Chapter 23: Chapter 23

I couldn't let Amsey go but wasn't letting go a way of showing true love?

I was really bothered about Victoria and her unborn child. The child needed a Father and how will the child live well knowing its father abandoned it? I didn't want a child to go through the same thing I did. And there was Victoria. She told me she had always tried to please her parents and if she couldn't even produce the Father of her unborn child, she would tarnish the reputation of her family and would bring them disgrace.

I had no family and no one would be let down even if I couldn't point out who the Father of my child was. Besides, I had a good offer of becoming a singer and my child wouldn't even suffer at all. I couldn't tie Amsey down to myself and my child.

Maybe this was our fate after all. Maybe he needed to get married to Victoria, be rich and live a luxurious life and I would touch hearts with my story and live better without having anyone to please, I'd be just fine with myself and my child. Maybe this was all everything had been leading to.

It was four nights ago Victoria had come to see us and I was still thinking of everything that had happened that night. I had woken up by Amsey's side on his bed.

I had smiled and tried to remove his hand so I could sit up but he had only held me more tightly.

After several attempts, I had finally pulled away from his grip and sat up and stretched my arms while yawning.

I looked towards the window. It was morning already. I suddenly remembered we had a guest in our home the previous night and I decided to go and see if she was okay.

I looked over at Amsey and saw he was still sleeping and he smiled so sweetly in his sleep. He looked like a child, a cute little child.

I kissed him on his forehead and slipped out of the bedsheets and opened the curtain which revealed my own part of the bedroom. Remember Amsey had only one bedroom, right? We had demarcated it with a curtain so we can each have our space. Well, I've told you that before so I guess that's stale news.

I saw Victoria arranging the sheets and she looked set to leave.

"Good morning." I had told her.

She startled. "Ohh. It's you." She said, realizing there was no cause for alarm.

"Were you expecting someone else?" I asked.

"It could have been Amsey and he'd make it a big deal to torture me. I wanted to leave before you guys awakened. I'm glad you're the one who came here and not Amsey." She said.

I gave her a knowing smile.

"You wanna say anything?" She asked.

"No. I mean, not really. I only came to check up on you and to make sure you're fine." I said.

She smiled. "I'm great and before you ask, I slept well surprisingly." She said.

"You should do more of that." I said.

"More of what?" She actually looked puzzled.

"More of smiling." I responded.

"Oh, wow. That means I have a beautiful smile." She said.

"Yes, you do. You look amazing when you smile." I complimented her the more.

She chuckled. "So how do I look when I don't smile?"

"You look mean, nasty, grumpy, annoying......"

"You forgot to say ugly." She said, cutting me short.

I sighed. "No one's ugly."

"I know I'm not pretty. I feel that maybe that's why my parents don't appreciate anything I do. I've tried to please them in so many ways but they don't seem to care. I school in Ghana and when I discovered I was pregnant, I couldn't even tell them. These people never acknowledge what I do, they always find faults. I was gonna become a writer, I started writing at age 5 but they killed my dream by always tossing my work in the trash can." She paused. "Why am I even telling you this? You wouldn't understand." She shook her head.

I went to her and held her hands. "I may understand. You never know." I told her.

We both sat down and that's how she narrated to me how her parents made her feel small and forced her to study business administration so she could take over their business and how she had been failing woefully.

She had told me how she hooked up with several guys just to forget about her problems and how guys only dated her because of how wealthy her parents were. She told me Amsey was the first person that didn't care if she was rich or not and how she had fallen for him but he hadn't acknowledged her feelings. She admitted that she actually spiked his drink and made love with him knowing fully well he wouldn't do such in his right senses.

I knew Victoria was sassy and annoying but all I could see was a young girl in desperate need of love, affection and attention hiding behind that tough camouflage. She had been deprived of parental love, so how on Earth could I be so cold-hearted as to let her child go through the same phase?

Amsey may think he's doing the right thing now because he loves me but sooner or later, he'd regret ever abandoning his own flesh and blood. I wouldn't let his love for me bring him doom.

I came to a decision as I sat presently on the couch watching Judge Judy on the Television. I was gonna let Amsey and Victoria be together. That was it.

Finally coming to a decision, I sat back in a more relaxed manner and decided to pay more attention to the TV program. Boom! There was power outage.

Mtcheeeeew. I hissed.

I was home with Amsey but he was working on a project for school in the bedroom so I couldn't disturb him. It was Saturday and it was just past 10 in the morning. The day was still young and I had nothing to do with my time.

I groaned. "It's gonna be a long boring day." I said in exasperation.

Someone tapped my arm. I flinched and looked back to see who it was. Of course, it was Amsey.

Amsey looked dashing. He was clad in a Skye-blue Cuban Collar shirt on a pair of White Skinny Denim jeans. The Cuban shirt exposed his firm chest which sent shivers down my spine. Amsey also had on a pair of Dark Ray-Ban glasses and wore a pair of White Versace shoes.

Dude was such a fashionista. I knew the names of some brands of fashion wears now all because of him.

"Thoughts?" He asked, spreading his arms playfully and beaming.

"You look really great. What's the occasion?" I asked.

"Figured you were bored so let's go shopping." He said.

I grinned. "Really? How about your project?" I asked.

"I'm done. I just need to proofread and re-edit some parts and I will as soon as we get back." He said.

I believed him because he was not the kind to procrastinate and he really knew how to get his work done way before the due date.

"Fine then." I said.

"Yes!" He exclaimed like he had just won some sort of trophy.

"I just don't know what we'd shop for more than maternity dresses in this condition of mine." I said.

He burst into laughter.

Okay, still the same old annoying Amsey. Why was he laughing now?

