Yemisi

I hated this. I hated everything so much. Just when I thought was already making notable steps towards moving forward, something like this occurs and pulls me back - literally and figuratively. Now I'm in Myron's apartment again, asking for a favor that makes me feel like nothing but a burden. Miss Rico's facial expressions are not helping either.

"What's the matter, Yemisi? The way you called me on the phone made my heart skip so badly," Myron half sat on the chair. She was genuinely concerned. Not disturbed by the fact that I had called her at such an odd hour.

"I have to leave Germany as soon as possible, " I confessed uncomfortably.

"Why?!" the two of them exclaimed simultaneously with a facial expression so uncanny, that they nearly looked alike in my eyes.

I was used to Myron understanding the urgency of my situation even without knowing the full story but this time, I knew I had to talk if I didn't want to feel like I was taking advantage of her constant availability. "It's...my daughter. She called me yesterday to tell me that her boyfriend was among the six guys."

"W-what? How's that even possible? What the hell?"

"I'm still in shock too. I didn't even know she had a man in the first place and he was the guy I told you about that promised to turn himself in at the prison yard. A certain lawyer was supposed to help me and Karen out with exposing the guy but he started acting up, ignoring my calls and texts so I figured it would be best if I just went back home to face the fire myself. It looks like something necessary I must do."

"Damn. It sure is. I've got a feelin' dat lawyer is trying ta protect dat guy or something, " Miss Rico thought out loud.

"So...are you trusting us to handle the limping man's case or you're..." Myron's eyes shone in disbelief as a negative thought had appeared in her mind at that moment. "Don't tell me you want to suspend our investigation and relieve us of everything because you won't be involved in it?"

"No..." a tiny surge of relief coursed through me knowing now that Myron wouldn't mind being of great help and I wasn't being an inconvenience to her. "I'm here to trust the rest of the investigation in your hands. I want you and Mrs. Rico to investigate in my absence without needing any instruction from me. Like it's your case. Just do what you deem fit as effective to catch the limping man."

She sighed, a small smile of satisfaction appeared on her face.

"I'm happy you trust us well enough to do a wonderful job and we will. You won't have a cause to worry about us while you're in Nigeria. I just hope things work out for you there. Take care, " Myron took my palm in hers and rubbed it calmly.

"I appreciate you guys so much for being people I can count on. Thank you for understanding my situation, " I said with gratitude but was unable to smile even if I tried.

We embraced each other in a brief group hug and I left the apartment.

***

Christopher wished he accompanied me back to Nigeria but we both agreed that he had to stay till it was confirmed that no ties were binding him and Irene together. He still had a few things to do to ensure that before he joins me.

I was a heavy mess. Mentally and physically. I stuffed my clothes recklessly into my luggage and rushed out of the house with my hair unkempt, my body still covered in pajamas and a brown coat and palm slippers. I had no time to clean up because it was an emergency flight I had secured. I didn't even know the time for the departure. All I knew was I had to be at the airport before the next hour that's if the airplane hasn't departed already.

The taxi driver was fast enough. I got to the airport before the next hour and sighed heavily with relief when I saw the plane I was supposed to board, still on the land at the harbor. Immediately after I got my luggage checked at the check-in port, I dialed Karen's number so I could let her know that I was on my way. Thankfully, German and Nigerian time zones are the same, so she would be awake by now.

"Hi, Karen. I'm at the airport. I'm on my way, " I said when I heard her in the receiving end.

"You are?"

"Yes, I heard the news from Gifty."

"Wow. Okay then. There's a lot you need to know because God forbid we are in trouble."

My heart pounded hard at the sound of that. She didn't even sound a bit hopeful like she usually would. Karen had a way of making people feel like everything was going to be alright even when the situation at hand didn't look like it. Through her tone, I could tell she was confused and truly hopeless - like this was the worst of all worst situations.

It multiplied the agonizing feeling I was already going through. Curiosity and unease ate through my flesh like termites on a log of wood. There was just so much for me to think about and the thought of that gave me a terrible headache.

"Can you let me in a little on what's going on?" I bit my lip, using the back of my other hand to touch my forehead. It suddenly became hot.

"Barrister Peret is working with Gifty's boyfriend's Dad to implicate you. He wants to accuse you of stalking him because he caught Albert following him and he plans on using his sick wife as his safe card for ghosting on us."

"What?!"

"I'll tell you the entire story when you come. Please don't jump to conclusions yet till you know everything. I'm not even in the right state to reveal everything right now. Safe journey on your way home."

She hung up.

As a lawyer, I knew too well the implication of jumping hastily to conclusions but right now, I could barely hold myself together. Everything was so hard for me to process. How could all of this even be? Why did Barrister Peret play me so smartly and I didn't even realize? Why was my daughter involved in all of this? How could she... How could she associate herself with someone who hurt her family?

What were these insane intertwining occurrences? Why was I in the dark for so long? When did I fail to see that my stay in Germany was all bait? The old woman whose granddaughter was raped to death. The limping police officer. Were they all fake stories?

