September 23rd 1996

Rafael had his eyes glued to the book in front of him. For an eleven year old, he had quite an interest in reading a lot, pretending not to be disturbed and distracted by his sister's constant humming as she wrote into her diary. He knew she was just being that way intentionally to get him mad. What he also knew was that he wasn't going to satisfy her desire to annoy him.

Rafael exhaled and then rose his head a bit the moment he heard loud footsteps running from the stairs. It had been a while since anyone in the house seemed to be in such a hurry to go somewhere. It made him turn his direction a bit to the door leading outside the small library, his frown worsening as he watched Sommadinah walk past it as fast as she could, her eyes glued to her front. It was like she was in a hurry to meet with someone or do something and with the way she had not even bothered to turn to acknowledge their presence, he just had a strange feeling to want to see why his mother looked so worrried.

Rafael slowly got up from his seat. He wasn't enjoying sitting there anymore anyway. Not with the way his older sister kept humming loudly. He followed his mother till he watched her walk into the living room, giving him the time to hide behind the wall before anyone noticed him. He peeped into the room, trying to be as careful as ever.

There was a woman inside. A woman his mother was hurrying to meet. A woman with the most sad eyes Rafael had ever seen. He watched how both women had their eyes glued to one another furiously, wondering why his mother looked so irritated even if the woman looked more scared of her.

"You have some nerve coming to my house like this." He went numb the moment he heard his mother's cold voice. "If it's my husband you came to see, then I'd have to disappoint you because as you know, he's not home. It'd be impossible to continue from where you both stopped before."

The lady exhaled and then took a tiny step forward to Sommadinah, holding on firm to her bag with her shaky hands. She had the most sincere look in her eyes. She was really beautiful.

"I'm not here to see the chairman, Mrs Okonkwo. I'm here to see you."

Sommadinah scoffed in disgust, letting a wry smile curve itself on her lips.

"And why is that? Have you come to have my blessings?"

"I came to clear the air. To clear things out with you. To clear the news about pictures on the news about your husband and I. Nothing happened between us. Someone is obviously trying to frame us both."

Sommadinah scoffed.

"Frame you?" She chuckled sarcastically for a while. "Who on earth do you think you are that anyone would try to frame, moreover with my husband?" She asked the woman who just started at her with her eyes glued to her. "What about the day I caught you both at the office? I caught my husband on top of you, holding you. Was that a set up too?"

"Mrs Okonkwo." The lady took another step to Sommadinah. It was getting obvious now that she was scared.

"You have no shame at all. " Sommadinah continued. "A married woman having a secret affair with a married man. I could never have been more disgusted."

"Nothing happened between us-"

"It was you. You're the reason he had been neglecting this family for a while now. You're the reason why he missed his son's birthday, missed all the family dinners and vacations. You bewitched my husband, turned yourself into his mistress. And I promise you, I'd make you eat the fruit of your labour. I'd bring suffering and pain to you like you've never seen before. I'd destroy you for what you did to my family, for breaking my home."

Rafael could hear his mother's voice shake. He could hear the pain in her voice and could almost tell she already had tears in her eyes. He narrowed his gaze to the woman standing in front of her. He could see her perfectly.

So she was the one. She was his father's mistress. The one his mother always cried about. The one his father always fought his mother about.

"Prepare yourself because I would never let this go by. Enjoy your few hours of glory. Your hours of reaping where you did not sow. Enjoy your free time feeding off my family's game and name but I promise you, you'd meet your Waterloo soon. Soon, I'd make you suffer for everything you've caused me."

"And what about you?" The woman blurted out. She looked even more scared but still managed to glare at Sommadinah so courageously. "What about all those other families that are suffering now because of your family?"

"What?"

"I know the truth. I know what happened, what really happened in Apapa."

He watched his mother become short of breaths and words all of a sudden.

"How can you live with yourself? Live with him after what he did? What he did to all those people? What he keeps doing to you? Disrespecting you the way he does. He's not a good man Sommadinah."

The woman took her last step to his mother and then slowly reached for her hand.

