Sisterhood episode 20

TITLE: SISTERHOOD

WRITTEN BY: OGECHI ALABI

PART 20

She entered the car with Jake. They hadn’t driven out when his phone began to ring. He didn’t want to answer it with her beside him. Esther didn’t mind. From the supermarket, she made him go to the market to buy foodstuff. He wanted to wait in the car but she insisted he had to go with her. Before long, he was distracted by his phone. She could see he was reading messages and was alarmed. He looked at her and their eyes met. He asked her, “Did you lock the bedroom door and the flat?”

“Yes, I did. Is there a problem?”

“Why did you do that?”

“I did it because a stranger was in the house and there is no way I will leave my home for a stranger. I wonder why you were comfortable doing that. Anyway, I am done here.”

“I have an important meeting to attend. Let me take you back to the hostel, I will pick you up when I come back.”

“No way. You can go to your meeting but I am going home. I will take a bike to the house. I am not going back to the hostel.”

Jake knew he was in a fix. The girl in the room had threatened to break down the door to escape. She was very upset. Jake wondered what to do.

Read – The elder’s daughter episode 36 – finale

Esther decided to get to the house before Jake. She gave him the items she bought and asked him to wait for her by the car while she bought an item by the gate of the market. She took a bike from there to his home. She highlighted from the bike brandishing the knife. The lady outside saw her and took off. Esther unlocked the entrance door, entered inside the house and locked it behind her. She went to the room to unlock the door. She could hear the lady outside screaming through the window, “She has a knife. Be careful o!” Esther opened the door and saw a lady trembling inside the bedroom. She was slender and smallish. She was nothing like Esther.

Esther wondered why Jake would go for her. Why she was never enough for Jake. It showed he had been doing this in her absence. She didn’t think he was worth fighting for. She just wanted them to know who was in charge. She asked the lady to leave the room immediately before she changes her mind and does something terrible to her. As she came out of the room, she looked at her closely. She knew the girl, she was always at his new club he had started just before she travelled for Christmas. She was done.

As the girl left the flat, she met the other lady outside. Both of them left at once. Esther locked the flat and packed everything that belonged to her in there. She moved her belongings to the back of the house through the kitchen entrace Jake hardly used. She didn’t want him to see them before she took off.

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Jake was shocked when he received several calls and messages from Dupe. He couldn’t pick up her calls but he could read her messages. He couldn’t believe Esther had locked the room door and also locked the flat. First of all, he didn’t know she was back in town. She suddenly appeared on the day he had visitors. “She must be a witch,” he said to himself. How did she know he had someone in the room? He had planned to leave the house open in order for Dupe and her friend to leave immediately he left with Esther. But Esther outsmarted him. She looked so innocent but she was smart.

To worsen the situation, she had left him in the market and went back home. He received a call from Dupe. Dupe said Esther came back home with a knife. She was so scared that she asked him to rush back home. He believed Esther was mad. A knife? Knife for what? He rushed back home but, on second thought, he felt she could also attack him with the knife. He changed course and went somewhere else where she wouldn’t find him.

He called the security man later in the night. He informed Jake that Esther had moved bags from his flat and had left. She left the flat open. Jake came back in a rush. He went through the flat. Then he went into his bedroom. Everything was intact. She didn’t destroy anything. She only took what belonged to her. Jake knew he had messed up big time. What was wrong with him?

He had stopped bringing girls home but this time, he felt she was not around and decided to have fun while she was away. How did she know? Why didn’t she tell him when she came back? They had spoken the day before; she never mentioned being back. Was she set to destroy him? Did his enemies set him up? Did anyone tell her what was happening?

For her to take all that belonged to her, he knew she had given up on him. He called baba and explained everything to him. Baba had warned him several times about his philandering and this time he was very stern about it.

“The girl you slept with has a bad aura. She wants to possess you and be your woman. She wants to send your good fortune away. I have warned you several times not to make that girl angry. If she sleeps with another man and gives him her heart, you will pick paper on the floor and call it money. You will be worse than you have ever been. I have told you several times not to allow your flesh to lead you. You have to learn discipline. Her spirit is the jealous type; it is either only her or nothing. If you cannot cope, give her space. You will be poor for some time until you get someone your spirit blends with and can give you good fortune. It will not be fast like the girl’s star, but at least you will make money over some time.”

“Ah! Baba, what are you saying? I will go back to poverty? I cannot afford to do that. I beg of you, help me. Give me something that will make her come back to me. I will be more careful this time.”

“My son, you do not understand what I have been telling you for years. The other girls you were with, how much fortune did they bring you? This one came and things turned around for good. When you were treating her well and her spirit was happy with you, didn’t you make so much money? I cannot control her feelings, it must come naturally. If she is happy with you, that house you bought will be a child’s play. Her head is good. Remember, once she starts loving another person, your fortune will begin to go down. Misfortune will come your way. You can only beg her, you cannot force her. If you force her, you will lose everything at once. That other girl you slept with, don’t ever touch her again. She has bad luck.”

Jake was restless. He had to find Esther but since she had a knife, he was scared to go after her. He called her instead. He called her several times but she didn’t answer the call. He didn’t want to risk going to her hostel and getting stabbed. He decided to allow her to cool off. He sent her a message instead asking where she was. He wanted to play dumb and was unaware of the situation. He got no response. He would try again the following day.

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Esther dragged her bags to her hostel. She was not angry or disappointed at Jake. She was angry and disappointed in herself. She had the worse experience ever with two guys she held dearly to her heart. She refused to be overwhelmed with her emotions. She didn’t want her roommates to know what had happened. They were her friends, but she felt judged most of the time.

If Efe had wanted her the way she wanted him, catching Jake in this deception wouldn’t have hurt her. It was being rejected by a guy she liked and finding out your boyfriend has been unfaithful that was devastating. She was young and naive. She didn’t have control over her emotions. She needed to find herself. She didn’t want to be with a man to feel complete. Nkem didn’t have a man or even a lover and she was thrilled with her life. She had to be happy all by herself before letting a man in.

Read – The girl with mark episode 14 – 15

She took her bag to her room. She didn’t tell her roommates what had transpired. She needed to get away for some time. She called her friend who lived off campus and asked if she could stay with her. She was a big girl too, living the life. She stayed in a flat just outside the school gate. She had a car too.

Esther offered to pay Clarissa to stay with her but Clarissa refused to be paid. She liked Esther and felt she was good company. She had met her on several occasions at the club. Clarissa also had a very rich boyfriend. He took good care of her that she lacked nothing. The problem with Clarissa was that she was not content. She had sugar daddies who also funded her lifestyle.

Esther was unaware of the sugar daddy relationship. She thought she was well taken care of by her boyfriend. Jake had wanted Esther to live off campus, but she had refused. She wanted to stay on campus. The campus was safe and she would be encouraged to go to class and read.

She moved into the second room at the flat. She spent most of her time in the room. Clarissa wanted to know what the problem was but Esther refused to tell her or anyone at all. She brooded for some days as she analysed her life. She shuttled between the hostel and Clarissa’s.

Clarissa invited her out on several occasions, but she declined. She declined subsequent offers. She didn’t feel like socialising. She just wanted to put her mind in the right perspective and do the right thing. She hated what she had allowed herself to do. She needed a change. That change, she was going to get it.

She blocked Jake and Efe on her phone. She was starting afresh. She had a plan and it had to work.

Tbc