Chapter 26: Chapter 26

I had not a single idea on why Pastor James had told me to see him after the church service. I really had to go home to take care of Cas since she was just discharged from the hospital the day before. It had been a month since she was confined to the hospital and after careful observation of her and the child, she had been discharged seeing that she was perfectly okay.

Cas had suffered from immense pain for a whole week before she finally became okay. I had been so scared of losing her but as God would have it, she had become just fine even though it took series of medicines, prayers and injections to make it possible.

Pastor James had really been a great help to Cas and I. He had donated blood to her and had assisted in paying the hospital bills. She hadn't wanted me to go to church today and rather stay with her but I had refused although I promised to return immediately the service was over and now, Pastor James wanted to see me.

I couldn't just go home like that. If he wanted to see me, it had to be because of something urgent and of great importance.

I had been waiting in the lobby for the past 50 minutes approximately because he had a great number of people to attend to. I couldn't even begin to imagine how sad Cas must have been feeling.

I took a look at my wrist watch and saw it was six minutes to 1:00pm. I sighed and decided to leave once it was exactly 1:00pm.

"Brother Amsey." I heard someone call.

It was Pastor James' personal assistant who called.

"Yeah?" I responded.

"The Pastor is ready to attend to you." He said.

"Like he knew I was planning on leaving." I muttered to myself.

"What did you say?" The P.A asked.

"Ummm... Nothing. I'll go to his office now." I said and walked to the Pastor's office.

I shut the door behind me and sat on one of the chairs opposite him. It wasn't my first time in the office, I couldn't count how many times I'd cleaned the whole place up and how many times I'd asked him for money in the office before things started going well for me. It was the same church I had been sleeping in when I had left my father's house so I knew Pastor James a whole lot and I could sit irrespective of whether he offered me a seat or not.

"Good afternoon, Pastor." I said. "And Happy Sunday." I quickly added.

"Good afternoon Amsey." He said in a low tone.

He looked really worried and had a thoughtful look plastered on his face.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yes, by God's grace." He said.

Why had he invited me to his office when he was in such a bad mood? I wondered.

"There's something that's been eating me up and I think I have to discuss it to someone. I just felt you were the right person to discuss it with." He said.

"What has been eating you up?" I probed, terribly curious.

As I wondered about what could be bothering him so much, I hoped he wasn't dying soon and needed someone to take over the church. Had the Holy Spirit ministered to him that I was the next in line to head the church? God forbid! I couldn't be a pastor. Was it because I was like a son to him and he didn't have an offspring? He wasn't even a married man.

Come to think of it, was he gay? After all, he had just said something was eating him up. Maybe he wanted to confess his sins of being gay and he just didn't know how. No, that couldn't be it. Was he probably......

His thick voice jolted me from my thoughts.

"Amsey, can you hear me?" He asked.

"Yeah, sure." Had he been saying something?

He cleared his throat. "I was married to a beautiful loving woman about 26 years ago." He began.

Okay. So he wasn't gay apparently.

"I got married at the age of 27 and I wasn't a believer of God's word at the time. We were childless even after five years of marriage and being the only child of my parents, they pestered me into getting married to someone else. The tests we did showed we were perfectly fine. After waiting for seven years for a child, I gave into my family's pressure to marry someone else in a way." Pastor James said.

I wanted to ask what was my business with all he was telling me but my ears itched to hear the rest of the story so instead, I asked, "Why did you say 'in a way'?"

"That's because I didn't get married. I didn't want to marry someone who would still not give me a child so instead, I started cheating on my wife. I met a young lady who I befriended and with time, we got into an affair. I wouldn't say that I loved her but I knew she loved me." He said.

"Did she know you were married?" I asked.

"Not at all. She never knew." Pastor James responded.

"So, what happened next? Did she give birth?" I asked.

"She got pregnant and I was overwhelmed with joy when I found out. I showered her with love and intended on seeing her people and getting married to her. I rented an apartment for her and got her two maids to handle the house chores."

