Novels by Ugonma Ukuku

I take Luther’s breakfast to his office and watch as he takes the first bite.“You approve?”, I ask immediately he swallows.“Yes”, he says. “I obviously have to, I basically made it”Asshole. I don’t comment though, I need to be on his good side to ask for what I want. “So, uh, I wanted to ask you about something”“What is that?”, he grumbles out as he keeps eating. Not really bothering to look at me. “I was wondering if I could be paid in advance?”That pauses him in his eating and he looks up at me, pensive.“May I ask why?”“I need to pay off some bills”“The bills can wait”“They really can’t”, I say and he ignores me.I sigh. “It’s an emergency”“What do you need the money for?”“Like I said, bills”“Not good enough”, he says gruffly, going back to his food.I try to come up with a way to convince him without letting it slip that I have a daughter stashed in the hospital somewhere.“I might need to get an urgent hysterectomy and I need the money for the procedure”He freezes for

“Less salt”, Luther instructs from behind me.“It’s less than a pinch already”, I complain.“Reduce it”. He’s not budging so I obey and reduce it as he instructed.It’s been a week since the last breakfast I made him and we’re currently in the kitchen and I’m preparing his breakfast after I took the first meal to him and he told me to toss it away, then dragged me here to supervise me as I make a new plate. The past twenty minutes has been hell with him breathing down my neck and criticizing my every move.“The pot is too hot”“Reduce the fire”“Wrong spatula”“Not enough butter”These are a few of the many things he’s corrected. Some were honestly unnecessary and simply petty if you ask me, but yes, let’s indulge the embodiment of pettiness that is Luther Chapman.We’re on the sauce now and I’m quite surprised that we managed to get here. I somehow expected that we’d be here till night with him micromanaging my actions.I pick up the pepper and I’m about to sprinkle some in when his

I haven’t seen Luther since breakfast. He’s been in his office since. I video called Keila immediately I left his office earlier. She looked very happy to see my new room and kept asking me when she can visit, I couldn’t break her little heart by telling her they don’t know I have a daughter and so I can’t bring her over, so instead, I told her she can come when she gets better enough to be discharged. She agreed. Hopefully, by then I would have earned enough for her surgery and would be out of here. I wasn’t going to tell her that though, the goal was to protect her precious heart from breaking.We talked for a while before I let her go so she can take a nap. I took my own nap too almost immediately we ended the call.When I woke up, I went to continue about my duties. I’m required to do Luther’s laundry and also clean his room. He’s anal about the positions of items in his room and how regularly it should be cleaned so I’m expected to make his expectations.He’s still working so thi

The next day, I’m looking through Luther’s diet and restriction list in awe. There are so many things he’s not required to eat and then there are more foreign foods here than normal. I wonder if he has allergies.I get to work immediately, not willing to piss him off so early in the morning. The dish is fairly easy to prepare, the recipe simple. The only difficulty is working with strange ingredients but I somehow figure it out. Thankfully, I get it done nicely and finish up in time. Salad already showed me where Luther eats. In the mornings, he stays in the dining room for breakfast and sometimes if Emily is around, they have breakfast together. During lunch, he takes his food in his office. Dinner is mostly in his office too, with a few times that he chooses to eat in the dining if he finishes work early.When I get to the dining room, I see Luther already seated and reading a newspaper.That’s very ancient of him.I set the food down in front of him with a subtle smile. Luther take

Keila looks frailer, but at the same time, she looks happy to see me, and that’s enough.“Hey mommy, aunt Katie got me a lollipop and new toys”, she reports happily. I frown. Unlike other kids, Keila has strict restrictions on her diet so no matter how much she craves the snacks, sweets and outdoor games other kids play, it’s imperative that she’s only permitted to them once in a blue moon.I’m happy she got to have a lollipop after so long, but I’m also angry at Katie for giving it to her. Sure, she was being thoughtful and only wanted to make my daughter happy, but I’m still really worried.“What did you say to her?”, I ask, instilling manners even at the height of worry. She smiles, her little teeth on display.“I said, Thankyou aunt Katie, I hope you break the rules for me again next time”. Her response is accompanied by a cheeky smile and a mischievous twinkle in her eye. I laugh, unable to scold her and just generally happy that she still maintains this side of her.“Okay, okay,

Luther doesn’t look impressed. He runs his grey eyes over my form for a few seconds, not saying anything. The look in his eyes convey his disgust. He’s never liked me, even made his dislike for me obvious. Before now, he honestly had no reason for that but right now, I hate that I gave him a reason to actually dislike me. I hate that I’m proving his point and feeding his stupid ego.I expect him to scold me, or even fire me at the spot. Surprisingly, all he does is to grumble out a firm “you’re late”, then he walks away, not giving me any more attention.I hurry towards him, his strides are long so it takes me a few seconds to catch up and then when I do, it’s hard to keep up with his steps. He must notice my struggle because he stops walking and turns to face me.“What are you doing?”, he asks, seemingly unhappy about my skittering around him.“I, uh, nothing”He runs that uncomfortable gaze over me again, making me self conscious, then he turns around to face me completely.“Listen,