Chapter 32: Chapter 32

Robert takes Kemi to the car and tells her wait inside. Alone in the car, tears starts steaming down her cheek again and she bursts into tears. She wasn't auctioned so of course she shouldn't be crying but what about her life ? She no longer has the right to her own life. She misses her family so much yet she cannot see them once or even have an idea of how and what they are doing. She doesn't even have an idea of what life has in stock for her. Her only wish in life was to be with her family,and be happy. She has never asked for more so why would things turn out this way? She curls herself up in the car seat and cries between her knees.

The auction is already over and William sits down going through some records while madam Maya stands beside him.

“Okay, so the other girls can be used for sex slaves..." He nods before adding on. “ I will leave you to handle the rest." He says to her before standing up.

"Yes consigliere." She says taking up the files from the table.

William sighs and starts walking towards the door. He is still trying to process what is going on with him. When he saw Kemi on the stage about to be auctioned off, he panicked.

It could have been normal for him to be shocked, but that wasn't the case at all. The most confusing part is that the reason he panicked wasn't because he would lose to Lexis if Kemi is auctioned off but at that moment, he had thought that he would not see her again and that was why he panicked. For the past few days, he has been feeling surprisingly worried about her, always wondering how she's doing at Lexis's mansion.

For the first time, he had hesitated before hitting someone despite how angry he was. And with this girl, he has hesitated more than once . And for the first time in his entire life, he had felt bad for hurting someone.If things continue like this, he's scared he might up mess things up. He cannot let that happen because he has come a long way to bring Kemi. If she succeeds in getting Lexis to trust her, then that would be it.

She would make it easier for him to destroy Lexis. So he cannot allow any strange feelings get in the way, never.

He scoffs, "There must be something wrong with my head." He sighs and reaches for the door but it suddenly opens revealing Ella.

William sighs, “I told you to wait in the car for me, why are you here now?”

Ella walks pass him and folds her hand across her chest “I saw you coming out of a room earlier... " She started to say. "And then another girl followed." She looks straight at him. “Who is she?”

William stares at her in puzzle,"What are talking about Ella?"

She rolls her eyes, “She was wearing red William,I know what I saw, don't pretend like you're clueless.”

William moves his eyes around trying to get who she is talking about and then he realizes that she's talking about Kemi.

“Oh." He says placing his hands into his pockets before adding on. "She's uh... She's no one, why're you asking?”

She frowns, “I'm your wife William, I deserve to know who you spend time with.”

He sighs and starts walking pass her and she pulls him back by the wrist. He stares at her grip on his hand before frowning at her.

“What the f**k is your problem Ella?” He pulls his wrist out of her hold.

"I don't have any f**king problem William!"She yells at him in anger. “You f**king kept me waiting for eternity while you were busy meeting some slut?”

He glares at her and suddenly grips her by the wrist tightly. His grip on her wrist is so firm that it started to hurt her so she tries to pull away.

“You are... You are hurting me William. ” She says as she tries to pull her hand away but his grip on her wrist tightens the more.

"F**king watch your tongue and mind your business Ella.

He lets go of her wrist and clenches his fist before heaving a long sigh.

“Stop pushing me Ella..." He turns to her and says between his teeth. “I'm..I'm really trying here." He walks away from her and exit the room leaving her to stand alone.

Her eyes becomes clouded with tears as she slumps on the ground crying for the 100th time because of him.

***********

LEXIS' MANSION.

Lexis sits on the sofa with a brown cigar in his right hand and a glass of whiskey in his other hand before Robert walks over to him and whispers to his ear. He nods before the guard goes over to the door to open it. Alhaji Bawa walks into the room over to where Lexis sits.

He smiles,"Hello Mr Alexander Lawal.”

Richard smiles and gesture for him to sit down.

“I must say that the auction was not so great.Pardon me, I do not have intentions of insulting the organizer but...”

Lexis smiles before cutting him off. “Alhaji, just go straight to the point. Stop beating around the bush.What happened that made you unimpressed?”

Alhaji nods before relaxing into the chair. “It's no big deal Alexander, I was just totally disrespected today."

Lexis moves his head forward feigning interest. “By who?”

"I know you have always been disrespectful but l was really annoyed by what you did time around.”

“What did I do wrong this time Alhaji?”

Alhaji Bawa starts to say, "You know very well that I bidded for that girl and you still went ahead to embarrass me in front of everyone. ”

Lexis tilts his head. “How did I do that?”

Alhaji smiles, “I will go straight to the point Alexander, I want the girl. I will let go of the fact that you disrespected me."

Lexis laughs hysterically. “You what? You want who?” He starts laughing again.

Alhaji Bawa sighs in annoyance as he stares at Lexis while he laughs.

Lexis stops laughing. "Did you actually come here because of a mere girl? Wow Alhaji, there were so many other girls there as well,why her?”

Alhaji Bawa shrugs. "Well she's just what I'm looking for and I already bidded for her.”

