Gaius
Lagos, Nigeria

The state of my mind did not remain the same after July the 8th, Gifty's birthday. Not like it was ever in a great state but I thought I was going to feel slightly better or rather, a bit fulfilled after taking a step towards getting closer to jail.

Instead, the image of Zion and the way those tears ran down his cheeks played in my head like a repeated record. It haunted me in everything I did and regardless of whatever state I was in - asleep or awake.

When I arrived at the ball party and saw the distortion in Gifty's expression, I knew immediately that she had not reported me to any of her family members even before I'd asked her to confirm.

I could also tell from the enthusiasm in which Mrs. Karen was using to address the guests on the stage that she was clueless. No way would she be in the right mind to have a conversation with anybody talk more of a crowd.

I saw Gifty's brother first before Gifty's eyes met mine. An idea came to my mind so I decided to talk to him first. He gave me a nasty attitude however which made me wonder if he already knew something. After so much persuasion that I didn't even think would be needed, he agreed to talk to me in private.

"Do you know something?" I asked in a low tone since we were in a less noisy spot.

"What am I supposed to know about you and your traitorous girlfriend?" he frowned. My heart pounded. Traitorous. That word messed with my mind. What did he know?

"Say what you want to say quickly, " my patience is very much limited. His gaunt expression said the remaining words for him.

"I want to see your mother. How can I?"

"It's simple. Just book a flight to Germany. That's how."

"Okay, " I gritted my teeth, fighting the urge to roll my eyes. I looked back at the stage again. Mrs. Karen was still talking but Gifty was no longer beside her. I became tensed. "Looks like the woman up there is her friend. I'd like to see her. But not on the stage," I quickly added because he exuded so much vile sarcasm.

"Well, you can just wait till the party's over which would be in about fourteen hours since—"

"I was part of the six guys that raped your aunty thirteen years ago. That's why I'm here. I came here to tell that to your mum or the woman up there rather."

His eyes grew large as saucers. Almost reflexively, he grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and was just about to push me harshly into the wall when he stopped midway, very abruptly like he realized he wasn't supposed to be doing that. I couldn't decipher what series of thoughts made him arrive at that conclusion but I was relieved for a moment. He released his grip on me.

"What did you just say?" anger overtook the dull, gaunt look he had in his eyes moments ago. "Did my sister know about it?" the tears fell from his eyes. My heart pounded fiercely.

"Yes she did and today was the deadline I have her to report me to your mother or anyone in her family but I'm guessing she hasn't done that. I wanted to allow her to chose her family over me so I was hoping I wouldn't have to come here to report myself. I was hoping that when I see your mum, it would be because she wants to arrest me."

"What the fu..." he paused midway, still trying to absorb the catastrophe. He dug his fingers into his hair and started to itch it with rage. More tears ran down his cheeks.

"Please help me arrange an emergency meeting with the woman on the stage before I meet your sister because she will try to stop me from meeting her. I want to be prepared before that happens."

Zion didn't respond to me. He only placed his arm on the wall and rested his head on it, sobbing for a few more minutes. As anxious as I was to meet with the lady on the stage since time wasn't on my side, my heart shattered to watch Zion cry like this.

Worse off, his sister's boyfriend was the cause of those tears. I hated this for so many reasons. Brothers were normally very selective and protective about any guy being around their sisters but this brother had no doubt, loathed me right now because not only had I restored the life of one of his family members, I'd destroyed his sister emotionally by daring to get close to her.

I'd also damaged his relationship with her. All of these thoughts were heavy on my mind when he looked at me, his eyes a fiery red.

"Her name is Mrs. Karen. I'll tell her to meet you in the basement in fifteen minutes. Gifty won't find you there."

He walked away from my presence and when I was sure I had seen him whisper to Mrs. Karen amongst the people present in the ballroom, I picked to my heels, deciding to meet Gifty. It was clear that she hadn't told anyone but I still wanted to ask her.

