Chapter 35: Chapter 35

Chapter Thirty five

****

The weekend rolled by before I could even notice. It seemed like the days rolled by like that for a reason.

I got out of bed, grouchy. I said my morning prayers, after which I picked up my phone, several notifications graced my sight. Client after client in my inbox on different social media accounts, trying to get in touch with me. This was a good thing, it had some good money rolling in but for the first in my life, I was in no way eager to show off my skills. This was not good. Ignoring the incessant buzzing of my device, I trudged into the bathroom to freshen up, and start the new day.

I dressed up and made my way out of the room, locking the door behind me. I came to a brief halt when my gaze fell on Laila who was just stepping out of her room which was next to mine. She looked away from me, walked past and headed downstairs, like she did not just see me. I shook my head at her antics, I had no time for any of it.

After our fall out the previous day, neither of us had said a word to the other. We hadn't been like this for a very long time, so yes, it was that bad.

Checking the time on my wrist watch, it was about eight in the morning. Having nothing else to do and definitely not an appetite, I said hello to everyone else present.

"Lola?"

That was my mum.

"Where are you going? So early in the morning?" She asked, setting the bowl of scrambled eggs on the dining table. She made breakfast and I would have loved to dig in but I did not have the time.

"Good morning mummy, I have some business to take care of." I replied with a blank stare. She gave me a skeptical look before nodding, I gave a smile in return.

"I'll see you later." I said dismissively. I turned on my heels and found my way out of the house.

****

I gazed at the building before me, a simple but elegant duplex in the suburbs. Gerald did not  have his house on the island, you can imagine how long it took me to get down here.

After staring at it for several minutes, I stepped out of my ride, still observing my surroundings as I locked the doors.

It was a middle class neighbourhood, with cars parked on different ends and few passers by. I saw kids playing on one end of the close, and several occupants outside doing whatever.

I crossed the small street and knocked on the huge black gate.

"Who be that?" I heard from the other side of the gate. I kept mute and waited for whoever to come open it.

"I say, who be that? The person no dey talk?" The guy who I assumed was the security guard, muttered as he pulled open the small gate.

"Good morning." I greeted with a gentle smile and the evident frown on his face morphed into a wide grin.

"Morning o, fine sisi. Abeg, who you dey find?"

"Please I'm looking for one Mr Gerald Gregg, does he reside here?" I asked genuinely worried about being at the wrong address.

"Na my Oga be that." He said and I heaved a sigh of relief.

"Him know say you dey come?" He questioned and I nodded. He was skeptical about my answer, I saw it in his eyes. As expected, he asked me to wait while he went over to ask his boss. He returned and bashfully asked for my name before returning inside, all this while, shutting the gate in my face. I huffed in annoyance, did he not know I was coming? He asked me to come here, why all this hassle?

The guard finally came out after what felt like forever and ushered me inside the premises. My eyes examined the view,the potted plants adorning the walls gave a fresh feeling to the place, it seemed like he was a fan of nature. I spotted two cars in the makeshift garage and I took in the full view of the building as we walked towards it. The orange paint on the outside stood out amongst all the houses on the street, it was hard to miss.

I walked into the living room, behind the security guard whose name I later found out was Abdul.

The interiors were simple, cosy and had a homey feel to it. I drank in the sight of the moderately large living room as I waited.

A door which I assumed led to the kitchen came open, revealing a light skinned woman, who from the looks of it happened to be in her forties. She had a gentle smile on her face which grew wider as her eyes fell on me.

"Oh, you must be Lola. Its so nice to finally meet you." She said, seemingly excited. I was perplexed but for the sake of being polite, I gave her a small smile and stretched my hand out for a handshake which she took firmly.

She ushered me to a seat and even offered me some refreshment which I politely declined. She excused herself and made her way up the stairs which I had barely even noticed in all my confusion. My eyes scanned the walls for photos, anything to give me a hint on who that woman was. Well, I got nothing because soon enough, the main reason I was here in the first place was making his way down the stairs.

Stair after stair, I heard the footsteps coming closer. I said a word of prayer in my heart, telling God to help me keep my anger in check and not go all ballistic on him as I had been doing with everyone else for the past week. I could not count the number of times I had launched into angry tirades. It was straining my relationship with everyone else but I just had to let it out  before it weighed down on me. But, I did not want that side of me out today, I just wanted to hear his side of his story, nothing else.

I stood up the moment he approached me and before I could even say a word, I was engulfed in his embrace. Okay, someone was overly excited to see me. Nope, it felt more like relief. I could swear on my favourite pair of shoes that he did not think that I would come see him, but shocker, here I was locked in his embrace. Too good to be true, huh?

