CHAPTER FIVE

MUNA

"How dare you bring that up? We both know that I was set up that night." I replied in anger.

"Set up? Don't give me that nonsense once again. I thought that since we've become adults you'd finally come to terms with what happened that night and stop lying," Grant frowned.

"I don't want to talk about this. Not anymore, you don't believe what I have to say as regards the matter and the same goes for me, so let's just leave that issue aside. I want to assume the position of Director of Rowland Galleries. No, let me rephrase that, I'm now the director of Rowland Galleries."

Grant stood watching me for a while with a weird look before he said, "I'm expected to attend a meeting in the next fifteen minutes, so I'll get straight to the point. I have a proposition for you, but it's not something we can talk about here. So meet me at this address at 6 pm. You may leave my office now."

"I'd rather meet with you here tomorrow instead. I don't trust anymore meetings with you anywhere asides an office. Don't be offended, but after our last encounter, you can't blame me."

"I need you to understand your place here. You need my help, not the other way around, so even if I asked you to meet me in my penthouse, you don't have a right to reschedule that meeting. Remember your father could go to prison if I want him to."

"I hate you. How could you do this to my father? Why do you hate me do much?"

"I'm not doing anything to the old man, Muna. You see your actions is what determines whether or not I'd send your father to prison. Now would you meet me at my penthouse or not?"

"I'll be the unsmiling lady in black. That's because being around you is like attending a funeral," I condemned.

"Really? From what I remember you don't attend funerals, I mean Somto, your only sibling died and you weren't even present at his funeral," Grant laughed.

That was the moment where I felt every control slip out of my grasp and I slapped him hard across the face.

"Don't you ever talk about my brother like that. You have no right after what you did to me back then. I'll meet you at 6 pm," I said in a dark tone before walking out of his office, leaving him caressing his red cheek in anger. 

I left the building, but not before saying thanks to Abigail. Slapping Grant was supposed to make me feel better, but I only felt even more furious. Who the hell did he think he was?

As I drove home, my mind took me back to what happened between us both back then in secondary school.

Grant had always been my classmate, but I only ever cared about competing with him for the top place in class, until the day when I mistakenly bumped into him and ruined his science project.

I apologised which was something I never did, but it seemed he never really accepted that apology.

He started getting on my nerves, following me around school, claiming that I owed him a date as compensation for ruining the project.

I wasn't interested in dating anyone, especially after just breaking up with Jackson, the dean's son.

It had only been two months since Somto died. I was still mourning and angry at everything and everyone around me, so having just another burden on me was too much.

I was already under pressure from my family to do better than Grant and ensure that he stays at second place while I remain the best of our year. I had to graduate as the valedictorian.

Mum was also recently sent to the psychiatric hospital the previous month, so I didn't know if I was possessed or something when I agreed to date him back then.

I wasn't sure why I finally agreed to go out with Grant after he asked me out for the fifteenth time that month. So, we agreed to go for a movie and for the first time in a long time, I felt happy, because we saw my favourite animation which my Dad felt was too childish for me to watch.

After the movie, Grant and I went to a playground near our school and we talked about our lives and school. He told me he was sorry about what happened with my brother.

At that moment, I broke into tears. He listened to me as I talked about the struggles I had with pleasing my parents who wanted me to become a surgeon just like my mum. He was actually very great company.

I told him about the fact that I didn't attend Somto's burial, because I just couldn't bear to say goodbye to him like that.

How then could Grant bring up Somto's funeral like that in his office when he knew me better than anyone else in school back then?

If I didn't start to trust him back then, if I didn't tell him about my struggles as the leader of the cheerleading squad, or even about how I didn't really think I had friends despite the girls who followed me around all the time in school, maybe then things wouldn't have happened the way they did all those years ago.

After being friends throughout that year of school, we went on a three-day school break. It was the last term of our final year of high school, I couldn't believe that all through our time in school, I only saw Grant as my opposition, so I thought it was high time I gave us a chance to be more than friends.