I had no reason why but I just wanted to. While Zion was sobbing, I noticed that Gifty was no longer on the stage and I spotted her running in a certain direction. It was quick but it was her I had seen so I ran in the same direction.

Mrs. Karen's reaction to my confession was not as intense as Zion's reaction. First, she wasn't related to the victim in question. Of course, she had been investigating the case with Gifty's mother for many years so all the sentiments she was possibly feeling could only be aligned in that pattern or area.

The pain, the anger, the effort, determination and hope, time, money, and resources they must have invested into catching the rapists was what could bring up that pent up emotions in her but there was no way she could bask properly in the memory of that incident like Zion could. He knew it way before she did so his emotions were very raw compared to hers.

More importantly, I had a feeling that she somewhat had her subtle suspicions about me for reasons I couldn't fathom distinctively but I could only pinpoint it to two possible reasons: Detective instincts, or Gifty's bad mood over a long period since the beginning of our relationship issues and it was inevitable that she noticed it since she was their temporary guardian.

These didn't stop her from being shocked and furious nevertheless. She wanted to kill me.

"So..." she breathed after staring into thin air for many minutes, absorbing my confession. "You were that guy that wore the black face cap, sunglasses, and a cyan t-shirt to the prison yard, " she didn't want that person to me with the way she asked that question.

She was wishing something in what I had confessed would be nonsense but the guy who visited the prison yard had vowed to turn himself in so she should have expected it but she was still having a hard time believing that that guy was me.

Besides everything, I had said correlated perfectly with the reason behind Gifty's shady behaviors and moodiness over time.

"Yes. I'd like to meet with Gifty's mother too. I'm ready to face the full consequences of my actions."

Tears fell down her eyes as she turned her back against me, heading towards the steep stairs. "Get out of here."

I left with unease. She hadn't recorded my confession with any device whatsoever. Although it was all sudden to her I expected that she would make use of her mobile phone at least so she could send it to Gifty's mother.

I couldn't tell what she was going to do but I left regardless with the memory of that day plastered permanently to the walls of my mind.

***

Word had gotten to Barrister Peret that I'd somewhat reported myself to Mrs. Karen so I wasn't surprised when he called my number in seething rage, commanding me to report to his office right away. I knew I had nothing to lose since there was nothing left for me to hold on to anyway.

I'd already reported myself so there was no way he could compel me not to. Digging my hands in my pocket all through my walk to dramatically prove my nonchalance, 'sense of fulfillment' and 'peace of mind',  I entered his office leisurely and my composure changed unconsciously once I closed the door and saw not only Barrister Peret but the monstrous face of my father.

I was shocked. Barrister Peret had me the entire time. For my Dad to have come from Australia showed that there was serious trouble.

"So...you reported yourself to the police!" my father yelled so loudly that I felt the urge to stick my index fingers in my ears.

"But I warned you not to do that, " Barrister Peret added in frustration. "And I thought you weren't going to report yourself because of the time gap you gave it. I thought you came to your senses which is why I didn't have any of my personnel monitor you closely," he explained because he understood my father's temperaments all too well.

"My girlfriend is involved. Her mother is my lawyer who is looking for me. She already knew that one of the rapists was going to turn himself in any way. I just needed to let know that it was me especially after I found out that my girlfriend was involved."

"Oh..." Barrister Peret scoffed. "Barrister Yemisi is your girlfriend's mother. Perfect!" he clapped his hands.

"You know her?" my dad asked him.

"Of course. She's the lawyer I've been talking about. I assigned her to go to Germany to find one of those rapists in question as a way of helping her out whilst I would help her keep watch of the rapist who visited the prison yard and also help her assistant, Mrs. Karen with the investigation but when I discovered that it was your son, I had to switch sides.

"She's been calling me severally these recent times because I've had the prison yard workers deny Mrs. Karen access to the dash cams but I've been ignoring her calls because I obviously can't ratt Gaius out in any way."

