husband was distracting her and mixing things up in her head. Lara had not denied it before them. She had looked distant, confused and angry.
“She wasn’t a child to make up stories like that.” She protested
“It was 8 years ago when they were still teenagers. Aisha could have coaxed her into exchanging dirty mails…, or is it because I didn’t tell you how she wanted to find her way into my life as well? She couldn’t do that and she went after Soji. Gold diggers will do anything sweetheart.” He leaned close to kiss her but she shifted.
“I need to think about this Lekan. I really want to. Right now with everything you’ve said, I find it hard to believe who’s right and wrong. What if Lara is scared to tell the truth?”
He scoffed. “And why? If there’s anything we know Lara for, it’s her sharp tongue. She’s an adult. She can take care of herself without looking over her shoulder.”
“Then we have to do something about it. The press has to know it was some trash exchanged between friends and nothing more. You have to tell Dapo too.”
“I’ve handled the news. Dapo will come around soon…”
“But why didn’t you come to the hospital?” Sumbo queried again. Something was still not adding up.
“Because I was certain I did no such thing to our girl. If I was there, the whole press would think I came because I was guilty and was looking for some kind of atonement.”
“This is really confusing.”
“You know what, I’ll make your bath. All you need do is relax and I’ll ask one of the girls to make you your favorite tea while you calm your nerves. You’re not leaving this house till you’re strong and hearty okay?”
She managed a smile.
“That’s my girl.” He stole a kiss from her and helped her out of her clothes. Sumbo was too weak to complain and so she allowed him silently praying that all her husband told her was true.
For her sake and for everyone’s sake, she really wanted to believe all he had said was true.
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Nimi settled into her bed exhausted after retiring for the day. This was the second week after the whole incident and though she enjoyed helping out Lara, she couldn’t deny the work was wearing her out especially when her Boss hadn’t been at work for days. She had to keep tabs on all her calls. Personal and business alike. And the eyes that bore into her when she had returned. She ignored the whispers and everything else but sometimes she couldn’t help but catch the snide remarks they made about her cleaning up the Kitan’s mess the way the poor bore the brunt for the rich.
The secretary Nonye was not any better. Lara hardly came in and the next in line had a separate office. This gave Nonye the chance to talk and gist with other friends in the office she wouldn’t normally gist with when her boss was in. Nimi knew she had to keep ignoring them and doing what she was there to do.
But she wondered how long she would continue?
Dapo’s texts and calls had reduced ever since the incident. She knew she had told him she was also working on her dissertation but that hadn’t stopped him in the past. His bedtime calls reduced, his early morning texts were becoming brief and general and she wondered if he was just going to keep her at the back seat of his life just because he had to look after his sister.
At least he should have been here to set things straight for her. Helped her out with the whole office thing but they just seemed to have dropped their baggage on her like she was some maid. Lara had not even for once told her a simple thank you after everything she had done for her. Even when she had volunteered to return, the girl only glanced at her and continued chatting with IK and her brother.
Like she was just a piece of specimen to be ignored.
She took a shower and threw on a lighter shirt before heading to the kitchen to feed herself to whatever Tolani had made for dinner. Scooping rice into her plate, she remembered it had been a while she ate out. Dapo didn’t have time to take her out, but she saw how often Lara uploaded her picture of herself and her brother on whatsapp as her display picture.
A pang of jealousy hit her when she saw the latest one Lara had uploaded. There was another lady in the picture that caught her attention because she’d also seen Dapo use her as his display picture before pulling it down some days ago. She didn’t ask because she trusted him and felt he would share who she was if she was that important in his life.
But he didn’t and she tried to ignore it. It wasn’t like she didn’t have guy friends too although she doubted she did.
She picked her phone. If Dapo wasn’t going to buzz her first, she would.
“Hello…” A female voice cooed from the other end. Nimi closed her eyes praying it wasn’t Lara. The last time the girl had picked, she had taken over and asked her a dozen questions about the office instead. She did not even get the chance to talk to her boyfriend.
And she had expected Dapo to call back which he didn’t.
“Hi.” She paused before she heard a male voice from the other end. “Nimi?”
“Dapo Hi, are you alright?”
He laughed. “Yea, don’t mind Jibola, she can be mischievous sometimes. How are you, good I hope?”
“I’m okay.” She replied though she wanted to tell him she was not doing okay. She was upset, angry and she felt she was running low on the understanding meter.
“Who’s Jibola?” She asked before she could hold it in.
“Just a family friend. We’ve been friends for years and she decided to come spend sometime with Lara and I due to everything that happened. Are you alright though?”
“I just got back from work. Tiring day.”
“Yea, same here. Is everything fine? I’ve missed you.”
He didn’t sound like he missed her. She wanted to challenge him but held her peace instead.
“It’s been a while we spent time together and so I was wondering if we could hang out this weekend the way we used to?”
“Uh..,” He hesitated. “You know what, why don’t you come over? We could all go out together. Lara was saying something about movie night but we can negotiate. Is that okay?”
Why did he sound like he was trying to squeeze in time for her? Wasn’t she important enough for him to take time off babysitting his sister and spend time with her like they used to? When he would tell her he couldn’t do without her? And the times he’d made her feel special.
Where did everything fly to?
“Sure, that should be fun I guess.”
“Okay baby. I’ve got to run. I’ll call you before bed okay? Love you.”
“I love you too.”
And he was gone
There was one thing Nimi knew she was going to do when she got to his place on Saturday. She was going to find out who the Jibola lady was, her role in Dapo’s life and what she was doing in his place at this time when she was certainly not his mother.
She wasn’t certain about Lara’s intentions but on Saturday, she would make sure she found out.
Much love.xo!
Original story by ITUNU TAIWO owner of http://myglowingscenes.com
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