Chapter 51: Chapter 51

Chapter 51.

Harry,

‘’Good morning darling?’’ she greets and I give her a death glare. I hate it when she wants to behave like we are buddies.

We are not.

‘’Don’t you dare me, Diana! You know the position we are in and I am not going to sit here and watch you manipulate me more. Tell me something, Diana, what the hell happened where you had gone? Why did you come back here?’’ I start the conversation which she dreads so much and I know that she does because of the way she behaves mostly when I ask her about it.

‘’I am sorry, Harry. I will not answer your question unless you make me pregnant.’’ I burst a peal of acrimonious, rancorous and bitter laughter.

‘’You? Do you want to get pregnant for me? You think I wasn’t there when the doctor said you can die any time but getting you pregnant will speed it? I don’t love you, Diana but I wouldn’t wish for your death to come from me. I don’t wanna cause it.’’

‘’That’s really hurting, you know?’’ she states sadly. ‘’Why would you rub all that to my face? Did I choose to die or what?’’

‘’Yes, I do know. If only you never imposed yourself on me, you couldn’t have been in here locked up and dying a sad death. I couldn’t be forced to talk to you all the damn time. What the hell happened to you? Why were you and your mother imported?’’

‘’And what do you care? You want to act like you care while in real sense you are enjoying it?’’ she asks angrily and I roll my eyes.

I vividly remember when the threat between her mum and my mum. They hold so much against each other.

She starts sobbing when I ask her that. ‘’I am so sorry, Harry. This wasn’t the life I wanted to live. This wasn’t my idea but my mum’s. Your mother, Harry, she hates you and both her and my mum have caused this on us but that’s not the point.’’

‘’You are right, that’s not the point tell me something new. I already know what you just stated.’’ She blinks several times then resumes sniveling. I have never seen her weep seriously, usually, she is just forcing herself or rather pretending to be shedding tears to make me feel guilty but today, it’s real.

It’s been four, almost five months since the marriage. I didn’t want to do it, it wasn’t my idea that it took place. I did it at gunpoint. I have been living in hell since then. Whatever mum and that evil woman wanted to achieve, they did it but trust me very soon, it is going to backfire on them because their sweet daughter here will be talking to me very soon.

Tiding! My recorder is working.

I am sure my baby has been born by now. I shake my head as I think of that. My tears threaten to come out but I try as much as I could to prevent that from happening. I was forced to move out of town and trust me I have been looking for my Clarita secretly since then to no success. I want to see her so badly. I hope she never moved on or maybe I am hoping for too much, she may have met a man who appreciates her, who loves her, who cares for her and one who has no resistance from his parents. Not that I didn’t appreciate her, no, I did just that but my asshole of a mum didn’t let me. Clarita probably hates me so much for doing this. I hope I manage to convince Diana that we can go back home.

I have plans today, plans that will send her mind to a comma and will allow me to listen to her, record her and probably call the police on her.

I tried resisting because leaving town wasn’t anywhere close to the list of my priorities but a rogue policeman was made to come and my life was threatened. I made a decision which I know may have messed my love life forever. I decided I was better off marrying her than dead. I wanted to place my eyes on my son. The champ who will for the first time call me dad but I never did that. I wanted to be there as a father when Clarita finally puts to bed but life has its own way of showing one its middle finger.

A tear trickle down my cheeks involuntarily. Something that has been very common in my life of late. I cry like a weakling because I am under security watch and every move I make is threatened. We have been living like crazy people in this house.

There is no single love. I don’t care about her and she doesn’t care about me.

I don’t cook for her even though she is ailing, I almost drifted back to alcohol but I didn’t. I decided that I would stay sane. We eat in a hotel, not as a couple but every man for themselves. I don’t care about her because I have never bought that crap that she’s sick. Well, I am about to find that out.

‘’Listen here, Diana, I want us to try and make a baby. I have held onto Clara for so long but it seems I will never get her. She left her phone at the gate that day and I have never been able to contact her. I think I will give you a chance and from today henceforth, we will live like a normal couple.’’

‘’Really Harry? I …’’ I lift my hand to stop her from speaking.

‘’For starters, I have made breakfast for you. These wasted months we could have been really ahead. a couple that walks together goes further than one that walks on a parallel line. I hate the life that you and I live, that’s the reason I am going to have to correct everything.’’ I lie, my head held high and my eyes lurking hers as I wait for what she will tell me.

‘’Thank you.’’ She says enthusiastically.

‘’Well, please have your breakfast,’’ I tell her and the smiles. Her eyes clearly show that she has fallen for my lies. Wow! I hope she spills the beans.

She takes her breakfast angrily and I smile internally when she starts to speak. I occasionally pick a little of it and I push it through her mouth. She is very happy. This girl should be very careful because she has no idea who she is messing around with.

I have been persuading her to talk but she has never had an interest. I hope my trick works today. My mom pops up here with the aim of making sure that we live a happy life. I miss my sisters, Aliana and Anita. I miss my brother Henry too. I see dad occasionally and he has been telling me that things will be okay soon.

