"Raphael." Steven said when he got to the door. "I think we need to talk."
"Sure." Dad said. "But you'll have to be quick because I have another meeting in half an hour."
Both Dan and I watched Steven re-enter the office and go sit in Dan's seat.
"Please, close the door behind you, Gen." Dad said.
Yoké and I exchanged looks.
"It's all cool." I whispered to him. "He won't tell dad anything. I spoke to him, remember."
"You think? Cause I don't think so."
Nope. I don't. I actually think that Steven is going to spill everything out to dad. Even the guts. But I had to be positive, right? It wouldn't help if both Dan and I were stressing.
I closed dad's door as we stepped out of the office. Francis was standing by the lift waiting for it.
"I'll see you tomorrow?" I told Dan. "I need to talk to Fr
"Oh you'll really love the dress." The designer, Paul was telling me. Unlike most male designers and stylists, Paul was straight. Straighter than straight. He didn't talk or sound like a girl. He didn't walk or behave like a girl. None of that. Everything of his was just pure musculin. Except the fashion style was exceptional. Better than a guy would dress in any given day. And he always wore bright colors with many patterns."I actually like my dress." Alice told him. "You really gave it your all.""It would have been better if you didn't insist on plain black." Paul told her. I should add, Paul was openly honest. What? I know. He tells you the truth, anywhere and in any situation. He was the biggest critic there could ever beSometimes he even criticized his own work. "It made you look a bit emo. Dark little character."Alice just frowned and exchanged looks with Mom."Where is Francis?" Mom was lookin
“Quickly fix up her hair she’s supposed to go down now. It’s almost 8.” Mom told the hairdresser. A woman with colorful highlights in her hair. She had purple, pink, maroon and red.“Yes, just need more pins to keep your hair up then you’re good.” She smiled at me and then continued fumbling with my hair.“We are running out of time.” Mom said. “And did she put on perfume already?”“Not yet.” The stylist said. Another woman, but she was a redhead with a nose ring.“You people are so slow.” Mom said going to grab perfume on the draw. “I hired you instead of our usual because this day is very special, now you’re making me regret it.”“No, that’s not her perfume!” The stylist told me. “That’s Alice’s.”I looked up and saw mom with a purple bottle of perfume with a black grape drawn in the front. “Where is hers then?”“It’s right here.” The stylist took the perfume from the dresser. “I’ll just wait for Kisha to finish with her hair first.”Mom looked at her diamond wrist watch impatiently.
I hate him. I hate him. I hate him so much. He just took it too far this time. How could he sleep with Alice? How could he take it that far? How could he do this to me when I felt so bad for sleeping with Nathan even though I did it because I thought I’d never see Yoké again. But him, I’m right here. How could he? And then he still had the audacity to come dance with me after doing such a despicable thing. How has Yoké changed so much and so quickly? This is not him. The Yoké I knew would never lay a finger on another girl. What changed him so much? Maybe I’m the one in the dark. I’m the fool. Sitting around thinking that Yoké and I are playing games. Maybe he really means everything that he’s been telling me. How could I be so stupid? I can’t believe that I’ve been fooling myself this whole time.The worst thing about what he did is that he didn’t even feel bad about it. He came back wanting to dance
When we finished dinner, neither Alice nor Dan came back to the table. I could see that dad was not at all pleased with this but he didn't say anything. We sat at the table chatting with the guests until everyone finished eating. The maids began clearing the table and bringing dessert.After dessert, which was mixed fruit and some yogurt, mom got everyone's attention with a glass and a spoon."The party has basically ended now and I thank you all for being here tonight." Mom began. "If you do wish to stick around longer, please do not hesitate to. In fact many of you know that we have a guesthouse with a couple of bedrooms so those that decide to spend the night should be good."People began getting up and coming to hug us goodbye."Tomorrow is Sunday." Nathan told me, putting an arm around me as everyone left the kitchen."I know." I chuckled."Yeah, what ar
“Oh shoot.” I said, looking down at the kitchen floor but it was too dark to see.“What did you do?” He asked me, looking down too.“I should ask you that.” I said. “What the hell did you grab my hand for?”“Someone’s coming.” He said. “I heard a door open.”He took out his phone from his pocket and torched the floor. We stared at the mess. There was water everywhere and the tiny pieces of glass glimmered in the light.“Damn.” I said.“Dan?” I heard Alice’s voice from a distance.“Oh shoot.” Dan said and then took me by my wrist.“What are you doing?” I whispered.“Of cause I don’t want her to see us together.” He began taking me away. “Careful