My stay at the law school. Teamwork with Myron... Was it all for nothing? Was I wasting my time training myself to look for something that wasn't even there?

The urge to cry overwhelmed me but I knew I wanted to do more than that. I couldn't figure out what it was I wanted to do that would help me express every queue of emotions adequately but I wanted to stop wasting Myron's time so I thought of calling her to quit investigating.

Please don't jump to conclusions yet till you know everything...

Karen's warning replayed in my head and before I could even dismiss it to follow what my instincts were leading me to do, an announcement was made, notifying those who had booked a certain flight that it was time for departure.

It was my flight.

*** 

Karen was seated in a verandah at the airport for only God knows how long but I had arrived in Nigeria during the late hours of the night. When I saw her and studied her countenance, my stomach churned in pain. She was tired, cold, and very anxious. I observed the way she kicked one foot against the floor, burying her hands deep into the pockets of her jacket and looking sideways very often. Nothing was welcoming about her mien and I felt the need to faint.

Could it be any worse?

As she kept looking sideways and turning her head, her eyes finally caught mine and she stood up from the seat with...enthusiasm or anxiety? I became even more confused when she wrapped me tightly in a brief hug, her eyes shimmering with so much concern.

The drive home took another hour and it was tough for me to stay sane with Karen insisting that she wouldn't utter a word until we got home and the journey home felt like a hundred-day voyage through the desert. So unbearable.

Most of the street lamps in the estate were put out. It would have been eerily quiet if it weren't for the croaking of frogs and burrowing owls lording the tunes of the night. When Karen parked the car at the garage, I looked through the windows upstairs and observed that the lights were out. My children were asleep.

Once we got to the living room, I settled on the chair with little or no time to properly observe the state of the house since my absence. My eyes were only fixed on Karen, waiting impatiently for her to sit down and start talking. Every form of fatigue, hunger, and physical weakness I felt during the drive vanished like evaporating smoke.

"Just leave my luggage by the entrance. We would sort that out later, " I complained. Quicky, she sat and cleared her throat. There was no point wasting any more time.

"I don't even know where to start from," she sighed, circling her thumb against the cushion nervously which wasn't helping me either. "But I'll just say that Gaius is someone I admire. I don't know if 'admire' is the right word to use concerning his grievous offense but he's even more loyal and feels indebted to our family than Gifty is."

"You might think that I've always known that Gifty had a boyfriend and you might be right but I didn't know he was a part of the six guys. I only discovered that your daughter had a boyfriend when she once talked to me about how he was giving her an attitude and was avoiding her. I hoped to meet him one day and help them resolve whatever issues they were having together but little did I know that what was going on was way beyond a trivial misunderstanding. Same thing with Zion too. I just thought the feud that was going on between them was the average sibling fights but it was all about Gifty's inability to be loyal.

All of a sudden on her birthday, Gaius showed up and asked to meet with me. It was my first time seeing him. Then he told me about Gifty knowing the truth, how he gave her a deadline to report him to her family but she never did so he decided he would do it himself. So he confessed to me. I was very disappointed and annoyed so I yelled at him to get out because I was just too shocked.

Then I started to remember the expression on Gifty's face when I mentioned my intentions of wanting to meet her boyfriend. I thought she hadn't figured it out yet and I wanted to help her. I also remembered the first argument she had with Zion and it was about her not being a good sister to him because she never sticks up for him when he needs her to. Everything she knew and was hiding dawned on me and it broke my heart. She betrayed us.

I couldn't even lash out at her the way I had wanted to because I could not believe that she would choose herself and her boyfriend over us even when Gaius was willing to suffer for his sins. So I mandated her to call you and confess it to you by herself when she could have just done that on her own.

Gaius came by another day and told me about Barrister Peret and his father and what their plans were to ruin us and protect him."

"He did that even when he knew he could have simply allowed his father to protect him?" I asked, shocked.

"Yes. It blew my mind too. Once the Barrister and his father became aware that Gaius reported himself to me, they've been plotting on how to prevent the truth from getting to you because but now that it has, it doesn't change the fact that you might be in trouble because they want to attack first. Barrister Peret knows that you were having one of your men tail his movements since he started acting funny and to protect Gaius and make the first move, he wants to accuse you of stalking him and wants to have the law punish you for it.

"The fact that you also know about his ill wife puts you more on the defenseless side because it will be harder for you to prove your reason for having someone monitor him."

"That sick bastard doesn't even have a regard for his wife and...and why would he do this to us?!"

"I think he was genuinely ready to help us initially until he discovered that the guy in question was Gaius so he had to switch sides since his dad has more power and is a lot closer to him. Asshole move."

"He also wants to lie against Gifty and accuse her of falsely tagging Gaius as a rapist. It would be hard to fathom why Gifty would want to tell such a 'lie' as it is far-fetched but it's scary that it is achievable because he said this would be an easy scenario to establish if I didn't record Gaius' confession."

"Did you record it?"

"No," she sighed. My heart fell.

"This is insane. Completely Insane. And I'm not going to lie, I don't know what to do."