Featherlight Heart

Episode 6

SIX

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“But Emeka!!!’’ she begged
“You don’t ever call me by Emeka, you don’t! wait, did you think after ten years you come here and say you are sorry and then I wipe your slat clean? After dumping me back then just because my life was s–t Daina Nkenchior? Really? Oh wait, I know, I was nothing but a boy living by a thread, possibly you thought I would be dead right or hawking till I am grey or maybe shut dead by a stray bullet. You were done with me so what do you want now, my forgiveness? I have none to give”

“But Emeka erm…Odinaka, what would you have had me do?”

“Gotten rid of your ego maybe, liked the person who was standing in front of you for who he was, not because of the wealth his father had, be patient and understanding and even if you wanted to break up with him it should have been for a genuine reason like he hurt you or worse he cheated I don’t know, but you lied right from the start did you not, you never loved me like you claimed, no! You loved my name and what my father’s wealth could bring and since you couldn’t get it anymore you backed out and jumped ships, saving yourself and left a drowning man to his pains, now you are here, seeing that God has smiled down on me and you think you can waltz back into my life and do what, we start from were we stopped?” he spat
She was shaking her head in tears “I..yes, no, I mean no I mean.. I don’t know but I need you to forgive me, it was the devil”

“Go back to the devil and tell him to keep using you then”
“Odinaka biko!”
“You are just pitiful Diana, very. I really have no forgiveness for you, I really don’t. Do both of us a favour, don’t ever come back here,because the next time I do see you, it wouldn’t be pleasant”

“Emeka, please, forgive me… Please that is all I ask”

Emeka turns to the table, picks his phone and dials “Yes please, send in security up to my office, a stray dog just entered, thank you” he says and cuts

She is shaking her head “Emeka, I will do anything to make this right, I will, I beg of you please”

He is just staring at her with no emotion whatsoever on his face, in less than five minutes two securities show up,
“Yes sir?”
“Take her out, next time she comes here, throw her out, she isn’t allowed into my office, no come close to my company for no reason, get her out of here, drag her by the hair if she refuses to leave’’

“Please” she clasped her hands together “I am begging you”
“Get her out!’’

They each hold her by her hand and pull her up and escorted her out of his office..

Emeka stares as the door closes then he breaks into hearty laugh..

Wow!!! It feels good. it felt so good.

He seats,crosses his legs and was happy.

But he knew one thing, she would be back and that would be when the fun begins, she wouldn’t know what hit her.

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He gets home on time, driving into his mansion and parking, he alights leaving the key for the driver to go park it in the garage.

“Welcome sir, how was your day?’’ his in-house caretaker greets him at his door, taking his jacket and his bag
“Great Mrs Tito, is my mother home?”
“Yes sir ,she just got home from the shop, she is up in her room”
“Thank you”’

“’should I serve dinner now?”
“erm…yes, bring a wine, make it two bottles”
“oh Wow sir, good day at the office?”
“Splendid Mrs Tito, splendid” he says laughing, taking the stairs two at a time he goes to find his mother, he hears the music coming from her room and her door was slightly open. He pushes the door to find her arranging her bag in the wardrobe,

“Hello Beautiful amazing sweet mother of life, the queen of my heart and the only one that made my chaos peaceful, how are you today awesome woman of my life” he says going to her and hugging her,placing a kiss on her cheeks
She laughs touching his face “Hmm, Emeka,this one you are praising me like this, did you have good news in the office?”

“Ha hain mama, so I don’t praise you like this on a normal day eh?”
“No I didn’t say so oh, I am just saying your praises are a little bit suspicious” Emeka laughs stepping away and going to sit on her bed, “Well, you know me well mama”

“Yes I do, you are my son, so tell me, what is up? Did you close a new deal?”

“erm…kind off, just waiting for the person to sign off on it” he says

He wasn’t lying, well he wasn’t exactly lying , he was going to close the deal with Mr Ambross, he checked out his company, it was going under, Ambross needed the money he was offering or the partnership. He would come begging him soon and then he would begin his vengeance on His father.

“Hmm, so which company needs help this time?’

“Some company like that, name not important“
Well that too was true, he had every intention of changing the name, for now he would let him keep it

“What do they do?”
“Er…mama, Aba made shoes, but no one buys that anymore, you need italian shoes shipped in from the states … he needs a new line of business and I am going to help him with it”
“So are they going to sell or looking for partnership?”

