Chapter 40: Chapter 40

Chapter 40

‘’What the hell is wrong with you?’’

‘’What do you mean by that question?’’ I ask her in a low tone. She is shouting in a very high tone and that’s just too much for me to handle. ‘’I am perfectly okay.’’

A burst of cynical, dry, and sullen laughter comes through. ‘’You are okay? You call that being okay? You are frail, tired, and pale. Where is he after making you pregnant?’’

‘’Who?’’

‘’Who else? Your brother of course.’’ My eyes fly wide open when she says that. What exactly is her problem?

Well, I am seated on a couch inside this strange house, speaking to this strange woman whose face I cannot see clearly. She has been insisting that I got pregnant for my brother and that sucks. I have asked her how my baby daddy is my brother but she isn’t explaining. I cannot decrypt her face right now, I have never seen her before but I can tell without a struggle that this woman is here to torture me. She must have been sent by the devil herself.

She is one of the tallest women I have ever seen.

Where I am seated, I cannot see her face without lifting mine high. I force my tired self to stand up. I carefully study the woman’s face and when I move closer to her, I don’t know whether it’s an alarm or just something else but I see an ugly face like that of a monster, I start to run away but I fall down on my gastrointestinal.

My mind dailies to the pregnancy, I fondle and pet it gently. I don’t want to lose it. Harry might be under some heaviness to marry that Diana girl but I want to keep the baby for us. I know he doesn’t even know about the pregnancy but I will tell him soon as he sorts his shit.

I turn to face the woman fully as I struggle to stand on balanced feet. She looks so amused and I wonder why. She is smiling maliciously, evilly and spitefully.

‘’Can you explain to me why you think Harry is my brother?’’ I ask her with a shuddering voice. Fear has engulfed and consumed me since I saw her multiple faces.

‘’I don’t think so, young girl. Harry is your brother. I know it!’’ she says confidently. I swear I don’t understand the mystery in my life.

‘’I want you to know that I don’t care. The brotherhood can go screw itself! I love Harry and I will never sit here and let you say things that I know too well aren’t true. You are one of those people termed as the spirit of darkness. Your malicious ways of living will do you nothing but harm. I won’t be intimidated by your lies.’’

She looks down at me with disgusted eyes, her height is Intimidating, daunting, and menacing but that won’t happen to me. She sizes me and I don’t hide my face away, I look straight into her eyes. I know what she is trying to do. She is literally trying to make me horrified and run away but that’s not up-tothe-minute.

‘’You are making the biggest mistake. Harry will never leave Diana for you. He will never let go of a refined city girl for some naïve, raw, and unlearned village girl like you. I will make sure of that.’’ I cower when she says that but I quickly wipe away the feeling.

‘’I don’t give a hoot if I am or not making mistakes. I want you to know that Harry is mine and once he sorts his shit, he will hear about the pregnancy and we will all live happily ever after.’’

‘’Wow! You are very stupid. I know of girls who have been tenacious before like you are right now. Do you know what I did to them?’’ I am confused. I shake my big head when I realize who this woman is.

Mrs. Williams.

I start to freak out but I immediately compose myself.

‘’What did you do, madam?’’ I ask humbly. The truth is, I am so tensed and if I don’t hide that, I will go mad in a matter of seconds.

‘’I killed them!’’ she shouts like the lunatic that she is. ‘’And I am going to kill you too!’’ she charges towards me with a knife.

‘’Nooo!’’ I shout loudly as I hold my stomach I don’t know if it’s fictional but my stomach is paining badly. I am sweating profusely and panting vigorously.

‘’Calm down dear.’’ I tense when I hear an awfully familiar male voice beside me. It had to be him.

Luke.

I haven’t seen him in ages.

‘’Where am I?’’ I ask my eyes wide open as Luke makes to hold me in his arms. ‘’Some water please.’’

I don’t push him away. I know he cannot harm me. I am thirsty and my voice is cracking and utterly dry. I let him hold me tightly in his arms. He brings some water in a glass and I gulp it down.

‘’Sorry baby girl. It seems you had a very bad nightmare. What’s up with you? I know you aren’t okay so, don’t lie to me that you are.’’ He says nuzzling me once again in his accommodative arms and I lay restfully my head on his chest.

‘’I am not. That was one of the worst nightmares eve. That woman almost killed me. She doesn’t want her son to have anything to do with me. How do I explain to her that matters of the heart, real and pure love can never be forced? Why would she appear in my dream like a monster and even get the audacity to say that Harry is my brother?’’

‘’What?’’ I nod when Luke asks me that. ‘’Is he?’’

‘’I am confused. She was so sure in my dream. She said she doesn’t think, that she is absolutely sure of what she was saying. What the hell?’’

‘’Hey, it was just a dream, don’t worry about it okay?.’’ he says without believing his words. Luke must be wondering about so many things but he just has to explain what I am doing here.

‘’Can you explain to me what I am doing here, Luke?’’ I ask him not in a very friendly manner. He seems surprised at what I just told him.

‘’Um … I was coming from work when I found you lying beside the road. People were looking at you and wondering who you are. If I showed up minutes later, I would have found you gone.’’ ‘’Gone?’’ I ask with a frown on my face.