Hesitantly, I hugged him back and we stayed in that position for a few seconds before he released me. He ushered me to a seat with a nervous smile on his face and for the first time I got a closer look at the man whom I now knew as my biological father. In all honesty, it was still a hard pill to swallow. I could tell he was such a handsome man in his younger years, he still looked so good though. For someone in his sixties he looked so buff and barely had wrinkles, he did look stressed but overall he looked healthy and really good looking. Diastema sure had a way of making people look better whenever they smiled and that was the case with Gerald, the gap between his incisors just made him all the more handsome and attractive for those middle-aged spinsters. Enough about his looks now, let's get down to business, shall we?

"Would you like anything? Tammy and I were just about to have breakfast, do join us." He offered, I shook my head, about to decline, I saw both their disappointments evidently and of course smelled the delicious aroma coming from the kitchen, I could bring myself to resist, so I gave in and joined them on the chic dining table.

We had our meals in silence, after which he led me to a study, his home office, as he had said. I sat next to him on the couch, as put on his reading glasses and held out a sheet of paper for me. I took it hesitantly, suddenly scared of whatever that piece of paper had to say.

"Medical reports?" I asked, now confused. He hummed, nodding a little.

"Why?..."

"Did you hear me mention being in coma for years when I had that altercation with Benson?"

It was my turn to nod.

"I thought, I'd show you a few of the medical reports so you could believe me." He said and stood up to check through his drawers, he came with more papers which of course were more medical reports.

I shook my head, and gestured for him to stop with the wave of my hand. He did not have to prove anything to me, I already believed him.

"There's no need for any of that, I believe you." I affirmed.

"But, what really happened?"

"Are you sure you want to hear the truth?" He asked with a skeptical look on his face, that only piqued my curiosity. I nodded.

With the release of a long breath, he began while I listened with rapt attention.

"As you heard, I got into an accident about twenty five years ago. I had a major fall out with my brother that resulted in him threatening my life, I ignored his words, brushed them off as empty threats..." He let out a humourless chuckle and continued.

"But that was my undoing. I worked late into the night, having lost my wife only about a month earlier, I hated having to go back to an empty house, I blamed myself for Fiona's death. Driving home that night, my eye sight was hazy for some reason, I could barely see where I was driving to and when I finally made the decision to park my vehicle and probably put a call across to someone who could get me home safely, a truck from God knows where ran into me and had my vehicle crushed, that was probably not enough for whoever and he ran into my vehicle three consecutive times, proof that this 'accident', was a premeditated murder."

I gasped, the gory thought would not leave my head after this.

"I somehow had my eyes half open for a few seconds as I saw the truck's driver step out to take a look at me with a wide grin on his face.

'Mr Benson would be so pleased with me', I faintly made out."

That elicited another horror filled gasp from me. Cold sweat broke out on my forehead and I started feeling queasy.

Fear.

For the first time, I felt really afraid of the man I had known as my father all my life.

"Trust me Crystal, I had the same reaction inwardly." He said with a clenched jaw. I saw him shudder, it seemed those thoughts still hunted him.

"I fell unconscious after but from what  I learned the driver left me to die, I mean there was no way anyone could survive such an accident." He sipped on the coffee Tammy had brought in. She sat down at one end of the study on his insistence that she stayed. I didn't mind her presence at all though.

"So, how did you survive?" I asked a little impatiently, maybe I was too eager to hear the whole story but who wouldn't want to know what miracle occurred in a seemingly hopeless situation.

"God has his ways of doing things sweetie." I almost smiled at the endearment as I nodded in agreement.

"Tammy saved me." He stated simply.

I turned so quick, I almost had whiplash.

"How?"

"Well, according to her, she was stranded on the bridge in the middle of the night, waiting for a good Samaritan who would give her a ride home..." He glanced up at her and gave a small smile, one she returned warmly. I stared back and forth between them as their gazes stayed locked on each other , I could feel the chemistry between them but my poor eyes could not behold old romance, I cleared my throat, breaking their moment.

Gerald smiled bashfully as he gestured towards her.

"Tammy please do take it from here."

She nodded with a smile, and I turned, giving all of my attention to her.

"So I'm a doctor..."

Oh wow.

"And that night, I was returning from the hospital after a major emergency held me back. My car broke down in the middle of third mainland bridge and I hoped someone would come along and get me to safer area, I saw Gerald's car but from the look of things after waving frantically, he did not see me. I saw a huge truck following him closely and I wanted to repeat my actions but I had a strong inkling not to. I saw Gerald's car slow down and I began walking stealthily towards it, shielded by the darkness of the night. It was then the gory scene played out in front of me." She shuddered.

"It's still ingrained in my memory till this very day. I could've screamed but I couldn't, for some reason. Maybe I would have been dead if I did. I stayed hidden till the truck was gone, rushed down to the vehicle and kept praying that he would survive, I knew it wasn't going to be an easy task but he just had to live. He drifted in and out of consciousness, but held on still. A vehicle soon came along and thankfully, he helped us get to a hospital, bloodied up and all." She wiped a stray tear. I bit on my lips to keep them from quivering.