He scratches his head, the only reason his mother knew so much of how he works was because he always talk to her about it, even asking her advice on things, she might not have gone to school but his mother was perceptive sometimes and he realized that talking to her and listening to her sometimes makes him make the right decisions, but there was no way she was going to give him advice on this particular company… there was no way he was discussing this one with her. If she ever found out that it’s Ambross’s company, her ex-husband, she wouldn’t let him do what he intends to do, and he wanted to so bad. So keeping her in the dark was the best.

When he had repaid his father for the pains and misery he had caused them, then he would tell him who he was and watch him fall on his face and feel shame, then he would leave him with nothing, just the same way he left them with nothing.

That was his plans and the far away his mother stayed from this information the better, she may not love his father anymore or what to have anything to do with him but she had a good heart, she would forgive and he didn’t want that.

His mother used to say an eye for an eye makes the world go blind. No one talks about the pain and misery one feels to get blinded and why there is need to repay blood for blood… it was for closure, for peace for telling the other person that you do unto others what you want done unto you.

And then just like his father came out of the blue, he would crawl back into the blue from whence he came from, alone, shamed and with nothing.

“Erm we are still working out the modalities mother, soon”

“Okay, is that all that made you happy?”
“Well, that and the fact that I ran into an old friend of mine”
“oh, who is that?”
‘”Someone who should have stayed in my past”

“Want to talk about it?”
He shakes his head “No, but I am happy for all that has happened today”
“Okay”

A knock on the door disrupted them “Sir, ma, dinner is ready”

“Okay great, please Mrs Tito tell the driver to get the bag in the car and bring it into mummy’s room”
“what bag is that?”
“You’ll see” Emeka smiles standing up, giving her his hand he links it in his
“Just something to tell you how much you mean to me and how I won’t stop giving you the world mama, you have absolutely nothing too worry about,all those who have caused you pain would be put in shame”
“Who kwanu?”
“Oh the devil for one” he chuckles , and his name is Ambross Chikurdi, he thinks to himself
“Hmm, God forbid, the devil shall not see me to cause me harm“
“Amen Mama, Amen. Come let’s go and eat” he says walking out of the room and going to their dinning.

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“Grace, I can’t sleep” Diana says to her friend, it’s been two days since Emeka threw her out of his office, three days since she ran into him and she hasn’t been herself
“So I should do what now, sing you a love song or read you a bed time story?” Grace asks
“Where is Jnr?”
“His father took him out, so what is giving you sleep-ness nights?”
“Emeka!!!’’
Grace eyes her and sighs “Please is that the reason why you came to my house early in the morning to mention someone who obviously deserves better than you?”
“Abba Grace, you are my friend, my friend, you don’t have to sound like that”
“Dee I am your friend that is why I am sounding like this, come tell me, did you think I would support you? You that was heartless towards him and dropped him like a bad habit? Don’t you have any shame?’’
“I do, so much shame”
“No, be-like the shame wei you get different from the shame I dey talk. The shame I am referring to is the one to know that you messed up so you just park face, enter gutter and never show your face to him again, that is shame. But all I see is that you are just going to apologize to him solely because he is rich, again have you no shame?”

“But Grace, what do you want me to do. I am really sorry for the way I treated him in school“
“Are you really sorry, or the greed for money and material wealth is clouding your emotion and you think you are remorseful but in actual fact you are only crying and feeling sorry for the money you would have been enjoying all the years he started trolling in bucks and the whole reason why you went to apologize to him is because you don’t want to lose totally, am I right or am I right?”
“No! No you are wrong, I do still care about him”

“Madam you never loved the nigga, who do you think you are lying to? So money suddenly made you fall in love abi? Hey God this is new, money equals love in your books Dee? You are pitiful, I swear if I saw Emeka I will tell him to stay away from you”

“Grace you can’t do that, look, I care about him I do”

Grace yawns “Ten years care abi, okay” she says getting up and folding her things
“But Grace, aren’t you supposed to give me a plan or direct me on what to do?”
“hmmm, wait, just wait I am coming , I will tell you what to do? Raise your hands up and then take it away from your face, away from your face very far, ehen like this” she takes Diana’s hands, raises it up and then takes it away from her face “Just like that, ehen, oya bring it really fast very fast to your face, very hard like this” she says using Diana’s hands to slap her
“Jesus!!!’’ Diana holds her face
“Oh did it hurt?”’

“What is wrong with you? why did you slap me?”

