Chapter 50: Chapter 50

The sudden illumination irritated Mark and he made to walk out but Kelechi held his arm. He paused at the door and waited for her to speak.

"This thing we're doing, " she began drawing a finger down the line of his back through his polo.  "Is it called Sugar daddy relationship? "

He slapped his head in frustration then took the paper she was waving in front of him. It could have been in between her breasts or in her hair when she came. He didn't care. He didn't want to know. He just wanted to be alone.

It was an invoice of her school fees and the amount for payment of her apartment.

"Four hundred and fifty thousand? " he whispered.

She nodded, batting her eyelashes at him. Without a word he walked out leaving her in the kitchen knowing that was what her game was - To milk him dry. He was falling, he had fallen, all hands and toes.

In the days that followed Mark was careful, more attentive so that he does not miss out a clue on when his wife finally planned to leave. He did not know what he would do but with a certainty he knew , he could not let her leave. He could not bear the shame, he could not even bear the thought.

He started going to work late after she must have left for her own work and he still returned early. He was being careless in that aspect. He received a query once because he was hardly on seat.

Staying at home did not favor him. Kelechi was always at home and always came to him raising her dress to reveal her thin legs as an attempt at seduction. He knew better than falling. He had given her half of the money she asked for. He Did not want to complete it so he does not seem like a total fool since he had made himself a fool.

It was Thursday. He was burdened with so much work from office and thoughts of Kamsi leaving. Even the thoughts that he could have misplaced the documents for the annex of the company which he was incharge of, burdened him infinitely.

He knew where he had kept it; He put it in a suitcase which he threw inside the wardrobe for a long time. He did not ever bother to check it on. The absence of those documents and all the files in that suitcase made his head spin.

Unrelentlessly, he continued to search for those files even in the place he could not remember keeping them. He searched for them in his disorganized study room and ended up scattering  the place more.

He was unable to come up with an explanation for the missing documents so he returned to his room and lay on the bed facing the ceiling. He needed those files for work the next day. He needed them for his company to win the case the very people who sold the land to them had filed against them.

The door opened and he turned his face to it. In came strolling Kelechi wearing a blue net pant and yellow bra. He turned his face away, thinking of Kamsi. She hated bright undies; white was the only exception.

" When will you complete the money you promised me? " Kelechi asked.

"I'll give you the money. I just want to be alone now," He replied without looking at her.

"You are always moody," She said, climbing on top of him. "I know how to make you feel good. "

His head was still turned away and his hands underneath his head. "Get off me. My wife sleeps in this room. "

She laughed. "Doesn't she sleep in this house? "

He said nothing and she bent to his face, nibbling his ears and licking  while playing with his beard.

"Nne, get off me na. What is this? " He said not hiding his irritation .

The sound of a knock came from downstairs . He pushed her off and sat up. She quickly straddled him again.

"My wife is at the door. "

"I didn't hear any knock," Kelechi said, burying her head in his neck.

Another knock and the doorbell rang. He leaned back on the bed with his elbows waiting for Kelechi to get off him which she quickly did. He straightened his vest and went down after her to open the door.

Kamsi always returned in the evening when work must have ended but she returned earlier that day. He opened the door and waited for her to come in. She held her handbag on the crook of her arm and tapped the rail with her free hand as she looked at him.

"I didn't get promoted and you know why," She said as a greeting.

"I'm sorry about your promotion, " He replied.

She stepped into the house and waited while he bolted back the door. When he was done, he turned to face her.

"Hair," She said, picking out a strand of hair from his beard. " And it's not mine. "

From that moment till evening, he stuck in the parlor. Falling asleep or watching whatever programme was showing on the television. If Kamsi came to the kitchen he did not know. He was easily zoning out.

Remembering he was still searching for things he needed for work the next day, he walked upstairs and continued his search in the study room. When it proved futile, he walked to his bedroom.

Kamsi looked up from her phone as he stepped in. She had changed the bed sheet and put the coloured ones she loved to use not the customary white or milk his bed was used to . That was the first thing he noticed when he came into the room.

"Red?" He asked and walked to the wardrobe. He didn't seem so interested in getting an answer.

She did not plan to give him any answer though. She faced her phone and continued her 'Temple run' game. Mark seemed to be talking. She increased the volume of her game to block out the noise coming from him.

He came to her front and waved his hand to get her attention. She looked at him and lowered the volume of her game.

"I'm looking for something. This  empty case," he said pointing at the open leather case on the floor. "I kept so many important files there, now there's nothing there but irrelevant receipts. "

He rubbed a hand on his bald head then folded his arms on his chest. "Kamsi, please did you touch those files? I need them. My promotion, my entire life depends on it."

"I didn't touch them. "

She did more than touch them. She had carried them to the backyard and kept them in the scanty space that was supposed to be their garden. There were no crops there, just dried scent leaves. The rain had not yet touched the earth so the ground was dry. She lowered the papers, poured the kerosene she had bought on her way back home then lit it.