"What's the time?" I asked him after we've been sitting quietly for what felt like forever."Half past two." He said, placing his phone on a box that was next to him. "My battery is almost dead."I didn't respond. I was sitting next to him, on a box, we had both our backs against the wall. We didn't say it but we understood each other well. We understood that Yoké was just too hurt to back out on what he had said he would do, his plan to marry Alice just to hurt me and I was just too keen on defending myself by hurting him exactly the same way too. I mean what was the use if Yoké didn't want to change his mind? If he had to tell me right now that he would leave Alice and we could get back together, I'd leave Nathan too, without even thinking twice. But he wanted it to be like this. It was all his fault. And I couldn't keep lowering my worth in front of him by begging him all the time. If he wanted it to be this way then he would get it this way. If
Nathan wasn’t in my room. I went down to the TV room and he wasn’t there too. So I went back to my room, grabbed my phone and called him.“I knew you’d show.” He said, as soon as he picked up.“Nathan, where are you?”“I didn’t even make a big deal about it because I knew that you’d show. I didn’t even tell your parents that you were not in your room whole night.”“Thank God.” I let out a sigh of relief.“I guess you where with Dan.” He said. “Even Alice couldn’t find him.”“We were not together –““Come on Gen, you two disappeared at the same time with the same excuse: water in the kitchen. It was pretty obvious. I mean Alice didn’t pick it up because she doesn’t know your history.”
As I did my own work, I couldn’t stop thinking about how Yoké was coping on the opposite side of the floor. From where I was, I could only see a potion of his office. I couldn’t see him. It was now twelve o’clock. Soon it would be lunch time, at one o’clock. At least I would get to see him in the staff room.But then I thought, what if he doesn’t finish the work I gave him? I would then have to do something. I mean I was so serious about him verifying everyone before day end, surely if he doesn’t meet up then there has to be a consequence. Otherwise, what was the commanding for?I saw Rob push the tea tray to Penny’s desk and then stop to talk to her. Penny threw him a couple of not interested expressions. After a while she burst out laughing because of something he said. Rob, satisfied that he had made Penny smile, pushed his tray against the wall, poured some tea in a cup. A few teaspoons of sugar, placed
"We have nothing left because of him." Dad said, staring at the ground. "I can't believe I trusted him that much.""Who is it, dad?" I asked."None other than your very own half brother, slash cousin, slash no relation at all, Francis.""What?" I asked. "What is he looking for? He wants to make money out of Toko Village meanwhile he is stealing from us and still gets a basic salary on top of that. How can someone love money this much? So much that you'd steal from your own..."Alice and Yoké joined us, they had heard the news too."I knew that that sneaky guy was dodgy." Alice said as she stopped behind the couch Delilah was sitting on and leaned on it.
Uma was awake, and as soon as we entered his ward and he saw us, he smiled, looked away and began sobbing. He covered his hand over his eyes and sobbed. "Aww." We chorused in unison, as if we had planned to. "Don't cry babe." He's girlfriend, Esther said, quickly walk-runned to him. She sat on the side of his bed and hugged him. She hugged him for a while as he continued crying. "We are here..." She told him, she looked sad too. "We love you and we'll always be here for you." Yoké stood behind next to his bed, the opposit side to where Esther was and placed his hands on the cotside. I came over to her side and she stood up to let
I stopped at the door way before entering the living room. He was in a navy blue suit, standing next to the couch, instead of sitting. Rosalie had just brought him his drink. He briefly pointed towards the table where she was supposed to place his drink. I went to sit on the couch opposite the one dad was standing next to. Yoké stayed at the room door post and leaned against it.Dad paced to and fro and stopped where he had started."So we've lost more than half of our clients..." Dad said, voice still powerful although the sad message.I kept quiet and watched him."We've lost most of our projects we were busy with, the clients asked to cancel their contracts or else they'd take us to court. Most of our employees, has resigned because they see the downfall. They know that we won't be able to pay them. Only the loyal ones remain."He then shrugged. "Maybe they're not even loyal. Maybe they are just