"Who said the shopping was for you?" He questioned, still laughing.

"I don't get. How come we're going shopping for you? I'm the one who's bored." I said.

"We're not going shopping for me either." He said.

I felt kind of stupid. Was he going shopping for Victoria? What the hell? Okay, there's nothing bad if he goes shopping for Victoria. But he.... Okay, Cassandra, you need to stop being jealous.

"We're going to shop for the baby of course, you dummy." He said.

My eyes sparked up. "What baby?" I still needed to make sure if the shopping had anything to do with me or not. I don't know why. Okay, maybe I'm just jealous. It's not a bad thing, is it?

"Our baby." He said.

He then knelt in front of me, rubbed my tummy and kissed it. "Daddy loves you, okay?"

I simply chuckled but there was guilt buried deep within me. Victoria and her unborn child should be enjoying all these and not me.

I ignored the guilt tugging at my very soul and smiled. "Let me go change." I said and I stood up. "Oh...And quit wearing sunglasses in the house." I teased, swaying my hips as I walked away. He simply gave a light chuckle.

About three hours later, we were rolling the trolley filled up with our shopped items in MIRABEST BABY WORLD. It was a baby shop in Iyana Ipaja and we had shopped for baby things. They were all unisex. We had both decided against a scan as we wanted the baby's gender to be a surprise to us.

The trolley was filled to the brim. We went to the counter, the accountant examined the stuff we had bought, gave us the bill and after Amsey paid her, she packed everything we had bought in customized leather bags. She gave us our change but Amsey declined and told her to keep it. She smiled and kept on expressing her gratitude till we left the shop.

"How do you manage to make so much money from your Cafe?" I asked, as we stepped out of the baby shop.

"I haven't really been honest with you." He said.

My eyes widened. I really hoped he wasn't into fraud or any other illegal business. I had always wondered how he made enough money to pay the bills, he had told me he had no relative to sponsor him with anything so I was always curious as to how he managed to live decently.

"What have you been hiding?" I asked.

He opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by the familiar person that stood right in front of us.

The person grinned. Those big teeth, I remembered them.

"Ken?" Amsey and I chorused.

"In flesh and blood." He said, laughing coarsely.

He looked really different. He was now akin to thugs and street boys. He wore ripped jeans which he sagged to the butt level and a brown shirt which he left unbuttoned and that exposed his bare tummy. He now had dreadlocks and he also wore a stud on his left ear and was viciously chewing a gum and making annoying sounds as he chewed on it.

"Well, hello." Amsey said, clenching his fist.

"Easy there. We were once friends, weren't we?" He asked.

"Let's go." I told Amsey.

He paid me no attention. "Why are you here?" He asked.

"Well, just wanted to greet an old friend." He guffawed.

I could tell there was something wrong with him. It had been over three months since we had last seen him and here he was looking like an animal and acting funny. Maybe he was already taking hard drugs, I thought, perceiving a funny smell from his direction.

"Good. Now, go." Amsey ordered.

"You're gooooooood." He snickered.

"What are you talking about?"

"You impregnated Victoria and also Sandra. I never knew she was even pregnant. I was only aware of Victoria's pregnancy."

"How did you know about Victoria's pregnancy?" I asked.

He looked at me. "She told me. I saw her buying something in our estate and she was heavy. She said Amsey did it." He laughed out loud.

He was scaring me. Why did he keep laughing?

"Yes, I did. So?" Amsey asked indifferently.

"You fucking betrayer." He screamed and lunged at Amsey, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt.

Amsey grabbed Ken's shirt too. "Let me go, you bastard." He said.

"Hey guys. Stop this." I said, panicking.

Ken hit his head on Amsey's forehead and Amsey yelped in pain. "Ow!"

Ken released the hold he had on Amsey's shirt and gave him a punch in the eye.

Amsey's glasses clattered to the floor. "Oh no, my Ray-Ban!" Amsey cried out.

I rolled my eyes, he was always so dramatic.

Amsey bent to the floor and looked at the broken pair of glasses. He looked up at Ken who was laughing hysterically. Ken looked victorious while Amsey's eyes looked murderous.

In a fit of rage, Amsey got up and lunged at Ken giving him a resounding slap. Ken staggered back, he obviously hadn't seen that one coming.

"Way to go, Amsey." I hailed him. I really shouldn't be doing that and encouraging the fight but I knew Amsey wouldn't listen to me when he was that angry so wasn't it better to just cheer him on?

A small mob had formed around us and gave Amsey a round of applause with cheers.

This pained Ken apparently and so, he raised his hand to reiterate but Amsey didn't let him. Amsey grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him to the floor dealing him with several blows.

This generated another round of hailing and cheering from the crowd.

They were obviously supporting Amsey because Ken was the one dressed like a thug and who on Earth liked thugs? Nobody.

Amsey kept on beating Ken to the extent that Ken was bleeding from his nose and mouth. That was a good way to teach him a lesson. I knew he would never bother us anymore.

Amsey's white trousers were now brown because of how he and Ken tussled in the sand. Amsey was such a neat freak and so, that was such a pleasant sight to behold. I was kind of enjoying everything till something strange happened.

"Come on, coward. Face me." Amsey said, standing up and kicking Ken.

I laughed and so did the crowd.

"He was busy tormenting this couple. Now, look at him. Get up." The crowd mocked.

A moment later, things were not so funny anymore because Ken just lay there; still, not saying a word, not making an attempt to get up, not laughing; just motionless.

A man went over to his side and bent to feel his pulse. We all stared at the man terrified.

"I... I don't... I don't think he's breathing anymore." The man said.

Amsey and I exchanged glances of fear, petrifaction and terror.

Ken... Was Ken dead??