He had barely finished speaking when my curiosity got the best of me again. "Did you marry her?" I asked.

He heaved a deep sigh and looked downcast.

"What's wrong? What happened?" I probed further.

"A good contract came for me in London so I travelled out entrusting her in the care of my mother and the maids I had hired for her. When I came back three months later, I was told by my mother that the woman who was carrying my child had left the house before they woke up just the previous day before I came back." He told me.

I was confused for a moment. "But why would she do that? Did you hurt her?"

"No, I never hurt her. Not once, not twice. I never did." Pastor James said.

"Did you look for her?" I asked him.

He nodded in the affirmative. "Yes, I did. I looked for her all over Ogun State where we lived at the time. I went to her former house, combed every area I could but I never saw her. I kept wondering what must have gone wrong and why she had left so suddenly. What hurt me the most was that I had already fallen in love with her and she was with my baby. I couldn't love my wife like before and so, she sought comfort in the arms of another man. When I got home one day, I saw her in bed with someone else and so, I threw her out of the house." Pastor James explained.

I gave a light chuckle. "But you cheated on her too, so why did you chase her out of the house when she did the same thing?" I asked.

He flashed me a distasteful glance.

"Sorry." I offered.

"I wasn't a true believer at the time. I just moved to Lagos to restart my life and that was when God called me. I'd not been able to get over the guilt of throwing my wife out of the house and being a bad husband and that's why I never got remarried." He concluded.

I drummed my fingers on the table. "Not to sound rude but what's the reason behind you telling me all these?" I asked.

He heaved a deep thoughtful sigh. "I met my ex-wife a month ago."

"Really? Is she married now and does she have children?" I blurted out.

"I didn't ask her about that." He replied.

He went on. "Do you remember Patricia?" He asked me.

"Who's that?" I retorted.

"The accountant at the baby shop you took Cassandra to that fateful day you were arrested."

I racked my brain to remember who he was talking of. "Ohh... I remember her." I said, finally remembering the accountant whom I had left my change for the day Ken almost died in my hands.

"That's my ex-wife."

"What? Wow!" I exclaimed.

"I had gone to pick up Cassandra that day at the baby shop since you were arrested and she was left there stranded and on seeing my ex-wife, I was startled and had left in a haste. When Cassandra was in the hospital, I went back there the next day to get the things you both had shopped for because I hadn't given Sandra the time to grab them before pulling her away......"

"Wait. You pulled Cas?" I asked, interrupting him.

He looked somewhat confused. "Yes. I had to get her out of the shop."

"You should have considered the fact that she's pregnant." I blurted out.

Pastor James simply rolled his eyes. "Sorry. Can I go on now?"

"Sure."

"When I went there, she told me she needed to be honest with me about something. She said that when I had gone abroad, she found out I had a mistress who was pregnant with my child and had gone to give her a serious warning and showed her our wedding pictures and even went as far as telling her I wasn't returning to her." Pastor James said.

"Gosh! So that means it was what she said that prompted your mistress to leave without a word. That was unfair of her but who can really blame her? So what happened next?" I asked.

"Patricia told me that she's happy I finally found my daughter and that she had always regretted depriving me of a child. She told me that she actually had series of abortion before the marriage and had no womb so she was at fault for our childlessness and had always bribed the doctors to lie on her behalf." Pastor James said, looking so regretful.

"That woman is another thing entirely. How could she be so mean? And there I was, thinking she was a good person and you shouldn't have cheated on her." I told him.

"No woman should be cheated on no matter what. Her only fault was lying to me all along but it is not a justification for me cheating on her." Pastor James cautioned.

"But there's something I don't get. How come she said you've found your daughter?" I asked.

He looked at me without saying anything for a while. "I called my mistress by her native name, Msheila and Cassandra's full name is Cassandra Msheila Peters." Pastor James finally said.

"And so what?"

He sighed. "That's the full name of my mistress."