‘’Yes, gone. Someone almost took you away claiming that he was taking you to the hospital. I said I knew you and he cowered, I am not sure if he was genuine or not but he seemed disappointed when I appeared. I took you and that small bag.’’ I lift my head as he pulls away from holding me. The bag that has my designs.

I never leave it behind.

‘’Thank you,’’ I say gently as I make to stand up but he holds me back.

‘’Welcome, what do you want to do?’’

‘’The bag, I need to pick my phone from there.’’ He quickly gets the bag for me. It has been hanged nicely on the wall. My eyes fleet for a quick moment to the room. It is cliquey and expedient. The room is big and the bed is gigantic. The room is painted cream and everything else in it is white. White beddings and a nice walk-in closet. A white couch is lying proudly at the corner of the room. No doubt the owner of this place is rich.

Filthy rich.

‘’Take your bag. Are you okay?’’ he startles me from my little trance and I feign a smile.

‘’Yes I am, why?’’

‘’You asked for the bag but you seemed zoned out. Anyway, I didn’t want to take you to the hospital so, I called the doctor and he came here, checked on you and guess what!’’

‘’U hu!’’ I respond insouciantly

‘’You are pregnant.’’ I nod when he says that. ‘’By the look of things, you already knew that you are, right?’’

‘’Yes, I found out this morning. Thanks to Tabby who by the way must be really worried about me.’’

‘’I bet she is. You should call her.’’

’Sure, what else did the doctor say?’’

‘’The doctor also said that you are fatigued and need to rest a lot. He assured me that you will be fine just by doing that. No straining and no doing strenuous work. You got to rest.’’

‘’Where exactly am I?’’ I ask ignoring the silly pieces of advice. If I don’t work I will not eat and the little innocent thing in my stomach will be hungry and with no clothes to wear. I know exactly what I am now, a mother and I should be that forever.

‘’You haven’t figured that out?’’

‘’Am I supposed to?’’

‘’You should but if you haven’t then you are in my house. Congratulations.’’ He says with a slight but beautiful and genuine smile. ‘’Does he know that you are carrying his baby?’’

‘’He has no idea. His wicked mother wants him to get married to his childhood friend who is dying in a few months, I cannot afford to tell him that I am carrying his baby because that will cause trauma to him. I prefer holding this information until he is definite of what to do.’’

‘’Are you sure you are not making the biggest mistake of your life.’’

I nod. Well, I am sure of the opposite. I know what that makes me. A coward who doesn’t wanna face the situation as it is. I should learn to deal with life and make sure I make bold and confident decisions at all times.

‘’I am sure, Luke. I want him to man up and if he decides to marry his dying friend, then I step aside. That’s what’s right and if it’s me then I stay, right?’’

He doesn’t respond to me. ‘’You got my support. So long as you are Tabby’s friend, you are my friend. I will support you to the end.’’

‘’Thank you.’’

I fish my phone out. I expect to find a call from Tabby and my Harrison but the phone is off. I wonder why when I had it on.

‘’Um … I switched off your phone when Harry was buzzing it all over. Tabby too, I know she will grill me for this but I didn’t wanna talk to any of them.’’ Luke says quietly responding to my unasked question and I am grateful that he did that.

When I switch on my phone, it has several messages. From Harry from Tabby and from Aliana which catches my eye the most.

You didn’t have to go like that. Harry is really suffering. When you get this message, call me back immediately. ~ Aliana

Beautiful, what’s my mistake? I have always loved you and I am still gonna love you to the end. Baby, if you can see this, come back to me. I am worried sick about you. ~ Harrison

I swear to God you and I are friends and we don’t hide anything from each other. What’s up with you, babe? You know I can listen to anything from you and will always be there for you. Is it the pregnancy?

~ Tabby

I facepalm when I read hers. She will be so mad at me.

I have many more from Harry so I keep reading.

I love you, Clarita. ~ Harrison.

I will not marry Diana. ~ Harrison.

Please come back to me. I am worried sick about you. ~ Harrison.

‘’You are crying, Clara. Everything okay?’’ Luke startles me and I wipe my tears bitterly. I pull away from him when he tries to do it. I cannot let him wipe my tears. He should be doing that for his girlfriend and not me.

‘’I am okay. You know, when I left my boss’ house, I didn’t know that it would be this bad. I love him, Luke but I cannot deal with his mum who is hare-brained. She is haunting me in my sleep and that’s not really good. She even said that she will kill me.’’

‘’Hey that was just a dream.’’ He says rubbing my back gently. ‘’Where was he when you were leaving the house.’’

‘’Asleep, in my small bed. He gave me some food, I ate and that’s after he brought me back as I was walking away from him when he told me about him marrying Diana. He asked me to rest and I was happy when he did. He said he would watch over me. I fell asleep for a few minutes and when I woke up, he was dead asleep and I took the opportunity to walk away.’’

‘’How far did you go? Or rather, where were you going to?’’

‘’Nowhere in particular. I don’t know anyone or place. I wanted to unwind, I didn’t want to sleep there with someone who is supposed to be getting married soon. I had walked for a few kilometers when I felt dizzy and I decided to rest beside the road where anyone could find me. Thank you for showing up and saving my ass.’’

He shakes his head in confusion. I am sure he completely doesn’t understand me.

His phone thrills and he gives me a funny look before reaching for it.