Chapter 19: Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

******

"Here we are..." He whispered,patting my head softly. I found that amusing and I was affirmative of the fact that my face portrayed it, as Tunji just sat there mirroring my expression for what felt like hours.

"Why are you whispering?" I asked trying to hold back the laughter bubbling in my throat. His face looked so cute, it reminded me of Ayo, my very adorable nephew.

"I thought you were asleep" He said in mock surprise.

"I was just... Meditating" I said shutting one eye, curling my fingers and almost trying a lotus position even with my seat belt on.

Silly me...

Truth be told, I had slept for the better part of the ride, and had only woken up a few minutes earlier.

I do not mess with my beauty sleep, alright...

"Meditating indeed, come on we're here" He announced.

I finally opened my eyes to take in the new environment, it looked like a new building, still under construction but had certainly made immense progress. I soon found myself wondering why he would bring me over to a two storey building that was half complete for a supposed fun filled outing.

"Don't start stressing your little head, I'll tell you why we're here but let's get in first" Tunji's voice jolted me out of my ever wandering mind, insultingly so.

Nah... I'm just kidding

But I wasn't going let him off the hook. "Olatunji Oluwole, what did you just say?!" I said trying to feign a menacing scowl.

"I apologize if you find my words offensive, your majesty" He replied with a mock bow and a British accent that sounded beyond terrible.

"Hmmm" I scoffed, mimicking his awful accent - mine was better, by the way. I dismissed his apology with the wave of my hand.

"Apologies duly accepted young sire, now do well to get me out of this mobile contraption"

"What are you doing in this country sef?" He asked in amusement with his arms folded across his chest, impressed by the mimicry I had pulled off perfectly.

"My brother na condition o" I said with a chuckle, he joined in and soon we were out of the vehicle, heading into the very sightly building. Curiosity was seeping through me already and I couldn't wait to behold the interiors of the place.

Tunji pushed the sliding doors aside and we trudged in. Behold, it was empty.  A large, nearly empty hall was what greeted us, white washed walls, empty buckets of paint at different ends, few building materials, doors at different corners that would definitely open to more empty rooms, that was just about it. I had expected more but I was awed at how massive the place was, still I turned to him with a confused glare, urging him to explain why we were there. He smirked, making me furrow my eyebrows more.

"Come on, let's go upstairs" He gestured at the stairs I hadn't noticed at the time. I shrugged and followed him closely. Slowly, we mounted the flight of stairs in ascension, our footsteps creating echoes in the void room. He opened the large sliding door and the cool breeze from the ground to ceiling window that hadn't been fully fixed, hit us square in the face, as we found ourselves in another large room, with doors at different corners.

My eyes went about ravaging the place, same white washed walls and building equipment as I had seen on the first floor. I groaned in frustration, the suspense was killing me and the culprit was well aware of that as he chuckled in response.

"Can you just tell me what's going on already?!, I don't like suspense one bit" I said groaning again.

"Chill jor, I brought you here for a reason"

I rolled my eyes in response, why would he bring me here without a reason?

"Out with it" A harrumph eluded my lips out of impatience.

"I have lots of plans for this place Lola, I finally want to follow my dreams. This is going to be like a place for training of a few youngsters who are interested in the world of tech"

"Go on..." I urged and that was his cue, he splurged non stop about his ideas, saying some incoherent things, which I nodded to. His eyes lit up with excitement at every thing he said. I heard a few things about coding, web designing, ethical hacking and so much more than I could decipher. He was indeed enjoying every moment of it while I just nodded in response to everything he said even when I could not exactly decrypt any of it.

"I'm boring you, aren't I?" He said with his gaze piercing through mine. I laughed nervously, thinking of how to put my response nicely.

"I understand, you're not into these kinda stuff but I'd really appreciate it if you support me" He said with a little edge to his tone.

Uh oh...

"No no no, you're getting it all wrong, you know I support you all the way, it's just that this isn't the kind of outing I expected. I honestly feel honored that you'll share this with me,Tee I don't want to fight with you,okay?" I said succinctly, giving him a playful nudge, he only replied with a guttural sound.

"I'm sorry" I pouted giving him a side bear hug. "I don't have a plausible explanation about how I feel but I do admire what you're trying to do and I'm proud of you cause you're planning to use your resources wisely, bringing your dreams to life too" I rambled on, giving a peck at the side of his head. He smiled at that.

"Happy now?" I smirked.

"Hmm maybe" He mirrored my expression after ruffling my hair, I chased him around the room till we found ourselves on the first floor. I had run out of breath and I held on to my aching sides, Tunji on the other hand didn't even look like he had run that distance. I really needed to get in shape.