We stopped a block away from the motel just incase there were people put in place by Nathan to watch Yoké. But we could see the motel from here. It was a cheap old building. So cheap that the light of the ‘M’ in ‘Motel was flickering so bad that you’d think it would just die any moment. “So what will happen is you’ll give me Nathan’s phone so that when I get in, I can ask him which room number he is at.” The woman half turned to talk to me.“But I’m going in with you.” I told her.She shook her head. “I may not have been entirely loyal to your father but I’m not bad enough of a worker to put your life in potential danger.”“What do you mean danger? I’m—”“I have a gun. Although I’m going in there alone, I know how to defend myself up to a certain point. We don’t know whether Nathan’s men are in there, or around here, in some building, possibly watching us right now. What happens if they fire at us?”“They’ll never fire at me—”“You d
"Yoké...""Gen— Genesis is that— oh my, are you okay?”“I’m fine Yoké. I’m fine.”“What— how did you— Did Nathan put you on the phone with me?”“No Yoké. You don’t ever have to worry about Nathan ever again. He’s in custody…”“Nathan is in custody?”“He’s gone. He’ll never stand between us again. It’s all good now.”“No, no, no Geny. You don’t know Nathan, he’ll never be ‘gone’. You have to hang up right now and never call this number again.”“I’m telling you, my love. It’s over for him. The police have him and my dad knows about him—”“Look Nathan can’t be in custody. We have a— Look, I’m sorry Geny but you and I can’t ever be together. It will never work. Just p
I slammed the car door and fell back on the back seat. The woman, who was supposed to shut the already shut door for me gave me an unbelievable look and then got into the driver's seat."So what happened to your twin? Isn't he going to come with us?" I asked, bitterly."I understand you're upset that your father won't help you with your boyfriend but you don't have to take it out on me, or the car door." She told me looking back at me.We maintained eye contact for a while until she turned back and fastened her seat belt. She started the car and we were on the road again after a few minutes.I was too angry to care about how much this woman was looking at me in the rear view mirror."What?" I suddenly asked after a while of more rear view eye contact.She suddenly stopped the car causing me to fall forward and hit against her seat."Hey!" I shouted as I sat back in my seat. "Are you crazy?""Look, I'm not sure whether or not Mr
“Come here, my love.” Nathan told me. “Come take a seat next to me.”“I don’t want to sit next to you.” I told him. “I want you to tell me which plane Yoké is planning to take and when.”“Gen, your dad will always choose me over Dan. Look, all this is a misunderstanding. Once I speak to him things can go back to the way they were. We could still get married and what happens today would never come to light. We’d still be the world’s favorite couple.”I didn’t even know what to say to him. “Are you crazy?” Those were the only words that could leave my mouth.“I’m crazy about you, yes. My fiancée.”“Nathan, tell me which plane Yoké is planning to take. Please.”“Why do you need him when I’m here?” He asked me.Just then, two cops walked in."Is he ready for us now?" One asked."Yes, sir." One of the nurses answered."Okay." The policeman said and began unlocking the cuff on Nathan's arm to the bed.
When they got out of the car and came to open the door for me, I didn’t even try to fight them off, what was the use? No matter how much I would try, they’d still have the upper hand. And besides even if I manage to get away, how do I get home without a cellphone or money? There hasn’t been a building in sight since we’ve hit the road.“I’ll walk myself.” I told them as they opened the door for me.They exchanged looks. What was it with these two and looking at each other as if they could pass little messages with just one glance?“Look, if you try to run, we won’t go after you,” The male officer told me. “The distance back is not walkable, you’ll starve out there and die and then your family will never hear of you again. So don’t try anything stupid, okay?”I didn’t respond.“You have a better chance of surviving this than running away.” The lady
When I got back to my senses, my first instinct was to unlock the doors and get as far away as I could from this car and Nathan. Nathan was still crying out in agony, trying to ease his pain by clutching onto his wrist with the unharmed hand. I reached out and pressed the unlock button on the stirring wheel. He didn’t try to stop me, just continuing yelling in pain. I opened the door on my side. As I was about to step out, I remembered, Nathan was our only way to getting Rissa back. I reached into his suit pocket where I had seen him put his phone back after the call with one of his men.“What are you doing, Genesis?” He asked me but did not try to fight me off. “Help me.”I began searching the pockets of his jacket for the phone.“Help me, Genesis.” He said again, looking at me helplessly as I searched his pockets. “I love you.”“Freeze!” I looked up to see a policemen on Nathan’s si