"We need to tell everyone the truth." She continued just as Sommadinah stepped back. "You need to stop walking in your husband's shadow. I can help you. If we confess, if we tell the world the truth then all those families can get vengeance for what was taken from them." She exhaled. "I know you're a good woman Sommadinah. I know you understand what I'm trying to say."

Sommadinah scoffed. She couldn't believe it. Her expression wasn't doing enough justice to the disgust she was feeling. The frown on her face got even worse.

"I am going to destroy you." She glared into the woman's eyes. "Never forget those words." She eyed the woman slowly from head to toe for a while. "Now make sure you see yourself out of my house, this instant."

Rafael swallowed hard.

Was his mother really saying the truth? Was it really her? His father's mistress? The woman he had recently gotten to hear about?

Just that moment, he rose his head and his eyes met the woman's. She had seen him standing right there. He watched the woman glare at him without even saying a word, looking into his eyes just as much as he looked into hers .

"Do I need to ask someone to throw you out!"
His mother's loud yell brought their attention back to her, making them shake a little bit. "Get out of my house now!"

Rafael turned back to the wall, resting his back on it while his heart beat rose. His eyebrows creased, as he tried to wrap his head around what he had just heard, around what was actually going on.

What had he just heard? What on earth were they both talking about? Who was this woman and why was she at their house? He slowly turned back to the living room.

There was no one there. No one except his mum who was halfway to the ground, crying her eyes out as hard as she could.

The woman was gone.

Rafael ran outside as fast as he could, trying to keep up with the woman who was almost halfway across the lawn, heading straight for the front gate. He knew he had to meet up with her. He had so much he wanted to say. If she was really the one that his mother said she was, he wanted to see for himself.

"Stop!" Rafael yelled at the top of his voice the moment he was close enough to the gate now, causing Adaora to halt quickly at the sound of his voice. He glared at her, hoping she turned to face him. She slowly did. Rafael blinked twice, glaring at her for a while, while she just stood there, glaring at him like she had no idea who he was or why he had stopped her. He took a staggering step to her, his hands were shaking a little bit.

"It's you, isn't it?" He asked her, his eyes not daring to leave hers, "You're my father's mistress."

Adaora's frown thickened as she watched him take another step to her. She was finding it so hard to catch an emotion from the look on his face. There was nothing. Nothing except anger.

"Why did you come here? Why did you upset my mother? Why won't you just leave us alone? What does it have to take? How much do you need to just stay away from our family? I can talk to my mother to write you a huge cheque."

Adaora exhaled softly, right before she bent over a little to keep and equal height between their heads so she could look him right in his eyes. She stretched a hand to him and was about to put it on his shoulders when Rafael took a sudden step back. There was no way in hell he was going to let her touch him. Not after all she had done. Not after trying to tear his family apart.

Adaora suspended her hand in the air for a while and then slowly withdrew.

"You're Rafael, aren't you?" She wasn't a stranger to knowledge about the Okonkwo family. She had only worked at Rand oil for a little while but just like everyone else, she had a sheer knowledge about every member of their family and their names. Rafael scoffed. He was beginning to get so disgusted especially since she had that crooked smile on her face. "I am not your enemy."

"You are my mother's enemy. You're the woman trying to take my dad from us, and so, you are my enemy."

Adaora looked into his eyes for a long while.

"You're such a handsome young man." She told him, slowly placing her hand on his head and then tapping it. "I just hope you'd walk in a better path. A path better than the one your parents are walking in. You have to be better than them. Live better than them. Know the difference between right and wrong."

Rafael  slowly reach for her hand, picking it up with two of his fingers in disgust. He pushed it away from his head.

"Just who do you think you are to touch me?" He glared at her. "Disappear. Disappear while you still can. Stay away from my family or we would make sure you face the consequences." Rafael told her as loud and as plain as he could, right before he turned and then stormed away, walking as fast as he could to the house till he began to run, run towards the house, not daring to look back.

He didn't look back until he was right in again. He could hear his mother's cry as he approached the living room slowly, staggering slowly. He could see his sister sitting right in front of her now, trying to comfort her while she cried into her arms. She slowly rose his eyes to his. Rafael glared into his sister's eyes. Slowly, his hands folded into a fist. He gulped hard.