"The doctors said there was hardly any hope for him as he was badly injured but I did not want to listen. I took matters into my hand and brought him home while he was in coma. My family thought I was crazy, but being their only heiress they had no other choice but to agree to this madness, there wasn't any way they could cut off my money supply especially because I was also working extra hard. I had nurses look after him whenever I was unavailable, it was no easy task, trust me." The tears flowed freely now but she still kept it together.

"A year went by, then two, then three. I was spending so much on him but the money was flowing in torrents, I couldn't care less. I had hope because he did drift in and out on rare occasions but I still held on because God's promises were and are still my watchword. Eight years down the line,my family was on my neck to pull the plug and let him die but I was adamant, I sent him abroad to avoid him being murdered in the name of euthanasia. No one knew his whereabouts. I visited Canada frequently, just to make sure he was being well taken care of. I won't lie, there were times I just wanted to give up, but I kept holding for reasons I could not even understand." A deep sigh followed.

"I even almost got married once but my ex fiance wanted me to pull the plug and forget about him before he could tie the knot with me, I couldn't, I just couldn't." She was up on her feet the next minute, our eyes followed her every move as she walked towards the large window located at the west end of the room.

I was stunned. Good people like these still exist? She sure made lots of sacrifices.

"And finally, after fourteen years..."She gave a big smile and wiped her tears.

"He opened his eyes and he stayed awake, he did!" She exclaimed, her voice hoarse from all the crying. I didn't notice I was crying until Gerald reached out to wipe my tears. I let him, I was too caught up in my feelings to care.

"I'll take it from here Tammy, thank you." He pulled her into a hug and she hummed in agreement.

He turned to me again.

"It took me about two years to recuperate, and get back to normal with physiotherapy and all. I was still as weak as a vegetable, I could barely recognise myself when I looked in the mirror for the first time in fourteen years. It was overwhelming, I didn't think I would make it but thanks to God, here I am."

"Wow." I whispered, still astonished. People sure go through a lot. Fourteen years of his life taken away from him, just like that.

"But then, what took you so long to come for Laila and I?" I had to ask, so many things would've been avoided if he came in on time.

"I'm sorry I couldn't come in earlier but at that age you surely wouldn't have been able to understand. I needed to find my bearing, I had to get on my own two feet. I'm sorry it took so long." He said sincerely and I nodded in understanding.

"How did you know where to find us?"

He chuckled deeply.

"I always had my eyes on you all. I was even at Laila's wedding."

I gaped, now that was creepy.

"So why didn't you put a stop to it?"

"She seemed happy, I didn't want to hurt her, I thought that boy would treat her right." His jaw clenched in anger, perhaps at the thought of Yemi hurting my sister. My reaction was the same anytime I thought of it.

"So, what now?" I asked. What was the next step? I had heard enough from different sides.

"I don't want you being sold off like your sister was, I want you to take what's rightfully yours too." He stated firmly. This was surely a sensitivetopic for him.

"There has to be some way to get Benson to pay back all that money he borrowed." He soliloquized.

"But the only way I can access my trust fund is by getting married, there's no other way to pay the debt." I reasoned.

"You might have to sell Gregg Corp."

I stood up abruptly at the suggestion.

"But, it's been in the family for so long, we can't just sell it off!" I exclaimed, bewildered at the thought.

"That company is the principal cause of all this problems in our lives." He countered.

"No, greed was and still is the main reason why we are all in this mess."

"Same difference Lola."He said dryly, flipping through what I assumed was a magazine.

I paced the room in deep thought. Was that really the solution, selling the company, paying off our debts and going back to normal? What about the workers? Many of them would be laid off and with the current state of things in the country, that would be a hard blow for many families.

I shook my head vigorously, I couldn't.

"Lola?" He called softly and I turned to him with a frown.

"Think it through before telling anyone. No hasty decisions." He advised and I nodded.

I checked my watch, it was way past noon.

"I have to get going now." I announced.

"Of course, I'll walk you out."

"It was nice meeting you Ma'am, thank you for taking care of him." I said to Tammy with a smile. She came over and gave me a hug asking me to visit more often, I assured her that I would and left with Gerald.

We said very few things to each other as we made our way out of the compound. He walked me to my car and bade me farewell but I did something unexpected, even for me. I pulled him into a bear hug.

"I'm sorry for everything you had to go through." I whispered, crying a little. He wiped my tears, and gave me a kiss on my forehead. I could tell he was trying to hold his tears as he didn't say anything.

"Drive safe." His voice sounded strained. I nodded, and got into my car.

I drove out of there with a heavy heart,hoping and praying that all of these would be sorted out soon enough and I would have my well deserved peace of mind.