"What? Are you trying.... trying to say... Is Cassandra your daughter?" I asked, understanding the whole thing immediately.

Pastor James nodded in the affirmative.

"But....but how.... How could you be so sure?" I stuttered.

"I had always felt a connection with Sandra but I didn't know why so when my ex-wife congratulated me on finding my daughter, I was confused and she was like she thought I knew because Cassandra Msheila Peters was also my mistress's name and she wasn't surprised when she had seen me coming to get Sandra from her shop thinking I was aware." Pastor James explained.

"But can't two people bear the same name?" I wondered.

"Exactly. That's what I thought at first but then, Cassandra's AB-negative blood group is rare and that's my blood group as well and that's why I was able to donate my blood to her. Also, although I never saw it before, Cassandra has a striking resemblance to my mistress which I realized when Patricia told me Sandra was my daughter. I never knew Cassandra's full name and that's why I didn't take note of anything in the past. Anyways, I was not still convinced so I pleaded with the doctor to carry out a DNA test without Cassandra's knowledge. The results of the test came in yesterday." Pastor James said and paused.

"And?" I urged him on.

He nodded. "She's my daughter."

I nearly lost my balance.

"This is such a twisted turn of events. Someone, wake me up. This has to be a dream." I said.

Pastor James only stared blankly without saying a word.

I chuckled after a moment of total silence. "On the brighter side, at least; Cas will get the Father she never had."

"No! She can't find out." He quickly jumped in, barely letting me finish my sentence.

"Why? Aren't you happy? You've found your daughter." I said.

"I'm happy but she may blame me for all the suffering she and her mother passed through. If only I had been there....."

I cut in. "It wasn't totally your fault."

"It was. I shouldn't have lied that I wasn't married. Msheila wouldn't have had anything to do with me if she had known, she was a really decent woman." Pastor James said.

"So what do we do?" I questioned.

"Let sleeping dogs lie, of course. We may tell her later but not now. She's pregnant and I don't want to hurt her feelings now. I put her and her mum through a lot. I know the Lord is merciful and has forgiven me but I doubt if Cassandra will ever be able to forgive me." Pastor James said.

He was right in his statement. If we must tell Cas, it was definitely not in this condition of hers.

"You have a point." I told him.

"So?"

I shrugged. "Deal."

[Cassandra's POV]

I rubbed my fingers over my eyes and yawned loudly. For how long had I slept?

I managed to sit up in my bed and glanced at the wall clock. It was past 2:00pm.

"I sleep like a pig." I muttered to myself.

I had been discharged from the hospital yesterday after it was confirmed that I was absolutely normal and free to live outside the hospital walls once again.

It was like the dawn of a new era for me; being able to wake up without perceiving the smell of medicines and injections. I couldn't count how many times those annoying smells made me puke. It was a total relief for me to finally be home.

My stomach was fully rounded and protruded and I'd become a mother in three months. I couldn't wait to have my baby. I really wanted a baby girl, I'd name her after me the same way my mother named me after her.

Gosh, mum! I missed her a whole lot. She had wrinkles and streaks of grey hair but that couldn't hide her beauty. The Lord only knows how much of a beauty queen she'd been when she was my age.

I knew it was suffering that had made my mother look older than she actually was. I had promised her a better life but she didn't wait for me to fulfill my promise.

Tears slid down my eyes. It had been quite a while since I'd cried over losing my mum. I always tried to block off thoughts concerning her but today, I just let the thoughts flow.

If only she hadn't gone to work that day.... She so desperately wanted me to be successful and wanted me to go to the higher institution.

I'm sure she was disappointed in me for not pursuing my studies and she was probably angry at herself for not being alive to ensure I went to school.

"Mum, you should have just hung on." I said, like she could hear me.

My baby kicked.

"Whoa. Do you miss granny too?" I asked.

It kicked again.

I only laughed this time around.

Even though my baby wasn't born yet, it brought smiles to my face like I had brought smiles to my mother's face.

I thank God I hadn't gone ahead with aborting the child.