“Oh it did hurt abi? Use that pain, times it by thousands and add a million bolts of pain and then shake it over and add times two of that, that is how much it hurts when you broke that boy turned man now, and no I didn’t slap you, you slapped you. I was hoping it will reset your brains but apparently it only made you more unreasonable”

Diana shakes her head, her anger showing “You know for a friend you are just jealous that I may actually get Emeka to fall for me again and you can’t handle the fact that I would be his girlfriend and enjoy the luxury and be able to work for a company you applied once for but couldn’t get in because you were pregnant and you are jealous that your baby daddy refused to marry you instead he went for your ex- bestfriend and that the only time you all get to see is only when he takes junior out and you are also jealous that despite us being the same age and all that you look older than me and I still can be able to turn heads while you are nothing but a old cargo with a child and working your a-s out to make ends meet and me, me? I am going to sway Emeka’s head and I can and will enjoy all that he has, while you wallow in your jealous self pity Grace”
“Get out!!’’ Grace points to the door, her eyes glistening

“Gladly, just know that I was hoping you were going to help me so that I can at least help you out of your state of misery but now once I have him back into my life, I will kick you to the curb, you are not my friend, my friend should be happy for me not dissuade me“

“Your friend would tell you you the truth but it is apparent that you are nothing other than someone who wants to leach unto Emeka because of his wealth and for the fact that you have hurt him so much,I only advice that you stay away so that you don’t hurt him more and I was right, you want to take take take, how about giving this time Dee, what about being truly sorry, what about really giving him something for once, your heart, not your misplaced priorities, not your fake pretense, not your greed, not all that material desire to take take take, how about you give him what he has always wanted from you… your heart, your genuine love? But no, your heart is made of stone. You don’t love anyone but yourself and it is just sad that you want to lure that poor man into your trap and even if he falls and marries you like you want, you will never love him, you will only bask in his wealth and God-forbid if he hits rock bottom again you are going to run… you always run. I pray he sees you coming form a mile away and guards his heart against you. You are nothing but a heartless girl and I thought after all this years you would have genuinely felt shame for yourself and truly repentant and that when you told me you were sorry about the way you treated him I wanted to believe you but a little push and your true colours shows… you don’t deserve forgiveness Dee, you deserve to stay away from him, Get out from my house and whenever you truly find redemption, my door would be open”
“Whatever Grace, whatever! You know nothing, nothing” she says grabbing her bag and leaving
“Yes Dee, sadly I do. I wish I could warn your Emeka, I wish, but you wouldn’t want to listen to me..” she says staring at the door, she cleans her eyes. She felt hurt, Diana had hurt her with her words, but all she feels is love for her and she prays she realizes her mistake before she ruins his life again, you can’t hurt a good man twice, it would break him beyond fixing.

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Emeka leave his office, taking the lift down…
“Have a good evening sir” the staffs who were still around greeted him
“And you too” he tells them “Thank you” he tells the security who opens the door for him
“Should I get the driver sir?”
“No no, I will drive myself tonight, tell him he can go home”
“Okay sir” he tells him

Emeka walks out and waits for them to bring his car around, when they do, he enters and is driving out when he sees her, she stands in front of his car, and then goes on her knees, with people staring, her eyes swollen.

“Please?” he read her lips, he winds down
“Get out of my way else I will run you down” he calls out

“Then go ahead, I’ll die knowing that I came to beg for forgiveness, go ahead… I won’t leave unless you forgive me” she cries

He could scare her, but everyone was looking… his securities had come out telling her to leave the driveway but she refuses, wailing
He sighs

“Diana leave the way, I am not joking, I’ll-”
“No,no”” she shakes her head
Give in now or later, he thinks to himself. They was no harm in starting the game now
“Fine, get in” he tells her and she jumps from her knees and rushes to the car, opens it and slips in

“Sir, is everything okay?” they ask him
“Yes yes, go back to work, it’s fine… just a old friend of mine who needs psychological help” he says ,they nod

He enters into the car and zooms off, stopping at a restaurant, She kept crying crocodile tears in the car

She didn’t stop when he ushers her into the hotel… “If you don’t mind stop, it irks me, your tears… stop! people are staring and I don’t want to start explaining things to them, stop it Dee, you know I never liked seeing you cry”
“You… you called me Dee, just like before, I thought… you forgot about about how you loved to call me Dee” she sniffs wiping her eyes
“I never forgot you Dee, I never” he says,
“I am sorry, I am so sorry “
“I know”

“Give me a chance, please, will you?”
Silence

Really Diana, Poof!! you think it’s magic? Really?
“Emeka please, will you give me a chance?”
“Yes, I will” he lies