An unavoidable, sudden shiver ran down my spine. What in the world was this discovery?!

"Now that this obnoxious animal has confessed, we have to focus on keeping her in Germany. She must never come back until we can save Gaius." My dad said.

I opened my mouth to say something but the words weren't forthcoming. When I finally found something to say, Barrister Peret cleared his throat loudly.

"Superiority, " he rubbed the stubble on his chin. "I can simply use my superiority over her to keep her stuck or spend more time in Germany. Or better still, implication could be a more effective strategy, " he smirked. "I could sue her for stalking me. I caught her assistant monitoring me the other day. He wasn't careful enough. Barrister Yemisi knows pretty well that stalking is punishable by the law."

He paused to study my father's expression but when he realized that my dad was anything but pleased with his line of reasoning, he knew he had been spewing nonsense.

"Or... We could put it all on his girlfriend and accuse her of tagging her boyfriend as a rapist. We could insinuate that she told Mrs. Karen about it so Mrs. Karen is about to tell or has told Barrister Yemisi which is why she's assigned her assistant to monitor me. If Barrister Yemisi tries to defend her actions based because I've been ignoring her calls, then I can play the "my-wife-is-sick" card since she even knows about it. It would be a lot more natural a reason. But if the suspicions are outstanding, we can be at a gain if Mrs. Karen didn't record Gaius' confession."

"On what grounds would his girlfriend's accusations be upon? What must have made her tell Mrs. Karen that her boyfriend is a rapist if we are trying to prove that he's not?" My dad questioned. "There must have been a kind of feud between them that is beyond the normal level of human comprehension."

I was baffled by the conversation happening right in front of me. I never truly had a proper understanding of why people did vile things. Especially people with affluence and authority. It was somewhat a mystery to me why corruption was rampant but seeing and witnessing it with my eyes just showed me what I needed to know and more.

People committed insane atrocities to cover up for a particular evil even when the evil they were trying to use as a cover-up didn't make any sense. I guess that was the essence of corruption, making things out of the ordinary, twisting and fine-tuning into the shape they wanted it to look like. Mandatorily making nonsense look like sense with every tool they've got. Affluence and authority coming into usefulness in terms of tools.

Which was why corrupt people were never accountable. All that would be heard amongst the populace or the citizens of a nation was that a humongous amount of money had been used or eaten by wild animals. But the how's and why's of that breaking news were never known.

It was the same thing with this matter. Barrister Peret simply could not account for his reasons behind ignoring Barrister Yemisi's call because he knew he owed it to her as a duty to pick her calls since he promised to help irrespective of his sick wife being in the way of the matter. It was a mutual engagement so no matter how hard he ruminated the situation, it was clear that he couldn't make it make sense.

Yes, I was an evil-doer. A rapist. I was supposed to know better about everything affiliated with evil but the truth was, I never really had an idea but seeing the behind-the-scenes of corrupt acts and practices was an eye-opener.

What baffled me some more was the fact that they were having the conversation in front of me like I wasn't going to do a thing and truthfully, I felt powerless. I couldn't even say a word to counter all of their bankers and vile sayings maybe it was because it was too crazy a drama to watch.

But I knew I had to help Gifty's family especially after witnessing the immense danger that Barrister Peret and my Dad are ready to cook. It was only a matter of time before they would be successful in making their nonsense make sense.

The question now was: how easy was it going to be for me to ratt Barrister Peret out to Mrs. Karen? Does my Dad think I will hide in fear and make no move? Or would he try to stop me from doing a thing?

Then I figured that maybe my Dad doesn't know me very well yet and what I'm capable of doing just so I can serve my punishment. Mrs. Karen might also try to drive me away if I show up in front of her again but there's no way this information won't be of great help to her and Gifty's mother. Maybe my honesty would be the tool that I just might need at a time like this.

I can never know if I don't try.