Lexis puts the brown cigar between his lips before curling out smoke from both his nose and mouth.He places the glass of whiskey in his hand on the table and leans forward to Alhaji Bawa.

"I have already taken her in, don't you think you're crossing the line if you keep pushing Alhaji?”

Alhaji Bawa frowns at him. “Why are you so protective of her? She's just a slave.”

Lexis shrugs, “Well I'm protective of everything that's mine and she... is my slave. So she's mine."

“Then how come she's at the auction if you weren't going to sell her?”

“There has been a mix up somewhere. It was just a small error but it has been cleared up wasn't it?”

Alhaji Bawa grins, “You want to say that you didn't do that on purpose?”

Lexis feigns innocence, "Do what on purpose?”

Alhaji smiles before standing up. "I want the girl Alexander and I will get her." And then, he starts to walk away.

Lexis looks at him leave with a neutral expression. Although he knew Alhaji Bawa would be pissed after what he did but he didn't expect that he would go as far as coming to his house to ask for Kemi.

“Henry!" He calls out and Henry quickly comes in and runs over to him.

"Yes underboss." He stands in front of him.

Lexis relaxes his back into the sofa putting the cigar between his lips again. He perms out smoke from his mouth before speaking, “Call me Kemi.”

Henry nods before walking away. After a while, Kemi enters into the room.

She stands a little far from him. “You called me?”

Lexis turns to her and then he places the butt of the cigar in the ash pan on the table.

“What did you do to make Alhaji Bawa this hell bent on having you?”

Kemi looks up at him in confusion. Did he just say Alhaji Bawa is bent on having her? No it can't be, right? He has already been told that she's not supposed to be auctioned, so what does he want?

“Hey! I'm talking to you!” Lexis' husky voice jolts her back from her thoughts.

"I... I didn't do anything" She says quickly.

He grins at her, “You sure have some skills huh?"

Kemi looks away pursing her lips without saying anything. Lexis takes up a packet of cigar from the table and brings out a stick. He stretches it out to her.

“You care for?”

She shakes her head quickly. “No I don't.

Lexis grins and takes up the lighter from the table. “Come closer." He says to her.

She blinks at him, “I should..."

He sighs and rolls his eyes, “Come closer scaredy cat."

She gulps and slowly starts walking towards him and when she gets close to him, she stands beside him.

Lexis stretches out the lighter to her.

"Here, light up the cigar for me."

Kemi stares at him in confusion.

“Huh?” She says blinking at him.

Lexis shakes his head and place the cigar between his lips pointing his lips towards her.

“Go on, quickly."He says with the cigar still in his mouth.

She swallows and takes the lighter from his hand and moves closer to him. She moves the lighter close to his lips and just as she is about lighting up the cigar, he suddenly grabs her waist and pulls her on his thighs. Her eyes widen and she tries to get up but he pulls her back down and his hand tightens around her waist.

“Go ahead, light the cigar for me.” He says moving his face with the cigar still between his lips close to her. She sighs breathing out shakingly before moving the lighter close to the cigar between his lips. She presses the serrated sparkwheel on the top before rolling the sparkwheel down into ignition button with her thumb and then, a steady flame comes out.

As soon as she is done, she tries to get out of his hold but he tightens his hold around her waist and pulls her to his chest. Her face meets his bare chest which is revealing from his half way buttoned shirt. She quickly pulls her face away from his chest and struggles to get off his thigh but couldn't.

“Please let me go... I have already done what you wanted."

He grins at her and pulls her chin up to face him. “I think you will be my personal cigarette lighter from now on, what do you think?”

She looks away as she trembles in fear.What is he going to do? She panics. He smirks at her and curls out smoke from his mouth. She coughs loudly as she inhales the smoke.

He laughs as he watches her fighting against the smell and smoke coming from the cigarette.The fact that he's enjoying it angers her to the core but she knows better than to say anything. Suddenly, he lets go of her and she moves away from him still coughing.

“Oh, I remember you said something one time, didn't you ?”

She stops coughing and looks at him confused on what thing he's talking about.

He smiles, “You did say you want to work as my PA didn't you?”

She blinks at him and she nods wondering where he's going with this.

“Well I did a little thinking and..." He shrugs before adding on. "You won't be too bad for a PA."

Her eyes widen in surprise but she didn't say anything.

“But you have no qualifications so you will have to prove that you're worth the job " He grins. "It definitely won't be easy, you still wanna do it?"

She quickly nods her head. “Yes, I...I can do it.”

He nods, "Fine then. You will go to the company tomorrow with me.”

Her eyes widen in shock. Already?

“Al...Already?”

He perms out smoke from his mouth before tilting his head. “You don't want to work as my PA anymore?”

She shakes her head, “No I want to."

He smiles, "Good." He turns away from her before calling out. "Henry!"

Henry opens the door and walks in.

“Yes underboss."He stands in front of him.