"Lazy girl" He said in between laughter, I gave him a stern glare, still breathing heavily.

"Do exercise, you say no, let's go o" He said, trying to pull me up.

"Leave me abeg, lazy people like us don't need the help of hardworking people like you"

He pretended to not hear me and went ahead to scoop me into his large arms. I felt like a kid, and when I tried to protest he pinched my back with his claw like fingernails. "I hate you" I muttered as my hands dangled behind him

"Nah,you love me and I love you too" He said cockily.

The nerve!

Before anyone else gets it wrong, we're just friends, more like best friends, no strings attached. Tunji and I never dwelt on the relationship issue, we avoided it like a plague, I strongly believed he wasn't attracted to me in such a way.

"You're so full of yourself" I muttered as he placed me in the car seat and tucked in my seatbelt.

"I know"He flashed his million dollar smile and I couldn't help but smile back.

****

We headed out to a fast food restaurant where we bought take outs, I wanted to get home as soon as I could.

"But for the fact that you step out of the house everyday to that shop, I would think you're some sort of recluse" He said casually as he took a quick glance at the side mirror, and swerved slowly into our neighborhood.

"Haha very funny" I responded,dryly.

"No seriously Lola, what do you have against the outside world?" He said suppressing a laugh as I glared at him.

"I just enjoy being indoors, is that a bad thing?"

"Hmmm not really but you need to get out more, you want to be a designer you can't stay in all day and fulfill your dreams, you need to meet people,sell your brand,you know?"

"We have social media?"

"That's not enough, meeting people face to face, having real conversations with them, not just texting all the time, gives them the chance to trust you, your body language is what they'll see and judge you by. Your sense of style is vital too, you've got to show what you can offer and it's not just about the pictures you post there on social media. You know what I mean?"

Indeed he had a point there but I wasn't going to let him know it.

"Consultant!" I exclaimed with jocose. "I should refer lots of people to you for advice concerning career paths, we would be making cool cash o"

He face palmed in frustration "I said it, you don't have sense"

"We're in this together bud" I stuck my tongue out and he chuckled.

******

"Aren't you going to come in?" I asked as I stepped out of the vehicle.

"Nah I need to head home and get some rest, another working week starts tomorrow" He let out a forced laugh, scratching the back of his neck.

He was nervous.

"Is this about Tana?" I asked with a knowing look.

"Uhmm I'll see you guys on Sunday, talk to you later cupcake" He said in a hurry and zoomed off before I could say anything. I was actually too startled to form a word until he was nearly out of sight.

"Olatunji Oluwole!!!" I growled stomping my feet in exaggerated anger. I only realized that, when I saw some bewildered stares from the neighbors who quickly shifted their gazes as soon as my eyes landed on them.

"I'm so going to kill him" I mumbled and traipsed in a not so graceful manner into the flat.

"Tana?! I'm home!!!" I half yelled in the empty living room. There wasn't any response so I headed straight to the bedroom. I heard sobs as I slowly approached the door.

"I don't know what to do..." Someone said amidst a sob and the voice sounded oddly familiar. I shoved the door open immediately and stood there in befuddlement.

"Laila?!" I squeaked. She looked so disheveled, her hair was in a mess, her face which was free of make up was smeared with tears, her eyes were puffy. In all, she looked a shadow of herself. Tana held her shoulders as her body shook with sobs and I ran straight into her arms, I tried to hold her tight, as if to convince myself that she was actually in front of me, and she yelped, she winced in pain.

"What are you doing here? What's going on? You're in a mess, why?..."  I bombarded her with questions, while Tana shushed me .

"Lola one question at a time please, she's already in a bad state as it is"

I nodded in acknowledgement of what she had said. I looked down at my sister, her face was bruised, I hadn't noticed it earlier.

"Who did this to you?"

She stared me straight in the eye, as she tried to hold her tears back but they betrayed her and came pouring in torrents.

"He did this, my supposed husband did this" She said, her voice was hoarse from all the crying. My hands flew to my mouth as a gasp eluded my lips.

"How could he? Why would he do that?"

She let out a humorless laugh.

"Trust me Lola this isn't the first time" The shocked expression on my face was mirrored by Tana.

"She hasn't told you anything?" I asked Tana.

"No she was waiting for your return, but she wouldn't stop crying" She explained and turned back to Laila.

"I just need a shower and change of clothes then we'll talk about this" She said in finality as she stood, picking up the trail of her floor length dress, which I would've admired for the impeccable embroidery but for the gruesome situation at hand.