‘’Um …Harry, I am sorry.’’ I ignore her so she continues. ‘’This whole thing was mum’s idea. She wanted me to be protected from the people who were after me.’’ Wow! Things are literally unveiling so someone was after her.

‘’Who and why?’’ I want to make it as polite as I can so that she speaks. I want her to talk, I want to hear everything. Ooh my God! So she is a fugitive?

I will personally call the police on her, dying my feet! I have wanted this for way too long.

‘’Please promise me that you will not hate me after this. I am tired of keeping the story to myself. The secret is annoying so, I want to just talk about it.’’

‘’It’s hard to promise you that but I will try.’’ I tell her politely. I don’t even believe that it’s me but all the same, I will give her an ear.

Please, Harry. I will …’’

I shrug, ‘’Okay. Just go ahead and speak.’’

‘’When we went abroad mum didn’t think of the consequences of her leaving this country and what she was gonna do there. She didn’t have an official job to do. She was doing sloppy jobs in order to feed us. She never had a salary of her own she literally slept with old men to feed us.’’

‘’Why did you go? I thought she was doing so well here?’’

‘’We went because dad took back his money and stopped funding mum’s business. Mum found out that he was cheating on her and when she confronted him, he wasn’t happy and he decided to stop funding her business. My mum had never had money of her own. She relied on dad most of the time and that’s why she was stranded. She didn’t have any money saved to my name and that’s the reason she decided to try her luck somewhere else. A friend of hers lied to her of an available job but when we got there, prostitution was the norm.’’

‘’That’s gross. Who would have known? The great Mrs. Jeddah not having any money to herself?’’ She ignores me and I don’t talk again.

‘’Mum became one of the people that I have only seen on TV. She brought men home every night and at some point, those men started asking me out. those men were older than my own father. I got into doing things that I shouldn’t be doing.’’

‘’Things like …’’

‘’Don’t interrupt me,’’ she says bawling. I have no idea why I don’t feel her pain, I don’t feel like commiserating with her because she has been terrorizing my life for the past few months and I literally feel like I am living in hell. ‘’I went out with the men and it didn’t take long before I found I myself in prostitution.’’

I gasp, ‘’AND?’’

‘’One day, there was confusion between the men and one of them said he was starting to fall in love. I think they had an agreement never to fall in love with the girls they slept around with hence the confusion and fights. I didn’t want them to fight so I promised that I will never fall in love with any of them.’’ She stops and wipes her tears angrily. I take that opportune moment to flop on the edge of my bed. I don’t move closer to her though, I don’t want to console her for whatever reasons so, I literally have to stay far and find out what happened.

‘’What happened next?’’ I ask with lots of interest.

‘’I kept doing it and when I felt that that guy was being a bother, I killed him.’’

‘’You what?’’

‘’You heard me! I killed that snitch because he couldn’t keep his stupidity to himself. I wanted that thing to remain a secret but somehow, the man who was living with mum found out. He wanted me to sleep with him in order for him not to tell anyone my little secret. I didn’t want to betray mum like that so, I opted to leave and I did. He was literally blackmailing me.’’

‘’Wow! That’s complicated.’’

‘’Not anymore.’’ She says

‘’Why not? Did you sort it out?’’

‘’Nope but I have you to protect my ass and you are stuck by me. You aren’t going anywhere so make sure that I am safe always.’’ I shake my head. This one is the latest version of evil.

‘’What happened after you left?’’

‘’I became a street child. I got into stealing and coning people but that didn’t last long because the police made sure to kill one gang member each night.’’

My eyes shoot wide open. ‘’That’s dangerous, you know?’’

‘’Not anymore because I stopped.’’ She says unflappably and dispassionately. ‘’anyway, one day as we were going to steal we had a plan of stealing from this CEO who worked in a certain company. One of the company’s employee was amongst us and he is the one who was giving instructions, we were just a few members left, probably like eight or so. When I joined we were about thirty nine.’’

‘’What happened?’’

‘’Well, life sucks right now when I remember what I did that day,’’ she pauses for a long second and breathes in and out. ‘’The CEO was my mum’s man. The guy whom she loved and lived with. I hated him and when he saw me and shouted my name, I didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger on his head. That was the second person I was killing. Sorry, I had killed a few more who resisted us during our night missions.’’

‘’You are a cold-blooded murderer!’’ I say coldly.

‘’I know that and I also know that I am not a proud one.’’ She says and I stop the recording. Now I have all the evidence to bring her down. I have to wait for a little longer though, I want my mum and her friend to go down too.

"Who plans such for their own mum?"

" Me, apparently, I even doubt she is my real mum." my innate will always question me and I will always respond.

‘’Pack your clothes, we’re leaving.’’ I tell her without mincing my words.

‘’Where are we going?’’

‘’Home.’’

‘’I don’t …’’ I cut her off.

‘’I didn’t ask for your opinion!’’ She shuts when I shout and gives me a questioning look. She must be wondering where the other Harry who wanted to start over went to.

She stands up against her will and heads to the closet to pack her clothes. Mine are already packed. I did it when I woke up to order for her breakfast.

I am determined to leave this place by all means.

Now!