“Get me the file on the table from my office room.

Henry nods and quickly leaves the roomn to go and get it. Kemi remains standing holding her hands together.

Lexis continues smoking his cigarette grinning from ear to ear at her and for some reasons, she has a bad feeling about him giving her the job all of a sudden. After a while, Henry brings in the fileand hands it over to Lexis before exiting the room.

Lexis takes the file from him and turns to Kemi. “You have today to through everything in the files."He says waving the file in the air.

Kemi stares at him as if she didn't hear him correctly.Did he just say she should study every words on the papers in the file when it's already 9:00 pm in the night? How and when would she finish it?

“You will need to know about lots of stuffs so you should read these.." He pauses and narrows his brows at her."You can read right?”

Kemi bit her lower lip to prevent her self from rolling her eyes and slowly nods.

“Good, then you're good to go then.”

“But... It's not possible for me to go though everything in one night.”

He looks at the file like it's his first time seeing it before he turns back to her.

"I don't care how many days it will take you to read it. Just make sure you know your duties before tomorrow or you're out."

She sighs as she swallows the lump of saliva in her great nodding her head slowly.

He grins and nods. “Good, you may go now."

Kemi takes the file which contains the numerous papers she is going to be reading all night. What if she doesn't understand whatever is in the papers?

She turns around and quickly leaves the room to hers. As Kemi enters into her room, she sees Rose holding a phone. She stares at her wondering how she's with a phone.

“You...You have a phone?" She asks almost in disbelief.

Rose turns to her in surprise. “Oh Kemi, I didn't know you were there.When did you come in?”

Kemi smiles before walking over to the bed to sit beside her.

“I just came in."

She nods her head, “Oh. I hope you didn't get in trouble.

What did the boss say to you?" She asks with a concerned look on her face.

Kemi shrugs, “Nothing much, he just asked me to get a few things done.”

Rose drops the phone beside her focusing properly on Kemi. "Things like what? Tell me and I will assist you."

Kemi smiles at her sweet gesture before shaking her head. "It's not something you can help me with Rose, I really appreciate the offer, thank you."

She smiles and shrugs, “Okay, if you say so.”

“Were you allowed to bring a phone?" Kemi asks her.

She turns to look at the phone before looking back at Kemi. "Yes. That busy body madam Teju even saw it."

Kemi laughs lightly at the way Rose's face cringes when she mentions madam Teju's name.

“Weren't you allowed to bring yours?”

Kemi shrugs,"Not really."

Rose frowns,“Why?”

"It's nothing, just go to sleep, everything is fine."

Rose nods. She takes the phone and place it on the table before moving into the bed.She draws the duvet to cover half of her body before smiling at her.

“Good night Kemi.”

Kemi smiles, “Good night Rose."

As Rose shuts her eyes,Kemi starts bringing out the papers. She looks at the first one and start to read through. It contains what she's going to do as a PA. Looking at all the dutiesand also some terms she dosen't seem familiar with, she knows very well that she's in deep trouble.

She quickly takes out an empty paper and a pen and starts scribbling few things down. She might be only a high school graduate but she's actually very smart. She has always wanted to be a business planner but because of the inability to study for it, that zeal and hope became weak. And then, it died completely when she was brought here to pay for her father's debt. She knows working as a PA is not a child's play and you need broad knowledge but aside from using this as a method of getting close to the underboss, she also wants to learn a thing or two from it.

THE NEXT DAY

5:30 AM

There is a knock on the door and Kemi turns to it blinking with her eyes showing visible dark circles due to her lack of sleep throughout the night. She stands up from the floor which she has been sitting on all night and goes over to open the door.

She sees Robert staring at her with his hands in his pockets.

"I came to give you an expo." Robert smiles at her.

She stares at him in puzzle. What is he talking about?

“Where is your partner?” He asks her.

"She is having her bath... You want to join her?” Kemi teases.

Roberts grins, “Of course not but I could if she won't mind though."

Kemi chuckles lightly, “What expo do you have for me? It's 5:30 in the morning Robert, did the underboss send you?”

He shakes his head, “You're going to the company today with him right?”

Kemi narrows her brows at him.“Yes.”

“Well, I will advice you to be dressed up in the next 30 minutes.”

"The underboss leaves that early?”

Robert shakes his head, “No he doesn't but you should be waiting downstairs for him by that time if you don't want any trouble."

Kemi moves her eyeballs from side to side. "Okay,thanks for the info."

He nods and turns to leave.

"Um...Robert?" Kemi calls out and Robert turns around to her.

“Yes?”

“That's the expo?”

He nods. "Of course."

Kemi smiles, "I wake up everyday by 4 am to clean the house so that won't be a problem.”

He grins, "I hope so." He walks away and smiles watching him leave before she shuts the door.

As she turns around, she sees Rose staring at her in a towel with a surprise look.

"You are going to be the boss's PA?”

Xoxo