Grant had been suggesting that for a while, so I finally told him that I wanted us to go on a date on the first day of our school break.

He booked us a table at an expensive restaurant and we had so much fun eating and discussing that night. We had plans to meet the next day at a gaming centre.

When I went home to my boring family mansion filled with servants, my Dad as usual was out of the country, but I didn't feel lonely at all. I figured it was because I now had Grant whom I could talk with on the phone and who actually cared about me.

Grant sent me a text that night saying something came up and that he couldn't meet me at the gaming centre the next day, but I should meet him at another address instead.

It was an apartment, he said it belonged to his Dad, that he wanted to make dinner for me and also wanted us to study together because our final exams were starting in two days time.

I was disappointed, because I hadn't been to a gaming centre before, so I didn't reply and instead called one of my friends, Harper from the cheerleading squad and told her that Grant wanted me to meet him at an apartment.

In her opinion, he definitely wanted us to take our relationship further and probably expected me to spend the night together with him.

I was shocked, I had never done such a thing before, I was very serious about keeping my virginity until I was very sure I wanted to lose it and so I just decided that I'd go there the next day and tell Grant that I wasn't ready yet.

It was the same reason Jackson and I broke up, he wanted us to start having sex. After I told him, "no," he simply stopped talking to me and I eventually let go of our relationship.

Jackson was the dean's son, captain of the basketball team and the most popular guy in school, he was also good-looking, so he felt insulted when I rejected him. According to him, he could have any girl he wanted and I was a fool for rejecting him.

I later discovered it was for the best because he was kind of distracting me from my studies. I was also running for the top student of our school and my Dad had made it clear that I must win that competition, so breaking up with Jackson was best for me at the time.

Now with Grant, I wasn't being distracted because Grant always made sure we studied for at least an hour together everyday. I didn't even mind that Grant was also a member of the basketball team and how it was quite surprising for me to break up with the captain to go for a regular member.

The next day, I went to see Grant at the address he gave to me, but when I got there, Jackson and two other guys from the basketball team were there with no sign of Grant.

They said that they were there because they heard that Grant and I were now dating and wanted to celebrate with us. Jackson even apologised for his behaviour the last time we spoke. He told me Grant was still on his way.

He even offered me a drink after I accepted his apology. I guess I should have known better than to drink it because a minute after drinking it, I started feeling dizzy and eventually blacked out.

When I woke up, I was in my underwear on a bed and Grant was sitting beside me, fully clothed with a very dark look on his face.

I was so confused and worried because I didn't want to believe that he was responsible for what happened. Did he gang up with his friends to drug me?

When I asked what was going on, he started calling me names and said he couldn't believe it when Peter one of his teammates told him that I was still dating Jackson and he had to come there himself to prove him wrong.

I covered myself up with the blanket, finally coming to terms with what was going on. Grant had set me up with Jackson, but why?

After asking him where Jackson was, he said he ran away when we were caught together. He called me a slut and other hurtful names and even denied ever asking me to meet him at that apartment. I tried to show him the text on my phone, but somehow, it had been deleted.

Grant laughed and kept accusing me of two-timing with Jackson and him, claiming to have never sent me any text.

I told him that he was the one who had to explain to me what was going on, that I was set up by someone, probably him, but he wouldn't listen to me.

He eventually left me in that room, saying it was over between us. That was the day, I started hating Grant.

Jackson eventually confessed that he asked Grant to date me in exchange for winning the top student competition. 

Jackson's mum was the Dean of our school, so he promised him that he could manipulate things in Grant's favour. They only wanted to make fun of me since I acted all high and mighty, according to him.

For the entire exam period, I was threatened with pictures that they took of me in my underwear, until all of a sudden, the threats stopped. 

I made sure to avoid Grant and luckily, still able to win that competition. 

Taking my mind off the past, I wiped my tears as I made up my mind to ruin Grant for what he did to me.