"It's alright, I'll help you" I said, and that I did. We barely said anything to each other as I led her to the bathroom to do her thing.

Tana and I sat in the living room,awaiting Laila's presence. We soon found ourselves whispering without even knowing it.

"Why would he do such a thing?"

"They're only five months into this thing and this is what we get to hear?"

The rhetorical questions went back and forth between us, we barely noticed when Laila entered the room.

"You might as well ask me those questions instead of whispering like some market women, gossiping" She said casually, Tana and I froze in our seated positions.

"Alright, enough with the suspense, start talking so I can get on with kicking the ass of that husband of yours" Tana gritted. Frankly, I was as anxious as she was if not more. I still couldn't wrap my head around the fact that my supposed brother in law raised his fists at my sister, bruising her so badly for a reason that I was yet to find out.

Laila heaved a sigh and stealthily sat opposite us. "This marriage isn't what you think it is" She said slowly, like the words were too heavy for her mouth.

I opened my mouth to speak but she held up her palm to stop me and I saw her bruised wrists too, I winced as a familiar sensation of pain sliced through my chest, I always felt that way when I saw someone hurt, especially someone I cared about.

"Please don't interrupt for any reason. Thank you"She paused.

"The first few days of our marriage were beautiful, it was going really well. Yemi was so sweet and kind,I wished it would never end. Then a week into it, he came to me with some papers to sign, I initially thought it was a kind of prenup that we didn't get to sign earlier, but I had an inkling to not sign it until I had read through it myself, so I told him I would sign it the next day, cause I felt a little under the weather. He grudgingly agreed to it and we tucked in for the night, he went to work early the next day and I read through those documents only to discover that he wanted me to sign over my trust fund to him. At that point I began to wonder if he actually knew me well enough to cognize that I have a degree in law and I'm fully aware of the consequences of those papers, I pondered on that fact and decided against doing anything irrational, I didn't sign it" She let out a shaky breath and continued, as Tana and myself listened with rapt attention.

"He came back home that evening and the first thing he asked me was 'hope you've placed your signature on those papers I gave you babe' He even called me 'babe'" She chuckled bitterly.

"I replied in the negative and the next thing I knew, he was raging mad and we started arguing, he tried forcing me into signing them but I blatantly refused. Then the slap came so fast I stumbled back in shock, I expected him to apologize for hitting me out of anger, but no, he punched and kicked me till I found an escape into the next room, locking the door behind me, he banged on it for a while and then retreated to our bedroom. I cried myself to sleep that night" She was in tears already, I couldn't help but cry too.

"The next day, he came to me apologizing for his mistakes and helped treat my wounds. He was back to being sweet again, but soon we were back on that issue and he shut the doors to the other rooms so I couldn't run into any of them, I ran out of the house immediately, but I didn't want to be in the news the next day, it would bring embarrassment to both our families so I went back in, that was my undoing, I was his punching bag for the most part of the night. Whenever he was angry, he would act like a monster, he wouldn't stop until he takes it all out on something or someone which always had to be me, after which he would be sweet again, like his senses were now intact" A sob eluded her lips, then hiccup after hiccup. I gave her a bottle of water which she gulped down and her hiccups departed.

"Then one day I overheard him talking to his father over the phone. I'm sure he thought I wasn't in, because I had gone to the supermarket to get groceries that Saturday morning,so the phone happened to be on loud speaker. His father told him that a baby would be the only way to get what they wanted, he had said that having a child for them would leave me no choice than to sign my trust fund over to them. I had heard enough, so I stomped my feet like I was just walking in, and acted oblivious to what was going on around me, I saw him hurriedly cut the call, and he flashed me a sweet smile. That cunning son of a gun. I started taking contraceptives without his knowledge. I couldn't bring myself to have a baby for such a family, but I wasn't careful enough" She sighed heavily.

"I didn't place the pills well after last night. Today, after we got home from the church service, I was busy wiping my makeup off, when he yelled my name from the bathroom. He found the pills, at that moment,I knew I was done for, I didn't have a reasonable explanation to give, even if I did he wouldn't listen, and as usual he pounced on me with capricious ferocity. He injured me badly, as you can see but with all the strength I could muster,I pushed him off me and locked him in the bathroom, where he was pounding the door with so much agility I knew it would break sooner or later. So I grabbed the car keys along with my hand bag and sped out of the house without looking back. And that's how I found myself here" She ended, trying to suppress a sob. I walked over to her, I couldn't say anything. Tana was as dumbfounded as I was, it was a lot to take in.