Christopher
Bonn, Germany

Her eyes were still shut like she was deeply asleep but her grip on my wrist was so strong, it scared me. My heart started to race. My mind was stuck with a traffic of thoughts and with Yemisi honking the car in the distance, I became terrified. Was Irene pretending to be asleep? Has she seen through my pretense? Would the honking of the car wake her up?

I said a small word of prayer and it got answered to my surprise when everything became eerily silent. The car in the distance had stopped honking. Gently and as quietly as I could, I planted my derriere on the couch, making a move similar to an anti-clockwise motion since my wrist was still held captive.

Once I settled on the couch, her lips parted, and mumbled something very slowly.

"Staaay...with...meeee."

As soon as she said that, she lost her grip on me and her arm fell lifelessly to the floor with a snort escaping her lips. My first instinctive thought was to run out of the house immediately but somehow it didn't feel like the right thing to do.

What to do? What to do...

An idea came to my mind and quickly, I searched through the sofas with my eyes for any clothing of any form and sighed with gratitude when I saw a blanket and a couple of scarfs. Immediately, I started to weave the scarfs into a miniature model of a scarecrow then placed it next to her side and made her wrap her arms around it. To finish what I'd started, I covered her body and the mini scarecrow of stuffed clothes beside her with the blanket. I looked at my craft for a little while and was satisfied.

When I glanced momentarily at the glass cups on the table, I decided to put them in the kitchen sink and perhaps wash them. So I quickly did that.

I didn't know Yemisi had entered till I raised my head and started to tiptoe my way out of the living room and came to a halt when our eyes met. Exhaustion was vivid on her face like a placard and I could perceive the slight stench of something affiliated to fishes. She'd gone through a lot in just one day.

"Why were you doing all of that?" she pointed towards Irene's sleeping form on the floor. "I've been waiting for you."

I didn't respond to her till we both walked out of the house as quietly as we could. I'd wanted to aid her out till I touched an area of her shirt and realized that it was drenched. The air outside was fresh, wet, and chilly. I took a breath of fresh air for the first time in hours and replied.

"I just wanted to give her the delusion that I'm still deceived by her at least for a day or two. The way I covered her up with that blanket, it would be easy for me to use the excuse of work if she asks me why I left, " I explained.

I could only hope she would understand what I truly meant. If I didn't 'care' about Irene and just wanted to get away since I already discovered the truth, I wouldn't have bothered to weave all of those scarfs or covered her up with a blanket. Then she would realize I had drugged her very easily.

"Whyever should we keep playing that kind of game? I don't like that. It makes me jealous."

"Jealous?" I fought the urge to scoff. If we weren't having a serious conversation right now, I would have kissed her forehead and called her cute. "There's nothing to gain from being jealous. I didn't sleep with Irene back in the hotel room even. You have nothing to lose because I'm not going anywhere. I just don't want Irene discovering my moves too soon. She found out that my informant was digging up information about her family and she kidnapped him and you had to go through a lot to find him.  It's even a miracle she didn't figure out what I was really up to the moment I showed up at her office."

Yemisi sighed and her eyes danced from one end to the other in uncertainty and discomfort. I could see it all as the light from the bulb reflected on her eye orbs.

"Let's get out of here first," she said.

Once we got into Albert's car and it started in motion, Yemisi resumed talking, a bit more comfortably.

"Irene is not so bright though. I mean, for her to believe you so handily, it just shows that everyone has that stage where common sense becomes uncommon. Something like a mumu button. Seems like you pressed that button, " she laughed slightly in between. For that moment while she laughed, it smoothened the creases of stress on her face. I smiled at the sight of it instead of the humor in what she'd said. "I don't think we should play any more silly games. We've won already and we have the evidence we need. Whatever she chooses to do, she does it at her peril, not ours."

"What about the contract? How can we be sure that there's nothing she can do regarding our marriage?"

"That's where your dear mother comes into the picture, " she smiled in such a satisfactory way. She'd been dying to get her revenge on my mother and she was unashamed about it regardless of how that must make me feel but I shared in her joy. My wife meant so much more to me than my mother did.

"So...your mother is going to have to call off the betrothal contract between you and Irene since Irene's parents are deceased and your mother was the second party to the contractual agreement. If we are still going to have to pay the debt your late Dad owed Irene's Dad which I doubt we will since we don't know any of Irene's relatives, then I'd take it upon myself to find the lawyer who was present at the betrothal to make the payment.

"But it's your assignment to make your mother nullify the agreement. If we have to make any payments, she'll tell you for sure and we might be able to find the lawyer through her. Don't worry. It won't be tough at all.  You have everything it takes to make her speechless. Evidence and fact-wise. Also, you will be proving to her that you're no longer mummy's doormat or remote control."

"I must say that I'm more than excited to do this, "  I confessed. She placed her palm on mine and rubbed it affectionately.

We had come so far and fought through the demeaning turbulences and I was so thankful we were able to save our marriage from hitting rock bottom. I was more than ready to send every person out to put asunder away from our lives no matter what their position was. I'd always wanted to do that but now I had the weapons I needed and the greatest of all those ammunitions was my brand new acquired virtue of bravery.

We had refrained from kissing each other in the car for two reasons: Albert's presence and Yemisi's wet clothes.

***

We arrived at my apartment fifteen minutes after eleven. With only sleep heavy on our minds, I settled on the couch momentarily, waiting for Yemisi to come out of the bathroom so I could give her a bundle of wet towels and pajamas but was surprised when she came downstairs in the same, drenched, smelly clothes, her cellphone in hand, with moisture trickling down her face that I tried not to believe were tears.

Until she fell to the ground intending to crumble into nothingness. I got on my feet quickly and walked up to her, squatting to meet her eyes. I guarded her shoulders with my arms. They were shaking, how they would when crying.

"What is it? What happened?" I asked, panicking.

"I-I...got a phone call f-from...Gifty."

"Did something bad happen at home? What is it?" my heart pounded harder.

"She has a boyfriend...a-and he was part of the six boys. The six boys..."

Oh no... Oh, God... What the hell...