She sat on a low stool and watched it burn. The blue and yellow flames ignited her heart with joy, happiness, peace. It was alien but it was beautiful. She hummed as she turned the papers with a long stick making sure everything burnt. Kelechi was always in her room and that was where she was on that day.

It was the day after she gave out her clothes. She had come back from work just for that task and after she made sure the papers burnt thoroughly, she poured water on it so it would cool faster. Then drove out with the wet ashes she had scooped into a nylon with sand included.

Kamsi sighed then dropped her phone looking at Mark who was ransacking the night stand.

"Kelechi is my cousin, " She said, then turned to look at him, to make sure he heard her.

"That girl should be nineteen or twenty years. I carried her when she was little. She is my baby cousin. But Mark, you just had to bring it home. You just had to rub it in my face that I can do nothing."

She watched him sit down on the floor, backing the night stand. "You are wasting your time. You won't find what you are looking for," she concluded and turned up the volume of her phone and continued her game. He walked to the other side of the bed and stood beside her.

"Where. Are. My. Files that I warned you strictly not to touch ?"

She looked up and was amused by his flaring nostrils and folded fists then she returned to her game.

He snatched the phone roughly from her and put it in his pocket. "I'm not your mate," he said, "Don't treat me like one."

"Please give me back my phone " She said, stretching out her hand totally uninterested in matching his rage.

"Kamsi, where are the files? " he asked instead.

She stood up, standing almost toe to toe with him. "There's nothing you can do today that you have not done worse in the past but start anyway. It's your gra.. "

In anger, he pushed her back till her back collided heavily against  the wall. He stared down at her saying nothing. She struggled to be free from his grip but he held her there against the wall , his nails digging into her arm, breathing down on her in anger till he finally let her go.

She was wearing just a polo that reached her knee and she straightened it before brushing past him and walking out of the room. She matched down stairs ignoring the pain she was feeling at her lower back . She went straight into Kelechi's room who was standing in front of the mirror.

"Sister, welcome, " She said, smiling broadly with her hands in front of her, imitating the innocent pose of a child.

"Thank you dear," Kamsi replied, almost rolling her eyes at the welcome she was receiving at night. The small clock on the wall read, a few minutes past ten.

She looked around the room and her eyes landed on the dresses that were still on the seat.

"You have a friend in Okigwe, yes? " She asked, folding her arms on top of her stomach.

"Yes. The one that gave me those clothes. "

"Good. I want you to start packing. You are going there now, " She said then sat on the bed.

Kelechi was too shocked to speak. She stood still looking at her cousin like she had grown more than the normal head.

"Don't waste my time. Osiso," Kamsi said, snapping her fingers.

"Sister, it's night. If you want me to go I can leave tomorrow. It's late, please let me leave tomorrow," Kelechi said kneeling down.

"Tonight," Kamsi said, stamping a foot on the floor. "Don't waste my time. Start packing."

She had been wrong about family. Family was not just blood. It was love, sacrifice, understanding. Those things would always be stronger than blood. Genevieve was family, Maka was family, Michelle was family because family does not let the other down. Family does nothing but raise you. It was not just about blood. Where people normally said, you can't choose family - Life had taught her she could choose family.

She watched Kelechi leave the room and return with a Ghana -must -go from the kitchen. She sat patiently and quietly as she packed in her new dresses to the bag since the fake Gucci school bag she came with could not contain them all.

"Sister, I'll leave first thing tomorrow morning. Sister please." Kelechi begged in tears.

"Pack your things dear. Stop crying," Kamsi replied, crossing her legs.

When she was done, Kamsi followed her as she dragged the Ghana -must -go bag with her school bag on her shoulder. They met a confused Mark as they passed the stairs and Kelechi stopped, looking pleadingly at him with tears in her eyes.

"Kamsi, what is this? " He asked.

"Nne please move. So you can still find transport," Kamsi said. Her voice made Kelechi resume dragging her bag to the door.

Kamsi followed her to the door and watched her from the garage till she reached the gate. Timothy opened the gate for her and also stepped outside with her.

"Kamsi, you are not reasoning. That girl is under your care. As far as everyone knows, she is in this house. If anything happens to her, we would take the blame," Mark said from the front door.

She only shrugged and walked back to the house. He walked past her as she climbed the short stairs to the front door. He was right; she was not reasoning. She was too bitter to reason.

"If you leave, know that you are sleeping outside tonight, " she warned.

She stood at the rail at the front door and watched his car till its headlights went on and he drove out of the house. She had thought it through but never thought she could do what she did. She felt no guilt, nothing. If anything, she felt unsatisfied.

She went back into the house and got the keys to the padlock of the chicken cage in the backyard and another padlock that always lay around on the kitchen floor which she did not have the keys to. Mark was right that night; She was not thinking.

She took the padlocks to the gate and changed the locks of the big gate and smaller gate. Timothy and his wife sat on the bench outside watching the drama quietly.

"Goodnight, " she said to them as she passed where they sat on her way back to the house.

"Goodnight ma," Timothy replied on behalf of his wife who could not understand what she had witnessed.