It was all because of Amsey's support and encouragement that I had made sure my child stayed alive.

Amsey... Why wasn't he home yet? It was past 2 in the afternoon and the church closed before 12 so why was he late?

I climbed out of the bed and looked around for my phone so I could give him a phone call but my phone wasn't anywhere in sight.

Ohh... I had left it on Amsey's drawer when we were discussing in his side of the room earlier in the morning.

I pushed back the curtains which demarcated our respective sides and walked into his own side of the room.

I saw the phone lying on the drawer. "I knew it!"

As I reached to take the phone, my eyes caught something shooting out from under the bed.

It was brown. I was scared it was a cockroach at first but Cockroaches weren't paper-like, were they?

I forgot about my phone and bent to look at what I had seen.

It was a big brown envelope and although, Amsey had warned me not to go snooping around his things, I just wanted to know what they were that he'd keep them under the bed of all places.

I picked up the envelope and opened it, peeking inside.

Papers... Lots of them were inside.

What were they? I wondered. They seemed like documents.

I contemplated taking out the documents and looking at them but Amsey would be annoyed if he found out.

Wait! Who was gonna tell him I took a look at them? There was no one in here apart from me so what's the worst that could happen?

I stealthily removed the documents from the envelope and I saw some ownership papers stuff.

I wasn't too concerned at first not until I saw AMSTERDAM HOLLAND IBITOYE named as the owner to multi-million companies, luxurious houses and hotels.

How was that even possible? Amsey just had a Cybercafe. Was he hiding something from me?

I flipped through the documents and I came across a photograph showing a sophisticated looking man, a middle-aged woman and a young Amsey. I knew it was Amsey when he was younger because of the striking resemblance to the Amsey I knew.

The man's face was quite familiar. It was like I knew him but I couldn't really place where I had known him from.

The next document showed a DNA test report bearing that MR AMSTERDAM HOLLAND IBITOYE was 99% related to MR FOLORUNSHO HOLLAND IBITOYE.

How could I forget the name, Folorunsho Holland Ibitoye? It was a household name for everybody staying in Nigeria. The man was a great influence on every aspect of the economy and he was a good politician even vying for the post of the Governor of Lagos State.

I was one of the people who supported Mr Folorunsho because of his good deeds to the poor. He had several orphanage homes and was a huge philanthropist. I had even benefitted from the free food program he organized every year. He was celebrated all over Nigeria and Africa, at large. He had proven to be a good man beyond reasonable doubt.

How come he was Amsey's father? Was there someone else with the same name?

I quickly looked at the photograph again. The man there was Mr Folorunsho Holland Ibitoye. I hadn't recognized him earlier because the picture was in black and white format.

Why then did Amsey live in this area and said he had no family? Was Amsey an illegitimate child of Mr Folorunsho Holland Ibitoye?

No wonder Amsey could pay for our bills without blinking an eye. He had a rich father who gave him all he wanted apparently but if that was actually the case, why did Amsey get angry on seeing me watch the man doing humanitarian deeds every time? I knew it upsetted him and that's why I stopped watching the man's TV station where he shows his perfect life with his family and how he contributes to the nation.

Maybe Amsey was jealous on not being known by the world as a son to the great Folorunsho Ibitoye.

Whatever the case was, this was a secret Amsey had kept from me and I may lose my mind in bottling up the fact that I was aware of his secret identity.

"Cas! Cas!!" I heard Amsey yell as he knocked on the door.

My heartbeat increased. I was so scared. I prayed he didn't find out that I had gotten aware of what he was so desperately trying to hide. I couldn't stand him being angry at me.

I quickly arranged the documents as neatly as I could and put them back into the envelope.

"Cas!" He yelled again and banged his fist against the door again.

"I'm coming." I managed to yell back.

I tucked the envelope under the bed, smoothened my dress and prayed I could talk to him as normally as before without sounding like I knew he was an influential billionaire's son.

I swallowed hard and grabbed my phone then went to open the door for him.